Uncle Jeff Stops By

Uncle Jeff stopped by with a late birthday present for James. GROUT!  And Darcy was so excited. LOL. 

He also gave his time and expertise for cutting the tile along the carpet lines.

The process went so much more quickly with the two guys working together, and we are very grateful for his help!

Scenes from TileLand

Tile work has been going on for 6 weeks now - whenever James has time, in between work and birthdays and Christmas and SLEEP. But we're getting there. And remaining flexible in the process. The stove spent two days in the dining room, and moved back just in time for a late dinner. :-) 

And I had to include a pic of our "bridge." This has been surprisingly helpful in working our way over fresh tile - and Darcy has even mastered the procedure.

And James is taking naps whenever he can. Here, he was playing with Darcy, but she moved on.
He stayed.

Dining in the Living Room

The tile has entered the dining room, which we can deal with. Except when it's time to have grandparents over for Gwyn's birthday dinner. 

Cue the improvisation. And it was absolutely perfect.  Grateful for these flexible girls and sweet grandparents who don't care where or how we celebrate. :-)

And another happy sight - empty tile boxes:

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. :-)