Best Mother’s Day Present

Our siding got delivered last week

My family came up to rip and paint it. Somehow tree removal happened as well, even though it wasn’t on the list. Our neighbor got in on the action too, probably to make sure we didn’t crash his house.

We also finished taking down our fence

At the end of the day there was a lot of eating and talking and then these two cool uncles took Liam to a late night movie. It was the first time ever Liam had to wake us up to let us know he was home. He was wiped out.

Abundant Life Stoves came and delivered the pellet stove which looks beautiful on the gorgeous hearth.

Yes, I wrote on the floors and I wrote Liam’s birth story on his door frame. He knows it by heart as we talk him through the day every year on his birthday.

The floors got delivered this week and just like fine wine they needed to breathe. Aidan took some time to inspect them and seemed to approve.

Today we finished putting the floors down in the living room and it looks absolutely beautiful! And I got to use the smashing nail gun. It’s super fun!

 

I actually only worked on the floors for a few minutes. Mostly I was preparing myself for the best mother’s day present ever. Liam is sleeping in his new room tonight under the skylight, and tomorrow night Aidan gets to sleep in his new room which I started to clear out today. All of this means – I get my bedroom back!

Happy Mother’s Day to me!! And you too!!

Winter to Spring

This week was a transition of the seasons here in New England. We began work last weekend in frigid temperatures, not that it stopped anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our family friends came up from Connecticut to pitch in. Al did quite a bit of painting the details that just need to get done. Merry cooked for the crew. In the evening, they both regaled my children of my love of Charlotte’s Web and riding my bike to their house just to visit. They also noted that I was raised in a house that was constantly under construction. It was a beautiful house built in the 1700s. Turns out Merry and Al had looked into buying it and realized it was too big of a project. They waited to see who would be crazy enough to take that on.  So yes, I guess I come from a little bit of crazy.  I didn’t realize until this re-telling that of course I would have to write on the walls and floors during this current construction project; I grew up writing on the sheetrock of my bedroom wall which was an open canvass for years. I remember when my room and my sister’s room was separated only by framing. What a grand adventure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend has been full of sunshine and hard work. Jason the Builder and his wife Holly came to pitch in. Fortunately, Holly is a cut-in painter. The mudroom is done. Even though I am strictly forbidden to paint, I painted the bead board and I must say and did a dang good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop came up and cleaned up Garreth’s garden. This space is very much his sanctuary. Along with being forbidden to paint, I’m also sort of banned from the garden. I can, of course, supervise which consists mostly of sitting in a chair, drinking a beer and saying “good job.” However, with painting success under my belt, I may just be allowed to plant a few seeds as well. We’d miss our fresh veggies too much this summer if we skipped this. The blue flags mark off our neighbors water pipes and made this project go from an addition on the back of the house to the front. Not too long ago they were buried in snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pop also supervised Liam in taking down the swing set. Good grief, that was a job. Liam had to think of approximately 87 ways he could get that done all by himself. In the end, he learned how to use a saw zaw, or something sharp and dangerous. It was quite an accomplishment. Today he ended up having to think through taking down the temporary ramp that Aidan used this summer. It’s been a lesson in family dynamics to say the least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth is working on his BBQ deck and the stairs. Scott the Tile Guy is back preparing the space for our pellet stove. It’s going to be beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth is working on finishing touches almost every evening. If you would like to join him, please drop us an email at bowiehouse2622@gmail.com

 

Thanks!

Color Me Beautiful

Gary put the pedal to the metal with mudding and priming this week knowing we had a painting party this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth followed along late at night between Gary’s visits to sand the walls. It’s a gross job but he was up for the task.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a painting party and saw our house go from a construction site back to a house. This is Liam’s room before:

 

 

 

 

 

With a beautiful splash of St. Lucia Sky it now looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to our painters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our living room is now just waiting for trim and the chair rail. We changed our color scheme from BOLD to earth tones. I was hesitant but I LOVE it! If I need a taste of color I can hang out in Liam’s room. He would love that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garreth and our brother in law Bill worked on shelves for all of our fabulous closets. They also put this beautiful ceiling up over the deck

 

 

 

 

 

This week is detail work. We have a family friend up right now finishing closets, painting the wainscoting for the mudroom and hallway, putting up bits of sheetrock. The stairs will get attached to the house this week and the deck will be finished. The giant leprechaun room is being closed in as well and the leprechauns will guard the pellets for the pellet stove. You really should ask me about the time I travelled with a friend who told the airline people we let leprechauns pack our bags. I just feel like having a leprechaun door comes with marrying an Irishman, right?

Soon we’ll be saying:

CEAD MILE FAILTE

Out With the Old

Our second dumpster got hauled away. Bye-bye old house and roof. They replaced it with a smaller dumpster for clean up because there’s still so much stuff in the yard.

We had a team from our church come over and finish the roof.

 

 

Look how beautiful the finished product is. It looks woven together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stairs have been started…

 

 

 

 

 

The aren’t stairs to nowhere. They go to our beautiful new front door. Thank-you YaYa Sue for our fun shopping day picking this out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That door leads to the mudroom and this one leads into our house:

ss

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up Next:

Join us for painting inside this coming saturday. We’ll also be finishing the stairs and deck and boxing in the vents under the house. Let us know if you’d like to join us.

Sheetrock is In

We had another busy weekend at our house.

Pop came up and worked on trim with Liam. Final touches in Aidan’s room are done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liam and Pop and Brian the electrician pulled a miracle out of somewhere to get Aidan’s lift working. Here’s a before and after:

It was quite a task but Aidan was super grateful as it allowed him to get outside! He was able to do some meet and greet at the Spring Fling Fundraiser. We had a great turn out and are very appreciative of the group One Family At A Time that put it together. I was there meeting people and gathering stories. As has been the case all along, these women stepped forward to help because their communities were there for them in their time of need.

Sheetrock was put up and the mudroom was closed in.

I was most excited to be able to stack my food in my new pantry. It’s been sitting in a plastic box in storage making cooking a challenging task.

Aidan went to his five week post-op appointment yesterday in Boston. They were very impressed with how he’s healing. We decided to let him try his power chair today. This is the first time his legs have come together and his knees have bent in five weeks. His body was shaky from the work but obviously he’s excited to be moving and loves the construction. (subscribers need to click through to blog to view)

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUABPncIXBk

Short Video Tour

(subscribers click through to blog to view video)

Get Ready to Shop!

Join us this Saturday at Noble High School from 10-2 for a Spring Fling Fundraiser for Aidan. There will be raffles, coffee donated by Carpe Diem,  food and fabulous things to purchase. If you can’t be with us on that day please take this opportunity to check out the businesses involved. You can make a purchase online through the following links to support the final touches in our home accessibility project.

My Thirty One  - takes you directly to Aidan’s online party

Grace Adele Purses - takes you directly to Aidan’s online party

Pampered Chef – click to join Aidan’s online party

Lia Sophia – Enter Aidan Bowie as hostess name

Scentsy - takes you directly to Aidan’s online party

Yummo Carts

Tupperware - takes you directly to Aidan’s host page. If you’d like to order online click “no” for cannot attend.

Arbonne - contact Robin Tucker-Gahm directly at changemearbonne@roadrunner.com