House Updates

To all my loyal readers...I apologize for not keeping up with the blogging and house updates!! All I can say is- it's fair season!

Here are some more recent pictures. Things continue to move along at the house. The plumber and electrician have been working their magic inside, while the others have been working hard putting up the siding and new shutters. The chimney has also been fixed (all new bricks). And I believe that they will be putting up the new drywall this week!

Because of the shade from the trees, it's hard to tell, but the shutters are a dark red color called winestone. It compliments the brick color of the front porch.

In other news- Nathan and Sarah have also bought a house. It'll be a race to see who gets to move in first! :)

#1 in Family Fun!!

My cousin Lyle and his family came down for the 4th of July weekend. The weather was somewhat uncooperative with our plans. It rained most of the day Saturday (which my strawberries are very happy about), but it meant that we had to alter our plans just a little. Instead of getting drenched in the rain at Holiday World, we spent Saturday afternoon showing off our construction projects at the house, eating taffy and chocolate at the Candy Castle, and went down to the Lincoln State park to enjoy shell collecting at the lake in between the rain showers. Thankfully, the rain was done and we were able to take in the Holiday World fireworks from the pasture- the perfect view without the crowd - as long as you successfully dodge the cow pies. After the fireworks it was home for bed- where the girls debated over who would get to sleep on which air matress! Somehow little Madilyn ended up with the biggest bed all to herself!

The girls playing pet shop...

Emma really enjoyed playing with Pepper during her visit... Pepper and Emma

It's a rough life for Pepper when company comes. She gets no attention at all.

Madilyn wasn't too sure she wanted to have her picture taken with Nick...

Sunday morning, we headed over to Holiday World for some family fun! This was also my first trip- and I have to say- we all had a great time! First stop- the Bumper Boats!!

Next...it was onto the Scrambler...one of Abby's favorite rides of the day.

Lyle and Madilyn

Nick and Emma

Lyle looks "scrambled" to me!

Then there were these poor people... I think they could fit one more person in their car...don't you think? When the woman in the middle got off, she was limping saying something about her hip...

Abby decided she wanted to try one of the bigger rides- The Raven rollercoaster.

While it most certainly was NOT her favorite ride of the day- we were all so proud of her for giving it a whirl.
Madilyn and Emma weren't quite big enough for the big roller coaster- but enjoyed their ride on the Holidog coaster.

Our favorite rides of the day were the Raging Rapids (which really makes you appreciate dry underwear), and the Scrambler. Madilyn also enjoyed Frightful Falls, a water log ride. When we were done I asked if she liked it... she said "It was scary......Let's do it again!!" So we did!!

We had a great time and hope they'll all come back!

More House Updates

Check out our new deck!!

The new windows are also installed:

The new ducts are also in!

We also have new wiring... so things are moving right along! :)

Renovations- week 2

"Old houses mended,Cost little less than new before they're ended."~Colley Cibber

I know it's been awhile since I've posted to the blog! It's summer and we've been busy!! But here we go...more pictures of the progess at the house.

Old siding is off...new roof is on.

Kitchen addition is framed... (I'm standing about where the table will be)

Kitchen Continued...

Looking through kitchen doorway onto the new master bedroom door.

Master Bedroom- looking into what will be the master bath.

Looking out master bedroom "door" into kitchen and "hall".

Standing in kitchen "hall" looking at master closet.

Movin' on up...

Standing in the upstairs hall looking at what will be a new half bath and the new bedroom addition. The smaller wooden door will open into what used to be attic and is now a small storage closet.

View into the new upstairs additon. This picture doesn't quite show how large that room is... but there'll be plenty of room for whatever I might want to put in there...

View from bedroom addition to upstairs hall.

View from stairs to downstairs hall.

Stay tuned... coming next: back deck and new wiring!

House Update - Week 1

Here's a few pics on the progress at the house!! The crawl space was poured and the new foundation laid, and they framed the new addition, complete with the new roofline! Not bad for the first week!

BEFORE

AFTER

Strawberry Planting

Last Sunday we were finally able to plant the strawberries. It was still a little more moist than what would have been ideal- but beggars can't be choosers!! The entire Held family helped plant the strawberries- even though I woke them up from what I'm sure was a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap!
Nick was the tractor driver, Nancy and I rode the planter, and Nathan and Melvin (bless their hearts) followed behind the planter to make sure the crowns weren't too shallow, weren't too deep, but were just right. Melvin also walked along the planter and helped keep the wheat from clogging the planter.
I'm not exactly sure what happened...but I ended up with closer to 1/2 acre than the 1/4 acre we were shooting for. The row width ended up being a little wider than 4 feet due to the tractor tire width...and we have a few spots with missing plants...but we still had quite a few leftover. I think they may have given me a few extra plants...and it is possible that my math may have been off... but better too many than not enough! Just means I'll be spending a little more time dancing down the rows with my hoe.
Despite the less than ideal planting conditions- I'm happy to report that Mother Nature provided a just in time rain shower to get my plants up and growing and I do believe they are going to grow just fine!!
Strawberry shortcake, anyone?

Girls Day

Today was a much overdue girls day!!

My dear friend Nikki came to visit-we had signed up to run the Relay for Life 5K race in Boonville. It was a great time!

After we got our workout in for the day, we came home and cleaned up. Since we were meeting up with our other friend, Carolyn, later in the afternoon, we had some time to relax. We were just about in the REM cycle of our nap when Pepper alerted us rather abruptly that Nick was home for lunch.

We met Carolyn in Jasper where we stopped at the Doodlbug to stock up on scrapbooking supplies...We've already decided the next Girls Day is going to be a scrapbooking slumber party at Nikki's house! After the Doodlebug, we headed to the Schnitzelbank for a yummy German lunch where we stuffed our faces.

When I got home...Nick and Melvin had worked themselves into the ground getting the strawberry patch ready to plant by rototilling almost 1/2 acre with a walk behind tiller. While I did not want to see that they had worked themselves into the ground....it was the cherry on top of my perfect day to see that we'll be all set for planting berries tomorrow!