Basement...2nd house

We've been remodeling our basement (a few years earlier than intended, so some of my outdoor projects are put on hold until next year). We had to do this at our last house since the basement flooded. This basement also had water issues, in addition to a crawlspace that was dirt and had some water mold issues (dryer used to be vented to it), and in May last year, we had a drainage system with sump pumps and dehumidifier put in to take care of water issues in the crawlspace and basement part.

We've been working on the basement since then. And had various basement things scattered around our house and my parents house.

Today, drywall is going up! We did the layout, framing and electrical ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the drywall and texturing. Got to admit, I was really nervous last night, thinking that we'd missed something and weren't ready for the guys to come today. They come a little later than they were going to originally since we got a snow storm.

They've got the ceiling up and are working on the walls now, so in the coming weeks, we'll have painting, electrical to finish, flooring, doors and trim. Not to mention a few new pieces of furniture.

It's going to be a multi-purpose room as there will be an elliptical, our old wood kitchen table, probably a small tv area and a place for a rice box for D to play in.

It's quite a change from what the previous owner had. We had to tear the base cupboards when we moved in as they had molded. We also decided to take out the upper cabinets and aren't going to put them back.

Basement when previous owner lived here

Basement when previous owner lived here

D loved to help clean up the floors!

New layout, with two rooms and a closet, compared to the original layout with one big room.

Digging

Helping Grandpa dig post holes for the new fence.

Gravel

We finally got some new gravel for our driveway delivered Friday afternoon, and we spent that night smoothing it out - thanks to the neighbor that let us borrow his Bobcat - the work went a lot faster. The Bobcat blew a fuse at one point so we used the wheelbarrow for a bit.

Growing boy and new house

Written August 17th... I write today's post feeling completely physically (and somewhat mentally) exhausted... I am most definitely NOT a morning person, but I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and was unable to go back to sleep, so I thought well, I'll just get up and get some things done while waiting for Chris and D to wake up.

We have been extremely busy the last month and a half. We closed on our new acreage last night (8/16) and have been frantically trying to get it cleaned up, painted and ready for us to move in. (Thanks to all the family that's come to our aid!!) We've wanted to live on an acreage for a while, so hopefully it lives up to our expectations! ;)

The property has two acres, with .66 acres being a field that had been plowed. The mowing got too much for the previous owners, so they let the neighboring farmer plow it and plant crops. We'll eventually get that flattened and reseeded to grass, but that will probably be next years project.

There are 3 outbuildings, two that we'd probably actually use... the house is a four level split with 3 big bedrooms with large closets, 1 full bath and 1/2 bath with laundry. It's bigger than our current house, and Chris and I will actually be able to have all of our clothes together in our bedroom for the first time in 10 years. :)

We first looked at this house in April and finally at the beginning of July we had ok'd the repairs that needed to be done before we'd take possession. Most of the repairs are done, but the window repairs aren't quite done; at least we don't have to use painters tape around 6 windows, so that makes it easier... Unfortunately, some of the repairs will probably be bandaids for now as we've had a better chance to look at the house without everything in it and get a better feel for what we need to possibly fix in the future.

There was a hair salon in the room we are making our home office, and unfortunately after we tore out the cupboards, there wasn't flooring and the plumbing wasn't cut off where we'd have liked, so we have a little bit of thinking to do to figure out what we'd like to do with that room.

However, to add to the chaos, we were on vacation for the first two weeks of July - first to Dallas for a national volleyball tournament that Chris coached at, and then to Cable, Wisconsin for a family vacation, so we've not really had a chance to slow down yet!

D turned 11 months and 1 year old in the mean time, and has 3 of his 4 first molars come in. We knew he had teeth coming and had assumed that it was the canines... well, it wasn't! So, that definitely better explained him not sleeping very well the two weeks we were gone on vacation!

By the time he turned one, he had 3 out of his 4 molars in for a total of 11 teeth. This past week, the other molar pushed through. He really likes to take bites and eat what we're eating, and lets us know by 'pounding' on the table or screeching at us if we haven't given or shared enough with him. He also has been done with pureed food for a little while, and definitely wants to feed himself, given the option - he really likes the Gerber Graduates Pasta Pickups.

He is turning into such a character, that sometimes we just look at each other and laugh. I'll give a few stats though... When he turned 11 months, he was about 30 lbs. 3 oz. and 31" tall. For his 1 year checkup, he was 30 lbs. 12 oz. and 32" tall.

He made the nurse and I laugh in the doctor's office when he got his 1 year shots. He is strong, so the nurse pulled him down to the end of the table to hold his legs, and I held his arms. I had forgotten to give him some tylenol before he got his shots, so I was hoping he'd do OK. He got the first shot, and just at the end started spitting. He didn't cry out at all, and I started to smile.

We've discovered that when D spits, he's letting us know that he doesn't like something. Well, the second shot was a little more painful and he did let out a little cry with that one (no tears) and there was significantly more spitting, so by then I was laughing at him (yes, I know those shots do hurt). But as soon as the nurse had the needle out, he quit spitting and shortly after that gave her a smile, so all was forgiven. :) So he did really well at this 1 year checkup. The doctor said that he was a little heavy for a one-year-old, but that it was okay cause when they get sick they lose weight, so he didn't mind that D was a little heavy.

Trying to think about packing and getting supplies for the new house have been definitely interesting with D because I'd say that shortly after we got back from vacation he figured out that he can push and/or climb over the boxes we were using as a corral for him. He's not quite ready to walk yet, but he has definitely been doing really well walking along by using only the help of one person's hand, instead of both hands, so I would guess he's not too far off for the walking part. Not much stops him while he's in is walker either.

He just wants to go-go-go and is curious about everything. He is standing on his head with his butt in the air and it's cute watching him lay his head down on the floor to look at something. He is talking more (nothing that we understand yet), although I'd say his first word is probably bye-bye, that he says with a wave.

Last week he was sitting in the dining room and had a toy in his hand and was waving it in the air and chattering. Well, I thought that he was talking to me, so I said something like, "oh yeah, I didn't know that, thanks for sharing." Evidently he wasn't talking to me though, because I'd startled him and then in a completely different tone did respond back to me, so his imagination is definitely working. :)

We had a birthday party for D last Saturday with family and a few close friends. He made it through the meal, two birthday angel food cupcakes and present opening before taking a nap. He dropped his morning naps a while ago, and takes one nap a day, usually around 12:30/1:00 for about 2-2.5 hours.

So, it's definitely been crazy at our house with a busy boy climbing on anything he can and two cats also wanting attention, not to mention all the little things like the lawn mower is leaking gas, the snow blower pull is broken, my car needs something fixed on it, etc... just all the regular stuff a person has to take care of...

We bought D a bike trailer for his birthday... well, we evidently don't have the right parts to mount the trailer to my bike, so not only can we not go for a bike ride cause we can't get the trailer hooked up to either of our bikes, we also can't get my bike back together, so that needs to go to the shop too... so many things to take care of!!

Well, I think this is all for now -- I'll leave you all with some pictures.

11 Months Old

These are as good as it gets for an active boy!

Father's Day

Grandpa George and grandkids

Fathers' Day 2013

Three generations

On Lake Namakagon in Wisconsin.

Digging in Chris' bag on vacation in Dallas.

Dallas vacation

This was D's first park to be able to play in. Downtown Dallas has a park called Klyde Warren Park, and it has areas for different aged kids to play in, is pet friendly and has entertainment, reading materials and games. We went there on the 4th of July to do something special. We all enjoyed it and would go back again. 

Bathroom faucet

Yeah! Our installation of a new bathroom faucet went smoothly and relatively quickly!!

DIY & Miscellaneous

Today's adventure was making some 'homemade' liquid hand soap. I'm almost out of the stuff we use in the kitchen, so I thought I'd try to make some to refill the container today. I had a bar of soap that was given to us a while ago, and thought this was the perfect use for it!

Yes, I'm sure my female pioneer ancestors are laughing at me 'making' soap after all the advances we've had, but I think it's fun! I probably won't ever make it from scratch like they would have had to though.

I had a companion while watching the Olympics on TV the other night. :) She was completely sprawled and content, until we started snapping photos, and then she opened her eyes and cackled at us to complain about the interruption.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary yesterday with supper out at the Texas Roadhouse and we went to the theater to see the new Total Recall movie. Neither one of us can believe that it's been 10 years already.

We also had to laugh, because we picked out the same exact anniversary cards for each other. They did have different designs and colors to them, but the wording was exactly the same!!

We also had some welcome rain again today. It wasn't much, but we'll take all we can get.

'Homemade' Body Wash

Today I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a while -- make my own body wash. I've been reading online on different blogs about how to make your own liquid laundry detergent, liquid hand soap and body wash. I figure if I can save a few bucks with this stuff I have more money to spend on other things I'd rather spend money on! The thing that takes the longest is grating the soap for the recipes!

I've tried the laundry detergent recipe and I need to tweak it a little to compensate for our hard water. And I'd like to try a few different soap options too. Last time I used Fels Naptha as the base soap and will probably use lye soap next time and probably modify the recipe a bit. I did like the smell of the Fels Naptha soap, but have heard and read good things about lye soap, so I'll try that next. Due to our hard water, liquid soaps work better than dry, but they do take a little longer to make!

Today I made 'homemade' body wash. I wanted to make a small recipe to start with in case I didn't like it or the recipe didn't work well. So, I used 1 bar of  Dove Sensitive Skin Unscented Beauty Bar soap (grated), 2 cups water and 1 tsp. of glycerine.

The glycerin amount was less that the recipe called for (it said TBSP, not tsp). I've read recipes that didn't call for glycerine, so we'll see when I try it out tomorrow if I like it or not! The glycerine was the most expensive thing of all the ingredients but you're not using a lot, so it makes sense if the recipe calls for it. I let the soap solution sit for about 12 hours to thicken, and I know if I left it longer it would probably get thicker, but I liked the consistency I had now.

I also made some homemade baby wipes solution too, using Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Pure Castile Almond liquid soap, water and tea tree oil. Not keen on the tea tree oil smell, but it's a disinfectant and will keep the solution fresh longer. The Dr. Bronner's soap part smells yummy and feels soft though -- can't want to start using it!

Maybe I'll make some 'manly' body wash for Chris next... :)