Getting Some Yard Work Done

In the last few weeks we've gotten closets and railings - both very important!  But now, since it's summer and the weather is fine, outdoor stuff seems like a good idea.

We got some "fill" dropped off to raise our property level so it would be level with the road.  There's also a big pile of gravel on the driveway.  These piles had been sitting here for a few days when a guy with a bobcat who lives near us came and started spreading it all around for us.  How awesome is that?  He was really fast moving around in that little bobcat.  We'll still need a lot more "fill" but it's good to have this stuff spread out so it can settle.

Rich is double 30 minute papering our front entry and then he'll stucco wire it.

Working on the flooring of our front entry - green treated floating wood deck over ice and water shield (that's the black paper on the bottom).  Such helpful girls - Jas is cutting all the wood and Mackenzie is handing Daddy the screws (ya gotta train them while they're young!).

Then she covered her ears (Katia too) every time he screwed in a screw.

It was so loud, even Daddy had to cover his ear!

Rich also did all this smart board on the front lower part of the front entry.  We'll paint it someday.

Notice the perfectly stucco wired wall - nothing crooked there!

Floor is done!  Jas and Jordyn cut the last piece on the table saw and it fit absolutely perfectly.  Rich couldn't have done it better himself!!!  (that's what he said!)

Around the corner, the girls have another project going - spreading more gravel out on the workshop driveway.

Jordyn and Carlee working on the big pile and filling the wheelbarrow.

Jenna and Katia working on the smaller pile.  They had the radio going and were dancing and singing while they worked.

Jordyn dumping a load.

Just look at how buffed and tanned they're getting!  It was hot hard work though, and one sweet neighbour came by later in the day with a box of ice-cream treats!

Meanwhile, Rich and Jas started working on a sidewalk that will connect the workshop sidewalk with the basement stairs and the stairs to the deck.

Look how buffed and tanned he's getting!!!

Rich and Jas get to shovel gravel too.

This picture also shows the extent of my garden this year - two pots of flowers guarding the edge of the deck from little people, and down below you can see four other pots - that's my vegetable garden.  Tomatoes, peppers and oregano.  They were on the deck too but the wind kept blowing them off.  So I tried to hide them by the weeds on the hill (big pile of topsoil) so the deer wouldn't notice them.  So far so good!

Jas - look how buffed and tanned she's getting!

  (And don't my Mother's Day roses just add a special something to this photo?)

Spreading out the gravel over the whole sidewalk.  And yes, I know this looks like a really weird shaped sidewalk, but just wait until it's all finished.

I like this photo because it shows me hard at work too, taking the picture!

Tamping down the gravel.

Laying the rebar.

After they finished our sidewalk, they went and helped someone else and were cutting more rebar.  Jas sliced her leg nicely while cutting a small piece of rebar.  We were contemplating stitches but decided the butterfly closures worked just as well.  Besides, guys dig scars!

Since we needed to use a bit more cement to make it a full load, we decided to do the sidewalk around the  garage.  This will hold our other set of stairs off the deck.

Cement time!  Because it was such a hot day, we watered down the gravel first so the ground wouldn't suck all the water out of the cement.  Here we have Rich and Jas leveling out the cement.

Bring on more cement!

Thanks neighbours for coming to help spread the cement around.

They spread out this sidewalk and roughly brushed/edged it and then went to do the other sidewalk.  By the time they came back to fix up this sidewalk, the top had already set, so they weren't able to get it smoothed out as well as we wanted.  Rich said the cement was dry to start with and then the heat of the day just dried it too fast.  Oh well, at least it's the back sidewalk and once the stairs are in place it won't be too noticeable.  The other sidewalk looks just fine though! 

 All set up with little people on it.  We no longer have to walk the plank here in the back! We can get from the house to a vehicle without having to walk through mud - Yay!!!

 Check out these dazzling shoes! 
Rich carved our name and the year in the edge.

And now back to the continuous job of spreading out the gravel.  Hopefully the girls will have it all done before they go back to school!  The girls and I have shovels of dirt.  Just after this picture was taken, Jordyn threw her load and it landed all over Jas.  Bahaha!

Just look how buffed and tanned we're getting!


Stair Railings in the House

This is how our stairs have looked for the past ten months - a little grove of pine trees guarding one side, some large (and heavy) paint can guarding the other, and a few smaller paint cans guarding the edges of the treads going down.

Yes, it's completely safe for little people!  (Which is why my sister can't relax when she's here with her one year old!)

We have wrought iron spindles and oak tracks, newel posts and railings.  Rich is measuring the first spindle to see what length to cut it to. 

We've had all the parts to assemble these railings since last fall, but it was a little more complicated than that.  We bought our spindles in the states - so much cheaper down there.  But we bought our oak in Canada.  So when Rich went to start assembling them last year, he realized that the measurements were off.  The spindles were about a millimetre too wide for the tracks in the oak.  So that just complicated things a little, and mentally stalled Richie for months!  Besides cutting every piece, he had to grind the metal down to make it fit in the track.  Cutting metal really stinks and sends sparks flying everywhere - another reason why it had to wait til nice weather so it could be done outside.  And those sparks are hot - one landed on my foot!

The metal saw is on the left and the wood saw is on the right - it's for cutting the tiny oak pieces that get placed in the track between each spindle.

And look in the yard - some new piles of dirt!

There is a pattern to these railings - can you see it?

I actually helped too.  My job was to rip off masking tape to hold the little oak pieces in place in the tracks while the wood glue dried.  Let me tell you that I sure had some aching muscles the next day!

Those little base pieces nicely hide the part where you screw the spindle in to the base.  (Oh, and I was just kidding about the sore muscles!)

First side is finished - awesome work team!

See that yellow metal thing floating in mid-air?  It's a magnetic level - how cool is that!

You can see the pattern better here in the spindles.  The team only mixed up the spindles once.  Luckily I noticed before they had gone too far and only had to remove two spindles to correct the pattern.

That's the closest Kenzie's ever been to the edge!

Now for the final section - a little more challenging because all the cuts have to be on an angle now and the measurements were all different.

Halfway done!

Only one spindle left to do!  Everyone is gathering for the Grand Finale!!!

Yahoo - they're finished!!!  And don't worry, the little bases on the stair treads will be easy to lift up on that day when we might actually get carpet on the stairs!

Look at the girls rejoicing with the newest home improvement!!!

Aren't they beautiful?  (I'm talking about the railings of course!!!)

Dear Daughters: may you always be like these railings - steadfast and immoveable.  And may you always hold to the rod, the iron rod, just like Kenzie. 

We've had all our girls living at home for the past year.  But now change is in the air . . . Jas just found an apartment and will be moving out Sept 1 to attend college.  And Chelle will probably be leaving a few months after that.  I'll miss these kinds of little moments with all my beauties.  But we'll face our changes with courage because we know it's all part of the big plan.  And we will carry on and be just like . . . stair railings!!!

We've Got Closets!!!

We moved into our house last September, and now in June we finally got functioning closets.  We've just been using closet boxes - four of them shared between eight people!  Twas a real pain for putting away laundry!

Rich working on the closet in Jordyn and Katia's room.

She likes it!!!  Thanks Daddy - you're the best!

The other bedrooms got their closets done too - Jas can finally hang her clothes up, just in time for her to move out in a few months.

Here is the master bedroom closet before shot.

Actually the real before shot would have showed closetboxes, suitcases and other boxes piled up - not a pretty picture!

 

Here's a partway shot - a shelf going around the entire top portion of the closet.  Loving all that off-season storage space up there! 

But wait, what's that up on the shelf . . .

. . . let's take a closer look.

Yes indeed it is a bag of chocolate covered almonds! Rich has started my closet chocolate stash again for me.  I've been much too long without a closet for my secret stash!  Thanks love - you're the best!

Making lots of progress.

Well isn't this looking good - wow!  Someday we might even paint it, but right now I am just enjoying so much the ease of hanging clothes without having to shove them down into a box.

And as for the almonds, I'm not going to divulge exactly where I keep them hidden - do you think I'm crazy?  Alas, that bag is empty now - but luckily there was a new one to start!