Mothers Day Continues

Mothers Day is winding down. It was a wonderful day! I love being a mom. I have the greatest kids! I love having a mom! She couldn't be sweeter!

Holly surprised me with this beautiful figurine, cute card, and "Families are Forever" wall hanging when I walked in the door after church. Actually, she had to point them out to me, even though they were right in front of my face, because I couldn't take my eyes up off the floor! Thank you so much, Holly! I love them! I love you!
I finally have a "Families are Forever" sign hanging above the doorway into our family room!!

We went over to G&Gs for a tasty dinner. It was supposed to be a my home, but we're not put all back together again yet, after the floor project. So this is the THIRD Sunday in a row that we've had dinner at G&Gs!! It's getting to be a Sunday tradition and I LIKE IT A LOT!!!!

Afterwards, the kiddos konked out on the deck.

Mom showed me the quilt she made for Uncle Ted. It's beautiful! She and Dad will take it to him when they go on their Alaska trip. How exciting!
Here's mom and dad with some friendly flowers!

Here I am with my beautiful mom!
The kiddos in the mini-monster truck!
Mom and Dad, the sweetest parents on earth, in front of the Stevens Homestead. What a wonderful place to be.

Happy Mothers Day to Me!!!!

After pictures!

How many sons give their mom a new wood floor for Mothers Day? I think I'm the luckiest mom alive to have a son like Rob, who would give up almost a week and a half of all his spare time to my huge wood floor project! I dreamed of having this wood floor and he made my dream come true! Thank you so much, Robbie! I love you!!!! What a wonderful Mothers Day to wake up to my beautiful new wood floor!!!!
(With flash)
(Without flash)

Yay! It's done!!!!!

Floor Day 10

Saturday, May 12, our last day of laying the floor! We had taken a couple of days off, since I was working late and were so excited Saturday morning to finish! Here's Rob hard at work, again!

This show shows the fridge moved out and the cubby where it fits into. The fridge gave us some trouble, because the water line sprang a leak. Help!! Dad/Grandpa to the rescue!!!! He soldered it and got us back in business. He knows how to do EVERYTHING!!!!! Thanks so much Dad!!! You are one in a million!
Here's Rob finishing up in the pantry. Almost done!!
Nailing the next to last board of the entire project!!! Then my camera's battery died.

Lunch with April at Mazza!

I got to have lunch on Tuesday with my beautiful daughter April at my favorite little Mediterranian restaurant in SLC called Mazza. She thought the falafal (how in the world do you spell that?!) was almost as good as Jerusalem's! Now that's saying something!

Here is April with her adorable friends Shawn, Erin, and Kyra. They left Tuesday to go back to Vegas. What fun it was to see April and get to know her friends!

Floor Day 7

We're into the kitchen now and here's what's left to do. Our plan to have it done by tonight got delayed a bit. It's pretty hard to get a lot done in a just a couple of hours in the evening after work. But we're making good progress!

Here's what we got done tonight -- where the bar stools go and down the angled wall where the cat window is. Yay!

All the mess is now in the family room. We got the sectional moved back. And put the kitchen table in there too. You can hardly see the floor we completed last night!

Floor Day 6

Yay! We got the family room floor layed down! Here's the "after" picture (minus the furniture)! On to the kitchen floor! Then we're DONE!!! We can't wait. Especially Robbie! What a trooper he has been and what a great job he is doing!

Floor Day 5

It's Monday, and we're about half done. The plan is to do the family room tonight and the kitchen Wednesday evening. Here are the before pictures. I can't wait to post the after pictures!!!

Rest Day 4

Sunday was a much needed day of rest. And April and her friends, Shawn (not pictured), Kyra, and Erin came up from Vegas to spend time at the Family History Center. We had a yummy Sunday meal at Grandma's and Grandpa's and enjoyed hanging out with them and the beautiful spirit of love in their home.
April made the best tabouli I've ever tasted!
Holly and the cats take a rest on the only couch they can find. We're all in construction confusion right now. But we can sleep just about anywhere!

Floor Day 3

Saturday we finished the "mud room" and closet off the garage. It was a little tricky around the closet, but turned out beautifully. Rob is a pro! That's Dad's (Grandpa's) air compressor that keeps Rob going and going and going and going...!

Below this you can see we moved the furniture back into the living room and put up the baseboard behind the china hutch (we didn't want to have to move it again!). Hopefully, the couch will be replaced soon! And I'll get a area rug for in front of the new couch. Anyway, the floor looks great with the furniture!

Floor Day 2

Yay! We got the living room layed down after work!!!!! It looks beautiful! Way to go Robbie!!!!!!! (My camera has dust on the lens...sorry for the spots.)

Our Wood Floor Begins

It took yesterday evening and this morning to complete all the preparations for laying our wood floor. We had to pull up the carpet, remove tack strips and staples, sand down uneven areas of the sub floor, move furniture around, remove the lower stair railings, remove the closet doors, and sweep and vacuum.

We were hoping to get started nailing down the floor last night, but the preparations weren't finished. I scheduled vacation for today and tomorrow to work on it. The plan was to get me started last night and then I could work on it while Robbie was at work today. Last night I had almost decided to go to work today, since I wouldn't have Robbie to get me started. But the heavens were smiling on us, because it rained during the night and this morning, so Robbie's boss told him they couldn't work today. He got to stay home and get the floor going!! What luck!

The picture below shows the living room ready to go. That roll of paper in front of the door is the underlayment.
Here's Robbie lining up the underlayment and rolling it out.
Robbie rolled it all the way to the back patio door.
Then Robbie measured for the chalk line.
If you look closely, you can see the blue chalk line near the left wall. That gave Robbie a guide to line up the first row of flooring.
This was a happy moment! After all the preparation, here's Robbie putting in the first nail in the first piece of wood! Finally!

And so it goes, on down the line!
After three or four hours, Robbie has seven rows nailed down. And it looks WONDERFUL! It's straight and beautiful. Robbie is a very talented carpenter! I'm so lucky to have him!

It's break time and the cats finally come out of hiding, now that the nailing has stopped and it's quiet. At first they won't walk on the new floor. They jump across it! But they finally get brave enough to tip-toe across it -- of course, Rascal leads the way.