Day 2 – Nov 29

So, after one day of work last Monday, they took a few days off (without telling us, but we’ll overlook that for now). Today, they got started again and framed out the walls so we can start to see the space that will soon be finished.

Day 1 – Nov 22

Tim and I have been talking for a while about a pretty major project for our upstairs – converting the tv room into a bathroom and shifting most of the current bathroom space into Reagan’s room for a little more space and to give her a closet.

We’ve been tossing this idea around and really didn’t have any pictures of what this would actually look like or which contractor to go with. Then, we went into a store – well, a shop full of older architectural pieces – and they had a beautifully refinished clawfoot tub. We decided that, despite the expense, it was perfect and would be a great start to the bathroom design.

But, we still had the problem of where do we live while the upstairs construction is going on? And, we would be losing a living space and couldn’t come up with a solution for moving the tv to the first floor.

So, we decided the best thing is to add a bathroom and finish part of the basement and to do that first so we can “live” down there while they work on the upstairs. We called one of the contractors we had been talking with and, over the weekend, signed him up to start today! They started today and upgraded our electrical box and they’re starting to move wires and pipes on the basement ceiling.

We Tim spent a few hours in basement over the weekend to start getting things ready. If you have ever even peeked into the basement, you can see that this is a major change already. Most of the things that were piled all over the back portion of the basement are now efficiently packed in the front, hopefully out of the way of all the work.

Now I just hope the Christmas decorations are close enough to the outside that we can get to them in the next few weeks.

Tee-shirts on November 15th?

So this Sunday was the first time is a long time where we found ourselves with a completely free day.  No out-of-town guests, no flag football, no soccer.  Just a free day and beautiful weather.  So after a good nap, we headed down to the National Mall to ride the marry-go-round and kill sometime.

Then we went to the sculpture garden and played tag:

We stopped by the Natural History Museum and they had this cool crochet coral reef.  What is that you ask, it is a huge coral reef made out of crochet, of course:

When we left, the sun was low in the sky, providing some interesting lighting:

Fall Farm Trip

My mom was in town (with the dog, Caesar) a few weekends ago.

We had a somewhat busy weekend, with trips to Ikea and a pumpkin/apple picking farm on Saturday. Sunday got cut a bit short, since the dog was sick, but it meant we got to go out to Centerville for a little more family time with Tim’s aunt, uncle, and cousins.

Her first caramel apple

Playing in the pumpkins (while chewing more apple)

The obligatory hayride out to the pumpkin patch

Enjoying the day

And checking out the chickens.

A Walk at the Arboretum

More Halloween Fun

Our second and third events were a party Saturday afternoon, where we all got dressed up, and the 2nd annual party and parade at the neighborhood elementary school playground. The group shot from the other day was from the party.

Reagan doing her best to get as close to Dad as possible.

Side note: I am not sure why, but Reagan (I’ve noticed other kids doing this, too) calls things she associates with a person by that persons name. For instance, when the phone rings, it’s “dada”, even if they’re sitting next to each other. The red bucket is now “dada”, because it’s part of his costume. I guess it’s not uncommon.

Sunday morning, our neighborhood hosted an awesome party and parade at our favorite playground. I counted over 50 kids!

Reagan spent quite a bit of time running in the (freshly cut) grassy area.

 

And, she played on the see saw. Notice the awesome tattoo on her hand. We got some at the party the day before.

 

The bee and some honey.

Halloween Fun

We had a busy Halloween weekend and we didn’t even make it out trick or treating tonight. Friday we went down to the annual Hilloween festival near Eastern Market. We decided it was overrated, and we probably won’t go back next year. Even though we got there pretty early, it got crowded quickly and was geared towards older kids. There were 2 moon bounces, so we stood in line for one. Reagan was so excited about going in it, we literally had to hold her back from running in. Once she got in, some bigger kids bounced her, she fell down, and completely lost it. That was about the end of the fun, and it was cold, so we went home. But, it was a good trial run for the costume.

The consensus after event 1 was, she didn’t want to put the bee on, but once it was on, she was okay. And the headband, which will not be in any of the pictures, was an absolute no.

Friday night, Ted arrived and we had some costume finalizing building to do. Tim was finishing the flower and pot, the boys were in charge of the honey pot lid, and I finished the honey pot.

some final touches

 

a bit more sewing

the final results