Egress Window Progress

Here is the hole and dirt created in our side yard but the process of egressing it.
Our mason, who is no small man and not a young 'n dug this out BY HAND in less that three hours- roots and all! Brian, I, and Jamey were floored!
The metal thing is what will be put into the hole. The window there will be installed next week. SO, there will be full size window in the guest room that will open up and allow residents to crawl out to safety if needed. A cover that protects against the elements but is easy to push off will also be installed.

Updates to our basement

Well, this is what Amara thinks of the basement and so do we...alittle drool, pretty relaxed, but a few crazy things like a bowl on your head! Everything has been going so well. Our waterproofing system was put in last week while we were in WI on a short vacation. This past Tuesday, our friend and owner of Precision Decks and General Contracting, Jamey Schurvinske, started on our remodel. Within hours, our basement turned into a real project and by the end of the day, much of the ceiling was already framed. It was so exciting to see things paking progress instead of just demo and removal.

Here's what the basement looked like last night when we got home from the Fire Station. The entire ceiling and all the walls in the main room are framed. Since our basement ceiling is so low, Jamey found 1/4 inch drywall to put above and we decided to use can lighting instead of the old florescent ones we had before.



Our wonderful neighbor, D Smith, is helping us with the electrical. He was at our house until 9 on Wednesday night and and 7 last night putting in the cans, rewiring some areas, putting in outlets, etc- he is AMAZING and Jamey was really impressed with how fast he worked.



The green room in the corner which was and will be our guest room has had little done to it. We decided to egress the basement window in that room as it will eventually be Alaric's bedroom and it allows us to officially use the basement living room, bathroom, and bedroom and additional square footage. Our mason is doing the egress work first and then Jamey will finish the guest room. I forgot to add those pics so I will in the next entry.

Back where the saw is in the below picture will be where our new kitchen counter, cabinet and bar with be. It will be small but will be nice and allow us to not only have the basement be a take-over kids room but also a place for adults too ( the beer fridge will probably end up having more juice boxes than beer but that's OK)

OK, this below picture shows our first bump in the road...it's hard to see so let me explain. Our waterproofers did a great job. On this, the east side of the house, the floor slants down significantly because there once was a floor drain. The waterproofer told us that he was going to build up the concrete some along this far wall and feather it out so it is level with the other end of the basement. Well, he built it up for sure and kinda feathered it out but now there is a ridge, or a big bump along the whole edge of this wall in both the guest room and living room. We used to have a bookcase along this wall in the living room and the bed along the wall in the guest room. As it is now, the books would fall right off the shelves ( there is about a 2 inch difference between the top of the bump and the floor below) and the bed would rock for sure. Bri and I were upset. We spent thousands on the waterproofing system and now we found ourselves looking into self- leveling concrete solutions, different flooring, etc.



Brian called the waterproofing company yesterday and they agreed to come out on Monday and smooth out the bump. Bri explained that it's about 110 square feet that need to be leveled and they agreed to fix it- THANK GOD!



So, that sets Jamey and his crew back a few days with the waterproofers are in doing their work and allowing time for the cement to again cure. We hope the mason can work around the waterproofers too so Jamey can get back in by the end of next week and start drywalling, mudding, etc.

Jamey came in today while I was in Champaign grocery shopping and the place looks completely different again. He installed all the insullation in the living room walls and put plastic over the insullation to prepare it for drywalling.

Alaric heads to the Fire Station

Monticello always has great things going on for kids, especially our kid! It's Fire Prevention Week and each year, the Fire Station has an open house so kids can see the trucks, meet fire fighters, and get some info on Fire Safety. It was great. Here is Alaric trying on a real fire hat!
He got to be a passenger...
...and a driver!
Alaric got to meet real firefighters, including Firefighter Brandon! Brandon used to work for Brian so he was excited to show Alaric how to climb up on the truck and more.
Other firefighters gave demonstrations like this one showing how they can take apart an entire car if someone was trapped inside. They had saws and axes and hammers- a little boy's dream come true!

Not only did they get to climb on the firetrucks and meet the firefighters but also EAT! There were free hotdogs, popcorn, chips, cookies, and drinks! A nice little family evening for the Fultons!
Alaric had so much fun
Amara did too- everyone loved her Pumpkin outfit!

Alaric's First Field Trip and Fall Photos

Alaric had his first field trip today to the Pumpkin patch! It was so fun. Brian took the day off work to help me since every child in the 2's class must have a parent with them and I had Amara too. The place was great. It was about 15 minutes away just outside of DeLand. It was a private residence that turned their machine sheds into an indoor hay bale maze and a pumpkin and gourd shopping center. They have a real corn maze out in the fields and a huge pick your own pumpkin field. They have play structures for the kids and lots of areas to take pictures. We had so much fun and the kids did great.

Alaric picks his favorite gourds.
Alaric has a crush on the big sister of his classmate Kelton. This is Emmerson. She's an older woman of 5 and adores Alaric.

Amara was precious. She hung out in Daddy's front pack and watched all the activity.
Amara just sat still on the hay bales and let me shoot away!
Alaric is still practicing his holding skills but is doing well.

Alaric checks out the pumpkins in the pumpkin house.

Amara gets up close and personal with the pumpkins.
We spread out blankets and had snack! Alaric brought snack today and was so proud. After we said our "Good is Great, God is Good" prayer, everyone got organic fruit strips, two kinds of goldfish, and juice boxes. All the kids thanked Alaric and he got to say " Your Welcome".
Alaric checks out the hay cart and accesses the crops.
Tonight we head to the Monticello Fire Department Open House...more exciting pictures to follow!

Impromptu Vacation to Wisconsin

Last Sunday I was complaining to Brian that I wasn't sure when I was going to get in all my visits to my chapters for Zeta Tau Alpah ( I'm required to visit each atleast once a year). One of my chapters is in Oshkosh, WI and is 6 hours away. I told Bri that the only time I thought I could go was this week. He looked at his calendar and said, " lets go! I worked almost 65 hours last week, I can take a few days off!". Within an hour, before we went to church- we had the hotel booked, the chapter was notified of my arrival and we were packing,

We left Monday morning after we greeted our waterproofing system workers who would be working in our home all day until Thursday. As they began jackhammering the concrete in the basement, we realized how great it was to be gone as the children and I could not have taken the noise all day for 4 days.

The 6 hour trip only took 7 and the kids did really well. Alaric learned how to sleep pretty well with the help of Amara's Boppy. About 20 minutes outside of Oshkosh, Alaric got car sick and threw up EVERYWHERE ON EVERYTHING! So, we stopped on the side of the road and stripped him down and go things as clean as we could. He was just excited to see the oncoming traffic and he got changed!
It was a laid back trip and we loved it! Here are Alaric and Amara poolside at the hotel.
Amara did great in the pool for the first time for about 12 seconds.

Oshkosh is home to the world's largest community built playground and it was AMAZING!!! It just kept going and going. it had a boat and a castle and an airplane and towers and a digging area and sand and rocks and swings and an art museum and nursry rhymes and more!

We walked down to the late and fed the seagulls crackers even though the sign told us not to...theres a reason for that. This picture was taken just seconds before about 100 birds came swarming at us!

Oshkosh also has it's own mircobrewed beer-FoxRiver Brewing Company. We went to their brewery and brewpub for lunch.
THis is Brian's idea of a vacation!
Tuesday night after a swim with Alaric in the pool, Brian's best friend, Anthony calls and offers him tickets to their first playoff game for the Cubs on Wednesday night! So, instead of driving back to Monticello Wednesday afternoon, we stopped in Chicago. We went to Anita's place and were able to put the kids down for a nap, have my friend Rachel over for awhile, hang out with Anita for a few hours, put the kids down, eat Chicago pizza, and watch the Cubs lose!

Here's Amara welcoming Aunt Anita home!


Go Cubs!

Bri got home from the game late and we packed the kids up and headed back to Monticello. because of a missed turn on an interstate I've driven on hundreds of times, we ended up in Indiana. We got home at 2AM.

Amara says HOME SWEET HOME!

Homecoming Parade

Monticello's Homecoming was last weekend. The parade is the biggest deal. They even let the schools out early to see the parade. Here Alaric is with his neighbors.
Small town parades are the best. Each kid gets TONS of candy. Here they are with their bags. Alaric didn't care about the candy at all- just the trucks and he still walked away with fist fulls!

We went to the parade with our neighbors. Staci had Amara when the firetrucks blew their sirens. Amara freaked out. Good to know!