Monday, February 22, 2010

Before and Almost After

On to our next big project. With Christmas behind us we decided it was time to tackle the room on the right side of the front door- the room that I believe is supposed to be the formal living room (useless) but will become my office. So let us start with the Before pictures to refresh your memory. Here are the pictures I took the day of the inspection. While the previous family lived here this room was their daughter's room- they had 5 boys and one girl. They put folding doors into doorway- but only one side was actually attached.

The inside of the room.


Here is what the room looked like the day we closed- so lovely those carpets. We decided before we moved in that we were going to put hardwood in here to match the rest of the front of the house, so this carpet was gone in the first few days.

The room was basically a dumping ground for the first 2 months. But when Jill came over New Years she of course kicked our butts and got us moving. We are a little worried that Jill won't visit us when this house is "done". Painting this room was more of a challenge than expected. The lower half of the wall was treated with a sand paper like texture. Why do you do that on a brand new wall? and why only half the wall?? So the first thing that happened was we had to sand the lower half of the wall. And by "we" I mean Jill.

Then we were ready to prime and paint. Here is Jill with her assistant. He likes to talk non-stop and having a captive audience was his idea of a dream come true.

With the room painted our next step was to install a pocket door. This room being an office needed more wall space and less doorway. It will also be overflow guest sleeping quarters so glass doors don't really make sense (plus I don't keep my desk area all that pretty). Here is the picture I sent to the contractor to give him an idea of what we wanted.

Pocket door installed, time for wood floors. Neil's cousin did a great job and we are hiring him to do our entire upstairs as well. [After much debate we decided to bite the bullet and install unfinished hardwoods upstairs as well- in two installments.]

Beeea- U- Ti- Ful!

And now... Ta Dah!
We bought a desk and Marc is hoping to build some bookcases for that far wall- the one you see through the door. We set up the desk but then realized there was no outlet where we wanted to put the desk- duh. So we aren't quite ready to move everything yet. Oh and my new computer has been delayed AGAIN. Slowly very slowly we are getting there.

Museum of Science in Boston

The kids and I went to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. We went on a Monday that was an inservice day for the kids- hoping the crowds would not be too bad. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the exhibit. Their favorite thing was this display that is one of the first things you see when you walk into the museum. It is a whole obstacle course type of thing with billard balls.

Justin loved just sitting and watching the balls go through the track.

Learning to flap our arms and fly like a bird.
Playing the shell game.
Jessica putting on a shadow play for us.
Pretending to be astronauts.

We enjoyed the exhibit as well. Before we entered a few of the children got the opportunity to sit on the chair and put on the sorting hat. Justin went up and just like the 2 girls before him, he was sorted into Gryffindor. It was props and costumes from the movies. I would have loved to have stayed longer and listen to everything on the audio tour- but alas that is not possible with my companions. Justin loved throwing the Quaffle through the hoops and Jessica really wanted me to buy her Hermione's wand they were selling for $45 in the gift shop- um.... no. The only thing was I sensed Jessica didn't enjoy it as much as I expected she would- see to her Hogwarts is real and these characters were real and it was like looking behind the Wizard's curtain.

Our Basketball Star

Justin started basketball in January. He seems to be enjoying it. There seem to be fewer tears than in the fall during soccer, so that is a good sign. He has actually gotten a few baskets. The kids are pretty funny. Our team is very excited about the scramble to get the rebound often piling on top of each other in the grab for the ball. Justin loves when he gets to be the one to dribble the ball down the court to other basket. My pictures stink but you get the idea. This series makes me laugh- he was committed to continue dribbling no matter what.




He wants to try T-ball in the Spring wish us luck.

Playing Catch up!

Every time I get behind in blogging I hear this Ricky Ricardo voice in my head, "Lucy yoooou have some blogging to do!". (hmmm TMI?) January began with the purchase of a new camera and lens for me. After much debate we bought the Mac Daddy of cameras. The 5DMkii Canon of course. I am so excited and can't wait to really use this camera to its fullest.

In preparation for using this house to take pictures I also bought a new backdrop stand and backdrop. The kids both volunteered to pose for pictures while I was testing out good places to take pics.


Grandma- this is the outfit Jessica bought with the money you gave her at Christmas. I tried to talk her into adding a few other colors in there but she LOVES it, and it is something I would not have put together for her. She wears this outfit at least once a week.



In the end I decided to use a different location in the house for pictures- I wasn't happy with the light here.