BNS was here.

I tend to spend most of this blog praising my husband.

He is if you didn't guess, the love of my life.

I am super duper proud of him.

 

Being Christmas Day,

I also wanted to give praise to the other half of RM Petrie Builders and Sons.

 

BNS - our Brady.

 

He is without a doubt a huge part of our life and our family.

He is talented and humble.

He never wants praise or credit.

He never wants his picture taken.

He is David's right hand man.

David can always count on him.

I am grateful he has such a co-worker not to mention such a friend.

 

Watching them work together is like watching a fantastic machine.

They don't quit.  They don't take breaks.

They work without speaking.

They understand each others strong points and weaknesses.

They catch each others mistakes and razz the snot out of each other for it.

 

 

He has been a huge part of making this old house of ours the beautiful thing it is becoming.

I just wanted to say Thank You to him.

So he knows I appreciate all that he has done for my family these last couple years.

Thank You Brady.  Merry Christmas to you.

Hardwood Christmas

 

When we started this adventure.  It was agreed that we would refinish the floors.

I mean, one of the best features of a 103 year old home would be the floors.

 

Until you're the one trying to refinish them.

 

 

I can't take any credit.  I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such a man.

He took on these floors with gung-ho gusto. 

 

Two days into it, as I spoke to him on the phone while I was at work.

He sounded beaten.

 

It was a sound I hadn't heard out of his mouth in quite awhile.

 

He sounded as though failure was immient.

 

He brought up putting down laminent.

He brought up putting down carpet.

 

His partner called me 'the queen'.

As in 'the queen' would not be satisfied. The queen would not be happy.

 

 

This are how they looked before he started.

Not only years worth of paint and lacquer.

But drywall dust and globs of joint compound.

 

 

A rented sanded and fifteen million sanding pads.

Just to maybe get to specs of the wood underneath.

 

David spoke to every contact he had.

Researched tiredlessly on the internet of other options to refinish floors.

 

The option he found that suited his need for the results he wanted.

And his need to make sure I was happy without putting him into an early grave.

He hand planed them. Every inch of them.  On his hands and knees.

And wire brushed them.

 

 

The process was long.

The process was exhausting.

 

 

Distressed floors are all the rage I told him.

I stopped by to take a look one day on my way home from work.

 

 

I told him they were looking fantastic.

That I didn't think he could see the forest because of the trees.

 

Once the stain and polyurethane was on there, they would look great!

 

Our Christmas celebration this year was on Christmas Eve.

When you have children who have other parents, it's part of your holiday celebrations.

Holidays are shared.

So today, Christmas Day, it was just David and me.

 

We decided to get over there and try out the stain.

 

It was a Christmas miracle, these floors will indeed be quite lovely.

 

He realized all his hard work did produce something that made me the happiest girl on the block.

 

 

I certainly hope he realizes that I am so very thankful for him.

I have never in all my life had someone work so hard for me.

He is my dream come true.

And together, we will have this tremendous dream home.

 

And next year, on Christmas Day, our family will be in this new "old house"

 

Merry Christmas to you all.

From our family to yours.

 

xoxo

Primed for the Season

 

It's been slow going the last few weeks.

Work, kids, preparation for winter, deer hunting, have all taken precedent.

But the upstairs is primed.

 

 

 

 

In other news, the holiday season is upon us.

 

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home, in our current house.

It was a good day. Filled with food and football.

 

Holiday specials have caused me to make a few purchases.

Our refrigerator and stove are on their way.

Light fixtures are next on my list.

I'm hesitating making my final decisions.

But I think I have most of the choices finalized.

 

 

Please help our school's fundraiser

Our desperate plea to get to Mackinac Island for Engadine Elementary 5th Grade.



Please help our school's fundraiser: Elgadine Elementary 5th grade is having a fundraiser. You can shop online atbr / br / http://www.greatlakespromotions.com/shopping/store/brochures.php?sID=ENG50772br / br / The school receives profit from the sale and the seller will receive prize credits. Click on the link above to begin shopping.br / br / Thank you for your support.br / br / If the link above does not work, please use the following link and enter the seller ID: http://www.greatlakespromotions.com/shopping/br / br / Student: Hunter Sappbr / Student ID: ENG50772br / br / Online store purchases are sent directly to purchaser's home. Shipping and handling will be charged to purchaser.br / br /

2nd floor before and afters

 

So it's been many months since it seems any progress has been made.

 

The guts of the house, aren't as drastically changed overnight like the exterior.

 

But when you look back, it's easy to see how far my boys have come on this old house.

 

 

 

This is the kids' bathroom tub/shower

Before.

 

Here it is today.

New guts, and ready for bright white tile to be installed.

 

 

Here's Hunter's room. Well part of it.

 

 

Here it is today, with the closet built and all the moldy crumbling areas gone.

 

 

It's hard to get the same angles for pictures unless you are looking at them.

Here are little Dave's windows, before replacement.

And before he had a closet.

 

Today, the edge of his replaced window, with his new closet.

Plenty big to store clothes and toys.

At least, we hope.

 

 

Trinity's room, being the only room with an actual closet probably needed the least amount of changes physically.

But it did need a heat duct that functioned.

 

Today, the windows are replaced.

And in Brady's words...."T.t. has heat!!"

 

 

Something you cannot see in this picture of the hallway upstairs.

The smell that was in the air.

Mildew.  Bat guano. To name a few.

 

Gone!

 

 

They moved our bathroom door.

And made the entrance to our bathroom from inside our bedroom.

As well as made our bathroom a tiny bit bigger.

 

Another new addition to the upper lever was the washer/dryer area.

I won't have to haul everything up and down the stairs.

 

 

 

 

Instead of this "closet"

 

I now have my bathroom door.

 

 

But on the opposite end of our room.

We now have his and her closets.

 

 

And while this was the shower in our bathroom.

 

 

 

 

 

We now have something a little better.

Not to mention a tad more breathing room in our bathroom.

 

 

 

I know I've said it before.

But just for the record.

 

My boys from RM Petrie Builders and Sons do amazing work.

I may be biased, since I'm part of the "crew"

 

But I can tell you.

I would recommend them.

They are some of the best I have witnessed.

  

It's Official

We used to tell people we just "jumped the broom"

But officially being married seemed to be more and more important to our children.

 

 

 

So we decided, to officially get married on the porch of our new 'old house'

 

 

 

It was a beautiful chilly fall day filled with many smiles.

 

 

We couldn't have asked for a better moment, or a better place.

 

 

 

 

 

It's made this place all the more special to us.

A fine Yooper life

So I've lived in the UP 9 years this summer.

While I can't classify myself as a Yooper, since I wasn't born here.

I do have two children who were.

 

Hunter is a Hoosier, and is sure to tell everyone.

 

But Trinity and Dave are Yoopers.

 

But we are raising all three children in the Yooper fashion,

 which means we hunt deer to have for dinner.

 

Michigan has created a Mentored Youth Hunting Program.

 

It allows children 10 and younger to hunt with a parent or mentor.

To get their feet wet before they dive into Hunter Safety classes, and all.

 

So our boys are taking advantage.

 

Hunter's Dad switched weekends with us so he could hunt with him.

I gave him a call last night, he told me his first day was unsuccessful, he saw 2 gray squirrels and zero deer, but he was looking forward to Day 2 of Michigan's Youth Hunt Weekend.

 

At our end of things, Dave had a flag football game yesterday morning, so Sunday morning would be his only chance during the Youth Hunt.

 

We spent Saturday evening, doing one more practice session, this time in the blind.

 

 

 

He took several shots, and did really well, so we decided he could give it a try.

He was super excited.

 

 

The bonus of our new Old House, is it's on 16 acres.

Giving a perfect place for 2 young boys to hunt.

 

So, one young boy found a spot he liked after we found a few tracks.

 

 

David said he really likes the idea of the mentoring part a few years before kids take Hunter Safety class.  When he was about 11 years old, he just got sent out in the woods by himself.

 

 

 

Be prepared.

 

 

Be well dressed.  Hope you don't get cold.

 

They left early this morning before dawn.

 

They were back in about 2 hours.

 

A cold wet morning.

 

Dave got cold.  They didn't see any deer.

It's part of it.  Sometimes you come home empty handed.

 

October 1st will be here soon enough. 

So until then, we practice, practice, practice.