A busy busy summer

Well July was insanely crazy. We decided to take out a loan to finish the reno's. We were really feeling like our family life was suffering because all of our spare time was being taken up renovating. To that end we hired my uncle and his partner to come in and do the following:

1. Replace the kitchen (we bought used cabinets for $600)
2. Take out the chimney that was in the middle of the boys room and re-do the room
3. Move the entry from the side of the house to the front and build a covered deck in front of it.
4. Make the mud room into a dining room ( I know that sounds odd, but it's adjacent to the kitchen and it works).
5. Add a wall to divide the living room from the new entry and build a hall closet.

All of the flooring and finishing work was to be done by Jeremy and I because of the tight budget.

The last week of june, my Mom let us stay with her. Then we took off to alberta for a couple of weeks. When we got home, Jeremy and I helped for a week while mom watched the kids (thanks mom) and at the end of July we finally moved home. At the beginning of August Jeremy had to go back to work and things are still not done, but they are liveable. I can't believe there are only a couple of weeks of summer left before the craziness of school begins again. SIGH.

We still have to put cupboard doors on the kitchen (I have to sand and paint them). This is becoming a priority though as Marie frequently helps herself and empties the pots and pans etc. I am always coming into the kitchen to find odd things on the floor!

Also, we still have flooring to do in the kitchen/ entry and some painting on the new deck. We have a new office that needs finishing as well. I am thinking that these projects will have to wait for the winter months though.... so much for having more family time...

We did enjoy our time in Alberta though. We drove through the night to Grande Prarie so that the kids could sleep. This was the first time Marie met Jeremy's family. It was nice to visit with them, but a bit crazy. There are now 9 grandkids (soon to be 10!) and 8 of them are 5 years and under, 7 are boys! It was hectic but lovely.

We then drove down to Wetaskwin for Jeremy's cousin's wedding, where we got to introduce Marie to more of Jeremy's extended family. We stayed a couple of days and this was truly the highlight of the trip for the boys because there were puppies and quads on the farm! After that we made our way to Calgary where we had a fantastic visit with our good friends Debbie and Einar and visited Drumhellar and the zoo. Then we made our way to High River where we had a couple of days with My Oma and Opa. Marie is named after my Oma. It was really good to see them again. We then made the epic drive (this time during the day, over a couple days) home.