There's Light at the End of the Tunnel!

(OK, so I didn't get the pictures posted before you went to bed, but now I can sit down, take a breath and get to it! So great to see S. and the the kids today on webcam.)

Slowly things begin to empty in the little house. Boxes are going out, but wow, the books and papers I need to sort that are left! But coming to the new house is a thrill: new colors are going up fast. An employee at Glidden who refers Marc work came by to see what kind of work he does and told the other colleagues at Glidden that Marc was doing really, really, really good work! Here Marc is peering out from the light chocolate brown accent wall that is totally wet with its first coat of fresh paint.

She does not know it yet in this picture, but there is a new hole in her pants from climbing trees. Her twin has a matching hole in his pants... from climbing trees. They were very happy to inform me of the good climbing trees on the property. I took that picture from the living room window.

Jesse's work is so careful. First a sub-floor is glued then hammered down...

...Marc told the kids to be good or Jesse would glue them to the floor.

They were good.

It's like music!

Meanwhile the closets in the master bedroom were painted.

The accent wall is drying and darkening

The kitchen gets its knobs

voila!

Jesse had near-constant observation. We all had to admire his ultra-light titanium hammer.

I asked him how he felt working under such close scrutiny. I guess the boys have not had enough opportunity to watch floor installation to get tired of it yet. 

This is the color we chose for the bathroom cabinets and bookshelves.

Also Marc's new desk is the same color more or less, and it arrived today in a big truck.

Today we also bought a mattress which is great because our is so old, and in spite of having been cared for and faithfully turned, it's lumpy and shaped like us. 

She LOVES to read

Storage is getting filled little by little with boxes waiting to move in!

By the way, Uncle G. called to see what he could do to help. Not only is he very helpful, but is really nice to have around. He was at work switching out light fixtures in the laundry room. If anyone can get them to work, he can.

I really like this next sequence of pictures: The Master bedroom wall goes gray-black! 

When everything is dry I'll do a final picture walk through and include color names. Two more coats of black went up later this afternoon. After the first one, though, I called in Uncle G saying, "Marc has just put a really shocking color up on our back wall.." He was warned, but he was still not prepared for what he saw. "BYORP!" was his exclamation of surprise. I am sure that sentiment would be embraced by many... But just wait and see where we are going with this...

This is the last I could see of the house today- I went home to work. Later that evening when I got in from lessons Marc said my Dad had come over to see progress and to entertain the kids. Dad made the tour, then said that the amount of work done around here was miraculous. Then he got right down to business giving the kids a good time. Marc was painting a closet in the bedroom and saw through the doorway Dad pass by going down the stairs on his stomach. Later he saw him go down headfirst on his back. He'd put a kid at the bottom of the stairs to "catch" him. The kids loved this. Then he drew a face on his hand and called his hand a clam and made it talk to them, etc. etc. The kids needed this kind of attention so bad. Awesome. 

Pa en Ma, in de avonds Amber bidt voor "Pepe en Meme's rug" niet ruggen, maar een rug. zo, tussen jullie twee hebben jullie alleen een rug. Jullie kunnen zien hoe de man en vrow inderdaad echt een zijn!!

More progress, and a shower

We are the happy owners of two dreadfully messy houses- one finished and full of junk and one unfinished and full of doors and masking paper. But we push hard every day!

This is a portrait of the story of my life right now. Fast-paced, blurry, pretty cluttered, using up packing tape like my life depended on it ...and running around like a headless chicken... 

This kitchen shines now! We bought knobs for the doors tonight after meeting. When we get them on I will take ANOTHER set of picture and post THOSE...

More of the same...

Putting shutters back up

You can see by their faces how we are all feeling about all this stuff we have to sort through at our current home... ARRRGHH!

But, as they say, out of sight, out of mind, right?

The packing boxes that are getting channeled through this house are suffering through all kinds of treatment, often used as a rough canvas for creative artwork, miniature temporary housing, (and where did they get the idea that it's a trampoline?) But the boxes take their revenge on us by providing us something to trip over every time we come through. 

On a totally different note, because I thought I didn't have nearly enough on my plate with moving and teaching 34 piano students every week (or is it 35?), I took responsibility for the food at a shower that happened yesterday... But so many pitched in to help. Here are some of them...

And other guests... (Pa, J. G. was bij de vergadering vandaag- het was goed om hem weer te zien alhowel hij was in een rolstoel- ook M.O., ook in een rolstoel, als gewoon, nu. Het gaat moelik voor hem, nu.)

(Als je wil de namen die ik wil niet publiek maken omdat dit is de internet, je kun mij in en email vragen.)

And a few more, who are also standing by the gifts for two expected little girls are going to get some really cute things! 

Part of the brunch- the dessert end of things- incredible truffles on the left, cinnamon rolls, muffins, lemon bars, more chocolate...

Fresh fruit, breakfast casserole, stuffed mushrooms...

Center, in blue- the lady of honor

(en ma, je ken de vrouw op links)

The setting

And now- this is the little lady who has been sleeping in the living room! She needs her own room. I kept her awake too long packing and she had all kinds of things to ask and comment on, water to drink and blankets to wiggle out of and a nose to blow. 

 ...finally!!

She's out.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Hey, ma het was zeeer goed om met jou te babbelen vanmiddag, pannekoeken en alles. Ik mis je veel. En iedereen daar. Marc heeft meer gegeten vandaag, en, natuurlijk minder gewerkt. Marc vraagt misschien als wij en beetje rummikub op de telefoon konden samen spelen, maar ik zeide nee, jammer niet. Ook jammer dat hij slaapt en kan mij niet helpen met mij NLs. (-Nee, nee, ik bedoel dat niet. Hij moet slapen!) Vandaag had ik mijn eerste proef van onze doos schilfertruffelkes sinds wij hier kwamen. En, als altijd, als je wil een foto groter zien, je kan op het klikken. Veel liefs, allemaal! Als je wil zien op mijn computer desktop, eerst was het dit foto voor een week, zie de mooie glimlach van de kabouters in blauw en rood

en nu is het deze, the three ring circus, and the following will probably be some pony rides with a boy who was promised a pony ride a long time ago...

Als je zou deze foto's zien en je wil niet dat jou kinderen kan hier gevonden worden "in beeld", ik zal het verwijderen, maar just so you know ik zal de echte naamen nooit hier doen. 

"Kabouters" is goed genoeg, en zo. 

Paint!

Here is Marc trying to convince his daughter that he is standing in the corner because he was naughty.

In fact, he is just cutting in around millwork with a paintbrush, and she knows it.

This color and the white trim and the fresh paint on the door- I was glad to see it!

Now it has two finish coats upstairs over the primer.

Drop cloths are great! They can handle kids, Legos, spilled drinks and lunch! When Daddy AND Mommy  work on Saturday the kids to play by themselves, and here they did fine! Later Jamin was a real assistance by playing apprentice to Marc during a tricky spray job, taking care of the hose so it didn't hit any walls.

House progress update

Finally we got our power back on! Yesterday when we came in the door we were dismayed to find our power off. When our power is off, so is our water. (maar je wist dat al, ma, zes lange dagen.) We stay warm because of the fireplace, but with no water it's no fun...
So I made the kids lay their pajamas out on their beds in the little bit of light that was still in the sky. It was a relief to get out of the dark house and go to the new house and continue working to prepare for the painting days.
Amber took the shop vacuum and cleaned off all the dust from the corners of all the kitchen doors, then I wiped them down. Marc had done a great job masking most of the house. My sister and her whole family came over and my parents too, to see the house and to see the progress. 
In the morning I intended to get to the house with the kids early, but the energy company came and fixed the problem. I let them know about our trees against the wires making smoke and sparks. They found that pretty interesting and sent a crew out later to chop the branches off. They cleaned it up quite a lot!
So Amber and I spent a few hours scraping old paper off these shelves, and here they are with the first coat of primer thanks to Marc:

If you want to see the pictures larger you can click on them.

The boys really enjoyed drawing roads on the floor paper

And these are my kitchen cabinet doors!

Finally the pantry is white! 

The living room from the kitchen doorway

The whole house feels like a paint spray booth!

This view is looking straight up at the ceiling from the living room.

The stair rail and all other trim is finally white! It was a tan before.

The kids spent the afternoon with Grandma who practiced the piano with them and read to them. Much appreciated!!! I was teaching in the afternoon and this way Marc did not have to stop spraying trim white.
After the kids were in bed he sprayed another time! That was about a 13 hour day for him. It gets busy now. The next 2 days are finish coats for the trim, then after that- color on the walls! Marc got about $400 worth of top-quality paint for $50 that he got tinted to our color of choice. Next we have to choose carpets.

We really enjoyed watching Kim Clijsters win tonight! She did great again.