The Brownie Moving Crew

The Brownies. These girls are amazing. They put up with all sorts of noise and messes, but they also work so hard to help!  After unloading and moving (and loading again) the pantry shelves (and then repeating the process to move them back), it was time to move the school shelves out of the dining room. We got this done fast!  And I'm constantly amazed at what a few girls (and a dolly) can accomplish. Although my back is always sore after... :-) 

Tile Enters the Kitchen

Welcome Inconvenience #227: 

The really fun part was prepping dinner with my team while tile is going down and then tiptoeing and reaching over to get the pizzas into (and out of) the oven.  This pic is our life. And I love it. (I'll enjoy the less-complicated dinners, too.) :-)

Life without Laundry

The first of many (welcome) inconveniences related to the tiling process: bye-bye washer and dryer. 

James has set up shop in the backyard for tile cutting. Grateful for all of Jeff's great tools - and his generosity in loaning them.

And two days later, grout's done!

Ah!  So strange how nice it is to be able to laundry again. (Thanks to Mom for being the laundromat in the meantime.)

Finally Filling the Crack!

Ah, The Tripper. The Black Hole.  The Gatherer of Dust and Crumbs. 

This crack has been an irritation since we tore up the old tile. Today's the day for getting some of it filled in!

And James is finally figuring out this working thing - child labor works. Ha!

For the record, Charis really wanted to try it out. :-)

Here we go...

It's actually happening. Tile on the floor. 

Amazing Lily

James wanted to sort out the 47 boxes of tile into the different patterns present, so we didn't end up with weird repetitive areas on the floor. And Lily got recruited to help. 

She sorted tile until her eyes crossed and her back hurt.  Love that girl.

TILE!!!

With Thanksgiving happening tomorrow, we figured it might be hard to make it to the store, so how about a late-night run to the store to get the tile? James came home with pallet (plus) of our tile and his truck was feelin' the burn. 

The girls brilliantly thought about doing a time-lapse of the unloading - because James unloaded every box by himself.

15 minutes later. 47 boxes. 705 tiles. Nearly 1,000 pounds. SO.MUCH.TILE.