Ava's Three!

Ava is showing off her Dora (of course) Dairy Queen Birthday cake.
Lydia, Ava, Eleanor, and Auntie Jacquie all wait patiently for pictures before cutting into the cake. The cupcakes the girls helped make are on display on the buffet behind them. Ava wanted Dora cake plates, napkins, a we had some Dora cups for the girls. If you look closely, Ava is even wearing a Dora t-shirt and socks. (Probably sporting some Dora underwear as well.) This was not planned. She LOVES Dora every day!!!
Here's a shot of Ava posing with her new pink guitar she got for her birthday.

Ava began asking for a guitar for her birthday a few weeks before. Of course as a music lover myself, I was very proud. I immediately thought of the great guitar legends and the stories of their first guitars...Eric Clapton had his first at 3! So should Ava! I was thinking that making the girls listen to my great music in the car was not wasted. One day as I was watching Dora for the hundredth time, she said, "I want a guitar like Dora's teacher!" I should have known that the inspiration had to come from somewhere.

Ava also received many very cool birthday gifts from her family and friends. If it wasn't for her Grandma's and Aunts that pick out cool outfits, the girl may not be as stylish as she is.

4/5/2008 Windows and a Roof

Every time I look at the roof I think, "Wow, we picked a great color!"
The windows look awesome. I think the plywood front door really pulls it all together.
A view from the side with all the windows in.
This side of the house is very cool. Almost all the windows are in. You can see my dad and Chad doing some of the finishing touches on our basement patio door. There was some debate on how to get the door down to that level. The old fashion way of lots of guys carrying the door won. You'll notice that there is still a hole in the wall without a window. That's because the window does not fit there...how can this be? There is still debate about this as well. Since the wall is solid cement a new sized window is on order. Chad also put in the garage service door this weekend. No picture yet.

Roof Update 3/24/2008

Well we were able to get the shingles on the roof. We still have to cut in vents but at least it's not raining on the inside!!!

I got home early one day and decide that I wanted the roof up over the area where a fireplace will be in the living room. Doug and I were there until about 10 that night getting the plywood and waterproofing on since it was going to snow the next day.

Things are coming along. 3/5/2008

We had our window order delivered on Feb 29th. Stock Lumber was on my case because they have been storing them for the past 3 months. We had Rachel's cousins out on Saturday to take a look at the roof and see if there was anything they wanted us to do before they show up to start. They didn't say much but I got the impression that it would probably be easier if they did it their way instead of me screwing it up. We should be starting the roofing this weekend.

Lydia and Ava love to come over now that it's warming up. But we have to keep our eye on them since the staircase is open and I took down the temporary railing to get the master bedroom window upstairs.

This is an update picture from Sunday morning. We did get the window in that is above the scaffolding plus another one on the side of the house on Sunday. Hopefully we can finish the windows on the side this weekend.

Roof and Bedrooms 2/27/2008

I was able to start getting some of the metal drip edge up along to roof. It was a slow process since I had to keep moving the ladder every 4 nails but I did get a lot up. Jeremy showed up later on Saturday and helped me run to Menards to pick up the bath tub for the girls bathroom and the shower for mine.


Last weekend Doug and I were able to get both Lydia and Ava's bedrooms and bathroom framed up. The picture above is looking at the girls' bathroom and Ava's bedroom(to the left).



The above picture is standing in my bedroom looking toward the laundry room. The three squares at the bottom of the picture are Rachel and my walk in closets. The hallway to the master bath is the middle square. Just above those is the master bath. The 2 X 6 that is on the floor in front of the propane tank separates the master bath and the laundry room.

2/13/2008

Last weekend was a cold one but I was able to get a lot done on Saturday with the help of Dad and Jeremy. We only have about 10 sheets left to put up. Once that is done, I will get the windows delivered and the interior walls put up for the bedrooms and bathrooms. Not much else to report until after this weekend when the roof is sheeted.

Weekend Update...

This weekend went well. It was in the mid to upper 20's and not windy which really helps when your carrying sheets of OSB around.

Saturday we were able to get finish some valley work and some sheets on the lakeside done. It took a while because a lot of it was custom cutting because of the angled valleys.

Sunday we got a late start since we had to go to church because Lydia received her God and Me pin for Girl Scouts. We got going around noon and had to move the scaffolding from one corner to the other.


Looking at the pictures it takes a little time and patience to get the scaffolding set but this will the last time we will have to move it for a while. We got the 2 X 6 fascia board up on the last corner and were able to get the OSB on along the perimeter. So next weekend we will try to finish up the sheeting on the roof.