Our First Construction Owie

Logan and Megan came over tonight to help with the bathroom a little. The first project was to get all the bricks out of there and make some room to work. We devised a good system where Megan loaded a few bricks up in a 5 gallon bucket and handed them out the window to me, standing on my truck boxes. I would then pass them down to Logan on the ground where he would stack them. Well, after about the 3rd bucket, my crappy window decided to fall. It smashed Megan's ring finger pretty good then broke in half and fell on my arm and neck. Amazingly enough, no blood was shed and the only injury was Megan's finger. Can you tell which one it was? So Megan was done with brick duty, but she didn't let a little sore finger stop her from helping with other stuff later. She's pretty tough. Anyway, Grandpa showed up about this time and was able to help me and Log get the bricks down in 10 or 15 minutes. I was REALLY glad to get that little job done. After that, dad looked over some of the electrical work that needs to happen. Meanwhile, Megan cleaned all the dust, insulation, nails, and other miscellaneous crap up off the floor. Logan and I cut out and installed the sheeting for over the stairway. Here's the before shot... And here's what it looked like after... It looks so much better to just get things cleaned up a little. I went ahead and pulled up some floorboards that were broken and/or insufficiently supported. Incredibly enough, there were only these three spots that need to be replaced. Tomorrow's project will be to rip down some OSB to fill in the floor gaps. After that, I'm not sure. I'll have to think about it some more tomorrow. Thanks to all the fam for coming over to help tonight and thanks to Liv for feeding us all a smashing spaghetti dinner afterwards!

The Point of No Return

Well, there's no turning back now. I think we're committed...
I finished wrecking out the chimney today and cut a new door to access the lost room. It may not look like much, but it's about 3 times bigger than the other access door in our closet. Eventually, most of that whole wall will come out. I'm trying to keep the bathroom usable for as long as I possibly can before I rip it all out. I also bought a sheet of foam insulation so I can cover the hole up and maintain some of our warm air. Here's what it looks like from the other side.
You can see I built a little bridge to cover up the chimney hole and make for easier access. I can't sheet over the hole until I get the plumbing in underneath, so this was a temporary deal for safety mostly. You'll also notice I took down part of the duct work. The trunk line comes up from the basement immediately to the right of my little bridge. It splits into 3 ducts there. I was able to leave the one into the bathroom and the one into my office connected for now, but the one that ran across to our bedroom is no more. It never put out much anyway, so we won't really miss it. I think tomorrow's project will be to replace some of the floorboards that have gone bad and to cut down the OSB to sheet over the steps.

Let the Destruction Begin

We finally finished harvest around lunchtime yesterday, so by yesterday afternoon I had begun the bathroom project. First thing on my list, the disappearing chimney trick. Now you see it... Now you don't... In about 2 hours I managed to dismantle it brick by brick. Luckily, the bricks were pretty non-porous and the old mortar was not very well bonded to them. Most of them just pulled right off and were easily cleaned off with a few taps and scrapes from a claw hammer. Amazingly enough, I managed to drop only one brick down the chimney and I still have my hammer too. If you drop something down there just let it go, 'cause man, it's gone... It's probably 15 or 18 feet down to the bottom of that. It does make a handy trash receptacle though. Never underestimate the benefits of having a bottomless pit in your house. That's where I dumped the mortar that came off the bricks. Olivia came upstairs and was like, "There's a bunch of smoke in the basement!" I assured her it was just some leftover dust being kicked out of my disposal chute. I've removed to just below the floor so far. I need to remove another 5 or 6 rows of brick to get down to the downstairs ceiling. Then I should have the room I need to maneuver my plumbing between the two. So now I'm left with piles of well-worn bricks that need to be removed from the room. I've already found a home for them all as Olivia, Megan, and Shauna all need some for various gardening projects. All I need now is some help getting them down. It's a bit cumbersome because they have to be handed out the window to someone standing on my truck toolboxes. Then you have to hand them down to someone on the ground to pile them on the concrete patio. So, it's really a 3 person job. Hmmm, there just so happens to be 3 people that want the bricks. What a coincidence.

15 Years, 2 Months, and 1 Day to Go

The countdown has officially started for Nathan to get his driver's licence. This boy LOVES being behind the wheel. Liv brought him out to the field again yesterday and we sat him up in the seat of the semi once again as well.

He lives for this now. This 40 ton vehicle is now his new favorite toy. See for yourself...

Here's some more random pics of the boy we've amassed lately.

Thanks to Aunt Megan for her contributions to the montage!

I Pity the Fool

Liv was having some fun with the boy's hair again after his bath the other day. It seems he has a little Mr. T in him.
Who knew? Unfortunately, a mohawk is insufficient to constitute a full blown Mr. T costume, so he had to go to his playtime at mom's group as a pumpkin instead.

I know what you're thinking, and relax. We're not dropping bills on a Halloween costume for a 10 month old. It was actually a hand-me-down from Olivia's cousin. It's still pretty cute though.

Liv brought the boy out to do some farming again last night. They came to visit me in my truck and hang out for a while.

He's been out 4 or 5 times already, and he seems to really dig the big trucks most. He LOVES to drive them, or at least pretend to.

Nathan's Piano

With all the rain we had yesterday and today, there wasn't any farming going on and we decided to have Grandma and Grandpa Dudley over for dinner and baby wrestling. After dinner we had to show them Nathan's new hat, a.k.a. his Buzz Lightyear PJ bottoms...
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Cutest... baby... ever. Nate also took the opportunity to roughhouse with grandpa a little.

Later, Liv broke out the new toy we got Nathan when we went garage sale shopping last weekend. It's a little battery powered piano that also has big duplo like blocks that you can build on it with. Nate had never seen it before tonight and I think he really liked it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera running when he did his funniest antics at the piano. His mother was pressing the keys to show him how it works. I guess he had enough instruction because he grabbed her hand and more or less threw it out of his way. All of us busted up when he did it. That alone was worth the $2 we spent on the thing.

More Fun in the Kitchen

The boy woke up all hot and sweaty from one of his big hairy naps yesterday, so I took the opportunity to style his hair for him...

While momma was cooking some dinner tonight, the boy decided to help me empty the dishwasher. I took a few good videos of him doing so. He's really becoming quite the little jabber box at times. I've started fooling around with some video editing on my computer here and I've spliced the best portions of his videos into one montage. Notice how pleased he is when he realizes that he's being filmed.

At dinner I snapped a few more still shots. Get used to this pose folks because I imagine you'll be seeing it for the next 18 years or so...