The Flooring Shuffle

When we moved into our new house all but three rooms (bedrooms) were tiled with travertine (including the master bedroom).  The three remaining rooms were still carpet.  Old, nasty, off-white carpet.  We knew that we would change that as soon as we could.  Two weeks after moving in, our a/c went out and leaked all over Asher's room (yes, our a/c unit is in a closet outside that bedroom).  We ripped out the carpet for fear of mold and poor Asher has had nothing but a concrete floor since.

On top of planning to change the flooring in the bedrooms, we also wanted to change up sleeping arrangements for the kids.  I wanted to wait until summer break started so as not to disturb Ari's sleep.  Also, Asher would be a few months over 2 and ready to move out of the crib.  So, our grand plan was to make a "sleeping room" for all 3 kids and a "toy room" for, you guessed it, playing.  That leaves us one room for guests with the possibility of it being multi-purpose since we have a murphy bed in there.

In May we started planning and prepping for the big flooring project.  By Memorial Day weekend we couldn't wait any longer and got started.  Keenan painted Ari and Keira's room a blue/gray (long story where that color came from!) and Asher's room gray.  We also installed ceiling fans.  I still can't believe there weren't any for a Texas house!

Temporary set-up #1 - we moved Asher out of his room and onto a mattress on the floor in Ari and Keira's room.  Two nights were spent like this.

In my posts about the lightning and water heater I mentioned having to clean up the guest room.  Here's why.  Clothes explosion!

Aslo, our dining room has looked something like this for a while now.  Lovely.  I feel like we're moving all over again!

Keenan got to work on the wood floor in Asher's old room.  So much better already!

Temporary set-up #2 - All 3 kids were moved to mattresses on the floor of Asher's old room.  The bunk beds were stored in our living room.  There were many games of "jail" played over these 2 days.

Almost done!

Final set-up - Keenan modified the bunk beds for this configuration which the kids love.  I'm planning a rock 'n roll theme in there now and I'm almost done decorating (no pic's of that yet).  We added a closet organizer to fit 3 kids worth of clothes and bought a new dresser.  We took off the closet doors in both rooms since the kids leave them open like 90% of the time and they just take up space that way.  I'm planning to put up a curtain.

 

 

The new toy/play room!  I love this space so much.  It's super organized and if it gets too out of control messy, I can just close the door!  My other favorite part is the little reading nook I made in the closet with a cozy little bench and bookshelf.  The monkey decor from Ari and Keira's old room will be moved in here soon.

 

 

 

 I'm finally starting to feel really settled here and like our things are finally finding their homes.  Everything is just fitting together a little nicer now.  The guest room has been on hold for this month after all the excitement around here.  We're hoping to get back at it starting this weekend.  More pic's to come when that's all done!

Vacation Time!

I know I promised floor pictures in my last post, but I forgot we were about to leave on our first summer vacation!  We're now on a rotation where we head to Branson every 2 years to stay with our dear friends the Bilberries.  We schedule this trip to coincide with two families from Texas who have done this for the past 6 years.  The drive went well and the kids all got along great for the 3 days we were there.  The weather, or should I say the weather forecasters, made things a little tricky in finalizing plans when we got there.  We still got in plenty of activities and hang-out time and had loads of fun!

Our kiddos loved playing with Daisy the rat and Harry the cat (not pictured) during our stay.

Tee time!  A little Father's Day mini-golf session.  We ended up keeping track of hole in ones and made it a Roach vs. Bilberry competition.  Bilberries won this time.  That Kadyn has some skills!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids spent an afternoon having water wars on the driveway.  They were in heaven!

 

 

 

We ended up visiting Silver Dollar City in 2 rounds thanks to the rain.  The first day we got in about 3 or 4 rides before we got poured on.  It really didn't matter for Keenan, Ari and Keira after they did the log ride.

 

After getting rained out at SDC, we went to the Landing to feed the ducks and watch their fire and water show.

 

Back to SDC.  Keenan and I were able to ride our fair share of roller coasters thanks to having our friends around to help with the kids.  We even got to try the newest ride, Outlaw Run, which is a wooden coaster that goes upside-down and corkscrews.  It's a wild ride!  Ari rode his first coaster, Thunderation, and absolutely loved it!  The two "big" rides Keira tried she did not like at all.  The kiddie area was more her speed.  Asher even rode 2 rides this time around.  He wasn't too sure at first, but really liked it once they got going.

 

Thanks again Bilberries for another wonderful visit!

When it Rains

The day after the lightning strike (see previous post) we were well rested and had our repairs scheduled. We slowly started cleaning things up and enjoyed our first real day of summer vacation. 

Saturday, two days after the storm, we had a lot planned. Two parties & trying to catch up with old friends in between. One of the families we borrow clothes from. I had just changed out the kids clothes a couple of weeks ago & stashed the outgrown pieces in the guest room. That morning I went in the room to pack up the clothes to bring to our friends. As I was kneeling on the floor I noticed the carpet was wet. Not good. Keenan came to inspect things and discovered our water heater in an adjacent closet was leaking. Great!  As if that weren't bad enough, the shut off valve at the heater wouldn't work so Keenan turned off the main valve. 

While Keenan worked on the leak, I set about packing things up for our day. The kids, who were already dressed in their "party clothes" decided to go outside and play. I gave them a very stern warning about not playing in the kiddie pool we had set up the day before. I went to check on them not 5 minutes later and found them digging and playing in a mud puddle!  Gah!  You have got to be kidding me!  All muddy and no water to wash off with!  They all apologize and Keira wipes her hands on her white shirt! Really?!?  We rinse them off in said kiddie pool since its the only water at the moment and Keira changed clothes. 

Keenan was able to fix the leak and tear out the portion of wet carpet. The good news is we had already planned to replace the flooring in there and even have the new stuff in the house!  The rest of the day went off without a hitch and the parties were just what we needed to unwind. 

Bad luck struck again yesterday, though. I was trying to do some more clean up in the guest room. While kneeling on the floor this time I scooted back and caught my toe on an exposed carpet tack!  The wound is minor, but I did go to the doctor for a tetanus booster this morning. I'm ready for this week to be over!

Turning things over to the bright side, we found out today we'll be getting a new oven under our home warranty, our garage door opener part arrived, the dishwasher is being looked at as I type this and we'll be going on vacation soon!

Yesterday we made cookies and brought them to the firefighters who were on call during our incident last week. I missed the opportunity to get pic's of the kids with the guys, but they did get a chance to sit in the truck. 

Next post will be about the new floors!

Lightning Only Strikes Once. Right? Please?

*Just a warning:  This may get long and wordy.  I just want to document some of these stories for later :)

It's been a whirlwind 4 days around here.  Early, early (like 3am early) Thursday morning severe storms rolled through our area.  Keenan and I woke up around 3:15 from the lightning and thunder that just kept getting closer together and louder.  We were expecting one or more of the kids to wake up as well.  I pulled my phone from the charger on my nightstand to check the radar.  I was mainly concerned about tornadoes, but also wanted to see how long this storm was going to last.  I had just turned my phone off when another bright flash of lightning lit up our house.  The crack/boom that followed was not thunder, although I'm sure there was some.  Keenan and I popped out of bed immediately.  I knew that strike had hit nearby, but it wasn't until I saw the smoke in our living room that I realized it had hit our house.

I'd like to say I remained calm, but panic quickly set in.  As I ran for the phone to call 911, Keenan had to remind me to use my cell phone that was in my hand!  Doh!  Keenan had figured out the lightning had hit our chimney and he went to investigate.  I went to the kids who were now awake and crying.  We huddled together on Asher's bed while I talked to the 911 dispatcher.  After I told her there was smoke she insisted we get out of the house.  I got to the front door holding Asher and turned back to make sure Ari and Keira were with me.  My sweet, smart Ari was crawling along the floor just like you're supposed to!  We have praised him so much for his level-headed thinking!  Anyway...I stepped onto the front porch and realized "I don't want to go out here.  It's pouring and there's crazy lightning!"  Keenan still wasn't with us.  The operator asked if we were out of the house.  I basically argued with her about going out in this weather and Keenan not being with us.  Again, not a very proud moment for me!  Looking back now, Keenan and I both knew we didn't see visible signs of a fire and didn't feel an extreme sense of urgency.

Keenan met up with us and had even grabbed an umbrella!  Without a word, we made a bee-line for our neighbors house across the street.  My plan was just to hang out on their giant porch and watch for the fire department.  I didn't relay this plan to the kids, and Keira immediately ran up and rang the doorbell!  Our sweet neighbors took us right in, gave us robes, slippers and blankets.  They were already up from the storm as well, so I don't feel totally awful about waking them up at 4am!  The police and fire departments were at our house in record time.  In all, 4 police cars, 3 fire trucks and the fire chief came to our rescue!  Here's a blurry cell phone pic from across the street, through the rain.

No fire!  We were able to get back in our house around 5am.  By some miracle, we put the kids back in their beds and they stayed there and went to sleep!  It took Keenan and me a while to settle down, but I think we did sleep for an hour or so.  Around 7am we heard a mild crash and couldn't figure out what it could be - the storm was over.  When we finally got up to investigate we discovered the small, glass table on our patio and completely shattered.  No idea why or how, but not really something we needed after our crazy morning.  We spent the rest of Thursday figuring out what all was affected by the strike and just kind of in a daze.  I was running on adrenaline and coffee most of the day.

So here's the run-down of what happened.  We have a fireplace insert that basically acts like a wood-burning stove.  Here's what it looks like:

In order for it to work properly, the flue has to be much smaller than a standard fireplace flue.  To do that, we have a stainless steel, 6" diameter flue liner running the length of our chimney with a cap at the top.  Another important component is the blower.  This is what gets the warm air out into our living room.  The blower is electric and we still had it plugged in to a nearby outlet (behind the broom on the left of the picture).  The lightning hit the cap at the top of the chimney, traveled down the liner and through the fireplace (somehow).  It then made it's way through the power cord into the outlet.  The large, black frame around the insert isn't attached to the fireplace and it was blown off onto the coffee table at the bottom of the picture.  The power cord exploded into about 5 pieces (I found bits of wire and plastic on the other side of the room!) and blew out the outlet.  The smoke was from the outlet, but there was also a lot of ash mixed in making it seem worse.  Here's the aftermath:

We had an electrician out that same day.  He was able to fix the outlet and reset all the others that had tripped during the surge.  He didn't seem concerned about the overall wiring so I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things hold up.  As far as the initial toll, the surge fried the circuit boards in our modem, garage door opener, oven display (the oven still works) and the dishwasher.  So far the modem has been replaced, but it looks like it'll be at least Wednesday for the rest.  I stocked up on paper plates today and I'm getting my workout opening and closing the garage door by hand!

We just continue to count our blessings in this situation.  Things could have been so much worse.  Later that day we found a post on facebook from a page that manages the police scanners with the quote "Command advising fireplace has been blown off."  Whoa!  So glad that sounds worse than what really happened!

Stay tuned for part 2!  Yes, sadly, there's a part 2!