Jamie's little baby bump!

Today I spent the day with my good pal Jamie, shooting a few maternity pictures of her beautiful glowing self.  We had a lot of fun walking the trails, enjoying the 50 degree weather and playing with her pup, Drake.  Hopefully our next shoot will include her handsome hubby!

 

 

 

Majestic Wonders of Winter!!

Today I decided to try out my new lens by exploring Minnehaha waterfall, which was said to be a majestic winter wonderland!!  I grabbed my camera, threw on my boots, hat and down vest and headed out to check out the falls. There were lots of people out enjoying the 38 degree sunshine filled day! And majestic winter wonderland they were indeed!! The frozen falls were beautiful, with hues of blue, red and yellow peeking out behind the sides. I couldn't resist the urge to climb over the locked gate, which put me up close and personal with the frozen wonders.  Then I scrambled up the hill and behind the falls to get a better view. Man I'm glad that I did. It was amazing!! If you don't believe me you can see for yourself....enjoy the pics!

 

The Time (Dirty Bit)....

Yippee skippee! It's finally time for a little CONstruction...versus the massive amounts of DEstruction we've been doing to This Old House!  My last stretch of time off of work was spent removing the last of the outer walls. Can you say remove plaster, then lath, then  insulation, now repeat?  Now repeat again until it's all gone. We dumped over 6,000 pounds of This Old House when it was all said and done!  Phew...it was an all over body workout! And dusty filthy too. But it felt good to have the house stripped down to it's bare bones. Like we're moving in the right direction anyway.

Here's a little of what our work zone looked like...

(from the view of our camera phones)

Yep, that's me getting ready to rip off  some lath.
(Sorry the pictures won't upload correctly, blogger needs to fix it)

John's tearing off lath and insulation from the attic 

Recognize that beautiful wall color? That's our dining room!! No more mauve plaster :) 

The mounds of insulation were endless...I felt like I shoveled 5000 barrels full! 

These are the upstairs walls when we were finished
(I wish they would upload correctly!) 

The ceiling

Our second floor framing when it we were done removing all the plaster, lath and insulation! Whoo hoo!
Ready for framing and moving walls...pretty much anyway.

Now John's been working at framing up the downstairs little by little. It's not as easy and fast a process as new construction so we'll see how things progress. We're hoping to finish up our concrete mess in the basement this weekend and be finished with the basement floor for a while! For now we're just happy to be done with most of the deconstruction portion of the project and making some progress forward building.  I can't wait for warmer weather to get here so my fingers don't freeze and my nose doesn't constantly drip while I work in my mask.  And in general, we continue to have the time of our lives while we muttle through this house project together...and I must say it's definitely a dirty bit.  

Mi casa #1...the transformation

I've had lots of requests to post about our last house project (well, John's last house project) so that you can get an idea of his abilities and talents.  For my friends and family, who have seen our album and been with us through the projects, feel free to skip this posting.  :)   For all others, read along and enjoy!!

Here's the beautiful original home in all its glory....you have to appreciate that my husband has vision!

Front of the house (it had a pond with dead bullheads in it...mmm!)

Backyard

Living Room (Beautiful!)

Lovely Kitchen

After John removed the stucco and roof...there was lots of rotten wood. 

Can you see the new kitchen on wheels in there??  :)  

This one wouldn't upload vertical. You get the idea though...it was a dirty job! 

Good friends are a good thing....!
Framing is a go and the race is on to get the roof on while good weather lasts. 

Raisin' the roof! Getting the trusses up was no easy chore...

Out with the old and in with the new.  And a new house stands!! 

Upstairs!

The upstairs framework. Once that was done, John did the plumbing and wiring. Insulation went in and we're ready for sheet rock! 

Sheet rock...then floors...painting. It all moves forward from here! We almost have a house...

And the finished product....2 years later. After adding twelve feet on the back to make the house longer and rebuilding the first floor (and adding a second floor).

The front of the house (wish I had a better picture!)

Back of house, patio and garden

Kitchen

Basement family room

Laundry Room

Laundry Room storage

Upstairs hall

Upstairs guest bedroom

 That's the picture version of the last house project.  While it started out as John's project, it was definitely our project in the end (marriage has a way of doing that huh?).  I think blogging about this project house and seeing the transformation helps me to stay positive about our current project...despite the tortoise pace we seem to be moving these days.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?  Spring is around the corner and the changing weather has a way of jump starting motivation! Not to mention the days get longer and warmer...

Here's to new transformations of this old house!  Right now we need to get past re-pouring the concrete basement and footings and we'll be ready to start a little electrical! Here's what our basement currently looks like....it's a mess!!!