Our new home

Craig hard at work.

Here's our 8 year old , ALSO hard at work, helping us remove the vinyl tiles that were GLUED to the cement floors.  We worked 5 full days, 12-14 hours each day, with at least two of us working simultaneously to pull up those stubborn tiles!  We estimated at least 120 man hours of actual work. Thankfully we had some friends donate their time to relieve us a bit.  Thank you, Stedwill boys.  :) 

A and J playing choo-choo train.  :)

Our 11 year old, hard at work, pushing up that blasted tile!

We had no electricity for the first 5 days of moving in b/c SOMEONE ( it was me...) forgot to turn ON the electricity and Ameren couldn't come until the following Tuesday...  The only bit of furniture in the house was our piano, thank the Good Lord!  All the years of practicing paid off- we had fun and beautiful music played for us while we worked our little hearts out.  

These are the tiles we've installed in the kitchen, dining room and entryways - over 600 square feet.  There's absolutely nothing easy about laying tile, but what a great reward when they're all finished.  F is scrubbing away some left-over mortar on the edges. 

This is our "living room."  Is that a refrigerator and a stove hanging out in the background? Lawn furniture?  Yes, and our dining room table is a bi-fold door, which is being propped up on both ends with an old piece of furniture and I think Craig's large tool box ?    Notice the walls that are half cut-in?  That's been my project.  Many, many nursing breaks along the way make for some slow work!

A

We moved this "island" from the center of the kitchen to join up with the rest of the counter top in an "L".  We installed new counter top. We'll post "after" pics soon.

Craig hard at work.
 Yes, same picture as above.  Just indicating that this man of God, my wonderful, adorable husband, is one of the hardest workers this world has ever seen.  A bona fide, modern day Saint Joseph, such an excellent protector and provider, a true humble servant of God.