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.

They stole my maple tree

The monkey crew has decided they need a tree house at the new Old House.

Borrowing tools and snagging some nails,

with a little encouragement from Uncle Bobby

about just starting without asking Dave,

they began construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day in Curtis

 

 

When I was a kid Labor Day weekend used to mean Croatian Day at Kennywood Park.

 

Now that I live in Curtis, it means, Art on the Lake.

 

Trinity is a huge fan of Art on the Lake.  It's as if she's in her element.

She goes around the park looking at all the art vendors.  Making her plan for her purchases.

She made a few great choices.  Hand-painted glasses, several pairs of beautiful earrings, local honey complete with a honeycomb chunk. 

 

 

Trinity and I each bought one of these copper flowers for our house plants.

Hunter purchased a copper spider with web for his new room.

 



 

I bought this fantastic new necklace for myself cause I need it for an upcoming occasion.

 

 

 

On Monday, we walked the Portage Creek Bridges Walk.

Trinity really really wanted to walk the Mackinac Bridge which is a local event every Labor Day.

But it's five miles, not to mention 50,000 people who walk with you.

I told her if she made this walk without complaint we would do it next Labor Day.

Here's the start of the walk, middle of "downtown" Curtis at Kim's Tally Ho.

 

 

 

Bridge #1 right in town, right by our first home in Curtis, Cabin #2 at Gordon's Resort

 

Bridge #2, just up from road a bit from our current home.

 

 

They made it all the way to Bridge #3.  We stopped by and saw Tony and made our donation to the fireworks council.

 

 

The long haul, back up for a little treat that was waiting for us.

 

 

Coffee and spice muffins compliments of Chamberlin's Ole Forest Inn.

 

Momma Cat was happier about the Complimentary Cocktail  :)

In between Summer craziness, there's a house that needs renovating.

Lack of time during summertime craziness has stricken this house renovation project.

We celebrated the Fourth of July in Curtis on July 1st.

The very day after a family wedding, we helped the Manistique Lions cook 650 chickens.

 

 

 

We're Petries.....we cook chickens.

 

 

 

If you're in the know, you know.  Otherwise, you're like "say what"

 

 

Infamous Petrie Chicken.

In between chicken cooking, kids being out of school, camping in the yard due to the abnormal high temperatures, visits from family and friends, busy times for RM Petrie Builders, kids being out of school, grass cutting, and did I mention, the kids being out of school, summer has seemed to pass us by.

Our house, has found itself at the bottom of the list.

We have managed to do a little porch sitting every now and again.

Bits of progress has been made.

In my opinion, David and Brady have out done themselves on the porch.

Aaron did a little painting, and it's starting to look finished on the outside.

If I could have dreamed a porch, this would have been it.

I painted "Andy's Shed"

We are keeping this little 'entry' original exterior.

1909

A.G.S.

Since we found a postcard addressed to Andrew G. Strom

We assume these initials are his.  Hence the name "Andy's Shed"

The second floor's electrical is finally upgraded, so drywall could start to be hung.

Trinity's room is drywalled.

Her room has a closet already, it's actually the only room with a real closet.

Brady has Hunter's closet framed in, and his ceiling is drywalled.

Dave will also need a closet framed, as will our room.

Our room is still is discussion as far as layout goes.

But hopefully it will come along soon.

While I am pleased with the entire house, the porch is still my favorite.

Really, what more could I want.