A Few Fun July Activities

The Stewart family went to Island Park together for 3 days in July and we had a great time. It has been awhile since we have been able to do this and I'm glad we were able to get together. We went fishing one morning and actually caught a few fish. Ryan caught one and Morgan caught two. She was so excited.
While playing in the River by Mack's Inn. Ryan and the girls in the kayak. The were actually pretty good at cruzin around!
The whole family (minus Kathy - she wasn't able to come) at Mesa Falls. It was a beautiful waterfall.
A bunch of little girls trying to raft. They pretty much just turned in circles. Between my sisters and I we have 10 girls from 9 years old and down and only one 6 year old boy....He is a really good sport to hang out with all the girls!
The 6 year old's plus one 8 year old

We had bought a bunch of plastic while our roof was off the house incase it started raining and we decided to turn it into a slip and slide in the backyard on one of the hot afternoons. The girls had a blast and played for hours - I'm afraid it wasn't to kind to the lawn....
Here is Maddie with her new "ruffle pants" I think these are my favorite project I made for the girls this summer.
Fourth of July activities at Grandma's house. We watched the parade and then walked down to the Perry Park to play all the games. Here all the little cousins after the parade!
Our kitchen was taken out on July 3rd so since then - this is what I have been cooking on.. a grill and a camp chef. We have them out on our new back deck along with our fridge, freezer, a table for the toaster and all the paper products, and our table to eat. It has been quite the adventure. I can't say we have had very many good meals - but we are not starving. I have to admit it is getting a little old. We are going on one month without a kitchen and I'm guessing it will be at least one more....

It's been awhile.....

I realize it has been awhile since I posted and I have lots of pictures - but we have been under a little construction around here and things aren't quite as convenent as they usually are.

My kitchen came out just over two weeks ago, I now have my "kitchen" on our back (unfinished) deck. It consists of our microwave on a table, our camp chef, our grill, a box with some food in it and lots of paper goods. The fridge is still plugged in in the front of the house so we at least can use it. If I need water I have to use the outside spicket, and I try to use as few dishes as possible that have to be washed. If I do have to wash any dishes, my sweet sister in law lets me come next door and use her sink. I never realized how often you use a kitchen sink. I also really miss my kitchen counter - I have no where to walk in and put anything down...old habits are hard to break. Maybe after this I will not have a pile of stuff on my counter.

This last week the wall between the old and the new came down. It was a very long day and Ryan and I were both wondering what we were thinking when we decided to do this. Everything is dirty and dusty and not easy to get around. But we got through the week and we think we are on the downhill side of the project. So this is where we are....

* Roof is at a manageable amount to finish up - love the shape of it and the color!
* We are living in the basement - a little cozy, but we love each other right!!
* Exterior cement should go in this week - I am very excited for this to help clean up the outside a bit.
* Plumbers, electricians, and HVAC should all finish up this week.
* The framer (Ryan) should finish this week also

It is all starting to take shape and I am so excited to put everything back together! I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out how!

Ryan has been working on the roof (as well as his regular job) for the past week and it is finally just about there. He is picking up the felt paper and ordering the shingles as I sit here and type! I will be glad to have a leak proof roof over our head again. Here are a few pictures of the last week.
Injury #2 happened as they were working on this side of the roof. Ryan's brother, Dale caught his leg on one of the metal plates on the trusses and ended up with stitches. And according to our niece Hallie - "that is going to cost him a butt load of money!" We laughed at that!

The back of the house. I am so excited for the deck. I think I will spend a lot of time there! I just need a rocking chair to put up there!

What our house looks like as of right now. I love the shape of the roof and am excited to get the shingles on there!

The next step in the process is gutting the upstairs. This past week I have just about moved everything out of the upstairs. We are sleeping in one bedroom downstairs and the girls are in the other. I have sold my dishwasher and stove and they will both be picked up on Friday, and I also sold my kitchen cabinets and they will be picked up on Saturday morning. So as of Saturday I no longer have a kitchen. I have stocked up on paper goods and cereal and will have to get creative with our grill. Ryan says about 1 1/2 months - but I am prepping myself for about 2 months before we are up and running again. We have also been without a air conditioner which I hate - I am one who never turns my air conditioner off and I love to be able to walk into my house and be cold - so needless to say it has been a little warm around here the last little bit. But we should be able to hook the air conditioner back up soon. One exciting note - I bought myself a new serger/sewing machine with the money from the cabinets and appliances - Ryan was going to just throw them all in the dumpster so I figured I would buy something fun with them!

Trusses and Rain...

I woke up this morning about 5;30 a.m. because the wind was blowing quite hard and looked out my window to see dark clouds to the west... normally I would have just rolled over and gone back to sleep, but when all I have is a layer of sheetrock between me and the great outdoors, I started to panic just a little. The clouds continued to get closer, until about 8:15 when it started to rain - hard - but luckily it only lasted for a few minutes and the inside of my house was spared... the crane arrived soon and the guys got to work.

This is the first truss going up

The next group of trusses going up.

At that point I took off and went to the Dinosaur Park with my sisters and had a great time!

And returned just in time to see the last few trusses go on. It is starting to come together and it looks great!

One funny comment from today, Ian, my 6 year old nephew was watching Ryan quite a bit today and following him around a little and after awhile told Ryan, "You have an awesome job, I'm going to call you my working uncle." We love having Ian in town, he is always making us laugh!

We had a ton of help come this morning and by noon we had...

a finished product....or I guess we should say an unfinished product.
I was pretty excited that we had no broken windows and only one little tiny hole in my ceiling inside. Now to get a roof back on.....

It Started...

This is our house as of 5:15 on Friday evening....

Ryan and Alan decided to get a start on the roof - Ryan's leg fell through some of the old boards on the roof - our first ingury.

This was the roof after about an hour of work. Insulation was flying and to be honest with you it makes me a little nervous. We will see what today brings. There is quite the crew of family coming and I am sure it won't take them long to get it all off. One of my friends asked if we were still living here and the answer is yes! We are trying to stick it out as long as possible. So far the inside hasn't changed to much so that is when it will get hard to live in I am sure!