Catch Up on the Big Draw...

As usual, things have been hectic around here... Sometimes I wonder what I did with all that time before I had kids.

Joel's football team is currently ranked number 5 in Central California (all divisions of schools) by the Fresno Bee! The boys are having a great season and have knocked off a couple of teams who have traditionally been bigger, stronger, and more athletic than the Porterville teams...It's very exciting.

Katie's choir just had their first concert--wonderful wonderful! Tennis has just ended for her, so she's very sad as she absolutely loves all the girls on the team, but basketball starts in a couple of weeks, which should perk her up considerably.

and of course, I've been ripping up carpet, laying laminate flooring, painting, and cutting new baseboard moldings.  That's been a huge job, more hard physical labor than I could have imagined, but soooo worth it! With three dogs, three kids, and three adults in and out of the house all day long, laminate is a much better choice for us than carpet.

Here are some of the pages from my sketchbook during the past week or so. I'll try to scan more and get them up soon.

Laminate Floor in the Diningroom!

 

Ripped out the carpet in the diningroom and laid laminate flooring--then Katie talked me into taking down the plate rail and painting, which meant I had to cut new molding...Katie is a force of nature--you can't stop her! But this room is done--Aaaah. 

Livingroom Is Done!

 

Still lots to do--paint and put up new molding, paint the walls (but what color? Joel says pale yellow/gold and the girls want a room painted red...), and finish sewing the new fitted canvas slipcovers I'm making out of painter's drop-cloths... but it does look very nice!

Ripping Out Carpet

Jenny and I ripped the carpet out of the livingroom today. What an icky sweaty dusty job! And--even after you get all the pad and carpet out--you still have to pull up all the tack strips, pry out all the staples, and take the molding off!  Jenny and Katie are doing that part :)

Tomorrow we're going to put down laminate flooring. It'll make much more sense with three kids, three adults, and three dogs going in and out of the house all day... We did the same thing to the family room last month (see the pic above), although that was a much bigger job because we also painted the pecky cedar on the walls--now THAT was a lot of work! Thank goodness for my little helpers--it turned out so well...