Phew! We're all ready for the installation of the carpet in the morning, and I'll be home in the afternoon to start hauling everything back down where it belongs.

We're not absolutely sure what we'll have the the end of the "hallway" below. It may end up being an outdoor scene. But we won't decide until we have the ceiling painted.



I love what Paul did with the lichen:


It looks cooler in person!

A Castle in the Making

We got a lot done in the room downstairs. The first picture is what it looked like when the new sheetrock was in.


This is what the room looks like with a primer and light gray coat of paint.


The castle stones are in place.


We only had time to get the beginnings of the shading on the stone. I'm not thrilled with the way it looks up close. But I have an idea on how to proceed. We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow.


By the way--my feet hurt!

Flood Update

Well, after hours and hours of ripping out wet sheetrock and putting new rock in the larger of the flooded rooms, we're going to be doing some painting today. The house is nearly as old as I am, and the wood is old and dry. I'm finding it very hard to drill the sheetrock screws into it!

Flood!

Well, we had a little too much adventure yesterday. An outside pipe broke (it didn't freeze so we have no idea what happened), and it flooded half of our basement. We had to haul the furniture, books, albums, cassette tapes, toys, etc. out. Thank heavens that our sons David, Robert, Paul, and Adam plus Adam's friend Colby were able to help.

The carpet and padding is a loss, and we're going to have to replace some of the sheetrock and paneling. And everywhere else in the house is a mess, because that's where we had to put the stuff we removed from the basement!

Now all we have to do is get it fixed by Saturday, when I'm having my Harry Potter Party!

Upcoming Weddings

Wow, we haven't have a wedding in the family for several years now. Looks like 2009 is going to be a busy year!

Paul and Kelsey are planning a Casablanca themed wedding for May. Kelsey would like it to be outdoors, so hopefully the Utah weather will cooperate.

Robert and Michelle are now engaged, and they are looking at an April wedding.

How can these two little boys (Paul on the left and Robert on the right above) be old enough to be married? Time sure does fly! Robert (left below) with Ed and Paul (right below) from our family portraits done in 2006.

Robert, whose hair is now shorter than in the picture above, says his hair looks nappy. Paul's hair is much longer than in the above picture.

Mural

For years now we have been working on a room in our basement. It was originally used as the video game room for the kids. We had an old TV down there and some funky recliners from D.I. Since I have some very talented children, I suggested it would be fun to do murals of their favorite video games. They were excited about it, and we got the initial sketching done, but the painting has taken years. First Paul did some with our family friend, Chanel. I even did some painting. Then later, Paul and his fiancee Kelsey finished up the backgrounds. Slowly, Chanel (and even me a little) has been doing the finish work on them.

Most people know that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and I wanted to have a section of the wall for HP, since there have been games released with every movie. I did the initial sketching, and then Chanel tightened it up and put her unique Anime touch to it. She finished the painting on Harry Potter yesterday, and it's fabulous!



Here is a close up:



And here is another wall:



Well done, Chanel!!! I need to take updated pictures of some of the other walls. Perhaps I will post them here as well. It's been fun to be part of the project even though my part was very small.

**Edited to add** I'm a moderator at an HP website, and I must say it makes me laugh that I got spammed because I mentioned Harry Potter!

Gardner Village

I LOVE it when I get to go to Gardner Village with my daughter and her children! The folks at Gardner Village always do such a great job with the atmosphere, and the shops have so much fun stuff to look at. And Sienna and Aidan (and now hopefully Madelyn) love going there as well. It was colder today than it usually is when we go, because of an incoming storm--but it was actually nicer than we heard it might be and hot chocolate always helps!