MAJOR Bad Hair Day!

Good Mornin' Abigail!?! Rough Night!?!

We're getting there people!

Day 14 - Subflooring

That's right folks ...we've got subflooring. I can't believe the difference it made to have decent plywood installed over the YUCKY whatever that was! Anyways here are a couple of pictures of the new subflooring! Wahoo!

Day 15 - Flooring

The VERY next day....(Yeah we couldn't believe it either)... they came to install the floor! It took them all day, but hey it looks amazing! I absolutely love it! What do you think? (The pictures really don't give it justice though)

Day 20 - Scraping, Filling, Taping...YUCK!

Since we have been in a mess for a couple weeks now, we decided... hey what's a couple more days...and got the bright idea to paint the entire kitchen/pantry area! It was a perfect opportunity! Anyways so today we scraped off some of the residue left from the previous baseboards (it was the rubber kind you glue on..yeah no fun!), we have filled in holes, and taped trim...all so my dad can begin painting ASAP! (Seriously I think my dad got the better end of the deal!) I got this picture of Abby "helping" dad! It was ADORABLE...if I do say so myself!

Well we look forward to the completion of this MAJOR construction project and will keep you posted on any improvements that occur in the near future...Meanwhile stay tuned!

Abby's 1st Camping Trip! What A Goodie!

Last Wednesday my family, Abby and I (Mark had to stay home because of our kitchen disaster...see Caution: Post) went on an overnight camping trip. We went to Birch Creek Campground...literally out in the middle of nowhere! But it was beautiful and a WHOLE lot of fun! We took the four-wheelers and fishing poles and enjoyed the time we had to spend in the beautiful great outdoors!

Abby had so much fun playing in ALL the dirt...really she got FILTHY!!! But you know I wasn't about to fight her.... she was just having WAY too much fun!

The only thing about her getting so dirty was getting her clean...How would I get her clean again!?! (That was the million dollar question!) Just washing her hands before dinner took about four wipes...each hand! I wasn't about to use all my wipes to clean her off to just get dirty again! Uuummm???? There was the creek (I thought)...but I couldn't do that to my sweet Abby! No way!

And then as we were visiting around our camp... there it was...the solution to my internal debate! The stock pot of warm water (primarily used for washing dishes...but in a pinch can also be used as a make-shift bathtub for little ones!) Hey it works!

And don't worry we monitored the temperature of the water and pot VERY carefully! But it worked perfect! She LOVED it! Just look at the gleeful look on her face as she splished and splashed in the stock pot!

We eventually got Abby all clean and ready for bed...Phew! After a peaceful night sleep...ZZzzz! YEAH RIGHT!! It decided to rain on us ALL night long! It probably hadn't rained for 3 months, but the one night we were there it POURED (or so it felt like)! Anyways...after a peaceful night sleep...for Abby.... we awoke to slighlty damp dirt.... (I swear it had rained more than that!?!) And Abby hit the dirt pile yet again! We had to "bath" her once more before we left, but she didn't mind! We made it home safe and sound...and somewhat clean... and decided we had so much fun camping...(and now we know how to get Abby clean after a long day in the dirt)...I think we may go again next week!

Caution: Construction in Progress

Once again I must apologize for my slothful behavior in posting!

But I do have a good excuse...or two or three!

#1 excuse- Two weeks in California...(stay tuned!)

#2 excuse- Flooded Kitchen... while in California... (thus the construction in progress!)

#3 excuse- .....

So you see we have been BUSY trying to get our home back into a living condition again! I will elaborate...

While we were enjoying two wonderful weeks in California, My sister was taking care of our home...watering, weeding, mowing, etc. One day while making her rounds my sister found my kitchen a flooded disaster! She frantically grabbed at any towel she could get to soak up the water, meanwhile called my grandpa to help shut off the water. Phew! What had happened was the water line to the ice maker had sprung a leak and was shooting water everywhere... Anyways... They got the water turned off and cleaned up, and then anxiously awaited to see what damage was done! When we got home a couple of weeks later we assessed the damage and to the naked eye you wouln't think there was much damage! But when I could no longer open or close my pantry door (due to the swelling of the linoleum) we decided it was time to get insurance involved.

Well to make a long story short, Our Insurance came to assess the damage, a cleaning and restoration company came to assess the damage, and sure enough there was major water damage! We ripped out the linoleum and about two other layers of subflooring...and now my kitchen is torn apart...literally (half of my appliance are out of commission for the time being), as well as my living room. Everything from those two rooms have been stashed away in the other two bedrooms, (I CAN'T LIVE LIKE THIS!) and to make matters worse... I have about six loud, HOT, annoying fans scattered throughout my house blowing HOT air to dry up the floor....AND we don't know how long we will have to have them! 

Needless to say we spend alot of time outside or elsewhere!

But on a MUCH happier note, because there was so much damage to our kitchen and living room floors... I get new floors in both rooms and insurance gets to pay for it all! YEAH! Finally carpet in my living room! Anyways here are few pictures of the construction so far... I will definitely keep you posted on the progress!

Here they are tearing out layer #2 of the subfloor!

Water damage behind the refrigerator! Yuck!Damage done behind the washer and dryer! Here are the LOUD and ANNOYING fans I was talking about!

   Abby was curious to see what was going on in the kitchen...but for obvious reasons we didn't want her in there, so Mark rigged up this "gate" so she couldn't get through. It was so funny watching her try figure out how she could get through!