Moulding Right Along...

This weekend my parents came to help us do our first DIY crown moulding. My dad did a good chunk of the woodwork around our house in Fresno (moulding, hardwood floors etc) he is an old pro and Adam really wanted to learn.  He really had no idea how technical and laborious it was, but after a hot bath he is ready to do the next room.

It really made me cry to watch my Dad show Adam how to use his very own major power tool and how to put up the moulding. I love this first picture of the two of them.  Truly, love.

Caulking, sanding, and painting to be done tomorrow, but they got a lot done in just one day!

I love this picture!  To me its as wonderful as the two of them at our wedding.  I have so many memories of my dad doing projects growing up, now Annie can have the same.  PS, check out Adam's serious new saw!  

This is the rooms before picture.  Tomorrow hopefully we will have a complete after.

Here is a sneak peak of the after.

This is my dad saying "Listen son, this is what you do to avoid cutting your finger off, trust me, I know."

Does Adam look freaked out to anyone else but me?

This is my Dad's saw, hence the reason for Adam's new one.  I think it was used to build the Pyramids.

No going back now!  The first cut.

Looking good boys, you make this look easy.

One last piece to go.

And in it goes.... onto caulking, sanding and painting.  Our first major DIY done!  Thank you for making my house beautiful, I love you both.

Luck O' The Irish

While the boys worked away my Mom made a beautiful Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner for a delayed St. Patrick's Day. She is 1/2 Irish you know.  That make me a 1/4 and Annie 1/8th. Grammy doesn't visit our house without showing up with at least one delicious homemade meal and we love that! She and Annie and I spent the day looking at Patio Furniture, checking out our Lohemans, having a Pink Berry Yogurt, Cooking, and playing around.

 It's so nice to have an extra set of hands to help with Annie. It was a chaotic weekend but thank you for the beautiful dinner. I was shocked that Annie's new favorite meat is Corned Beef, but boy did she love it.

Singing songs and reading books.

Snuggling and watching Peter Pan.

My table.  We were so tired I did not get a picture of the dinner but it looked great.

Annie girl.

Speaking of Patio Furniture

We finally pulled the trigger and are redoing the backyard.   In the Bay Area big yards don't come without big bucks and as such we have a small yard.  Having all grass was kind of useless, as we had no place for a table.  So rather than have a small yard we opted to go with a big patio.

We are having pavers put in, the retaining wall raised to seating height and refaced, and a fire pit built with a gas line to the house.  I just can't wait for summer.  I have all the furniture picked out, now I just need someplace to put it.  We will have a dining table/chairs, seating area for the fire pit, and two lounge chairs & Umbrella situated in front of the kids play area so we can read magazines and watch Annie.

Of course the week we started it started to pour.  We got the yard dug out and the gravel compounded but now we have to wait for the rain rain to go away.

Step one: dig up all the grass and dig down a few feet.

 Step two lay down gravel about a foot deep.

 Install drainage.

This will be our new fire pit.  We are doing a rectangle shape with two fire rings and it will come off of the redone retaining wall.   The whole wall and the pit will be capped with a beautiful Limestone.

The front area of the side yard is being done as well.  This broke my heart as Todd and I worked SO hard but the guy basically threw it in for next to nothing.  At least while doing it the first time I got to bond with my brother over a few days I will never forget.  Happy memories for sure.  I guess this time we chose to break the wallet?  http://thehellerhome.blogspot.com/2010/08/break-back-or-break-wallet.html

Lots of steps to go, and no, this one was not DYI. ;-).