I came home from bootcamp last week to find this:

Here's another shot of the little cutie


Jason and the boys

Sawyer wants everyone to watch this, especially Grandma


He really enjoys sitting & playing (although I think he'd rather be running)

He's getting quite good

Okay -- so it's not completely finished yet. But here's what's been going on with us lately.

Monday (July 20) we sat down and made a list of what we needed to purchase at the hardware store. We intended to get a babysitter, go shopping on Thursday, and start the demolition on Friday. Meanwhile, I'd pack.

Tuesday night it started to rain, so I knew my water aerobics class would be cancelled. I hadn't had any luck on landing a babysitter, and dinner was already hot when Jason arrived home from work. So we grabbed a bite, loaded up our baby, and headed up to Burlington.

Wednesday (Day 1) I started packing, 'cause I figured we'd be anxious to get started. I could barely get all the clean dishes out before Jason was already pulling up baseboards & tearing up the first layer of lanolium. My house was totally rearranged. It was just the beginning.

The kitchen sink cabinet wasn't attached to the wall, and when Jason removed the cabinets next to it, the sink collapsed. It didn't have a shut-off valve, and when he went to shut off the main house valve, it started leaking. The guy from the city had to come out and shut us off from the main in the yard.

Thursday: Day 2.
Jason had the main shut-off valve replaced and the new valves for the sink installed by noon. It was nice to be able to flush the toilet again. . The second layer of lanolium came out, a layer of padding & the tar paper. Jason removed the old tile back-splash, and began the framing for our new lighting.

Friday: Day 3
It was HOT. And Jason was up in the attic most of the day working on electrical. Lucas, the son of some friends of ours, took us up on our (only half-serious) offer to help tear out some wall board, and wound up helping the rest of the evening and all day Saturday. He was alot of help. Friday afternoon we were so hot & sweaty that we decided it was time to shower and go somewhere air-conditioned. So we packed up Sawyer again and made another (necessary) trip to Burlington for supplies -- made a few returns, some purchases (those add up fast!!), and spent some nice time in the truck (it's 2hrs round-trip).

Day 4: Saturday
We replaced the old wallboard we'd torn out, installed the new back-door (it's so pretty!), and Jason worked on electrical & framing for the lighting. Jason had taken 2 days off work, and we'd worked 9a-10p, mostly just taking breaks for meals. Oh, and we started celebrating our progress each evening with a bowl of ice cream. I figured it was fully justified! Sawyer's been spending lots of time hanging out on his blanket. So far he can only roll over to his tummy, and doesn't get back on his back very well. I think that that's ending, but I'm hoping he holds off another week or so. At first Sawyer wasn't too sure about having both Mom and Dad home and not getting more attention from at least ONE of them most of the time (lol) but he got used to it alright. 

Day 6: We were back at it Monday morning; we finished prep-work for the plastering/patching/sanding part. That took longer than either of us expected. I pulled out the Johnny-Jump-up, hoping that it would keep Sawyer entertained for a while. You can also see part of our dinner set-up. I'm very grateful for the hot-plate that mom lent me. It's been a life-saver!

Day 7: On Tuesday we put up the first layer of plaster. We realized that it was going to be a whole day before we could do much more, so we switch gears and started working on the floor. We completed the prep-work for the new flooring, which included replacing a moldy section of floorboard.

Day 8-10. Wednesday night we installed the cement backer-board for the tile. We ran out of screws (due to some miscommunication about how many were supposed to be used per board) and the hardware stores around here close at 7p. So we didn't get to finish this part 'til Thursday morning. We spent the remainder of Thursday figuring out what else we needed that we hadn't already purchased, and Jason made another trip to Burlington, while I caught up on things like laundry, dishes (washed in the bathroom sink... yay), dinner, & other random things I needed to do to regain my sanity. Friday was spent installing tile. Jason is convinced that tile requires far more work than a floor deserves. But we both really.really like the results.

Saturday morning we left for a quick trip to spend the weekend with Jason's family. We hadn't been up to Ioa since May, and needed to get away from the kitchen project anyway. Monday came far too quickly. Day 13: applying grout. picking corn.

Day 14: I spent most of Tuesday at a friends putting up the corn that we'd picked the night before. 40qts went into the freezer. We're really going to enjoy all that sweet corn! Tuesday evening we spent the *entire* evening cleaning the tile. I'd followed the directions in the book (and on the bag) best I could tell... but not well enough. Let's just say that *all* excess grout needs to be scraped off the tile before it start to cure . So. Anyway. Lesson learned. And I'm motivated to try again and do it right. I'll probably get a chance to do that when we do the bathroom. Rather... if. lol

Day 15-17: It's been TWO WEEKS already! Wow. Time really flies by quickly. Wednesday night we put down a layer of plastic to protect our new floor, and Jason sanded the last coat of plaster & applied a coat of primer. On Thursday I painted. And painted. And painted some more. And when Jason got home, he painted (the ceiling is kinda hard for me to get -- lol), applied a bead of caulking around the edges of the tile, and installed the lock & door knobs on our new door. Sawyer's getting to try all kinds of new toys!

Day 18: We spent most of this week really pushing to get stuff done so we'd be ready for cabinets on Saturday. On Friday I cleaned & sealed the grout. When Jason got home we started bringing the cabinets in! Such an exciting moment. Jason started building the cabinets in October last year. He put up a guide for hanging the upper cabinets and cut a hole in the kitchen-sink-kickboard for the air vent. When we brought in the corner cabinet, Jason had to take off the front door so it would fit thru. We're both very grateful that he didn't make it another inch or two wider -- that's not something we'd measured for when we were planning last fall!

Day 19: Jason's folks arrived Saturday morning. While Ernie helped Jason install the kitchen cabinets & the electrical for the oven, Lois and Sawyer and I went shopping & swimming . It was a very good day.

Here we are. As you can see, Sawyer was generally the center of attention. In the bottom picture, I'm cooking pancakes for our Sunday breakfast in my new kitchen! Yippee!!

Everything isn't done. We still have to put up the doors, stain and nail in the baseboards, make shelves, paint the utility closet doors and install the coat closet doors. And make the countertop. And maybe a few other things I can't think of. Oh, and we're planning to purchase a dishwasher & above-range microwave. But what we've done so far in the last three weeks has been very exciting!