Demolition Weekend

What a busy and exciting first weekend we had at the new house! In honor of Andrew's 31st birthday yesterday, we had Demolition Day, and those of you who watch any of the home improvement shows on TV known that this is basically a kickoff to construction where any existing walls and other structures that will be coming down are removed to prepare the worksite for building. What a birthday treat for Andrew to be able to use all of his tools to get started on his house.

My parents visited for the weekend to help with the "demo" and also to help watch the kids for us. We had a big birthday cake for Andrew at the house and invited all of our closest friends to stop by to see the new place and visit. Some of them were even able to help out with the work so we really appreciate that!

Here's the birthday boy himself at work:

Here, Ben is helping Andrew by handing him handtools before the major work started (and before the kids were removed from the workzone!). This is SO exciting for a two year old boy! He loves tools, hanging out with the guys and also having friends over so Ben had the best time yesterday "helping" with the home improvements and having all of his friends come for a visit.

I walked in on Ben showing his two friends Tyler and Ian Nice some of his daddy's tools. How cute!

Let the demo begin!

Meanwhile, the kids were occupied outside in the yard on the new swingset, sandbox and the boys especially LOVED this neat wooden pirate ship that we have now inherited in our yard. It's basically like a treehouse on the ground with wooden ladders to climb, rings to swing on, and wheels to steer. Honestly, this thing is like heaven to little boys so it is such another nice perk about this house!

Ben was nervous to go up at first, but when he saw all the "big" boys up there, he wanted to join them. When he came over to wave to me, I asked if he wanted to come down and he said "No! Ben...play...big boys!"

The three Nice boys - Ian, Dylan and Tyler- some of our good friends' children and our new "neighbors" (within about 7 minutes).

Nate checking out the construction zone...

As his shirt says, Nate was Daddy's Helper for the day by taking a 3 hour nap in a room of the house that was not being worked on, even despite lots of visitors and some minor construction noise. This guy sleeps like a champ!

Nana was such a big help by helping watch the boys for the day while the rest of us worked.

My job for the weekend was helping to remove wallpaper with my dad and several friends. Here, my dad and friend Jason Spencer and his son Jordan help with the walls. Jordan was old enough to really help out for a little while. Luckily, some rooms were easily strippable but others were very difficult. The heat steamer worked wonders!

Another exciting job last night for Andrew and good friend Steve Kriebel was to use Andrew's new chainsaw to cut down two dead trees on the premises. The guys wanted to try the chainsaw out so badly that they just stopped in the midst of indoor work and headed outside before the sun went fully down. The trees are gone now!

Finally, today my dad, Andrew and I went back to the house alone to get more work done. Here are the two men in the midst of construction in the master suite area.