STORM!

After all the recent home repairs/improvements we've made (and $$ we've spent!) this is NOT what we wanted to see outside our window this morning.

At about 9:30 last night I was in the living room watching Randy Brock tell me that we were NOT in a tornado warning when I heard a crack, crack, crack, crack, crack - seriously, it was that many cracks!! It was pitch black outside, but I was pretty sure that a significant part of our front tree had landed on the house. This picture was taken from the porch door - no playing outside today. :(

These branches fell from the other tree by our garage. They landed on Michael's car (which was parked in the driveway because half of the garage is full of the bathroom remodel supplies from our contractor.

The branches landed on the corner of the porch roof. It missed our brand new fence by just feet - and it didn't break any windows! We're pretty worried though that tree removal people may tell us that we'll have to cut down the whole tree. I had an old guy come by as we were out in the yard one day and tell us that the tree is rotting from the inside out. That would be completely devastating to us. We would literally lose ALL our shade. Please pray that his does not happen!

I think we dodged a huge bullet last night. I'm thankful that this is the worst that happened. As you may have seen on the Today Show this morning, Minnesota had the most tornadoes (35) in one day yesterday in its history. There are 3 people on record that were killed. Thank God this is all that happened to us.

On a side note: I'll have some new pictures soon of the bathroom. It's almost done!

Bathroom Demolition

I'm finally posting some more pictures of the bathroom demolition. It's making progress and the tile guy is here right now and hopefully that will be done today. The above photo was just the first stages of the stripping of the tile. Our contractor is Dave Reynolds (on the left). He's a great guy and has some pretty cool "Jesus" tatoos. He used to be in a Christian rock band!

We decided to get a new toilet, but the sink will be put back in.

Toilet & sink - GONE!

Another shot of the tile coming off and a last look at the old tub.

Here's a close-up look at the hold farmhouse wooden floors. We found out from our neighbors, Milo & Audrey, that our home was built by the family that lived in the house next door to ours (Daryl's yellow house). They were farmers and that was the only house on the land at the time. Our house was built for the grandparents in 1951.

Two pictures of our shower getting prepped for the tile installation. Also, our new tub. It's a tub where the sides will heat up as you run hot water into the tub. So, when you take a bath and lean into the side it won't be freezing cold!

Head Bangin'

Head Bangin' from Brynn Culloton on Vimeo.

I probably shouldn't encourage this behavior! But, it's too funny...

Upstairs bathroom...

As promised...

I'm not going to post too many pictures tonight...it was a long day!! They started the demolition of the bathroom on Wednesday and we've had a couple of unexpected road blocks. It'll all be great in the end, but I'm ready to have our family bathroom back!

Here's a before shot...Michael took this picture. (I might have shut the mis-matched towel in the closet door...just a thought for next time.) I'm very excited to get a new "look" in here. A fresh coat of paint and a new shower curtain does wonders for the soul. :)

This is the hole in the kitchen ceiling that started it all! I'll explain more later, but this hole was nicely patched about a month ago. In the demolition of the bathroom tub it resurfaced today. Another patch job will be coming soon...

New Trick

First Steps from Brynn Culloton on Vimeo.

Miriam taking her first step (with the help of her learning walker) at 13 months!

Ta Dah!

The downstairs shower is complete!

I'm going to try and make this as homey as possible and get some new rugs. Also, my aunt Janis is going to help me sew (and by help, I mean she's going to do it!) a skirt for the farmhouse sink. That way I can hide all the piping and store laundry detergent or toilet paper. The last bit of the project was complete today when a guy came to install an exhaust fan and added an extra light on the ceiling. It's lookin' good, so come on over to visit! :)

Next up: the upstairs tiling of the shower/tub & floor. They start that on Monday!

Fun in the Sun

We've really been getting outside a lot with our new fence. It's been wonderful. On Sunday, Eleanor "helped" me plant my flowers. Below are some more pictures of our fun in the sun!

Yesterday was the first day Eleanor could get out to run through the sprinkler. She was so excited. I got this cute little suit for her last year on clearance. She had been waiting quite awhile to wear it!

Grandma Mari Lee got the girls this water table. This thing is great! It only stands about 2 feet high so it's perfect for Miriam to stand up on. Shortly after Mother's Day she started pulling herself up things - now she's a real pro. No interest in walking just yet. The water table holds just a couple inches of water and kids can just play with toys in it. It's like a little outdoor bath. I like it because it's not always convenient to fill up a wading pool and wait for the water to warm up. Eleanor has had some friends over to play with this too, and kids of all ages seem to really like it.

Fun in the Sun - short video

Water Table from Brynn Culloton on Vimeo.

Here's a little video with nothing particularly special in it - I just know that the out-of-town grandparents & aunts and uncles will enjoy seeing Miriam standing up tall!

Annual Friends Garage Sale

Saturday, May 22, 2010

It's become a summer tradition of sorts to have several families get together to sell their crap in someone's garage! No one really likes to put all the work into a garage sale, but doing it with friends is a lot more fun. Jon & Siri started it a couple of years ago and did it at their place and this year we said we would host. Look at all that great crap!!

And. Yet. More. Crap.

Michael with Jon & Theodore.

Michael, of course, was the money guy. He had an intricate system (including a spreadsheet), which few could master. Good thing he took very few potty breaks.

Anne and her son, Miles (on the right) who was playing with Jack.

Phil & Lorelee - parents to Jack & Elin.

Elin & Eleanor playing Barbies!

Jon brought his grill over and we grilled hot dogs and had a picnic lunch.

It was a bit tricky to keep Miriam entertained. She was in her stroller for awhile and then took a long nap. After lunch she played in this laundry basket full of $.25 toys!

The kids enjoying their picnic lunch.

Overall, it was really fun! But, I gotta say, I wish we would have had more traffic coming through. We had a pretty specific sale - lots of baby clothes & other items for families. So, if people weren't looking for that they left pretty quickly. Michael and I made the most money because we sold some bigger ticket items. It was worth it though because the kids had fun playing, the adults had fun talking (and drinking good Panera coffee that Phil brought!) and it was a very pleasant morning as far as the weather. In the end, we had such a good time that some of us are going to meet again next Friday to sell the crap we didn't sell on Saturday - at Jon & Siri's. Wish us luck! :)

Downstairs shower - more progress

Work done yesterday.

More of the wood frame & the floor was cemented in.

Work done today!

All the tile was done (they put cement board over the 2x4s) today. All that is left is the tile grout, the shower head & faucets, and a shower curtain rod. I have the shower curtain ready to go once everything is done!

Home Improvements - downstairs shower

The construction has begun! I'm posting these for my dad who considers himself the "artistic director" of our home improvements. Along with the fence, we're working on our 2 bathrooms. This is the basement and it just has a toilet and utility sink. They started working this week on a shower for the corner. It will be tiled with some discounted tiles our contrator found. We were going to put a shower surround in, but they would have had to cut into our ceiling as it's a bit low. This was almost the same price and it'll be even nicer!

Check out that huge hole - they were using jackhammers. Watch out for bleeding in the ears...

Mark, the plummer, came again today and added some plumbing work along the wall. I can't wait to see the finished product. You can bet it'll be on the blog!

After this project is finished it's on to the upstairs bathroom - stay tuned!

Miriam's 1 year portraits

These are just a sampling of photos taken by Trisha Schumacher Photography on May 13, 2010. Miriam wasn't too full of smiles that day - but the photographer managed to still get some really cute ones! Enjoy!

Sunday School program

Sunday School program #2 from Brynn Culloton on Vimeo.

This morning was Eleanor's last day at Sunday School and they did a little program for the parents with all the songs they had learned over the year. Enjoy!