From Linda:
North point outer shore on the Big Lake (Lake Superior). The day before Owen and Grannie kayaked from south shore, around middle point, through the channel between outer point and the island. On to two more islands and between those on the Big Lake. A little fish was jumping out of the water around the bow of Owen’s kayak. Also saw two loons. Great ride. Owen is stronger than Grannie.
We pulled out two bags of garbage (sooooo much paper and candy wrappers and broken crayons), did about four loads of laundry, and removed two garbage bags of outgrown clothes. I cleaned the carpet TWICE (but alas it will never be clean because Katie loves to play with makeup and dye and markers and God knows what else and it has permanent stains).
She got a new ceiling fan, curtains, and princess netting, plus we finally hung her initials. Tom will eventually build a window seat with bookshelves IF she can keep it picked up. If not, the new rule is “If you don’t keep it picked up, I will remove the things so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Step 1: Demo
Step 2: Floor tiles
Step 3: wall tiles
Step 4: Done! It’s stunning! (Tom painted the brass doors black and put on new wrought iron handles.)
And a before and after — without a real before photo. I didn’t take one so had to hunt through random photos and this was the best I had!
Grannie said they played forever—and Owen eventually had hotels on everything but he just kept giving Katie money so she could keep playing!
Maggie really needed her nails cut and we asked David to do it because he seems to be able to do it really easily (better than we do). She sat patiently while he did then and then just sat and enjoyed the cuddle!
Outer Point in the background where Owen had kayaked.
From Grannie: Heading out on pontoon boat. Going to LacLaBelle. Through lake out to Lake Superior. Bringing sandwiches + for supper
Tom is working on my birch wall while I try to finish the kids’ rooms. I think he has the better end of this deal.
So the way the front walk was laid out really didn’t work for us. Where we park the car on the driveway puts us getting out right in the middle of dirt (there used to be bushes there but we took them out (and replanted them) because they were in the way).
We had hoped to be able to just add on some bricks and adjust the design a little…but of course they don’t make the same bricks anymore. We totally didn’t want to rip everything out but we didn’t have much of a choice.
They worked on it over a few days, so here’s the progression.
July 30 — Demolition and prep day
July 31 — We decided on a raised bed on one side. More money. Plus they told us we really needed to redo the stoop because it was falling. More money. Plus we decided to add some accent bricks and a few in-brick lights. More money. More money. This is how a $1600 project turned into a $3700 project. DAMN HOME OWNERSHIP.
August 1 — the meat of the project!
August 2 — had we given it some more thought, we might have gone with a more squared-off design (and fewer accent bricks) to save some labor costs! But DAMN it looks amazing!
Grannie said that Katie decided this was going to be a gift for one of her friends!
Kati
Maggie sleeps in her room!
Owen got to go out to the raft with Tom last year (he is a strong enough swimmer to go on his own, but Tom went since it was a new experience). So we assured everyone he would be okay to by himself this year, but Katie wanted to go this year, too, so Papa had to join!
We really like the purple door…but it’s actually the wrong shade. When we leave the door open, the bright royal purple really clashes with the dusty plum of the front room. Yes it’s a minor thing but it bothers both of us…so we got our our trusty paint wheel and picked a new color! Stay tuned!
From Grannie: Work and fun in the kitchen. Katie made Papa a pretty plate of raspberries and blueberries. Owen cut the whole watermelon. Then they both cut slices. With lots of laughs and silliness in between.They were safe with knives. I try to be a good Grannie!
Can I just say that if I had asked them to cut a watermelon, I would have gotten eye rolls and attitude all around. Grandparent Camp must be magic.
We decided to try out a new-to-us Mexican restaurant and damn if it wasn’t super delicious! They also had pomegranate margaritas on the menu so of course I had to try that!
So I really REALLY hated to get rid of the rooster I “stole” from our friend Allison but it just doesn’t go with our new decor…so spray paint to the rescue!
Now it will continue to live on and be a reminder of all the great times we had in Virginia! Stay tuned for the final reveal once everything is finished!
…but I’m doing it. All of these boxes (shipping boxes AND random ones that would make great shipping boxes) that I’ve hoarded are being flattened and going to recycling. Please tell me I’m not the only one who hoards boxes.
This meme sums it up perfectly:
They stopped at the deer farm in the U.P. near Brevort.
The kids had such a great time Gramma and Grandpa took them back again!
Don’t get excited thinking I’m showing too much… this is not the final look. This is just one picture of many different options she tried.
To be honest as she was doing it I was liking it, but /skipping a lot of design and redesign/ it ended up waaaaaay too flowery and poofy so I asked her to redo it. Those pics will come later!
I really wasn’t planning on cleaning Katie’s room (even though I desperately wanted to throw every single thing away because she’s really ungrateful). But it happened. I just could not stand this disaster any more. (And moreso because she swears she’s cleaned it and it’s always still a pit.)
We both worked in there for hours. We did all the laundry (at least 4-5 loads—which she had assured us all her laundry was done), picked up all the toys and crap, tossed all the garbage, organized things, and created two boxes of crap for her to go through and sort. If she doesn’t want to, it’s going straight into the garbage. This is her LAST chance. If she can’t keep it remotely picked up, she’s losing things. I hope she’s having fun at grandparent camp because life is changing when she gets home. I told Tom if he ever wanted to be a drill sergeant, now is going to be the time.
And when we moved the nightstand…
Sidenote: I did run across these. Cue ugly cry.
But lest you think we’re just picking on Katie…Owen’s room is getting cleaned out, too. I didn’t move from my initial position (between his desk and the bed) for almost two hours—there was so much crap shoved and crammed in/on/around/behind/under his desk/bed/drawers I wanted to scream. I mean I was duly impressed…but I wanted to scream.
Swim shirt and bathing suit he couldn’t find for weeks? Under the bed. A pack of winter thermal shirts? Desk drawer. Missing laundry bags? Under his bed. All the school notebooks I’d asked him to find that he claimed were gone? Everywhere. Dirty clothes? Everywhere. Candy wrappers? Everywhere.
And of course Katie notes!
I took out two bags of garbage, a bag of recycling, and did four loads of dirty laundry (when he said it was all done) including about six bath towels and 83 socks. I picked up approximately 712 Lego pieces, 128 Pokémon cards, 300 random playing cards and other assorted game pieces, a shoebox of markers/pens/pencils, and about 13 spiral school notebooks that have 2% schoolwork and 98% drawings in them. I steam cleaned the carpet and half-heartedly dusted. Oh, and Tom put up a new ceiling fan!
Life will sure be different for him post-grandparent camp as well.
I realize most of this is par for the course for kids and kids their age but I just. couldn’t. any. longer. I don’t mind a little mess or being unorganized. But both rooms were flat out disgusting.
Stay tuned.
This just in from Grandparent Camp—two of those little dots out there are our kids! They really only get to swim in a lake up north—they are pool babies—so this is a special treat. Katie is freaked out by fish in the water potentially touching her but Gramma Jean says she’s in up to her neck so this is a big deal!
Gramma said later that they were out there for HOURS. Yep, those are my kids!
We absolutely love our bar and it’s totally amazing…but it was missing a few things.
We really wanted footrests—so dad and Linda offered to pay for them as a housewarming gift! Tom installed them today and they are perfection!
And I’ve always wanted a slot machine and long story short we looked at a few (and I adjusted my expectations) and we decided on this one (it’s not crazy noisy)! The kids are going to go crazy! (That isn’t quite the final resting place—Tom will build something.)
More things are coming, too!! I can’t wait!
