HipHip Hooray!!!

We did it! We have successfully had a fire in our new wood buring stove and it was good and warm... at least in that part of the house. :) It took a while, but that is because we are new at this fixer upper stuff, but we did good. All the kudos though, should go to Eric and his dad, since they are the ones that did the amazing job. I did help paint at the end, but nothing major. Enjoy the beginning, during and ending pictures. It is such a massive improvement to this house. :)

This thing was such a death trap, we had to blockade it so that Isabelle wouldn't get anywhere near it.

We took the old "fireplace" (if you can all it that) to the dump... just over 600 pounds of uselessness.

Drywalling is getting easier with every room that we do...

Once the drywall was done and the platform was built, it was time to cut the tile to place on the platform (hearth).

Tile Done, Time to Grout.

Isabelle loved to 'help' and with grouting that was easy... just make a big mess.

Next we painted... The color is way prettier then it is captured in the photos. The contrasting color on the other walls will be a very very soft gold.

We were now ready to install.

We did not do the actuall install ourselves... that would be nuts. We had people do it for us. First they took out all the existing pipes and the top of the chimney out and off. That is the sky up there... funny, it was raining that day.

It's installed... but still so much more to do.... finishing painting, two new types of floor molding and of course, fencing.

Done, at last. Now there was just one thing left to do....

... Our first fire. We were so snug and warm. Bring on the winter.

Kite Flying Fun

Last week, also on a beautiful day... though a super WINDY day, we decided to go Kite flying. It was a blast. Isabelle tried to fly the kite by the tail. More views on the dirt yard too.

Bubbles

On a nice day last week (there were surprisingly a couple of them) we went out and played with bubbles in our flat back yard. Though it is still a big dirt mess with weeds coming up, it is flat and fun to run around on now! YEAH! Back yard is almost a real backyard. The winter seed gets planted in a couple of weeks.

OK, back to the BUBBLES!

Banana's, Cleaning, Restacking a Sandwhich and more

My Love, Our Love

PEEK - A - BOO

I SEE YOU!

Lunch With Grandpa

After lunch we walked a little bit down the water front and got some cute pics, saw lots of boats and birds (all which are "b's").

What do you see out there??

Turns out that there is a parasailing outfit right where we were taking these pictures... I don't know... Could there be some parasailing pictures coming?? Next weekend is there last weened of the season (hope the weather is good!!)

Till Next Time! Hope this post find everyone well!

Berry Picking!!

Well, the blackberries are ripe and ready for the picking!! So far I have 8 full 1-quart freezer bags full of berries and still more to pick. This years harvest is great and we will have fresh berries all winter long!! Isabelle will be so happy. :) My fingers though I think are permanently stained purple now though. hehehehe

What I learned...
Don't over fill the basket with berries... the ones on the botttom will get smooshed.

Our Front Yard... Yes, the whole of it and that is only the tinyest area. There are a ton now that are ripe. And more that will be ready in a day or so.

BIG
BERRIES!!!

Picking the Berries...

THE PROCESS:
Pick the berries; wash them; place on cookie sheet apart from one another; freeze; take out and place in baggie and place back in freezer; REPEAT... hahaha

Isabelle loved eatting them as we were picking them... but sometimes I just went out on my own (got more done then while she was napping).