Let's just destroy the house!

Isn't that just what you feel like when you decide to "remodel"?  Like your actually destroying the house?  When we moved into our home in 2003, you would walk into the front door directly to the living room.  To the left, through an opening was the dining room. Straight ahead was a rock archway into the family room.  If you came in from the garage, the only way to get to the rest of the house was going through the dining room, then the living room and tada! You had made it through the maze!
The first order of business was to put a door from the kitchen to the family room and rest of house. Guess what we found?  There had actually already been a door there!  Someone had just covered it over and made a wall-yeah crazy.

So that is where it stayed in terms of remodeling.  I hated the rock arch but didn't want to loose the whole wall between the living room and family room. Scott wanted to get rid of the whole wall-not not happening!  I was brought up in the era of separate rooms that each had it's own function.  I didn't like the open concept AT ALL!!!  We "discussed" it back and forth for 12 LONG years.  If you ever want to test your marriage just decide to remodel something. Finally in November 2015 we decided we wanted to move the baby grand from the front room to the little family room because we needed the bigger space with the grands starting to grow and multiple.  We realized that the only way to move it  was to hire someone or to take the wall out. I just said "ok, go for it".  And he did. Thanksgiving weekend. Yep. That time when family is around and cooking and watch football.  Just add in hammers and demolition dust and perfect!!

 

Here is the hated arch                 Scotty helping with the first hole

 

Hunter and Evie also got a chance to play with the hammers!!

The temporary wall is up!

And it is gone!!

 
All this work is just so exhausting!!!

Yep! That's a hole!  Had to put a new header in with a little help from friends and family


             

                

    

It's gone!!!!!!

At that point,  I declared the project on hold until after Christmas.  It was time to trim the tree enjoy the openness and just relax.  Yes, I admit I looked at it and exclaimed "We should have done this years ago!"

 


I have NO idea why Hunter is wearing his shirt this way-just go with the flow

Honey's favorite place at Christmas

Finally, after all the festivities and fun, Scott went back to work on the ceiling and floor.

I don't know how she sleeps like this!

Fast forward a year to November 2016.  Scott was home for Thanksgiving vacation and I was running off to work for a couple hours.  Just in talking before we left about how much we loved having opened that first wall up, I causally commented "sometime we should just open the other one up to the dining room."   This is what I came home to:

 





REALLY!?  During the holidays again!?








Had to add another header but looking great!

And in the wall we found this thing!  What do you do with it?  it was just there, capped off. So hey!  just cut it below floor level and put the cap back on!  That is what we eventually did.

         Thank goodness  Doyle and Chelsea hosted Thanksgiving this year so we didn't get food seasoned with mudding dust.  By Christmas it was mainly put back together  Except for where the flooring meets.  This is pretty good considering Scott and I took a week cruise and worked on our Church's Nativity festival during that time.

 For some reason we didn't take any pics of it almost finished but you can kind of see it in the background. here and below.

Of course "almost finished" is a relative term right?   Even now, we realize that we still need to paint the ceilings so they are all the same flow.  But who cares about details?

This Christmas' project was to finally build a TV cabinet.  Scott did a great job and I am sooo happy with the way it turned out!

 

Here is the final look with the wall removed!  Isn't it so much bigger without a wall?  You can see where the wall was by the floor board.

           

Can you imagine how tight this was with TWO walls dividing the space!? Now we can really spread out and have room for everyone.  I can even sit at the table and do things and still watch tv.  You can still see where the ceiling needs to be painted but who cares about little details right?

Thanks Scott for the great work and continuing to gently push me out of my comfort zones!

`

Spring in the South!

Spring was a little slow coming this year.  Winter was just determined to stick around or to pop up for a randomly cold day here and there but it finally was pushed out and Spring came in all it's glory.  What is spring without new chicks!
   
   
Don't you love that hair!?
This year has not been a normal chick year.  To begin with sooooo many of them died while being shipped-so sad!  Then we had 1 older chicken that kept picking on the little guys and ended up killing my cutest little ones.  That girl has now been sent to Lena's with others her size.

After a long delay the azaleas finally decided to make an appearance!  they were lovely this year and because of the cool spring they stayed around for a long time.

Memorial park was glorious and a great way to spend an afternoon exploring with cousins!

 

Found this guy fishing and had to check out his bucket of catches!

YiKes!! found this water moccasin right by the shore. 

 
Spitting into the pond to get the fish and turtles to come up is obviously fun for all ages!

 New life and new roads to explore. Can anything be more magical than seeing the world through the eyes of the young and young at heart?

One weekend we had the two youngest princesses for a night so had to visit memorial park AGAIN and it obviously wore one out.  thanks for the lap Papa!

 

And birthday!  Let's not forget the spring birthdays!!


Lena does a great job making cakes that are just right for each child.  Robbie's was candy land made with lots of candies. the sugar boy was in heaven!

Hunter's cake all bugs and dirt!!

 

And FINALLY Easter came in all it's glory.  It was awesome that it was the same weekend as General Conference.  I am so amazed at how great all my kids are at incorporating the story of the Resurrection of the Savior and Holy week into their families.  I don't remember doing this until our kids were more in their teens so super kudos to all of them!   Of course the easter bunny did come to Nana's house and was very sneaky in his hiding.

Our attempt as shaving cream dying.  Didn't really work but it was fun to play in.

                    Can you see the cute little bunny climbing up in the tree for a treat?

About the best we could do with the whole hunting crew.  Who wants to sit still when candy is RIGHT there in the laps!?  Hope your spring was magical!