Putting the House Back Together

Although the electrician was scheduled to be at our house early the next morning so that we would only have one night with minimal lights, he didn't arrive until afternoon. So, Garytt and I decided to start wiping down the walls...refinishing the floors left a fine dust over EVERYTHING!

Garytt is such a little helper these days!






The electrician did show up in the afternoon. He worked for several hours but couldn't find the source of the problem. So, he told me he would be back the next day and would have to cut a hole in one of the dining room walls...oh Lordy! I was so nervous because it is a plaster wall, which means it could crack and the whole wall could come down...yikes! But on the other hand, we need lights, right?! So, I agreed.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad to live in a house with all the furniture in one room and minimal light...but I also didn't think to get a picture of the disaster area.

Anyhow, the electrician came back the next day and, after speaking with another collegue, he had a new plan that did not involve cutting into my wall! Thank goodness!

That Friday evening Justin came back home from the conference, and I was thrilled to have him back! We devoted our Saturday to cleaning more walls, dusting the floors, and moving furniture back into place.

Again, Garytt was a big helper! First, we used the dust mop to clean up the spot in the living room where the area rug goes. He was all over that task!






Even after we put the area rug down, Garytt wanted to continue to dust mop...look at him go!




Here are Justin and Garytt cleaning the walls in the living room while Ellie enjoys a nap on the rug.






Then we put the dining room back together.




Before we moved the furniture back into the living room, Garytt found his Super Garytt cape and then Justin decided to help Super Garytt "fly."





We moved the furniture back into the living room and then I started hanging pictures back up.



Justin decided to take a break and relax with Westyn on the couch for a minute.





Then we decided to try to Bumbo chair with Westyn for the first time.





Finally, it was time for just some play time on the floor. Ellie is still napping...lazy dog.



I think we were all happy to have our furniture back in order and have a little more space to play. The lighter floors really brighten up the rooms. I will say that it was totally worth having the floors redone, but it is a lot of work to get everything clean again. We still spent several more days wiping down walls, cleaning windows, rehanging decorations, etc. In fact, the office is still in need of some redecorating...it'll get done someday, right?!

While the Wife and Children Were Away...

While the boys and I stayed in Kansas for two weeks, Justin had to come back to Wisconsin for most of that time. While we were away, he did a lot of projects around the house.

He worked on the bathroom sinks a bit. We still have a ways to go but progress is good.




He changed out the kitchen light fixture (althought it is hard to see the fixture in this picture) and hung the TV on the wall.




He also put up a light fixture in the formal living room. When we moved in there was just a horrible medalion on the ceiling where a light fixture should have been.. When we painted the living room a while back and took off the light switch cover, we realized they had removed one of the switches. So, he reconnected that switch and put up a light fixture..yay for light in that room!






In this last photo, you will notice that all the furniture is removed from the room as well. Obviously you don't have to remove all your furniture to work on a light fixture but we decided that while both of the boys were out of the house for a while, we would have our wood floors redone downstairs. So, Justin and a co-worker moved the furniture out of the dining room, living room, and office so that the floors could be sanded and refinished.

Justin and I disagreed about how much of the flooring should be redone. I really wanted to horrible linoleum in our foyer pulled up so those could be refinished at the same time. Justin really didn't want to start what he considered a new project and we knew there would be a ton of staples to pull. So, we agreed that it would be too much work for now, so we would leave the ugly floors in the foyer.

Much to my surprise, Justin decided to pull it up! Yay!




So here are the before pictures of the floors.








It took the flooring guy a few days to finsih the project.



Sanding


It's all sanded down

Here are my lovely floors now!










I want to note that all of these photos were taken on Justin's phone since I had both the cameras with me in Kansas. He even sent me this photo to show how happy he was with the floors.




So, although I was super excited to get home and see my new floors, I was not so excited to be going home to all my furniture being in the family room and the porch.

Oh, and just for a fun twist and because having two small children alone with furniture all out of place isn't enough of a challenge, the day before Justin was leaving for Kansas, an electrical circuit blew in the house. So, the kitchen light and all the lights upstairs except one bathroom light and the master closet light were not functioning. Justin tried to get it fixed before we got home but the electrician couldn't find the problem in just a few hours. So I brought the boys home to a house with very few functioning lights as well. Crazy!

Traveling Garytt

The day after Easter, we loaded everything into the car (which was quite a task) and headed back up north. 

As we were packing up the car, Garytt decided maybe he should drive...

(As a side note, Garytt has decided he loves to be behind the wheel of anything...car, tractor, whatever...as seen in this photo of him in another John Deere tractor.)

Anyhow, We had to split the trip into two days because it is too long of a trip for Garytt to do in one day. 
We set up a portable DVD player so that he could watch Elmo videos and hopefully keep him entertained for part of the trip.  Since my car is too old to have built-in DVD player, we used a bungie cord to attach it to the headrest...totally ghetto, I know!  He didn't seem to mind it though.

He eventually figured out that he could reach the pause button and he would turn the video on and off and on and off and...yeah, totally annoying.  So, we had to remove the DVD player to get a break from it a few times.  He used that time to nap...

\
and be silly.

Along the way we had to make what felt like a million stops to feed Westyn or change Westyn or feed Garytt or change Garytt (unfortunately, they didn't always manage to do everything they needed at the same time). 

On travel day number two, we left Illinois and drove to Milwaukee where Justin picked up his truck from the airport and head to the Wisconsin Dells for a conference.  I made the final leg of the trip from Milwaukee to Oshkosh with the boys...and I would be totally on my own for three days...yikes! 

Overall, the travel wasn't too bad considering it is a super long trip!  The boys really did a great job!  (Although we apparently didn't take any pictures of Westyn during the actual travel days.)

Coloring Easter Eggs

We usually dye our Easter eggs the day before Easter but time really got away from us this year. So, we didn't manage to dye our eggs until after lunch on Easter day.

When Garytt woke up from his nap, we took him outside to color the eggs. Although he did help color the eggs last year, he was much more interested in it this year.
   We gave him crayons to color the eggs before putting them into the egg dye.    Garytt enjoyed dropping the eggs into the cups and seeing the splash...Justin was very brave to stay in his nice shirt for this adventure!    Grandpa joined in on the fun too! He made each of the boys an egg with their name on it.    Garytt really had a great time!    Here are a few videos of the fun.    Here are some of the final products.    Justin managed to keep his nice clothes clean...he's all smiles.    At the end we tried to get a picture of Justin and Garytt together but Garytt was still really focused on his work...so Justin had to redirect his attention...    It was a little chilly out on the deck during this egg adventure. So, Westyn hung out inside with Grandma.    After Garytt was finished, he went inside and read a book...he sure does love his books!    On a side note, we didn't have any old clothes with us for this egg coloring adventure, so we used an old sweatshirt from my mom...yeah it's a little like a dress on him but I appreciated having something for him to wear. He ended up being neater than we expected and didn't get anything on the sweatshirt.

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday filled with fun, family, and many blessings!