Paint is going up!

Today we removed the carpet and hauled it to the dump. Beneath the carpet on one half of the living room, we are left with beautiful pumpkin pine floors. Sadly, it has been patched and does not extend into the other half (our living room was once two smaller rooms). We painted our first coat of wall finish. It will take another final coat. Then its crown moulding, bamboo flooring, window & door casing and new baseboard... the finish line is getting closer. We'll post pics soon.

BBQ

Today was such a beautiful day outside. We managed to get all caught up on our yard work and decided it was a good day to cook outside on the grill. Avery supervised. 

Teeth and Renovation

Check out Avery brushing his teeth. He has three.

We've continued to be very lucky having my parents come up to help us with our livingroom renovation. Things are starting to come together. Since our last update, we've managed to cut all of the ceiling's crown moulding and all but finish with the mudding and taping of the new drywall. We'll be able to paint the walls and paint and hang the trim very soon. Then, on to the floor. Jen has another contractor coming to quote the window replacement tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll be able to make a final decision about what windows we're going to use. -jgr

Male Bonding

Today I am headed to Massachusetts to attend a seminar. I'll return Thursday evening. It will be my first time away from my little man. I will miss him very, very much! I know at 13 months it will be healthy for all of us and that it will be a great experience for my boys to have time together... but I will still miss little A very much!!! -jlr

Building on 11

Avery now signs 11 signs: eat, more, all done, milk, baby, cat, dog, bird, airplane, bath and signing time. He's almost got shoes (he signs more... but we know what he means) and yes and no. I strongly encourage anyone with infants to try signing. Its just so incredibly amazing how much A can communicate and how much he absorbs and learns!!!!

Renovation Update v.04.09.06

We've managed a bit more progress on the renovation. We have the old doorway all framed up and closed in. We decided to move the light switch while we had the opportunity. I'll point out that we did it by the book, with the proper junction box and using wire nuts AND tape. We hung the new ceiling tiles this morning, which came out quite nicely. The living room ceiling is now all painted. We posted a picture of the colors we're planning on using--paint and tile.

You'll also notice a picture of Avery taking some bong hits. Actually, he's just taking one of his nebulizer treatments, which he's adapted to pretty quickly. He only gets irritated with them occasionally now.

Renovation Update v.04.06.06

We were, once again, lucky to get some help from Grammy and Papa today. Jason took two days off from work to put some time into the renovation. Today we were able to tape and mud all of the seams in the sheetrock. We also did a little more demolition, removing a poorly-engineered built-in bookshelf that a former owner had inserted into what used to be a doorway. We plan on sheetrocking over the doorway but leaving a cased opening at the top. Sort of like it was, minus the built-in.

Tomorrow we'll get a second round of mud up on the drywall that's already up, and frame and sheetrock the door opening.

Avery is a little under the weather. We have to give him nebulizer treatments to help out some pretty bad congestion in his chest. (Read: hold him down while holding a mask over his face while he screams and thrashes for ten minutes.) He seems to feel much better after the treatment though, and despite his cold, he's in good spirits, as usual.

The Office

Today was just another day at the office. This is me holding one of three ball pythons delivered today. Bob, my coworker and proud papa, brought his new babies home shortly after they arrived in their nondescript cardboard box labeled 'perishable'.

Renovation Station

So we had a fairly productive weekend working on our little renovation project. We now have two finish coats of paint on the bathroom ceiling; the living room ceiling is all primed; the stairwell wall is all sheetrocked; and the stairwell ceiling is insulated and all of the strapping is hung.

Papa and Grammy came over on Saturday and were a huge help with the drywall. We also have to credit them with the idea of insulating the stairwell ceiling before we hang the new tiles. Avery has been a huge help as well. Look closely and you'll see him at the top of the stairs with his trusty hammer.

We bought a miter saw this morning, which we'll need to cut the trim and the flooring. We also have the new ceiling tiles purchased. Some of the next steps include finishing the drywall (taping, etc.), hanging the ceiling tiles, painting the living room walls and ceiling and hanging the crown molding. The bamboo flooring is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday, so when all of those things are done, we'll be ready to put the floor down.