Well, this blog entry is well past due. What can I say, but it was an extremely busy summer. I know in the last post I said I'd add more photos from Alpena. Maybe I will, but for now this is going to be more words than anything. We closed on our new house located at 1321 Carlton towards the end of July. It is a definite fixer upper, lovingly referred to as "the stinky house." Thankfully, it does not smell all too stinky anymore, but the name remains. With the new house came a lot of demolition. We spent the first two weeks, gutting the basement, bathrooms, and kitchen. After lots of sweat, pain, and time, we started putting her back together again. Most of the walls have had many coats or primer and paint applied. At this point in time, we have the kitchen cabinets installed, approximately 1/3 of the hardwood hickory floors laid, Olivia's room almost finished, including carpet, and the main bath tiled. We still need to install toilets, paint some more rooms, and a lot is yet to be done on the master bedroom, but it's coming along. We haven't had any luck at selling our house yet, but were fortunate to find a couple moving here from Germany in need of a place to rent until they find somewhere to buy. So we now need to be out of the Electric Ct. house we've called home for over ten years, and into the stinky house within three weeks! We can do it!
Mia and Myah all dressed up playing Just Dance.
A midst all the chaos of a renovation, we also managed to have a little fun. The girls played with friends and cousins a lot this summer. Our one trip to Alpena was it though. We also managed a weekend away to Toledo where we went to the art musuem, stayed at Splash Bay Water Park Resort, played miniature golf (Mia was the only one with a hole in one!), went to the zoo, and had a visit with Andy's Grandma. Both girls are now excited about moving. One of Olivia's good friends, Tori, lives a block away, while Mia has loved the independence of living on a cul de sac road that she now can ride a 2 wheeler up and down. She's also loved making new friends with some girls down the street.
Mia continues to love tractors and construction equipment. Road construction has been taking place a block over, and Mia's highlight of her day is when daddy gets home from work, and he takes her to watch the tractors. They also did a little road repair on the street that runs along side us, so Mia sat for a couple of hours and just watched in awe. Andy's so proud because she can decipher between a backhoe, excavator, front end loader, etc. I don't know all the correct terms, but if she were here, she could tell me.
Also, hard to believe, but I took no before and after photos of the house. So many people can't believe it, since the house will be completely new when we're done with it, but I don't care to remember the old. And from my memory, no one really wants to sit down and look at photo albums of a renovation when the come to visit either. We'll just enjoy it when it's done. So the camera stayed in the closet for the majority of the summer. We also sold my sweet little Mini Cooper, to be able to afford two mortgages. So the girls and I biked our tooshies off this summer (sadly, mine is actually still very prominent), but we got our exercise, non the less. I could go on and on with more details, but we'll save that for another time.
