As I mentioned yesterday, the gazebo is up.

I finally got around to bringing a power source outside. My parents gave us the light set they had for their gazebo because they hated setting it up. It had a center lantern and 4 others that hung from the corners. I rewired it so we’d just have one:

I’m out there right now! It is so relaxing.

The sound of a bathroom demolition is not so relaxing.

The pile of junk you need to dispose of is not, either.

The result, however, is going to be amazing. I am so excited!

My family visited us this weekend. My father and I completed some wiring in the attic; adding a junction box, an outlet in the attic, and wiring the twins’ chandelier.

Working on the wiring:

The new outlet, which was needed for the fan for ventilation:

Chandelier in twins’ bedroom:

It has been an incredibly long weekend. We started out doing some wiring in Molly and Mia’s room. At this point, their chandelier is in the ceiling, but the wiring in the attic isn’t finished. I am not sure if we will be able to get any of that done tomorrow. There was no ceiling fixture in that room, so we had to start from scratch.

We also put down some cedar mulch and planted a few shrubs in the backyard. The biggest update, of course, is the fence. The whole thing took about 15 hours. My Dad was the only one who could handle the auger. That thing was pretty powerful. I have a sunburn, despite the 50+ sunblock, and my hands are still sort of numb. The end result was worth all the work!

A look back:

May, 2006
Note the overgrown trees on the side of the house, peeling paint, overgrown garden area and exterior light:

We have been very busy. We went back to the Raymour and Flanigan clearance center and found the matching bed for our dresser. We got them down to $425.00. It’s still amazing to have a queen size bed. I never realized just how crammed we were in full. Serta makes a very affordable imitation of the Tempur-Pedic mattress, but it’s
hard to find in-stock at Big Lots. We managed to get the last one. Luckily, I had been buying queen bedding for a while, so we were able to keep everything we have. I updated the master bedroom photos, along with many other rooms in the house.
This is the chandelier, finally installed:

My Dad and I spent the weekend wiring from the attic. I found a nicer chandelier at Home Depot and decided to keep the white one to install in Molly and Mia’s room at a later time. We wired a dimmer switch through the walls and changed the wiring to
add a junction box to the attic. We plan to use that later for the wiring in the girls’ bedroom and for an outlet to connect the attic fan. It was a bit tricky, but I learned a lot.

We found a handyman who would re-tile our shower for a very reasonable price.

It was a big job. I’m glad we didn’t try to do this work ourselves – even with my Dad’s help!

I can’t believe how beautiful it turned out.

We decided to add a shower door. I had to look everywhere for that because it was out of stock. It was $50.00 cheaper at Home Depot, compared to the price at Lowe’s. It won’t be installed until next week, but this is the one we chose:

I painted three paw prints on Will’s room because he loves Blue’s Clues. I drew them by hand on cardstock to create my own stencils. It turned out really cute. The photos of his room have also been updated.

I moved the mirror from our bedroom wall to the wall above the fireplace. It looks very nice.

Lastly, I painted a wall in the family room with dark brown chalkboard paint. It is the wall with the door to their clubhouse. They’re already having a lot of fun with it.

My family visited this weekend, so of course this meant I asked my Dad to help me with a few things! He taught me some wiring basics. We spliced a heavy duty extension cord, drilled a hole and ran it inside through a corner of the family room. Then, we put a new plug on and painted the cord section that ran outside. Dad made a trench to hide the rest of the cord. I wanted to do this mainly so we’d have an outside power source that we could use for Christmas lights, but I also had a lamp post that I wanted to place near the front steps. We secured the base into the ground, and it looks nice. It’s hooked up to the light controls in the cams section, so check that out!

My Dad also showed Micah how to replace a door knob. It’s a simple task, but we need to learn a lot of things! The door to the laundry room was always stuck, and you had to really pull on the knob to get it to open. I still put one foot back and brace myself every time I go down there. I just can’t get used to the fact that it opens easily now!

There are a couple of small things we want to do soon. The gutter is bent a bit on the front of the house, near the edge. Also, the screen fell off the kitchen window and it needs to be placed back on from the outside. Both of those things involve the ladder, of course, so we just haven’t made time to go up there. We also want to touch up the paint in some areas of the foundation due to cracking.