dungeon - part 4, window install

As I mentioned in my last dungeon post, we needed to get an egress window for our basement to be code. After talking with many many contractors (who were all really really expensive), Terry decided to hire a concrete cutter to cut the window hole and then to install the window himself with his dad's help. This was the most cost effective. We did really well on the cost I think. Even the window we were able to get pretty cheap.

I was so incredibly excited to see this truck outside our house on Saturday morning, despite the mini-spring blizzard we had received the night before (since the window is under our deck and the wind didn't blow and drift, we were good to go).

It was colder than I thought it would be when I went out to snap some secretive paparazzi photos of the man doing his job. Glad he didn't see me. I was just so excited and actually, just curious to see how he was doing the cutting. He had this special circular saw on rails that he attached to the concrete to get a precisely square cut. I was really glad Terry didn't do this himself.

After that he used a chainsaw to cut out the corners. He said the steel rebar in our foundation was good quality and gave him some trouble. Also, their saws all used water so it was a bit of a muddy mess for the poor guy. And he was a mess. And dude, it was cold out there.

 Inside his wife was using a wet vac to suck up all the water and junk.

And then they pushed the concrete backward into the hole! LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!

The last thing he did was jackhammer the concrete pieces into manageable chunks for us to leave there or remove. Not sure which he's going to do.

And as for the window well, we'd like to do this awesome tiered thingy. That way it's pretty (AWESOME!), lets in more light, a natural ladder in case of escape, and keeps the overhead clearance where it needs to be for code. But that won't be for a while.

And as a side note, Terry's dad bought this gas stove that we are thinking of using to heat the dungeon. We are an all electric house so it gets expensive and we like the idea of using gas. But it's a little complicated to install. We'd have to hire the concrete cutter again and then a gas guy. So yeah, that's in the back of our minds. Oh, and you can just see the little blue electric box to the right that Terry and his dad got up. They are also starting on the wiring!

It was quite cold with the window not in yet, so the kids, having nothing else to do, watched Grampa and daddy work.

And so did comatose Samuel after his nap. Ha ha, look at his little face!

Here's a shot from the other side of the room so you can see where the window is located in the dungeon.

The framing of the window gave them some trouble. The hole was a bit too big. Their framing boards were a little too big. So they had to trim those down and then cut a bunch more boards to close up around the window. But after several hours, they got it done and it looks great! It's SO wonderful having real light down there!

dance party

You may not be able to tell exactly what my three kids are doing based on this photo alone, besides that they all appear to be in motion. Yeah, they're in motion alright. They're dancing. 

I was just hanging out in the kitchen, on the computer, like a bad mom, and the kids just threw together this impromptu dance party. It was awesome. Of course, they were dancing to last year's VBS, which was Go Fish. Not my favorite band. But their favorite band. It was so cute because Samuel was joining in doing his version of their twitchy little dance moves. So cute.

And it made me smile. I had wretchedly awful sleep last night and was moving really slow this morning. My kids are so great. They didn't bug me or whine at all. They've done a wonderful job of entertaining themselves all day today. I worked out (late), we ate lunch (late), we got school done (late) and I now finally have some time to myself. And I gotta say, I love my kids. They really are great.

brothers

I'm not sure where this photo came from, but I like it. I think Terry must have taken it about a week ago, right before Noah's haircut. Samuel's was cut about a month ago. Just today a stranger remarked how Samuel was having a crazy hair day. Yeah, Harry Potter hair every single day. Like he just got off a broomstick. Love it. And love my boys!

dungeon - part 3, egress window

Terry had made up his mind that he wanted to get a building permit for the dungeon before he went any further with electrical work. When he went down to their office, they informed him that he had to have an egress window installed in any living area. Even if it wasn't a bedroom. 

So he came home, decided that's precisely what he was going to do and I helped him measure and decide where the new window would go. I think it's great, aside from the added expense. It'll help the dungeon no longer be a dungeon!

The window is going to go under the front deck because that's the easiest place for it to go (won't have to cut up the back deck or dig down as far):

As you can see, he got straight to work. That day. I was so proud.

moving rock

And this is about how far he got in a hour, after which we had to leave to visit some friends. He was already about half way down!

pretty red dirt

The next day our friend Damon (and son Henry) was kind enough to come and help him out with the digging. Here he is shaking his head as he watches Terry dig farther than he needs to due to his extreme perfectionism coming in to play regarding the hole not being perfectly square or level. Come on!

Henry and Evie in the pit of despair.

And here's Noah in there so you can see how deep it is. We've been talking to contractors all week and getting bids, trying to decide how to move forward. Either we will hire a guy to cut the concrete for us and Terry will install the window. Or we will hire someone to do it all. I'm betting Terry will end up doing it because of his perfectionism. But we shall see!

destroyer baby...4?

A couple weeks ago, the kid's toothpaste went missing. I figured who was responsible. The one they both call "Bad baby!"

A few days later, I found the toothpaste while making a favorite afternoon snack...

No. The toothpaste should not go in the graham cracker box Destroyer Baby. No it should not. 

monster trucks

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but Noah has this new great interest in monster trucks. I think it's as a result of Grampa B recording monster truck shows on his tv for Noah to watch when they're at the ranch. Evie is less into them. In fact, she groaned when they put one on to watch last time we were out there. So I thought she would not be interested in going to the monster truck show at the civic center last weekend with daddy and Noah. I was wrong. 

Daddy took Noah and Evie to the monster truck show! Terry texted me during intermission to say that he didn't remember the place being so small. Guess he's all grown up now. We did mutually think it was a little lame there was no dirt to cover the cement. I guess it made the motorcycle stunts that much more impressive. 

Here's some proof they were there. What's the deal with not starting a kid thing like that until 8pm? They didn't even get to bed until after 11! Also, they are totally right on in their marketing of kid sized ear muff protective thingies. Terry took little squishy ear plugs for them but had a hard time getting them in their ears. As a result Evie got lots of Ring Pop sucker in her hair from covering her ears and they were both were pretty jealous of all the other kids in the place whose parents shelled out $10 a piece for the lame thingies. They survived and had a great time.

I think this was one of the best happenings on the night. Terry had to show me this photo before we went to bed (late). They had to use a crane to get it right side up. But he was also very impressed with the motorcyclists. Evie liked best the pink car who won a race.

Close up

dungeon makeover - part 2

 Time for a dungeon update. It's been a month and Terry has got some good stuff accomplished. 

Two weeks ago I had jury duty. Ug. Terry spent two mornings home with the kids and worked on framing up the utility room.

The utility room is to the left. You can see where the door will go, behind which we'll store some toys, games and other stuff.

Here's the framed utility room from the opposite corner of the room. This side of the room will be where our big couch sits and the tv will be on that utility wall. 

A better shot of where the utility room is situated in the dungeon.  

Isn't it beautiful? I think it is. But that's not all Terry's done. He spent all day Friday anchoring the framing into the concrete and ceiling. Those walls don't move now and they're ready for wiring and then insulation and drywall. Right now I'm basking in this accomplishment, though I know Terry is already thinking forward to his next steps (he was starting into space this morning at breakfast and said he was thinking about the dungeon). Hopefully we will be about done in 3 months time when the baby arrives.

Finishing the last anchors! Oh yeah!

losing Noah

I've recently realized that I forgot about a pretty significant event in our family that occurred last year.

Noah got lost on one of our walks. I thought he had been abducted.

Beginning in November 2012, I started walking more outside with the kids on their bikes in an effort to gain less weight for this pregnancy (i don't think it's helping though!). On December 4, 2012 we were having some friends over for dinner and since it was cooking nicely in the crock pot, I thought we could go on a nice long walk.

a photo recreation taken today

Usually on our walks, we go north of our house until the road goes up a steep hill. When we reach the hill, or before, we would turn aside.

But since I had dinner simmering nicely at home, I decided we would tackle the hill and go for the full 2.5 mile walk. We live very close to the edge of the Black Hills and there's a road (South Canyon Road) just a half mile up from our house that skirts the hills, rolling nicely up and down. It's so pretty. I'd never taken the kids up there because of the hill. 

THE hill

We got to the end of the road (Nemo Road), our half way point, and turned around to head home. Now here's where I need to say that Noah is a very obedient boy and would always wait for me at each road intersection before crossing. He would never get that far away. However, I had slowed down to help Evie and Noah kept going. When Noah reached to the top of this big hill (where this photo is taken from), he decided that he would try to go it alone. And once he started going, he could not stop! Once he reached the bottom of the hill, he was going so fast, he thought he'd just ride the half mile home on his momentum and wait for us there.

But I didn't know that. When Evie, Samuel and I reached the top of the hill, I expected to see Noah waiting there for me. I did not see him. We ran down to this intersection to look further down the hill and still couldn't see him (because he was already down and on his way home). It never entered my mind that he wouldn't wait for me so I thought he'd been abducted in the few minutes he was out of sight. I walked back up the hill and around the block hoping perhaps he took a wrong turn. I called Terry in a panic. Terry said to call the police, which I did, and he headed home from work. After explaining where we were and what had happened like three or four times, they instructed me to just wait where I was. So I stood right here at the top of hill freaking out. That was the worst part, just pacing there.

see the car's angle on the road? it's a steep one.

 I remember running back up the hill to look for Noah again and looking back at Evie, who couldn't quite keep up. She was crying and freaking out too. It was just so very scary! 

a view of the bottom of the hill as it turns south on it's way back to our house.

After about 10 minutes of waiting on the phone, a police man finally came to the top of the hill and informed me that they had found him waiting calmly at our house for me to show up. He loaded up Evie's bike and Samuel's stroller and drove us home. Noah was just standing there all sheepishly with another police man and I hugged him and scolded him. When we got inside, we lectured and talked, Noah had a good cry over all of it and was all better. For me, however, it took several days to stop feeling all panicky as if I was still in the midst of searching for my first born - I felt like I was still on top of that hill! Then I didn't want to walk that way anymore due to the fearful memories. Since then, time has healed most of the fear and I'm over it. It did take me this long to remember it! I thought I'd better write about it so none of us forget. After all, Evie has also run away. I sure hope Samuel never does anything like this!

daddy fun time

I just had to grab the camera yesterday when the kids all jumped on daddy for a ride around the room while we were waiting for some students to show up. It reminded me of this evening of wrestling. That happens around here a lot.

I don't know what daddy will do when we have another little boy interested in wrestling... Perhaps that's the purpose of his two arms and two legs? He's got to get in a work out somehow.

Samuel especially enjoyed his piggy back ride. By the time the students got here, he threw a real nice fit because he wasn't ready to be done playing with daddy. 

ice skating II

 One of the fun things about being in a homeschool coop is the activities that come along with it. On Friday we were able to go ice skating downtown for free! The kids had such a fun time on their first outing a month ago that they were eager to go again. And it was nice that mommy and Samuel got to go along this time to watch.

Noah, Evie and daddy first hitting the ice. 

They all quite enjoyed watching the Zamboni.

Despite what the kids say, they did fall a few times. But those walker things sure were helpful.

Pretty little Evie. When she fell she'd just sort of disappear behind her walker until she could pull herself back up.

Every time Noah went by, he gave Samuel a high five. Noah and daddy thought that since Noah was doing so well that he should try skating without his walker. That didn't work out so well but he didn't get discouraged.

At one point towards the end Samuel led me over to the coffee shop and just sat down inside. I don't know if he was cold or what. But then he led me over to the counter where he tried to grab stuff so I led him out and took some photos of him. Cute little face!

He's just so cute. And such a punk.

mochas

Terry received an espresso maker from his parents Christmas of 2011. So when it seemingly busted about a month ago, we figured our yummy mocha habit had been good while it lasted. 

It was actually a funny thing because the night the machine bit the dust just so happened to be the same night we invited some friends over for the express purpose of having Terry's mochas. He ended up having to use the microwave! Fail.

So the machine broke. He searched the owner's manual for cleaning hints and tried running vinegar through the thing several times. No good. He called the company and they instructed him to insert a paper clip into the metal steaming wand thing to see if it would dislodge anything. No good.

Finally, he took a good utility knife to it so he could see what was inside!

And sure enough, wouldn't you know that he found a small nick or hole in the plastic tubing leading down to the steaming wand! That's what had messed up the pressure so he couldn't steam milk anymore. So he ran all over town looking for the appropriate replacement tubing, or even something close but came up with nothing. Still not willing to give up, he thought he'd try to work with the tubing above where the hole had been and finally had success, even if it is a little awkward. :) We're back in business baby!