Flag Football

Not great pictures... I will try again at the next game

Paint, Fireplace, Stairway

Here is the front of the house now that it is all painted. We still need to pick a front door color, closer to move in time.
The begining of the fireplace mantel... I will finally be able to hang stockings....
Real stairs. I guess the newel posts were pretty involved because of the angles at the top of the stairway, and that's why it's taking forever. However, the carpenter is pretty particular, so we know it's done correctly. Eventually there will be wrought iron spindles and the wood will be stained to match the darkest part of the floor.

Mmmm.....paint will eventually go on the walls sometime next week. I feel like I say that every post..... Move in date around the 3rd weekend of October... no one hold their breath...


P.S. Cute story...
On the way home from football practice tonight the boys were talking about cars because we saw a Toyota Supra like Howie had at Giant Eagle.

M said to me " Mom, when I'm 16, if I'm not married, can I get my driver's license? "

..... Lets hope the drivers license comes before the marriage license!

Countertops and Paint

Countertops went in today. They look all black in the pictures, but they are really speckled with a couple shades of brown. Here's half the wet bar, above.

Whole kitchen. Obviously no trim on the cabinet backside yet.
Facing out toward the fireplace. The dishwasher will go to the left of the sink where that hole is. ( Or it makes a great pass through for E., if she has anything to say about it ).
Outside painting today too. Mostly just primed, but the rest will go up tomorrow.

Landscaping and Hydroseed

Minor Updates

This week has been all about trim work. Trim on the garage doors, molding on the house, doors in, etc. Above are the french doors that will close the den from the great room, and the cabiniets in the wet bar. The picture below is from the opposite side, looking into the den. There is a peek of the mini fridge there on the left. This wide trim at the baseboard is what is taking up a lot of time.

Here is Howie's runway/ basketball court, freshly poured on Friday.

That's pretty much it. They will paint and put counter tops in this week,also work on the fireplace mantel and stair railing.

Football Injuries

Poor H. Flag football has started. Notice I said Flag football, as in no tackling? Therefore theoretically no injuries?

Wednesday H's nose and mouth hit some other kids forehead pretty hard. ( This just a week after H's front tooth hit his friend Justin's forehead and Justin had to get the cut dermabonded ). His nose was swollen, his lip bloody, and no he didn't have his mouthguard in like he was supposed to. We got home that night, gave him some Motrin, and off to bed he went. At 12:30 he woke me up with an upset stomach and trouble breathing. I, in my infinite nursing wisdom, told him that he had probably swallowed some blood, and that his nose was swollen, making it hard to breath and to go back to bed. At 1:30 he woke us up again. Howie checked him out and called me down. H's back, chest and face were covered in half dollar size hives. Big, swollen, nasty hives. He was also wheezing. We gave him 50mg of Benadryl and an Albuterol treatment, at the same time racking our brains as to what the H*** would cause this. Not the Motrin, no sign of a bug bite, no change in detergent....and then I remembered the huge plate of popcorn shrimp he had for dinner. H has never had shrimp, but M could eat them by the bucketful. Cocktail shrimp, shrimp dip, but he especially LOVES popcorn shrimp. That enticed H to try them the othernight, and lo and behold, it's probably the only plateful he'll ever have. Bummer.

P.S. We had him checked out by the peds on Thursday. No broken nose, no loose teeth, but now we have to avoid Red Lobster and carry an epi-pen everywhere!

Tiny Dancer

E started a 3 and 4 year old ballet and tap class at the YMCA/JCC. I thought maybe she was too young, but boy she doesn't. Our second class was this morning and it's all she can talk about. This is a picture of her doing a "pizza", which is first position, she can also "open the window" which is a 3 year old attempt at a plie' . Tap starts in 3 weeks, but she wears her tap shoes around the house nonstop.

First day of preschool. No love lost as mom walked out the door. She couldn't say goodbye fast enough!! Today she got to play outside and have popsicles with her new friends. What more is there in life?

Kitchen with all the cupboards.
Computer desk. More trim and paint next week. Gas line went in today, sprinkler next week too.