{Our Valentines }

We celebrated our Valentine's all week long

and

a bit at a time.

Sunday evening we had a Valentine supper at church

and Dan joined the drama team for a funny

skit about a church van heading to church.

He was the driver and he picked up a crazy crew

including Joe who was one of the couples' kids.

We had a delicious soup, salad and sandwich meal and great fellowship.

Joe chose mini rubix cubes for Valentines this year.

He had fun putting this simple idea together.

And he had no interest in actually giving them away.

He worked hard using his Math Bowl formula to figure the area and volume of  his cube.

What a sweet memory putting together valentines with my boy.

And we snuck in a Valentine meal at home - after work and practice.

Thankful we we able to be at home together.

We grilled steaks, made mashed potatoes, salad for mom and dad

and grandma's frozen punch for drink

And we passed simple hearts around and wrote our favorite thing about that person

on the heart.  Here was the win - might have been just for mom- but there were no complaints from my crew of boys becoming men.  

And then we had a family ping pong tournament.

DH smokes us all, Sam and Joe are pretty even.

And well, I can barely return any of their good shots.

These two were also able to play with no reports of cheating - ha.  

 Brotherly Love was in the air.

Grandma stopped by and brought the boys each a Valentine cookie.

Such a sweet treat.

And grandpa took on each of the boys in a ping pong challenge.

Grandpa with the moves!

Scott and Chris also stopped by and we just had a super night of family fun.

We capped it off with angel food cake and fruit with whipped topping.

Simple Valentine Fun.  

Handy guys

Am I ever glad we have some handy willing guys.

DH and I were carrying some things down to the basement

because it is SO close and we heard a hissing noise.

At first I thought it was from the fridge, but I think DH

knew where it was coming from, and then he stepped in the water.

UGH.

We have lived here 6 years with no water in the basement and no issues,

and this trusty pipe on the wall decided to break

right after we finished the floors and painted the walls.

Boo.

But a quick call to dad

 who know some neighbors

 who had the plumbing pipe in their country store

 that we needed

 at 8pm

and we were on the mend.

And the mess is already cleaned up, towels in the dryer.

Am I ever glad we did not use carpet!!!!

Good kinda Stain

Yesterday this happened.

 Eeks!

It is so what I was looking for.

Cordavan Leather is the name, leatherlike it is! 

We are inching closer to calling this project a success.

Basement progress -eeek!

Things are really coming along in the basement.

DH and his dad have been working hard.

We've had some other help along the way too!

It looked like this a long time

like while the ceiling was painted and

the wiring was run for lights

and the wiring was run for outlets and switches

and the studs were moved {for me} to accommodate horizontal wood



 

And then a wall appeared that divided the room into living space

and storage space

 

I have swept and picked up and sorted

and swept and picked up and sorted.

And by the looks of the floor currently, I didn't do any of that

but my contractor has this way with me.

I suppose I'll have to let it go for now.

I am so thankful for DH and his dad and all their construction skills!

 

And like I said they have had some great help along the way!

 

And I came home one day to this

{insert singing angels, well not quite, I mean it is just a wall}

but I do love it!

 And my brother came to help too.

After he, DH and DH's dad did the metal walls in an hour flat I was wishing I had used

that on more walls!  Seriously good looking walls!

Seeing out!

Here is the once closed, dark holding all of our left over (need to remake or part with)

furniture corner of our basement.  It is the corner where the light doesn't work

very well and the cobwebs have just about taken over...

but not any longer!  DH and his dad worked very hard

with a concrete cutting pro to open this area

and make our new walkout basement

Insert smile.

BIG BIG smile.

Of course it rained the day they decided to tackle this,

so a muddy mess came inside, but I didn't even notice, not like

this floor was clean yet anyway!

My why for this project was my babes.

I have this fear (irrational or not) of a fire and no escape from the basement.

I want this to be a place for friends to gather, but I would never have allowed

them to stay down there without a way out. 

So that is my why. 

We were limited on size of the opening due to septic,

I dreamed of a full wall of windows and sliders and glorious light flooding the basement,

this is our sensible and suitable option.

Must pick a color for the door and begin dreaming more!