First Pictures of Demo

Here are a few pictures. For some reason, blogger is having trouble getting all of them uploaded. Here is a link to the facebook album that has all the pics so far:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=91934&id=543072123&l=34fd1f5484

You can see the plywood around the window is moldy. It will be replaced.


This is with all of the brick pulled off of the dining room wall.

Joshua fought the battle of Jericho...And the walls came tumbling down!

Actually, it's more like: Aaron and Jennifer fought the battle of a leaky wall...

AND TODAY THE DEMOLITION BEGINS!!!

Yes folks, you read it correctly! The company that came out to take a look at the situation has issued us a proposal (which ended up being quite a bit less than I was prepared to pay...hooray!) and they are coming this morning to remove some brick from the wall to match up the color at the brick company. Then they will come back and begin demolition.

They will tear down all of the brick on the leaky wall, as well as the siding on the dormer and the shingles that are in the way. They'll create new soldered customized flashing and kickouts for the roof valleys that will push water away from the house (instead of down into the wall). Because they'll be soldered, there will be no caulking to maintain. Then they will pull the windows, apply the Tyvek house wrap, tape and seal, and reinstall the windows. Then the brick, siding and shingles go back up...and we have a 20 year warranty that water in my dining room is a thing of the past! This process is supposed to take a week.

I'm going to try to take pictures of the process, if possible. But I can't even tell you how stinkin' excited we are that this is FINALLY getting done.

Oh, and just a side note. I think some of you wondered if insurance would cover this expense. That answer is no, because the water damage is due to a structural/design flaw incurred by builder error/negligence. Homeowner's insurance only covers water damage due to a sudden, accidental burst of water or something like that. (Like a busted pipe or something.) Anyways, I'm not super disappointed because I wasn't really expecting them to cover it. Our issue was covered under the 1 year builder's workmanship warranty. He did have his subs come out and "fix" it numerous times, but apparently, none of them actually knew how to fix it. Every fix was just a band aid. Punks.

But I'm letting that go. I'm getting a new wall this week. A leak-free one. HALLELUJAH!

I am a Champion!

So, I'm kindof a hypocrite because when I took this picture for Veronica, I scoffed..."yeah, she's probably going to post it on her blog," and here I am posting this on my blog. V, Dr. Dan and a few other wedding party members had a Nike challenge going called the Wedding Season Slimdown. From the end of October until the wedding, we had to run and see who had the most miles. Well, I did about 106 miles and won. To the victor go the spoils, and this incredible t-shirt is my spoils. :-) Seriously, it's pretty cool. It says Wedding Season Slimdown WINNER.


I've just joined these same friends in the Palm Sunday to Palm Beach challenge. Basically, whoever does the most miles from Sunday to the first weekend in June. I think the plan is that we'll all put $20 in the pot, and the winner gets the dough. I like t-shirts, but I like money too...so look out! Plus I need to train for Race for the Cure. Aaron and I want to run the 5K.

Squeezy Toy

It's amazing how the cheapest toys/things seem to amuse children the most. When we go to McDonald's, the kids always just share a McNugget Mighty Meal. So, I switch off asking for a boy or girl toy. This last time, we got a boy toy (usually way more fun, in my opinion.) The one we got was a Star Wars star cruiser thingy with a piece that you pop in the back and then squeeze to launch it. We call it the "squeezy toy." Well, we played with it for what felt like half an hour one day. Alec was just cracking up everytime I'd squeeze and launch it. Here is some video I got. Yes, he's wearing shoes and pajamas. He loves shoes.

Alec's Magic Show

Alec, after watching sister do her magic show a bazillion times, started doing his own magic show. It's not quite as extensive. He gets right to the point. :-)

Kicked out of bed!

This was a few Saturday's back. The kids were up and came and got in our bed to hang out with us. They were having Kix and juice and waking up. Don't get too comfy, kids!

Birthday Party at Mimi's

Last weekend, we went to Enid, to see my mom, Nana, sister and niece, Kylie. Kylie's 6th birthday was St. Patrick's Day and of course, Alec and Emma will turn 2 on Easter Sunday, the 4th. We celebrated all three birthdays while we were together. Here are pictures from the party:

with Kylie and the confetti cake Mimi made

Mimi gave them a bear that sings "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Emma was amazed!

Alec with his cute plaid shorts and shirt from Great Aunt Phyllis and Eula.

Hmm...what's in here?

Yay! A new Mercer Mayer book! We love Little Critter!

No pictures right now, please.

Shoes!

This birthday stuff is cool.

A Light at the end of the Leak???

So, most of you probably know that as long as we've owned our house, we've had leaks in our formal dining room. We've speculated, had the builder come out and redo flashing about 7 times, (builder is now MIA), had several construction people look at it, caulked, sealed, cut open the drywall...blah, blah, blah. Obviously, this is a situation that has made us both tired and annoyed.

BUT, last week, Aaron was talking to a friend of ours, who will be moving soon from Bella Vista to Rogers. His realtor's husband specializes in EXACTLY our problem. His company pulls down your facade (brick, etc) flashes the RIGHT way, waterproofs with Tyvek house wrap, tapes, seals, and puts your facade back. They are the only people in our area certified to instal Tyvek, and when they get done, you get a 10 year warranty from DuPont (manufactures the Tyvek) and a 20 year warranty from their company, assuring you that no water will enter your house ever again.

Does this sound too good to be true??? Yes, it does. But we looked at this dude's company website, and the pictures of other houses that he's done work on. Basically, the pictures looked exactly like ours! Apparently, there are so many roof designs that lend to this kind of problem, and so many builders/roofers that flash completely wrong, that there is a giant market in our area for just this problem. I think they said they've done whole neighborhoods before. Geez!

The guy is scheduled to come out and take a look at our house this afternoon and give me an estimate. I keep saying this, and it's mostly true...I don't care what it costs, I just want it fixed. There are so many things that we want to do, that we've held out on just because of this stupid leak situation. Hardwoods, painting, etc, etc. But hopefully, it won't break the bank! I haven't even looked into insurance coverage for this kind of work yet.

So, we shall see what he has to say. I'll let you know!

Emma's Magic Show

This is a video of Emma acting out a scene from the Blue's Clues Musical. In the show, Periwinkle (the cat) wants to do magic tricks in the music show. She is always calling for Steve to come and watch her magic trick where she makes things appear or disappear.

For those of you who don't speak "Emma," I'll translate:

"Hey Steve. Ok. And now...I do it. Crocus, crocus...COCUS!'

("Hey Steve. And now, for my next trick I will make this (whatever) disappear/appear. Peri Pocus Hocus Crocus!")

This may be the most awesome video ever!

Pots and Pans

Saturday

Last Saturday was pretty busy. I left to go to my 9am zumba class, but when I got to the gym a little late (the kids were in meltdown mode...and it took a while for me to get going) they had removed the door handles from the newly repainted doors to the multipurpose room, and this other girl and I couldn't get in. We waited for a water break for the other people in class, and banged on the door...but apparently, no one realized we wanted to come in. So they ignored us. So...since I didn't have my ipod, I wasn't going to run without music and all of the treadmills were taken anyway. I decided to just go run some errands instead.

There was a big Rhea Lana consignment sale at John Q Hammons Ctr, so I stopped by there. Found quite a few nice spring and summer things for Emma, but I only got a couple of pairs of pants for Alec because the boys stuff was really picked over. It was the last day- but everything was half off.

Then, I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a new comforter set for our room. They had it on clearance, half off, and I had a gift card from Christmas. So, I got the comforter set, 2 sets of sheets, valances, toss pillows, a throw...everything (it was on of those supersets) for a ridiculously low price.

Next, I hit the Children's Place to look for a birthday gift for my niece, Kylie. She is turning 6 on St. Patrick's Day, the 17th. We'll be going to Enid to celebrate her bday and the twins' bdays a little early in a group party. They always have great sales. I got her a super cute spring outfit complete with pink jelly sandals and a darling headband.

Finally, I went to Target to get a French door lever lock for the front door. When I got home, Aaron and I installed the lever lock and a few cabinet catches. Here's a picture of Alec helping Dad out with his own power drill...and Emma falling asleep during lunch.

Later that evening, we had our good friends from church, the Eggebraaten's, over for dinner. We had a great time visiting and catching up. We see them every Sunday...but we don't get to really hang out with a lot of our friends much anymore, now that we're busy with our kiddos.

The All Star Sports Climber

Yeah, so...I still haven't been able to get the video I took of the first day they got this awesome toy edited. The program I need is on the pc in the office, and we don't go in there during the day because it is a massive catch-all room right now. I have all of the stuff that I'm going to sell in the MOMC consignment sale in April, all of the toys that I've rotated out of the living room, many boxes of Grandma's china, and various and sundry other items that I haven't found a place for yet. You see, our house came with zero "extra" closets. No coat closet. No hall closet. Nothing but bedroom closets and a linen closet in our bathroom. This is not something you think about when you are a young, new homebuyer and you don't have much stuff (and have no idea that in 5 years, you'll be welcoming twins, who will invariably triple your amount of "stuff!") So anyway, one of my MAJOR spring cleaning to-do chores is to completely overhaul the office/guestroom.

So, these are still shots I got of the kids with their All Star Sports Climber. They love it and spend a lot of time playing with it every possible way everyday. As you can see, they use the ball-toss hole up top to crawl through. It's fun to watch them be monkeys!

Alec at the Barre

So, a while back, I caught Alec standing at the gate around the tv, doing this:

quite a lovely sussous (5th position in releve- a dance position)

and an attitude derriere.

Hey, the attitude, I taught them. The sussous just happened to be instinct. I was just glad I had time to grab the camera. And no, I don't like him being that close to the tv. I made him move once I got he pics.