Friday at Grandma's

While the insulation guys were at work in our house, we girls spent the day at Grandma and Papa's.  It was a blustery day, but we walked down to the park for a while.  One of our main goals was to find Papa's name on the new veterans' memorial.

I'm sure grateful for my in-laws!

Happy (early) Birthday to Me!

Yes, insulation has always been at the top of my birthday list.  Well, this year, at least.
It was time to finish the spray foam for the back of the house, so my sweet in-laws offered to keep the girls overnight so we could do this:

 move (almost) EVERYTHING out to the garage,

 drape the rest,

 and prep for the guys to come in the next day.

They were done in 2 hours!  And we now have fluffy marshmallow-y awesomeness throughout the roof!

 The next day, we received this in the mail. Nicely done.

Valentine's Fun

James is celebrating his first Friday off (thanks to a new 4-10s schedule) by tackling this playroom mess. 

 After several hours of fun, James called in the big guns, otherwise known as Dane.

 With Dane's help on the other end, they hoisted 5 18-ft 2x12s into place to brace the roof.  

 And the next day, James treated himself to a new Sawzall (he worked the other one to death)

 And got to work on building the new ceiling.

And in the midst of it all, these beauties were delivered for Valentine's.  What a guy.

The Next Big Thing

Our playroom is now in the living room.Oh my.  I know our playroom is a luxury, and we are missing it terribly  We've had to empty it into the living room while the next big project gets underway.  

Lily, Meg and I moved almost everything into the living room on Wednesday afternoon.

And James started the draping process that night.

The awful current ceiling (with plywood covering hole where the dormer/skylight used to be)

After we emptied the rest of the room and finished draping, James got to work up in the attic -- stomping on the ceiling to punch out the sheet rock and insulation. Once again, hanging from the rafters.  That guy...

Wonderful and incredible messy things going on in there...

Making the mess messier

The Back Room. The Dirty Room. The Guest Room. This poor little room gets called all sorts of names. Some people don't even know it's there.  (Grandmother :-)) 

But it's time to make it more of a mess than it already is. Insulation's coming soon, so the ceiling needs to be redone. First, though, we have to tear out the old one.

What a mess.

Lighting Bellaire

Well, all the Browns cousins had a sleepover last night, so we got to enjoy the opening of our new Starbucks -- dangerously close to us.  

And then we tackled a MAJOR surprise for the girls. They've been asking and asking about Christmas lights on the house.  We decided it's time. :-)

With some wiring genius by Super James, and a lot of fun, we finished the job before lunch.

And I wish I could describe the moment the girls spotted the lights. Squeals, disbelief, such excitement.  It was all worth it.

Then we added our garland to the new windows inside.  Ready for Christmas!

O Say, Can You See?

We were starting to get pretty used to the plywood. Hey, the doors were an awesome addition, right?  Well, it's finally time to finish the wall!

They're here!!

Before

Oh, did I mention Thanksgiving lunch starts in an hour?

DONE!  Now hurry -- it's time to head to Grandma's for lunch!

A new curtain rod and curtains for a bit of privacy at night.

Goodness, we are loving the light.