Little Bits

Nothing major is happening around here. I'm enjoying the slightly slower pace of January and February for us.

We did respite for a friend's foster son this weekend. ("Respite" in the foster world basically just means extended babysitting.)  He's a sweetheart!

Matthew is working hard at soccer.  His team has moved up to a more advanced division, and they got their first win this weekend!  They've also started doing yoga at the end of practice sometimes.

blue arrow pointed to Matthew

This was a team meeting after a loss to a tough team.  I moved away quickly to not be a distraction, but the part of the conversation I heard was something like, "Coach, that kid could kick so far!"  And coach's response, "Ok, what can we do to be better prepared for that next time?"  I love it!

A group of Micah's friends talked him into going to the Winter Formal at school, including dinner beforehand and a party afterward.  It's not exactly his "cup of tea", but I'm glad he has friends that push him out of his comfort zone.

New Year

 Due to illness, our plans for New Year's Eve were cancelled.  Since we were staying home, Hannah came up with the idea of having a cupcake baking contest - Hannah and Micah verses Mom and Matthew (Scott was the judge). Both teams picked the judge's favorite flavors, but took very different approaches.

Matthew and I went with funfetti from a box mix with canned icing.  Simple, Scott's favorite, and easy to complete. 

We put a sprinkle surprise in the middle.

Micah and Hannah went with a complicated chocolate-peanut butter concoction that dirtied a million dishes and used 75 ingredients.

We were judged on both presentation and taste.  In the end, Micah and Hannah won by a point, but since Matthew and I had a fraction of the clean-up, we felt like the real winners.

Micah and Hannah also provided quite a bit of entertainment.  In the spirit of competition, I refused to give them any help, so some of their techniques were....questionable.

Video

I took Micah and Hannah skiing at the end of their break (Matthew had to go back to school a few days before them).  Although I sometimes mock skiing in Ohio, it's actually some of my favorite skiing.  We parked ten steps from the rental center, had no lines to wait in, and had plenty of space for storing our stuff and taking breaks.  It was a little icy in the morning and slushy in the afternoon, but the temperature was lovely.  And we even saw some sunshine!

Micah skiing backward (and losing at tag).

They grumble about taking chair lift selfies with me, but they don't have a choice since I buy their tickets.

You would never see this many empty cubbies in any resort in New Hampshire!

I finally went to one of Micah's indoor games, so here's his blurry picture.

That same weekend, Hannah had one of her best games ever! The game ended in a 4-4 tie, but Hannah scored TWO of her team's four goals!! She also got nailed hard with the ball twice in the body (and kept playing) and once in the face (had to come out for that one).

This weekend Matthew's team played an indoor tournament.  They had two close losses and a tie.  They played really well, and every game was tight and fast-paced.  Matthew is still working to get back into soccer shape after football season.  He didn't play much in the first game, played a little more in the second, and looked fantastic with a lot more minutes in the third.

Matthew has the white headband

The Addition - Basement

Part 3 of 3

Our basement has an annex off of it that we refer to as "the storage hallway".  

If you're thinking "Wow, that's a lot of stuff to have to move somewhere else in the house for six months of construction," you are correct. (And I had already moved a few big things before I took the picture.)

The first door they cut was for Scott's office.

The second door, at the very end of the hallway, was for an additional storage area.

Looking in Scott's doorway, this is his new office area.  Beyond the framed wall is the new storage area.

View from the second doorway to the new storage area

Scott's office with drywall

Apparently I didn't take any more in-progress pictures of his office. So here's the finished product!

egress window

Video Tour

Finished storage hallway

new finished storage area

Now that you've seen everything stored in my basement, and you're ready to stage an intervention for my hoarding tendencies, I'd just like to say that - 

1. Yes, if I think we might use something again, I'll probably keep it.

2. SO many of the bins are hand-me-downs or off-season items, like clothes being passed from Micah to Matthew, shoes, boots, cleats and spikes, snow pants and coats, etc.

3. We are prepared to care for a child of any age at any time.  Items for babies and toddlers are probably a third of what's down there - clothes for ages 0-2, bottles, toys, bedding, pack'n'play, bouncy seat, play mat, etc.  All that baby gear takes up a lot of space!

4. Let's just pretend there are not multiple bins of dress-up and Halloween costumes and picture frames...

The Addition - Main Floor

 (Part 2 of 3)

Here is the inside view of the work that was done on the main floor.  

view from the existing bathroom window

That existing bathroom window would eventually be replaced with a door, so the bathroom can be accessed both from the guest room and from the mud room.

view from temporary access door

End of August - electrical, insulation, and drywall

bathroom window becomes a doorway

sheetrock

mid-September - Scott and I did some painting and priming before the floors went in.

And we got a door on the bathroom (which made things a lot less awkward).

Somewhere around this point, Scott let the contractors know that my parents were coming to visit in early October, and we expected them to have a room to sleep in by then.  There's a bit of a gap in pictures here - I did a day trip to IKEA in Pittsburgh to get furniture, then I had my Suite Retreat weekend, then I chaperoned Hannah's Camp Fitch trip.  But by the time my parents got here, they had a room to sleep in.  (They just had to assemble their bed.)

After Gramme and Poppa's visit, we threw in a little plot twist.  Micah has had a great attitude about sharing a room with Matthew for many years, despite their 5-year age difference and conflicting preferences.  We surprised Micah with the news that the guest room would actually be his room, provided he keeps it clean and sleeps upstairs when we have company.  Micah was quite pleased with the arrangement.

Over the past few months he has assembled furniture, installed a closet organizer (with help), and moved in.

What used to be the guest room is now an extension of the mud room. They removed the wall and door frame to open up the space.  They also added a big closet to replace the closet we sacrificed for the bathroom (you'll see below).

A lot of this work happened in the same time frame as the main room.  So, again, there's a lack of pictures of progress.  We'll just jump to the finish!

This is a few steps back into the existing mud room so you can see how it's all open now.

I'm assuming it's obvious, but just to be clear - I absolutely cleaned up and staged these photographs.  There's no way everything would be off the floor and put away neatly on a normal day.

I spent a long time planning this area.  I ended up going with four IKEA bookshelves, and I love how it turned out!

Mud room video

But wait, there's more!  The last part of the project to be completed was the bathroom.  I don't have any pictures of the existing bathroom; you can trust me that it looks a lot better now.  We eliminated the guest room closet (red X), the cleaning closet from the mud room (yellow X), and a small linen closet in the bathroom (not pictured) and added their square footage to the bathroom.

used to be closets - now part of the bathroom

This shot gives you a good idea of what the bathroom used to look like. To the right of the pole was a stand-up shower.  To the left was the linen closet.

There's a lot more space back there now!

which means more floor space and a bigger shower

This picture was November 1st.

But now it is complete!

panoramic view to fit it all in one shot