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.

Just keep racking, racking , racking...

I thought I would do a quick update on our current house renovation: installing wood floors. 

 

When we purchased our home in October of 2012, we knew there were improvements we wanted to make, but we made the choice to wait one year to do anything (except paint).  The main driving force was financial (we don't borrow money), but secondly we wanted to live in the space and see how we would use it.  Some things that I initially didn't like, I wouldn't dream of changing now (like our brick fireplace), and some things I thought would be a big priority (like adding a full bathroom to the master bedroom) don't seem to be a big deal now. 

Anyway, we stayed true to our commitment of waiting a year. Improvements we've made in the last year include adding recessed lighting on the main level and widening a doorway between the kitchen and dining room.  The recessed lighting has made a huge difference and I love it. Before all we had was one ugly ceiling fan for overhead lighting.  The widened doorway is technically not finished yet (waiting for trim), but I'm sure I'll have pictures of that when I get an "after" of the floors.

 

For now, we work on the floors, and work on the floors.  I said right away this would be a quick post.  We are currently in the throws of installing the flooring, and I've got to get to work.  We got the kids a movie tonight and hoped to get the living room finished.  But, alas there's probably about two hours left of work to do and the kids HAD to  go to bed.

 

But, here's a progress shot from last night.  Matt started Saturday morning, and we worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. The type of wood is quarter-sawn white oak.  It's gorgeous and the same type of wood as we currently have in our foyer, only it's parquet.  It is unfinished, but this is  because we are going to sand and restain the foyer and make everything a uniform color.

 

 

Here's a close-up of the grain. 

 

 



 I love that it's not as "oaky" as regular oak, if oaky is a word. I don't want to over-spiritualize things, but I also see this flooring as another blessing from God. We were very patient when choosing what type of wood, where to buy it from, what width boards, what color, on and on. Then Dakota Floors in Brandon, SD had this in their warehouse and wanted to move it out. It is exactly the board widths we wanted, (both two and three inch), AND exactly the type of wood that would work best in our home.  AND but because they were moving it out we got it at contractor's price. It was far less, albeit it is unfinished, that anything else we looked at.  Our final estimate for everything (wood, supplies, and finishing), was $50 less than the modest budget we had originally set.  In the scheme of all that's going on in the world, it seems like floors schmoors.  But, I continue to find these small gifts from Him and I want to have a heart of gratitude...so, Praise God!

 

Here it is this morning. 

 

You can see that we had to move all the boards to the other side of the room and that we racked out a few more rows to be nailed. We are literally laying this floor board by board. Every board has to be just the right size. We learned a lot about seams-mainly you don't want them close or in a pattern-but I still may grab five or so boards before I find one that works. Matt is obviously better at this than me and so it may take him less time. Those rows you see that are racked (I think there are six) took us one hour.

So, progress is s.l.o.w.  However it's coming along.  It's not moving faster with me at the computer, so I better go rack it out, and if all goes well the living room will be fully installed tomorrow morning!  Woot!

Back at it & Nathan goes to school: A lesson in trust.

So...It's been over a year since I've written here.  It's funny how a year goes by.  It's okay, I don't think anyone has missed this blog and the last thing the world needs right now is another blog.  But, I've decided that this year, I'd like to give it another try.  Perhaps I  need it.  I've had many hard times through the past year-and-a-half since my mom passed away and so many moments I don't want to relive.  However, God has been showing me His mercy and goodness.  By faith I continue to move forward.  Though the brokenness of this world and the affects of sin are more real to me now, so is the truth that Jesus is Victor and redemption wins out.

We continue to live life.  This year will be unique for us.  Nathan has entered the public school system (eeks) as a second grader while Ella will continue to do school at home as a first grader.  Addie will have a more structured school year, at home, as she will be five in October.  Ella and Addie are also doing Classical Conversations.  It's a classical Christian homeschool group that meets once per week, but will also dictate much of our school work the other days.  I will post more about that as we begin our meetings and school work in September.  But, it feels we are jumping with both feet into two pools, and I'm eager to see how this year will shape and mold decisions we make regarding education in the future.

 

We are also starting some more serious home renovations.  I want to post those too.  To remember our progress and see how we've improved our home.  Hopefully it won't be all that's improved this year.

This time, I focus on Nathan.  We decided to have him repeat second grade since he has a summer birthday.  He is also going to an accelerated school, so he will be able to work at the appropriate math and reading levels, and not just be confined to "second grade" work.  This was the main reason we felt good about holding him back.  Academically he could definitely move on, but we saw it as wise to let him grow and mature another year.  Another year at home with Nathan seemed like an advantage too.  Our kids are young yet, but I'm in no means excited to have them graduated and gone!  (Ask me again in 10 years though:)  Here he is on his first day of school.  A little nervous, but totally excited!

 (2 for second grade)

 

The first week has gone well for Nathan. He is a rock star and has mainly adjusted with no issues. The only issue Matt and I have had is with his personal choices for reading material. I would like to write that Nathan naturally gravitates towards poetry and all the classic children's literature out there...but that would be a lie. Most of his reading time was spent with Captain Underpants. I'm sure lots of kids read it and love it, but it just didn't seem like a productive way for Nathan to spend his time and fill his mind. He since is making better choices :)

 

Here he is with a couple classmates waiting for the bell to ring.

 

 

The week may have been more challenging for me. I hated giving up all that control to a lady I'd never met before. All of sudden someone else was choosing his curriculum and spending the day with him. I just wanted to tell her, "This is Nathan, and he's really special so take extra good care of him. Get to know him, he's wonderful!" But praise God for peace and a willingness to trust Him, (and self-control so I didn't look like a crazy lady).   He has led us down this path and He is good.

Look at all those kids though.  Nathan's class has 27 students!  Way too many for my comfort level (trust, breathe, it's going to be okay).  His teacher, Mrs. Ivey is at the head of the line and admittedly doing a fine job so far.

 

I've also seen lots of good things happening this week.  Matt and Nathan eat breakfast together and do a devotional every morning.  Nathan even gets to ride in the truck, something much coveted for all the kids.  We also spend more time intentionally praying for him, and the girls look forward to picking him up.  I'm sure that as the year goes on (and even now) I could make a list of negatives, but we'll deal with them as they arise and continue to humbly bring them to the Lord.  Praise God He is leading this adventure!

Project :: FarmHouse Table.

 It's done!
 

Since moving into our home last Fall, we knew that we would need a new dining room table.  Our IKEA table has been great...but, we bought it 9 years ago when it was just the two of us, and it was starting to feel small (okay, it was also starting to feel a little wobbly, and it bothered me that any of our 3 elder children could move the table without much effort).

 

I wanted something bigger.  Something heavier.  Something our children would always have fond memories of and eventually fight over when we die.

 

So, we priced tables online and at "furniture stores"...ouch.  Then we went to our favorite standby for furniture, the World Market.  We found nice, affordable tables (they were having a sale), but here we learned about Matt's expectations.  Anything with a softer wood was out of the question because it would scratch easily (we do have 4 kids), and the table we like the most and almost purchased eventually got vetoed because it had a wood veneer on the top.  I was OK with it because to me it looked like a beautiful table, but to Matt it was too much money to spend on such.

 

So, onto plan B...What do you do when you can't find something affordable of the quality you want?
 

You make it yourself!
 

My awesome husband Matt (whose wood working experience consists of  high school shop class) took over and signed up for a Community Ed class for wood working.  He also purchased some rough cut walnut from a local professional wood worker who was a friend of a friend. 
 

It took him a loooong time, working from January through July. The class was 9 weeks and he come home with the top put together minus the bread boards, and everything else planed, sanded, and measured and cut...but not put together.  So, he had to find time at home to work on it.  It was an hour here and an hour there working in the unfinished basement.  4 months later it was complete.
 

Here it is:

 

 

The design is simple, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.  Matt is fairly pleased as well, but being a perfectionist about his work, he still gets bothered by little flaws (that only he notices).

 

The photos don't do it justice, but you get the general idea of the character of the wood.

(and this will look so much better when we don't have our dirty old carpet anymore)



 

Here is a leg to show more of the deliciousness of the wood.  It's not stained, we really just wanted the natural beauty of the wood to shine.

 



 

This photo makes it look a little lighter than it is, but you can see the variations in the wood.



 

I'm sure Matt could write a manual about what to do/ what not to do.  This was his baby.  I however did not have much involvement in the workings, except through encouragement and sometimes keeping my mouth shut! 
 

Matt did look at some designs online, and then just made up his own plan(which is how Matt does most projects, all successfully so far).  He also got advice from the same woodworker he bought the wood from.  He was a great resource (His name is Matt Zimbelman, but they recently moved out of the area, so I can't even plug his business anymore).  Matt also knows the exact dimensions; I know that it comfortably seats 8.
 

  I don't know the exact cost anymore, but the class was around $120, and the wood and supplies were around $400.  So, it turned out not to be cheaper than a World Market table (on sale), but the quality of the wood is better and the literal blood, sweat, and tears that went into this table make it priceless!

Now for some chairs...