The Remodel

It's the moment you've all been waiting for - a post about the remodel! I've put this off for a while because it was too soon. Remodels are terrible, and this was no exception. But we survived, we're still married and Megan will have a brand new house to come home to! We started mid July and were able to move back in on Labor Day. But unfortunately because of random things, didn't get my oven for another month! That was painful. But all is well now. A few things I want to remember (I think): eating outside on the deck, washing dishes in tub, coming home from work to Sam crying cuz he couldn't take the noise anymore, our wood floor guy staying until midnight one night, coming home from church and opening the door to see the dust so thick that I couldn't see through the house, having a giant hole in our wall in the basement with just a tarp to cover. I tried to take before and after pics in the same spot, so here you go!

As you can tell Sam was VERY excited to help with the demo. The workers were nice to let him help.

Everything came to screeching halt when this random half wall was determined to be load bearing even though 3 people had told us otherwise. Luckily it was fixed fairly quickly

Our kitchen and dump all. Yes we're eating next to our toilet!

Cabinet Day!

Paint!

Where we ate dinner and the giant whole in the wall behind us. There used to be a window there but we used it to run our water pipes out to the new mudroom.

We were grateful when we finally got to move upstairs and inside to eat

Countertops! It took 5 guys to carry our 10 ft. slab in.

We never want to do house projects again. My nights have been doing something on the house. Painting the pantry sent my wrist over the edge. It still hurts.

The weekend we finally got to move back in!

Toby's pride and joy. He had to talk me AND my sisters in to putting a TV there, but it's been awesome and every sub that's come in has expressed their approval.

The day the oven finally came Sam used it for smores! Max named the oven Marge and we love her.

 

Halloween

We had a pretty uneventful Halloween. Older kids mean less parties and I'm not sad about that! We still made it to the witchy-poo party. No one's too old for that! Sam and his friends dressed up like farm animals and farmers and got a ton of candy that Sam proceeded to eat in a 3 day period. He was out of control for those 3 days. Max was too cool for trick or treating and went to 2 different parties.

Withcy poo party

The boys pumpkins. I bet you can't guess who's is who's??

Jack, Miles, Davis, Sam, Cam

Toby got creative while on crutches and figured out he could iron sitting down! He may just do that from now on. And he had to be on crutches for a total of 3 weeks instead of 1. It almost killed us.

While Toby was on crutches this was where he sat WITH the neck pillow while he worked. Sam decided it was pretty comfortable and got in on the action.

 

Choir & Stuff

Max introducing himself as an "official" accompanist

 

Max had his first high school choir concert that was...good! Let's just say it wasn't the most exciting concert and at one point we took pictures of the entire audience asleep. But, they sounded great putting us to sleep! Max did a great job accompanying his choir

Sam had a choir concert that was a little more upbeat. He's in concert choir and loves it.

He thinks he's hot stuff in his tux

I didn't get lost in a maze

Max is learning lots of cool things with the city youth council

Ashton was a good sport in my lesson and let us throw velcro balls at him

The Johnson Bros were representing one Sunday

Love getting together with family, especially now that the Ball family is represented!

This makes me happy

Toby had ANOTHER knee scope surgery. He's hoping this will make him stop walking like an old man. The boys have enjoyed riding the carts around the stores with him.

Megan is still on her mission and doing great! I love it when I get random pics like this sent to me from nice people.

 

Homecoming

 

Can't believe Max is old enough - but him and his fun friends went to homecoming! They're a great group of kids and had a lot of fun, even though they had to have their parents drive them around. It was a lot of fun to watch the boys try and plan everything. Boys are very different! But they planned a great date and everything went along without a hitch. They got ice cream and went bowling for their day date. Then they had dinner at someone's house, and hung out after the dance and someone else's with treats involved!

Max & Kenna