House Progress

It's high time we had an update on the house on the blog so here we are. Currently, a lot of the progress from the professional builders is being blocked by waiting for inspections and jumping through insurance hoops but we are in a good place and have been able to start doing some work ourselves. The first order of business was to remove the popcorn ceiling. The cleaning company told us it couldn't be cleaned and planned to just paint over it so we decided removing it was a better plan.

         

The first bedroom we are working on is Clovers old room, soon to be the play room. Since the girls want to share a bedroom when we move back in we are fixing this room up for storage and craft space.

The girls picked the turquoise color for this room and it looks so bright and fresh! Here are some in progress shots.

 

We bought a whole row of IKEA bookshelves for this room so there will be lots of storage space. As far as what has been going on with the professional crew at the house, the basement has been cleaned and painted (below)

The plumbing is fixed (hooray for working toilets!), And the electrical work is well underway.

Last but not least Eric finished the treehouse so the girls have a fun place to play while we work on the house. Probably not much will happen this week but we have ordered the glass for the windows and are hoping to be able to have them installed next week.

January Photos

We kicked off the New Year with our friend's annual New Years Day brunch where they added a balloon drop for the kids this year.

It's been a really warm winter so we got to spend lots of time outside at the Nature Center and Red Top Mountain with friends.

We got one little cold spell where did get some snow and ice.

We visited Fernbank Museum.

 And lastly, we visited Eric's family in Knoxville.

We hanging in through our home rebuilding for another month here but will have exciting updates to share soon!

Ice Art

It doesn't feel much like winter now but last month we had a brief spell of ice and snow and the kids and I took advantage of the cold weather to make some ice art. It's such an easy, pretty project and the girls really enjoyed it. To make your own you will need:

*A small plastic container (we used the plastic containers that Chinese take out soup comes in)
*Water
*Natural materials such as berries, leaves and pine needles
*Glitter
*String
*A freezer or freezing temps outside

Have your kids collect natural items from outside and make a pile, then pour about half an inch of water in to your container. Arrange your natural materials in the water and add glitter. Loop your string so the end are submerged in water and freeze overnight. The next morning, hang your ice art in the sun. The girls also really enjoyed watching these melt and seeing the glittery puddles they left behind!