Once There Was a Snowman

With the heavy, wet snow we got yesterday, the girls couldn't resist going outside this morning to play a little before it all melted (and it was melting quickly). Before you knew it, they were set on building a snowman.


At first they were just picking up handfuls of snow and patting them into a mound.


Courtney came inside at one point complaining her feet were cold -- I told her what do you expect when you wear crocs with holes in them?


Then they realized they could roll the snow around, so that went a little faster and resulted in larger snowballs, although they picked up a lot of grass in the process.


The girls all went inside to warm up, but then Hannah realized they had forgotten the face, so she went back out to add one.


Introducing "Snowy" the snowman:


Hannah then decided to try adding a stick mouth, but poor Snowy got knocked over in the process of trying to attach it. But she stuck with it and put Snowy back together as best she could, then decided to turn him into a Texas cowboy. (He must have been wrestling with horses in the mud!)


I think the small pile of what used to be Snowy is all the snow we have left at the end of the day. (Unless you count the snow I found stashed in the freezer in Ziploc bags with a note indicating it is for Hannah's 2nd grade teacher...)

It's a great day to enjoy a nice fire in the fireplace (and a great way to get rid of all that scrap wood -- can you spot all the nails?)

Garden Girls

One day last week when it was super windy outside, Courtney came in and asked me if I had any string she could use. She told me that she had seen a "bush" outside that was really getting blown around and she wanted to tie some string to some sticks in the ground to help it stay upright. I told her all I had was yarn, which isn't very strong, but she thought that would be just fine.

A little bit later she and Hayley (who had chosen to dress alike) came in and said the dust was blowing in their eyes, so could they went and dug out the swimming goggles.

Courtney and Hayley were so proud of the "help" they gave this poor little "bush." They decided that they would grow their very own garden right there, so they started pulling out the "weeds" and giving all their little plants water. What cute little garden girls!

Well, what do you know? Snow!

I suppose it's inevitable. Start a remodeling project and no doubt something will go wrong, cause delays, make you want to tear your hair out. Likely multiple somethings. Like falling through the ceiling. Or super strong winds. Or snow. In March. In Texas.

Didn't someone tell the weather that it's Spring Break starting today? But then again, it's also Friday the 13th, so we shouldn't be too surprised that we got the most snow we've had all winter this afternoon -- probably about 3 inches. I know, that really isn't a lot of snow. And any other day, we would be loving every minute of it. But not so much today, with a roof still unfinished and a couple of workers who are probably ready to go home by now.

This morning started out quite foggy and dreary. Some moisture overnight had left a coating of ice all around.

But the workers pressed on and by afternoon the snow started. And kept coming. And kept sticking to the ground. What can you do?

We had some drips in the house and Brian said the flooring got pretty wet up there. We were able to get some plastic sheeting and try to cover things up. And hopefully the storm has passed and it will warm back up this weekend.

Here's a peek at what the inside of the new addition looks like right now (taken before the snow started). The kids can't wait to move into their new bedrooms, but I keep having to reminding them that there is still a lot more work to do after the roof is put on.

So here's to a little sunshine in the forecast for tomorrow!

A Roof Goes Up

The cold temperatures have returned, but thankfully the wind has died down considerably. You can work on a roof in the cold (maybe not comfortably...) but you can't work on a roof in the high wind. So we are all grateful for a couple of calmer days. Parts of Amarillo got some very light snow last night, but we didn't get any at our house. There is a greater chance of snow (or freezing rain) tomorrow -- we are all hoping it avoids us!

We have made some progress on the roof. We rented an extending fork lift to be able to lift up supplies and get up high enough to work on the rafters. (I use the term "we" quite loosely here, as you will not find me anywhere near the roof.)

So here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.

They are hoping to finish with the sheeting tomorrow and start the shingles on Saturday. (That is, if we can find shingles that match our existing ones...) It is definitely starting to look like a house!

Four Walls

Despite the seemingly never-ending wind, we now have four walls up! Yay! The strong wind has definitely been a detrimental factor, but since they are predicting even possibly worse weather later in the week (rain and even a chance of snow), the men decided to press forward today with the walls.

Yesterday, most of the walls were built but not raised up due to the strong winds:

This morning, we brought up a couple of extra workers from our apartments and got first one wall up:

Then two:

Then I thought they had decided to quit for the day (at least quit working up on the roof) because the wind was getting so bad, so the "extra" workers left. Later in the day, however, Brian, Randy and their dad (with a little help from McKay) managed to get the remaining two walls up:

Yay for walls!

Tomorrow we hope to get started on the roof rafters if the wind feels like cooperating.

And I just have to share part of the lovely mess that greeted me in my closet this morning:

We have a pull-down attic door in the closet that apparently the wind blew on enough to drop a bunch of insulation everywhere (it's also all over the floor, which is easier to clean up than all over my clothes). And speaking of cleaning up, I haven't done that yet, so I'd better go get busy. Ugh -- the joys of remodeling.

Be Our Guest

One thing my girls are not is shy. (This applies to Hannah in particular.) They will talk to (and often climb/jump on) anybody, anywhere and be your instant friend. Sometimes this is a good thing -- other times it is enough to make a mother either nervous, worried or slightly embarrassed. (On the other hand, McKay is the total opposite -- it can be like pulling teeth to get him to speak a word to someone.)

But, for the most part, instant friends are a good thing. So it is when anyone comes to visit us -- instant friend! And even better when that friend happens to be a member of the family. We were all most excited to have Grandpa and Uncle Randy come to stay with us for a bit while they helped with our roof project. They arrived in the early morning hours so they were not up yet when the kids left for school. When the kids got home later that first day, Hannah was in tears that I wouldn't let her climb up on the roof to talk to Randy. Lots of tears. (Oh, the drama in the life of an 8-year-old!)

When Uncle Randy finally climbed down from the roof and the kids finally got to say "Hi" and give hugs, Randy told them to draw a picture of him. I have to share their drawings!

Here is Hayley's picture of her and Randy:



Courtney's picture:


And Hannah's picture (I'm not sure, but I think Randy gave her the idea for this one...)



So if you're ever in the neighborhood, please feel free to drop by! There will no shortage of smiles and hugs and chattering and even portraits drawn just for you!

Workin' in the Wind

I suppose when you're building a new roof, wind would be a more desirable weather element than rain to deal with. Yet, it has been SO windy a couple of days this week (today and Thursday) that it is just too dangerous to be up on the roof, so there has been no work done at all. I think the weather forecast reported 30-35 mph winds. (Still, if it was raining, things would be getting wet and damaged, so I'm glad we only have wind and not rain to deal with...)

Yesterday, the weather was perfect, but the work has been slow-going (of course) because there are so many wires and ducts and plumbing stuff that has to be in place before the floor can go down and then the walls can go up. They were hoping to start putting the floor down today, but had to quit working because of the wind.

A few pictures to keep you updated...

Brian and his dad working on the wiring:


Brian's brother and dad putting in a heating/ac vent:


More wires -- and if you know Brian you are not surprised at all to see him neatly tying all the wires together... I love my husband :-)


Saturday morning up on the roof -- Brian's sister Julie came over for a short visit (from Dallas) and McKay (of course) is also up there helping:


McKay took his kite up onto the roof, but it was too windy even for that to work well:


McKay coming down the ladder with his kite and his toolbelt. He loves being in the middle of all the action -- and hopefully he is learning some things too!


Maybe one of the things he is learnig is how not to make holes in the ceiling. He had his turn this morning. He was kneeling on some of the rafters when his knee slipped off and came through the ceiling in the closet of our office. Maybe I should start taking bets as to how many holes we will have to patch in the ceiling before this project is finished.

I tried to get a picture showing how windy it is and this is the best I could do -- these are the old heating ducts that were pulled out and put in our fenced dog run. The wind has blown them up against the fence -- and they would be long gone down the hill if the fence wasn't there!

I'm a little sad that we've had to cancel our Spring Break trip to San Diego and Disneyland because of the slow progress on the roof. We were thinking we would leave next Friday afternoon, but the roof is just not going to be at the point where we could leave by then. Oh well -- we will just have to reschedule for another time!

What Hearts are For

Ever since I heard this song by Collin Raye, I have wanted to find some pictures to put with it. The kids were listening to it again the other day, so I thought "I'm finally going to sit down and do it" -- and I did!

Risky Business

Just a few days into our remodeling project and it's already turning out to be pretty risky business. I just hope this isn't a sign of things to come...

So this morning the men folk were working on the roof (moving wiring, cleaning up insulation and starting to add the subfloor) and I was back in our bedroom when all of a sudden I heard a tremendous crash. I went to investigate and found Brian standing a little dazed in his office.


Me: Did you do that?

Brian: Yeah.

Me: Did you fall all the way through?

Brian: Yeah.

Me: Are you okay??!

Brian: Yeah.

(He did have several scratches on his hands and forearms, but other than that really seems to okay, thankfully.)

My understanding of what happened is that he was up on the roof standing on a piece of plywood that had been set down to provide some temporary flooring. The plywood slipped off one of the support beams, causing Brian to lose his balance and footing and slide off the board and down through the ceiling. In this picture you can see the tipped board to the left of Brian (just behind the black vent).


He said he was able to hang on briefly with one hand to one of the support beams, before dropping down to the floor of the office (10 foot ceilings!!). Fortunately, there was a spot there on the floor for him where he didn't have to land on top of a desk, computer or printer (although they got plenty of "stuff" dropped on them). What a mess, but I am just so thankful he was not hurt badly. It could have been so much worse.

Later this evening he and his dad were able to get the hole temporarily patched up. For now at least.



Here is another picture of his brother Randy working up on the roof this morning. Randy said he will also be glad when the subfloor is up, and I don't blame him!


If you know any of Brian's stories, you might agree with me that he must be the boy with nine lives. I just hope he hasn't used all of them up by now!

Let the Remodeling Begin

We've made a big first step in our house remodeling project this weekend -- and there's no turning back!

As many of you know, when we bought this house we knew it wasn't quite big enough for our family, especially since we had to use one of the three bedrooms for Brian's office. That left all four kids in one bedroom, which has worked okay for the most part, but is definitely not something we wanted long-term.

So we've been thinking and planning and sketching all these months. And then the opportunity came up for Brian's dad and one of his brothers (Randy) to come and help us get started. We couldn't let their great talents go to waste, so here we go!

Our plan is to add a second level over the garage and office -- it will have 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small common/game room.

First step -- tear off the roof!

Brian's dad and brother arrived late Thursday night. On Friday we brought a couple of extra workers up from the apartments and got started with the demolition.

Here's the "before" picture:

First the shingles come off...

... and then the plywood...

(That's McKay up there helping on Saturday morning, when the weather decided to turn quite a bit colder and the wind decided to start blowing.)

It didn't take long before the whole roof was history.

And hopefully it won't take much longer before the new roof is up (at least before it rains!). I'm sure all the inside work will take much, much longer to complete but that's not as much of a hurry as getting a roof back up.

Our yard (and part of my house) are covered in insulation that the wind loves to blow all over. The weather outlook is good for this week -- we're crossing our fingers that doesn't change!

Discoveries

Some happy discoveries today while doing one of my not-so-happy chores of mopping floors.

Patterns on the tile...

Little friends...

And their cute "mommy"...

And while mopping is definitely not at the top of my favorite-things-to-do list, the end result makes me happy too...

... even if it only lasts for an hour or two. :-)