Draining our water storage- the fun way

I filled our entire blue recycle can with emptied pop and juice bottles from the shed. We even jumped on them, like a trash compactor, and still couldn't fit them all in the can. I emptied most of them on Wednesday, but Troy's sister, Ali, came over with her 3 kids and they helped dump out the remaining bottles. They got wet, but had so much fun. Ali wanted to climb up on the roof and hammer with Troy, so I watched the 5 kids. After a while, they got bored of the backyard, so we went for a walk. Spencer and Hannah rode in the stroller while Timmy, Hunter and Eliza walked, or rather, ran ahead of me.

Some of the empty bottles. Ironically, Troy and I don't drink soda pop. Most of the bottles came from Ali and Brett. He's a Dr Pepper lover.
Timmy watering the peach tree that we will have to chop down this week. I'm so sad to lose the peach tree and 3 apple trees!
Spencer with his bottle.
Hunter climbing one of the apple trees we cut down on Saturday
Hunter dumping a bottle. Notice the sidewalk behind him is soaked?
Spencer and Hannah. From this angle she actually looks bigger than him.

The big kids climbed up on a pile of gravel to take a break
Almost 9:00PM. I hope the walk wore out these kids as much as it wore me out! Whew!

Let the Construction Begin

The "Before" pictures:
Another "Before" picture of the bathroom- notice how you could walk from the bath to the closet, to the bedroom. Alas, 'tis a thing of the past.
The "After" picture of the bathroom. Hmmm...

Out comes the cabinet and sink
Spencer helping to solder the new tub plumbing. (They actually used pex, a flexible plastic pipe- it's blue for cold and red for hot, so there was very little soldering to do.)
Looking into the bathroom from the backyard
Looking into the backyard from the bathroom. Hi Pa! Goodbye to my gorgeous green tile surround.
Timmy is always happy to help swing a hammer
Pa, Troy and Timmy surveying the damage. That was a live wire dangling from the ceiling until they switched off the power.
Spencer wondering why the bathtub is out on the lawn. Can anyone answer that for me?The walls start closing in... One last glimpse into the sun
Help! the walls really have closed in; there isn't even a window any more.
Troy and Pa putting up the new plastic surround onto the new "tiny" tub.
The boys discover the new tub and mini sink the next morning. It's not so bad after all
The next weekend
The walk-in closet goes the way of the bathroom. Here comes the sheet rock, watch out Brad!
A view of the back yard from the bedroom doorway.
Out comes the carpet...
This is the door Timmy escaped out after the nail polish incident. (details to follow)

The title might be a little misleading. We are still waiting on our building permit, but we began demolishing the additions we made when we first moved in. In order to dig our basement adjacent to our existing house, we had to take out the walk-in closet and the part of the bathroom with the jetted tub. It was a sad, sad day.

On the up side, however, my dad came up for the weekend, and we had a wonderful time with him. He and Troy spent all last weekend, Friday and Saturday, taking down the bathroom walls, the glass block window, un-installing the jacuzzi tub, sink, counters, and cabinets. Then, they installed a new, standard size tub (Timmy calls it a "tiny tub"), a miniature sink and essentially non-existent cabinet.

Then they re-framed the wall, minus the window and put up a temporary shower surround. The boys, especially Timmy, have a very hard time adjusting to change. (Troy said it's not their fault; it's in their blood.) On Sunday morning when I started filling the new "tiny tub" with water, Timmy started bawling and crying, and yelled, "I don't want this little tub!" Once he was in the water with Spencer, he promptly forgot and enjoyed himself.

As usual, Daddy had lots of helpers. In addition to Pa, Timmy and Spencer were always trying to get their hands into it.

This weekend, Troy's brother, Brad, surprised us and showed up with Skyler, one of his boys, to help rip out the walk-in closet.

Timmy and Skyler loved watching the sheet rock begin to crack, break, and ultimately come crashing down. They were so proud of their rough 'n' tough Daddies. They also loved standing in the closet with the walls off, but the carpet and interior doors still there. We had to make room in our tiny master bedroom for all the hanging clothes, shoes and dresser that were in the closet, as well as some junk we stored there for lack of a better place.

Thank you so much for all your help Brad and Pa! We couldn't have gotten it done as timely as if Troy and I were doing it ourselves. You're the greatest.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, after the demolition, we went out to the shed and started packing up our boxes and moved them into Troy's parent's basement for temporary storage until our basement is dug and the foundation and flat work finished. So I guess you could say we're moving!