Getting my laundry room back...

Well, for a couple of days, at least.

It's not pretty (yet) but it works! And here's Lily coming in to check out the progress:

Proof

James spends a lot of time doing this...thinking, planning, figuring, thinking some more.

And the girls spend lots of time doing this...watching, wondering, "helping," questioning, encouraging, and cheering.

But in the end, there's proof that something got done:

Impressive, eh?

a LONG day

After exposing this plumbing (wasn't he sweet to make it a heart?),

the water was turned off for "just a few hours."

The washer and dryer were moved out, preparing for rerouting the washer plumbing to NEW plumbing!
With some help from brother Jeff's concrete drill, MORE floor was destroyed, I mean, removed...

And several hours, a few leaks, a replaced outdoor faucet, and SIX trips to Lowe's later...

the plumbing was in place and working!! 

And the water is back on!

Demolition Time

James already removed the cabinet (that was in the foreground), but today was a big demo day.  Took out a whole wall...

and exposed some electrical and plumbing. 

On to the next step...

Life goes on...

While James works on the indoor plumbing, life goes on. 

The girls stay right in the middle of whatever he's doing, "helping" sometimes...

And our house just gets more and more beautiful... :-)

The Ditch

Well, now that the ditch has been dug, it's time to get the plumbing in it.  What fun. 

James spent a couple of days getting everything in place, after tediously leveling the ditch floor to just the right slope.  Then...

He finally got to fill it back in (with his carefully preserved piles of dirt). :-) YAY for no more dangerous trenches in the backyard!



Baby, it's cold outside...

...and inside too!  Our dining room, playroom and the rest of the back of the house/upstairs have no heat.  We've been running space heaters in the playroom and decided it's just not worth the energy bills!  Thankfully, the rest of the house is more than roomy enough to live in while we wait out the cold. 

This means, though, that we need to contain the heat, so voila, here comes a tarp. 

I've never really wanted a blue wall in my house, but oh well...

We also added ventless gas logs to the system. We're cozy, and that's really all that matters.



Thank you, Lord, for that.