Ella's Big Girl Room

Slowly but surely Ella's big girl room is coming together. We're hoping Andy can get her a big girl bed built in time for Christmas. For now she's sleeping on the twin mattress on her rug. She seems to think this is to make jumping on the bed easier.

big girl bed and colorful curtains

mommy's attempt at artwork for the walls 

Just don't look too closely at the canvas and it looks alright. Ella says she likes it. That is good enough for me.

Dog People

Back in August I got hit with dog fever, which of course spread to Ella. So we took a trip to the Fayetteville Animal Shelter and came home a few days later with her new fur-ever friend. It's definitely been interesting having a cat and a dog in the house.

meet and greet

being silly

first day home

daddy's little helpers

happy guy

It didn't take him long at all to make himself at home. 

Face Lift

So I am really behind here; two months ago Andy replaced the wood siding and stained the entire house. Ella calls it our new house. Here are some photos of the latest updates.

replacing the siding

lots of help painting the siding

making up for my poor color choice on the garage

paint on front of house

new cedar posts

It is so nice pulling in our driveway now!

A Shop for Daddy

Since everything has to happen at once the shop building Andy ordered Thanksgiving week arrived and was built Friday when the roof was going up.

Today it is being put to good use keeping the X-terra dry. Here is to a quiet, healthy, hopefully uneventful, and most of all inexpensive next few months!

New Year New Roof

It took four people four days to get three layers of shingles off the roof, replace rotten boards, and get everything ready for the metal to go down. My dad and Andy's parents were up on the roof with Andy Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Andy and his dad were up there again all day Monday.

shingles and rotten trim being pushed off roof

Thankfully the weather cooperated just long enough for the roofer to get the metal on before the winter weather hit this weekend.

going up

Today we get to sit back and watch the snow fall without worrying about leaks!

Next up... a fresh coat of paint all around and eventually some gutters.

Cowgirl Ella - a rare craft project

It isn't often I get around to crafting, so this one I was pretty proud of. We decided due to her love of boots Ella was going to make a cute cowgirl for Halloween. I found instructions online for a simple vest using a t-shirt as the size guide.

The badge, hat, and stick horse were from her birthday party. In the end she refused to wear the boots, but still seemed pleased with her costume.

Preparation for a Shop Building, or, "daddy make dirt!"

Andy worked this fall with some help from  a friend to tear down the wood shop in the front yard in time to haul off at fall cleanup weekend for the county. Termites and weather were already doing a pretty good job of it, he just finished the building off sooner. :)

One full trailer of trash later and the table saw was  about the only thing worth keeping inside...

Gutted,  and very wobbly...

View from the top

All gone. This was the point Ella got interested in what daddy was doing... there was dirt being dug out and begging to be played in.

Prepped and ready for concrete

Concrete day!  No, that's not Andy in the overalls. He hired out the concrete.

And now we just wait for the shop to come in.