New Family Member

Not one under this roof, but my sister just had her 3rd baby... a sweet little girl named Sydney. Being the proud Aunt that I am, I must post a picture of this cutie here to share.



That's the second time since I started this blog that she and her husband have reproduced. With her first two kids, she went back to work full time after a few weeks of maternity leave. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the working parents, but I'm looking forward to hearing about my sister's experience this time. She is planning to stay at home for about a year with this one. I think she's as much nervous about it as excited to be full-time Mommy. I'm anxious to hear how she compares the two experiences.

After announcing the news to the kids of their new cousin, Priya wanted to know some details. She rambled, "What does she look like? Is she blonde? I guess so, because Nora is." Sanjay sounded surprised... "Nora's blonde?". Priya said, "Yeah her hair is light". Sanjay was like, "Oh, I thought you meant she couldn't see". Priya and I had a good chuckle at that one.

The Spider Thief

While driving in the car this weekend, Sanjay says, "Daddy, when we get home or sometime soon can you get rid of that spider web in the window?". I knew which one he was talking about because he mentioned it today when I was cleaning all the sawdust off the walls. He meant the one in the window that's about 10 feet off the floor. This one:



My immediate thought is that spider is not really invading Sanjay's space much, so why is he bothered by it? I told Sanjay, "He lives up really high so you don't have to worry about him" to which Sanjay replied, "Yeah, he came down on his web and took the gum from my watch". He was talking about the toy gum-filled watch that he earned from the prize box at piano class last week. Curious, I asked him "How do you know that?". "Priya told me", he said. This boy believes EVERYTHING Priya says... he often turns to her when he doesn't think my answer is correct. I only wish I had seen Priya's face when he shared with us the amazing feat of this lowly house spider. I'm sure it said... B-U-S-T-E-D. She's sneaky, that one.

Priya was promptly made to tell Sanjay the truth about where his gum ended up and then she apologized. Lesson learned? I doubt it. :)

Before and After - Family and Dining Room

We spent our 11th wedding anniversary (Saturday) and Mother's Day (Sunday) laying laminate floor. What better way to celebrate your love for each other than to bicker about whether to put a short piece next to a long, or should we just put a medium one in there?! :) These home projects are definitely some of the more trying times in our marriage. But, we made it through and celebrated with a bottle of wine last night. Bartee claims that he's finished with big projects for a long while, and I don't blame him.





The floors look great and we're left with just a few finishing touches. Here is the final set of Before and After photos... what do you think?

BEFORE






AFTER

Before and After - The Living Room

Last weekend Bartee finished up the laminate floor in the living room and it looks incredible. He worked so hard and did a fabulous job with essentially no help from me. I thought it was probably better for me to keep the kids out of the way, so we tried to leave him alone as much as possible. It turns out that he really needed an extra set of hands, so this weekend when we tackle the Family/Dining Room I'll stick around to help out where I can. We'll try throwing the kids in the back yard with the Bocce Ball game and see how long that lasts. :)

It may appear from my earlier posts that Bartee has become quite the handy man, as I received a couple of comments indicating such. However, I should clear up that we hired a contractor for all the tile work. This is Bartee's first time attempting a flooring project, so we let the contractor work in all the areas that required LOTS of cutting and squeezing into small areas. Getting all that tiled left 2 almost rectangular rooms, ensuring a better chance for success for the amateurs. As it turns out, Bartee is way more capable that I gave him credit for and I must apologize publicly for doubting him. It did take him the full 2 days, but the results are amazing. And, I'm impressed that he's all ready to start again tomorrow morning. It's my job to do the demolition though, so I'd better wrap it up and get down there to tear out the carpet.

Here are the before and after shots of the living room... apologies for having removed the furniture before thinking of grabbing the camera for the "before" shots.

BEFORE






AFTER

Before and After - Tile

Here are some before and after pictures of the tile work...

Guest Bathroom

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Entryway

Before and After - The Deck

We've been thinking of clearing the main level of carpet for a while now. It's just not practical with 3 doors to the outside... all the dirt, pebbles and whatnot being carried inside and lodging themselves to the carpet. So, we do a lot of talking but never set aside the money for the project.

Turns out Caboose has pretty much forced us to get moving on the remodeling project. He had stomach issues as a puppy and pretty much ruined the carpet in the living room. Bartee called the carpet replacement "an emergency" and wanted to start on it right away. Within days of buying the materials (we're going with a laminate flooring) Caboose promptly threw up on the carpet and just this morning urinated on the carpet. Everything he'd been holding all night long and he's a big doggie. It was a mini swimming pool in there. Both times, I didn't bother cleaning it. Very liberating and a little stinky. :) In any case, the carpet is gone and Bartee plans to start on laying the new floor tomorrow morning. Will hopefully have some before and after photos in a few days to share.

In the meantime, it was time to sand and stain the deck again, and I do have some before and after photos of that... what do you think? The before pictures unfortunately were taken after the sanding so the old stain color is gone. The old color was similar to the house color, but not an exact match so it always looked like we tried to color match but failed horribly. So, this time we went with something totally different.

BEFORE...

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AFTER...

Bridgette

Sanjay,

Thanks for the incredible weekend at your place. I have been waiting a long time to come home with you and it was worth the wait.

Just before we walked into your house, the sound of barking put a big scare into me. I must say, that meeting your big dog face to face like that, was NOT the highlight of my weekend. Rather, the time we spent at the Indian New Year festival ranks among my special memories with you. Seeing all those lovely costumes, hearing the Tamil music and devouring the yummy spicy Indian food, it was hard for me to believe that we were still on American soil. For those hours, I felt transported to India. Thanks for sharing that with me and bringing along your sister's little stuffed furry friend.

Fortunately for me, I got a couple of extra days with you and you decided to take me to your piano class. Funny that you just learned a note called "Alligator A". Your teacher used my cousin, Alex, to demonstrate. It was good to see him again... hadn't seen him since Easter. Keep up the good work in piano!

The weekend went by so fast, and now it's time for me to visit another preschool friend. I'm looking forward to more adventures and I'll see you in the classroom soon.

Love,
Bridgette