Saturday #4

Thursday, Dalton's came and put in the plumbing for the bathroom and kitchen sink.
Unfortunately, the city inspector was on vacation Friday so we couldn't have it approved and poor cement this weekend. My parents and Jameson's parents came up and the guys framed around the stairs (they used furring strips to max. the area), around the ductwork in the bedroom, and put up the one wall in the bathroom that could be done prior to pooring cement.



The ladies weeded the garden, 'brick patio' area, and back flower bed. We also went to a few garage sales, shopped for blinds for the dining room and kitchen, and powerwashed the outside of the house. Here's a picture of our garden. Everything is looking great! (From top left to bottom right) We have a cherry tomato plant, garlic, zuchinni, green beans, onions, green peppers, more green beans, big tomato plants and roma tomoato plant, and italian largo.

In Other News

The basement project is not the only thing happening in our lives (though I think Jameson spends most of his spare time thinking about it). The baby starting kicking hard enough to feel it from the outside last Sunday. I love being about to feel the baby move around throughout the day and it's great for Jameson to be able to feel the movement now.

My last day of school for the year was Friday, June 5. My last week was filled with some emotion as some students that I've had in class for two years will be moving to the high school next year. It's been enjoyable to watch them grow over the last two years and I will miss them next year. Hopefully I will be able to keep in touch with some of them to see where their futures lead them. Thankfully, it wasn't the very end of my teaching career. I'm planning to start teaching next year until the baby comes (6 weeks). Then I will be staying home with our precious boy/girl and am looking foward to being able to stay home with our children. I worked Monday and Tuesday at school to finish grades and clean my classroom. Wednesday and Thursday were my two days of summer vacation until middle of July. I enjoyed some time to relax and time to get house work done and mow the yard.

Tomorrow I'm starting a 5 week 'externship' at an local architecture firm. It's a new program through the Iowa Math and Science Coalition to get teachers 'real-world' experiance through a summer internship that they can bring back and use in their classroom. While I would love to start my summer break now, I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to make some money (to help with the basement projects) and gain a unique experiance during my last summer without child-rearing responsibilities.

Saturday #3

This weekend my parents came up again and Loren also came up to help. Jameson and my dad spent the morning sawing up concrete so a plumber can come and tie in lines for the shower, toilet, bathroom sink, and kichenette sink. My dad then pounded up the cement while Jameson took buckets full upstairs and outside next to the garage, both working themselves to the max.

Loren worked on framing the west bedroom wall around the door between the bedroom and living area.

In the afternoon, all three guys worked on framing the bedroom closet, bathroom closet, and doorway from bedroom to the bathroom. My dad also worked on some electrical.




My mom and I made a Lowe' s run in the morning for bedroom, bathroom, and closet doors, a toilet, and nails. We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon garage saling. I've been getting gender specific clothes because they tend to cuter and friends have told me you want it to be obvious whether you have a boy or girl. I limit my spending by only buying onesies/shirts/pants that are 25 cents a piece and in good condition (maybe 50 cents if it's really cute). Many people try to charge more than that but I've found at least one sale most times I'm out that are trying to get rid of things and not worried about making money. I find baby clothes absolutely adorable so a few dollars serves as a morning full of entertainment for me and I come home with some cute clothes for our little boy/girl. The best buy of the day was a super cute Christmas dress for $2(in case we have a girl).

Saturday #2

Jordan and Joy (and Lydia) came up this weekend to help us get some more work done in the basement. They came Friday night after supper and stayed through Sunday after fellowship lunch at church. Friday evening Jameson and Jordan pounded out the brick above the north doorway while Joy and Lydia and me went on a walk to get away from the noise. Saturday Jameson and Jordan worked on some more framing and replaced the brick by the doorways. They got the rest of the east wall by the doorways framed, went to Lowes and got two doors and framed around one of the doors, and got one more wall in the bedroom framed. By the time they got all that done it was getting late and they were out of lumber, so they called it a day. I wasn't good about getting actions pictures, but here's a couple pictures of what they finished.





I enjoyed spening the day with Joy. We painted the gold colored curtain rods that were left with the house white for the nursery and black our bedroom and the guest bedroom. We also did some planning for our 2nd annual camping trip coming up in two weekends.

Monday we got a new water heater and furnance put in along with some duct work moved. We also purchased more lumber and brought that downstairs, took down the clothesline that was hanging in the basement (by an excesive amount of nails) and decided on a layout for the bathroom (we think).


Here you are standing in the 'bedroom'. The 'doorway' to the bathroom is on the right and the 2x4's represent what will be walls. To help us visualize things, the cabinet is serving as the 'vanity', the laundry cart is the 'toilet', and the flat boards are the 'shower'.

This picture is from the other end. This layout should allow us to put in two doors, so you can access the bathroom from the bedroom or from the laundary / storage room (the 2nd door will between the shower and the water heater).