Monday, March 11, 2013

House Projects and Toddlerhood

My Dears, 

I hope you had a great weekend. We were busy little beavers although I only have a few in-progress photos to show you; nothing can really be classified as ‘finished’. 


So here are a few bits and pieces from the last few weeks:

Ben is loving cameras lately (piture! piture!) but refuses to actually be the subject of the photo, unless he’s the one taking it. Thus, we have a lot of shots like this, courtesy of our son:


The bambino got another desperately needed haircut. This guy was smart and gave him the lollipop immediately but made him wait until after the snipping was done unwrap it. Thus, the sucker was clasped tightly in one sweaty little palm and escaped the hairy fate of its predecessors. Some of them looked like Cousin It at the conclusion of the haircutting process. 


We are moving full speed ahead with electrical projects. Our living room is starting to assemble an Amazon warehouse: light fixtures, heaters, and bathroom fans have taken up residence.  Pity our poor UPS guy who lugged a 75 pound toilet up the stairs today.


Ben has been loving art projects lately. This one required a bit of work on my part but is probably the first one I’ve actually wanted to frame. Other favorite projects recently: moon sand and play dough tunnels. More on those in a future post. 


This pretty much sums up the life of Ben:


Plumbing!!!  Hooray. We are so close to having a new water system. 


Here is some of Chris’ weekend handiwork:


Chris finished framing the shower and put down the platforms for the toilet/vanity. The reason for the platform is that the original plumbing was never buried in the concrete. Thus, in order to have a shower and toilet in the basement we either had to rip up the floor and bury the plumbing or redo the plywood platform. It would look super great to have a platform-less bath, but we had a hard time coming to terms with the concrete demo costs, given that this is a rarely-used basement bathroom. Hence the newly rebuilt platform. 


We hate the end of the weekend. Ben is especially despondent on Monday mornings. “[Where’s] Daddy? [Go] Bye, bye [in] car?"


Mutual adoration.



And here we thought we were done baby-proofing. Clearly it’s time for a few more door locks. 


Magnuson Park is one of our very favorite urban parks. It is especially loved by little boys that take great pleasure in throwing rocks in the water and bushwhacking through the fields. 


Here was one of my weekend projects. We went from this:

To this. And assuming that our plumber connects a few more bits and pieces, I might even have a brand new sink by the end of the day. Woot!


Ben is in a ‘helping’ phase. Which is great. And sometimes a pain in the ass. If you come to our house, assume that every surface has been personally handled by this little munchkin. Just so you can properly lower your expectations before you arrive. 



Chris modified Ben’s bed this weekend. The poor guy kept rolling off in the middle of the night. So now it has taller sides and a footboard. I’m currently caulking and painting it. 


This was another project that was in my jurisdiction this weekend: flooring. 


Gotta love those fake tiles. Probably not the most beautiful or hardiest option but you can’t beat the price and, as I tell myself (and you, consequently) over and over and over: It’s a little used basement bathroom. It’ll be just fine. 


 And we’re done. Our plumber even called my ‘handy’. Remind me of that the next time I smash my thumb with a hammer, wouldya?



xo,

Sonja