Woot! The floors are done....and yet still not really done.

I previously posted how Matt had laboriously installed our new hardwood flooring through out the dining and living rooms on the main floor (here and here).  As planned Dakota Floors came out last week to sand and stain them-what we thought would be the final step.  Well, they are mostly done...but I'll get to that later.

For now, let's focus on the positive.  I'm very satisfied with the way the floors turned out!

 

Here is the before shot of the entry way.  Not a lot of work was done in here by us, but we had them professionally sanded and restained.

 

Here is the entry way now. 

 

 

It's a little bit of a "wah-, wah".  However it does look different, even if not drastically so.  It's richer and warmer and not quite so orange.  We did go into this project assuming the entry was white oak (like the wood we purchased), but found out from the guy who finished them that it is actually a mix of red and white oak.  You can definitely tell how the different woods took the color differently.  If I could change it, I would probably prefer it to be all white oak, but I also like it the way that it is.

Moving on to the dining room:

(I decided to go way back for a before shot.)

 



This is why it's good to take photos!  I forgot that we used to just have a folding table in here.  It was where we did school and other art projects.  So, thankful that Matt built us a dining table to eat at!  The above photo also gives a nice appreciation for the 80's carpet and ceiling fan.

And Dining room now:

 



 

This room is all white oak stained walnut.  It's exactly the color I wanted and it looks fabulous with our pre-existing wood features.  This isn't really an "after" shot because we do still need to put up the new baseboards, and I have a few dream projects for this room (can I get a second for a barn door and some built-ins?)  But, I'm guessing those are on like the "C" list if we are prioritizing...

 

Here is the living room before:

 

 Again, it's nice to look back.  This is not at all how the furniture has been arranged for over a year, and we have since taken down the outdated (though quality if I do say) curtains and the broken halogen floor lamp in the corner. Ooh, and do I see a little Vietnamese wall art...

 

And, here is the living room now. 

 

 

With the rooms being empty they look pretty much the same...except one is next to the stairs and one has a chandelier. :)

 

Last but not least, I thought I would show how the floors look where the entry meets the living/dining rooms.

 

And yes, that brings us to the annoyance factor of the "final" stage of this project, and the fact that they are not really finished.  (The real "wah-wah" moment.)  Turns out that putting in the transition pieces was not on the finishers work order.  There was some sort of miscommunication that led us to assume they were putting them in, and them to assume that we were doing them.  We didn't find out he wasn't doing them until the end of day 1 after everything had been sanded.

Now, Matt has to try to construct some pieces to fit, sand and stain them, then nail them in place.  Then put in wood filler over the nails and restain over the wood filler.  The process would have made a whole lot more sense if they could have been sanded and stained with the rest of the floor! And we would be DONE and not have to look at a quarter-inch gap between the floors and Matt wouldnd't have to spend his free time working on them....AND, AND, AND. 

But...I live a ridiculously blessed life, and complaining about such trivial matters seems, well trivial. 

I pray that we don't just strive to make this house more beautiful for the vanity of it.  Let's face it, we can pump a lot of money into this house to make it look good, and in a few decades it will look not good.  So, I pray our home may be blessing to our family and all those who enter; and even as we slowly change many surfaces in our home, may our hearts be filled with gratitude and contentment.

 



Unabashed.

Unabashed Love.

 

 

This is the excitement that Matt is greeted with most days. 

It comes in different forms: hugs, tackles, "work dances", but always excitement.

It is rare that I'm the one gone all day, but when it happens I do not get greeted with this level of intensity.  I'm okay with that.  In fact I'm very thankful for the love and respect that God has instilled in these children for their father.  I think that it is His gift; a special bond between a father and his children.  May my love for my Father God be so overflowing and evident.

Thank you Matt for being a wonderful husband and father...and for modeling the love of the Father for us all- I could not ask for more!

Tiny Dancers.

Ella's middle name is Grace, and it fits her well.  She loves to be ladylike and act mature (though she can also be very silly).  She loves to dance and for a very long time she has wanted to take ballet lessons.  She loves the idea of gracefully dancing and twirling around, all while wearing a fancy outfit of course.

 

Well, I don't how long it will last, but I we did decide to let both the girls take ballet lessons.   They were both so excited about it, and did a huge happy dance when I told them the news.

 

Here they are the day of their first lesson!

 

 

They are both enrolled in Kindermovement, which is ballet basics for ages 5-7.  Adeline is not quite five, but since she is close and has a big sister in the class they let her join.  The uniform for their class is pink leotard, pink tights, and pink ballet flats...pinkalicious!

 

 

I knew Ella was going to love it.  Evelyn and I get to observe the class through a window.  I can see the pride and joy on her face during class time.

 

I wasn't as sure about Addie.  She seems like more of a gymnast to me, but I thought this would be good for her too.  I wanted something that would promote structure, form, and body awareness as well as self-control. 

Her movements are definitely not as fluid.  It was hard for me to tell if she was enjoying class, or just bored to be standing there pointing her toes and holding out her arms.

 



 

However, she loved it!

They are both very happy.  It also works out very well in our schedule.  It is a homeschooling class so they have it earlier in the afternoon.  They get done at 2:15, perfect timing for us to go pick up Nathan at 2:45.  It is also taught by a homeschool graduate.  She talks about dancing for the glory of God, and they pray before class.

 

 

Here are the ballerinas in action!

(They are fourth and fifth from the left.)



Woot, the floors are done...but not done.

The floors are doooooooone!!!

OK, by done I mean completely unfinished, but every bit of our work concerning the floors is over.  It only took three weeks (sigh) but Matt did an outstanding job and they are installed, swept, and ready to be sanded and finished!  Woot! 

The main reasons it took so long is 1. Matt is a perfectionist when it comes to his own work, B. Matt has never done this before, and III. We (Matt) only worked on Saturdays and evenings.  Not too bad considering this past week Fall activities started up again and we were busy almost every night.

 

So, Saturday Matt put in a full day starting about 10:00 a.m. and finishing a little before 7:00 p.m.

Of course, it's good if you have a little helper. 

Addie would work beside Matt with blocks and paper she pretended were her hammer and wood. She even had a children's Bible out and would "read" Matt the instructions for what to do next.

 

And speaking of helpers, I need to also give a shout out to our friend Jim Koch!

Jim is a servant and loves to work with his hands.  He showed up announced last Saturday and helped Matt with the floors for a few hours.

 

Here you can also see the floor nailer in action.

 

 

 

 Ironically it saved us a ton of money to buy one ourselves.  I would have to fact check with Matt, but it seems the rental fee was about half the price of buying a new one and you only got the nailer for a week.  We considered this option going into the project when we were naive and thought maybe this was a week long project.  So...we just would've been stressed out and frustrated about the situation, and we're glad we have one now.  Matt hasn't specifically mentioned putting up wood floors in the upstairs, but I'm sure he's thinking about it! 



So, (drum roll) here is the living room:

(This was obviously taken before we removed a couple of pieces of furniture but you get the idea.)

 



 

And the dining room:

 

 (in case you don't have litte girls at home, these two rooms are now basically dance halls)

 

I should have taken a shot of the rooms with the 1980's carpet for comparison sake, but I do think I have one in the archives and will have to find it for a true before and after shot when everything is all said and done.

 

Like I said, now they are ready to be sanded and stained.   We are going with an oil finish and opposed to a regular polyurethane finish.  This basically means the final look will be matte and not shiny and it will hide dents and scratches all lot better as time goes on.  The negative is that you have to put a special treatment over it once a month.  However, it only needs to go in the higher traffic areas (no moving furniture), and it dries within a few minutes.  So, really it shouldn't be any different than cleaning your floor.  We also checked the price of the solution, and it was very reasonable. 

 

That being said, here are the color choices we narrowed it down to:

Top left is antique, bottom left is walnut, and the right side is 75% walnut 25% black.

 

 

 It's hard to get a true to life color in a photo, but we definitely want something warm and yummy (which made me just think of a cinnamon roll...they're warm and yummy).  So, although in the photos I like the 25% black option, in real life it was a little too black so we are going with walnut.

 

Finally, here is our foyer.

 



We didn't do anything in here except the prep work of removing furniture and trim work, but they will also be sanding and staining these as well.  We debated forever about whether or not we should rip it all out, but it is in such good shape it seemed like a waste.  As a side note, it also would have been a lot of work since it is all nailed and glued down.

So, the color of this will be changing so all the wood flooring is uniform in color.  That was important to me since this floor has a lot of pattern going on and I didn't want wonky floors happening all over.  The final color won't be drastically different, but similar to the door that you see in the back of the photo.

 That's all!

We will have a crazy week of just staying out of our house for the next three to four days.  But, hey if I have to eat out a lot and hang out with friends for the sake of a house project I'm willing to do what I gotta do!

(Home)School's in Session!

With Nathan going to school it honestly felt a little strange for the rest of us to not be doing school.  The weather was beautiful that week (he started August 18), so we did a lot of playing at parks and bike rides, but.....we missed him terribly!  Ella especially didn't know what to do with herself, and I was even having a little guilt that we were enjoying ourselves without him (silly I know...)

But that being said, we ditched our plans of waiting until after Labor Day (when school should start) and began easing into school the week before instead.  We love the care-free summer days. but the girls were excited to get started, so I decided to go with it.

We are now in full force!

 

Ella Grace is a 1st grader.

 

 

So cliche, but it's hard to believe my baby girl is 6!  She is officially school-aged...eeks!

For Ella's first grade curriculum we are continuing to use Heart of Dakota (which Nathan used for 1st grade).  I love it because it is literature based and ties everything from science to history to poetry to art to the Bible together. There are especially many great history readings that I'm looking forward to doing again!
 

Ella is also using a math curriculum called Singapore math (book 1B), and a language arts curriculum called The Logic of English (Foundations  B).  This is our first time ever using LOE, and so far we are really liking it.  Everything is laid out well and it covers not only phonics and reading but also spelling and handwriting.

 

 

A major new thing for us this year is that we also joined Classical Conversations.  It is a classical Christian home school group.  We have a class day every Tuesday, and though we've only had one meeting the girls love it!  We've never done any group, so it's nice to have a day to meet with others, both for the social and fun aspect and for accountability as well.  Using the classical approach Ella and Adeline will primarily be memorizing lots of history, math, science, English, geography, and Latin facts.  They also do a science experiment and art project in class every week, as well as give a presentation (which for Addie could be as simple as show-and-tell).  I shouldn't forget that they are also memorizing the first twelve or so verses in John chapter 1.

The memory work seems like a lot, but thankfully it is on CD so we listen to it in the car when we pick up Nathan from school.  This also works well because I can have Nathan memorize it with us so he's not missing out.  So far so good, but if you see me and I just start singing skip counting songs or history facts, you'll know that we need to take a break and listen to the radio a little!

 

And here is Miss Adeline, age 4, all prepped for pre-school. 

 

 

I've always assumed she would be my most difficult child to home school.  However, she has certainly surprised me so far!  Addie loves to accomplish things and she feels very proud of herself when she learns something new!  Her "schooling" is still pretty relaxed, but besides listening to the CC CD and doing class on Tuesdays, Addie is doing Saxon Math K, handwriting, coloring, puzzles and whatever strikes her fancy.  She enjoys listening to Ella's history for school, (which I love), or she'll play with Evelyn for a bit.  She also just started "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", the same book I went through with Nathan and Ella to teach them how to read.



I love that my girlies can stay home! 

(They love that they can wear dresses and be barefoot all day.)

 

 

 

Smitten.

We went to my oldest sister Brenda's farm a couple of weekends ago to celebrate my nephew's 3rd birthday.

We were last there in June, when they happen to be nursing newborn baby kitties.  Ella was upset then that we didn't come home with a kitty.  Well, they were all still there and accounted for, and Ella was just as smitten with the kitten!

 

Here is Ella with Fig.

(They all had bizarre names, given by my nephews)

Ella and I were walking the other night and she told me she had a secret.  I told her if she wanted to share it with me should could.  She proceeded to tell me that she was "created to live with an animal."  She apparently feels that Matt and I are holding her back!  For a long time she's been asking for a dog (but I think a cat would do).  I'm starting to be persuaded and think we should get something...Matt is definitely a harder sale though!

 



Here is Adeline (and Evelyn) with the same kitty. 

 

 

Anyone who knows Addie knows that this is a miracle.  Until late this summer she was terrified of all animals.  Even on a 4th of July trip to Wisconsin she spent the first three (or was it four) days screaming and crying because there were two dogs there.  Did I mention that these dogs were a spaniel and a bichon mix that probably weighed about 10 pounds soaking wet!?  It was ridiculous and stressful.  I'm so thankful that she is getting over that!

 (She does look a little frighted in this photo, because I think the cat moved in an unexpected way, but in general she was very good).

 

Here is Evs with a kitty, named Garden.

 

 

She too was nervous around all animals until a few weeks ago.  I'm thankful that the terrified of animals phase seems to be on its way out.

 



 This is my beautiful niece Katlyn with the third kitty, Snowflake. 

Katlyn and Ella love Snowflake.  They even brought him (her?) into the house and were singing it songs while rubbing its belly and laying it on a play bed.  The cat totally went for it and was sleeping and purring.

 

This last photo is my "after" shot of Katlyn.  She just wanted to play with the kitties, even if her eyes were swelling shut and completely blood shot.



 

This is also the reason I don't have any photos of Nathan with the cats.  Without even holding them his eyes were all red and itchy.  He doesn't have the inner struggle with wanting to hold the cats however...he really doesn't care about them at all.

Aaah, we still have a dream of someday owning a hobby farm.  The cats there would definitely be outside cats, except when Ella snuck (sneeked?) one inside.  Until then we'll enjoy our visits to my sisters!



grace-full.

We are not a perfect family.

 

There are times when I feel I can't do anything right.  There are times when I think my children are so much naughtier than average children that I want to run outside and scream.  All the "why can't I be more  ______" or "why can't my kids be more _______" will plague my mind if I let them.  I (we) will never be good enough to satisfy whatever it is inside me that desires to be "good" (or at least to look the part).

 

But, isn't this what I'm trying to show my children; We will never be good enough.  We need a Savior.  We all fall short.  We can sit at the throne of perfection and fall on our faces in failure, or we can kneel at the thrown of Jesus and accept his loving, accepting, overflowing grace and fall on our faces in humble adoration and praise.

 

So, because I am so perfectly accepted through Christ in my imperfect state, how much should grace and acceptance flow from me to my imperfect children.  I am blessed to be given the calling of their mother and pray that I can perform this duty in a way that is worthy.

 

That being said, I intended this to just be a brief post with a photo of my kids being cute (and looking good of course).  I do thank you God for those moments in time when I can see you working in their hearts and bringing out each of their best. 

 Here big brother Nathan is reading to his little sisters while I make dinner, a huge blessing to me.  I also love that our dirty old couch is sitting on dirty old carpet with exposed subfloor...our house is also in a state of imperfection.

 

 

Love them.