Last month we celebrated our two September babies birthdays.

It's so hard to believe they're five and seven.  I'm still not quite used to living in a house with no babies, maybe we should go ahead and have another one.

A couple of weeks ago the guys opened up our house to tie the roof to the new addition and to let in a million and one flies.  We closed off the house with plastic but they still found there way in over the several days the house was open.  We had about a dozen rolls of fly tape out and they were all full in no time.  Ahhh, good times.

Thankfully the temperatures were pretty near perfect while this was going on.

In the course of four days they managed to start and finish joining the two sides together as well as get it partially roofed and house wrapped before a few rounds of storms moved through.

The metal store didn't have the piece of metal roofing that goes in the valleys and the tar paper couldn't keep the rain out of the addition OR the old part of the house...where we're ACTUALLY living.  It was a really rough week and I may have even cried a little while trying to keep all the water caught in buckets and sopped up out of the rug and chairs and everything else the rain found its way into.  At the time, it seemed like there couldn't be anything worse than being continually wet and cold inside your own house day after day...but every evening we'd watch a little bit of the news and remember how blessed we really are, at least until the next storm would roll through. 

By Friday the rain was heavier and coming in faster than the kids and I could keep up with and with no heat the cold was making its way into our bones.  I called Jeff with that "woman on a ledge" sound in my voice and he headed home with the metal we needed to get the valleys fixed.

So in the cold and drizzle with a lot of huffing and puffing and probably a few choice words, Jeff roofed the dormer, put in the valley and we finally got a handle on the rain. 

Somewhere during that mess, Jeff and I managed to get 16 of the 18 new windows in too. 

We're looking at a beautiful forecast for the next few days so Jeff's hoping he'll be able to finish the roof.  

(A look into the new addition from upstairs.)

In other news...

we bought a bunch of fruit trees for 50% off and planted a small orchard within two or three hours.  We planted a variety of apples, pears, peaches, and plums.  This is something we've been wanting to do for many years so we're thrilled to have come across so many tress at such a good price!!

And a while back, Jeff put in a new vanity in the bathroom so, while it doesn't usually feel like it, I guess we're actually on a bit of a roll around here.

The walls, knots and nail holes all need to be patched and repainted, I just have to decide if I'm over the stripes or not.  Those adorable sea turtles paintings are by Madison.

My sister, Erin, got engaged and asked me to be her matron of honor so I've been having a lot of fun pinning dresses and cakes and shower decor on pinterest lately.  She's getting married in February and I have a goal of hosting her bridal shower here so I plan to take advantage of the motivation that's currently running out my ears and really get some things done!  Pity those who have to live with me during this time!

That's some of what's been going on around here and I hope all of you are knee deep in things you love too!

September update

Things are still moving along.

Jeff and JJ starting on the second floor and roof assembly.

Little Sophie and her daddy.

Jeff, my dad and JJ are getting close to tying the addition into the main part of the house.  So exciting!

I'm feeling a bit soggy in the head lately as I'm trying to readjust to school.  It's always hard for me to say goodbye to summer and get back into that routine.  It usually seems to take me a few weeks but, sooner or later, the kids and I get a good rhythm going and before I know it another school year is over leaving me trying to adjust to summer and all its busyness.  It happens to me year after year and I'm always a little overwhelmed by it.

  My mom was over the other day while we were doing school and she mentioned she really misses it (homeschooling).  I don't think she knew it, but those few words gave me a dose of perspective that I've been needing.  The time I have with my kids is short lived so I need to make the most of it and savor it while I can. :)

August update

Jeff and JJ have been hard at work in their "spare" time with the add on.  I'm so thankful for the work they're doing but I worry they're going to wear themselves plum out!

The kids are still helping out with the deck.

The kids are getting pretty good with power tools and the front deck is almost done.  Woohoo!  

Madison's been growing lots of vegetables and pretty sunflowers in the garden this year.

She's also been playing around with water colors.

I wish this would happen when I "play around" with water color!

I love them.  They're so creative and beautiful!

On a final note, I would appreciate your prayers for Marilyn, one of my sweet mothers-in-law.  She'll be having a medical procedure done to repair a hole in her heart next week and just the anticipation itself is a heavy burden, let alone going through the actual surgery.  I know many of us can relate so please, please take a minute to pray for her.

♥

Thank you so much!

July update

The wrap around deck has been started.  The girls are going to know an awful lot about construction by the time this is all over with! 

They really hustled to get some boards on the deck for the 4th of July.  They aren't nailed down, just set in place for now.

This next picture was taken as they're assembling some outdoor tables and chairs with less than a couple of hours before our company was due for the bbq and fireworks. 

Everyone was exhausted that evening but it didn't stop us from having a lot of fun.  We also celebrated Gracie's 13th birthday on the 4th and somehow she managed to squeeze in a few extra minutes to decorate her own cake.

We enjoyed a visit from our Italian daughter, Madi'soni.

We all enjoyed the fireworks display put on by Isaiah and Tanner and were thankful they didn't seem to mind entertaining a bunch of zombies.

Since then, Jeff and his good friend, JJ, have been working on the addition a couple of days a week.

They got two of the walls up last night which is so exciting.

The double windows will become the opening into the new part of the house.

I can't wait!

DIY Stucco Sprayer

Things are moving along slowly but surely around here with lots of interruptions.  For example, a while back we got tired of having chickens running loose all over the place pooping everywhere so we fenced them in. Then we decided we still wanted them "foraging" for some of their own food so Jeff took a break from the house to build a mobile chicken coop. We also wanted them in their new, easier to clean coop before bird mite season starts which was a battle we had to fight last summer.  Awful!

It took way longer than expected which you kind of expect, but still.

He even gave them a really cool watering system.

The chickens are now happily in their new mobile (pronounced with a long i) home and we're back to working on the house.

The foundation was a pretty big undertaking since the house was already built on piers.  Why the switch from piers to block foundation?  It gets pretty cold in Missouri in the winter.  The piers were originally a quick and cheap way to get the house done enough to live in but we're pretty excited to be on a regular foundation.

We had to dig out around the piers, pour a concrete footer, stack blocks on the footer, then raise the house a few inches on a bunch jacks to get the top layer in there.

We dry stacked the blocks and at this very minute Jeff and the girls are finishing coating them with some kind of stucco that's supposed to result in an overall stronger wall than blocks set with mortar.  To make the stuccoing go easier and quicker Jeff made a homemade stucco sprayer that works extremely well.  So well that he requested I write this post.  I think he should be writing this post because this kind of thing is not my area of expertise but he's a little busy right now so I guess I'll wing it.

He used a garden hose sprayer attached to an air compressor thingy on one end and the other end has some kinda plumbing pipe with a bend (elbow?) for ergonomics.  The pipe slides into the scoop made out of a piece of air conditioning duct with a handle made from an old broken shovel and it (the pipe) has a little bitty garden hose sprayer shoved into it.

The scoop has a hole in it for the stucco to spray out of (which he made smaller than pictured here (down to a 1/2")) and it sprays the perfect amount on the wall.

He scoops up the stucco mixture, squeezes the handle and it all spits out the hole in the scoop like so.

The girls follow up the spraying by smoothing it out with hand trowels while Evelyn inspects their work.  The whole process is surprisingly quick and smooth.

the end

Eggs. Glorious eggs...

Jeff has been steadily working to switch us out from a pier foundation to a normal concrete foundation.  It's been a tough and dirty job but we're getting close to having it done.

My parents come out to help too because what could possibly be more fun to do with your retirement than exhausting yourself helping your kids build a house for what feels like the umpteen millionth time.

Honestly they've put more sweat equity into my homes than I have and even this time around and lately I've been helping less and less because it turns out that someone still has to cook for all these people and do their mounds of dirty laundry.  When I ask the kids if they want to work on inside chores or work outside with their daddy they all always pick outside so I get stuck doing everyone's inside work which I honestly prefer anyway.

After they finished pouring the concrete footer they also poured a small pad for the stairs that will come off the deck that, Lord willing, we'll start once the foundation is finished.  We used concrete stamps to give it a stone texture.

Isaiah's demonstrating what he's been doing all day which is basically holding an impact gun over his head to take out hundreds of screws to remove sheets of wood under the house.  I know from when Jeff and I put that wood up a few years ago that the impact gun gets heavier and heavier as the day goes on but Isaiah kept up the pace from start to finish with no complaints and even had energy to spare when the day was done.

I could use some of that energy.

While Jeff and the kids we're working in the dirt under the house I washed about 20 dozen eggs.  We've recently fenced in our chickens so we're getting all the eggs they lay, whereas, when they were completely free range they'd often lay eggs outside the coop in places we couldn't find before the dogs would sniff them out for a snack.  It turns out that we probably have more chickens than we really need.

We more or less will be paying my parents for their help in eggs.  Who could pass up a deal like that, right?  Anyone else want to come work for eggs?

Our smallest and cutest ever egg.   

Our low budget kitchen

I'm finally adding photos of our kitchen which we've been enjoying for several months now.  We'll do the trim, floors, and ceilings last so it will stay "almost done" for a while still.

We didn't change any of our appliances.  They're all still mismatched but working just fine so I can't bear to spend the money on that right now, if ever.

Jeff keeps asking me if I'm ready to get a new stove to the point that I'm starting to wonder if he doesn't like it as much as I do.  The burners don't have a truly medium heat setting and it bakes a bit unevenly but that's fine by me since I'm far from the best cook and when things don't turn out that great I can just blame it on the stove.

We bought our cabinets and  granite counters, which only come in six foot lengths, from a discount building supply store and it saved us a bundle.  Jeff also set every tile himself rather than buying the tiles in sheets.  It took a little longer but would have cost so much more otherwise.

Jeff experimented with the under-mount lighting using discs on the right side of the cabinets and went through a huge amount of trouble to hide the cords.  Then we decided to use a bar light under the open shelves and he's not happy with it so we just left the cord till we get around to switching it out to the disc style lights.  It's been so long since I've been able to see very well while working at the kitchen counters that I forgot just how nice it is to have good lighting, dangling cord and all.

So, we started with appliances which are all second hand (super-duper cheap or free) and then built the kitchen from the ground up for under $3,000.   Not as cheap as the kitchen set up we had before but I'm so thankful to have it!

And these flowers have nothing to do with our kitchen but I've recently discovered how much I love having living plants in the house even if I know they'll most likely be dead in a few months.  These cyclamen have such unique and colorful blossoms, only cost around $3.00 and they'll far outlast any fresh bouquet...although I still love fresh bouquets from time to time too.