Things Never Go As Planned!

Yesterday I was supposed to go shopping for kitchen appliances with my mom.  I was at Home Depot picking up new locks for the door when Peter calls.  "Plan has changed, Do Not buy appliances.  We have major water problems in the kitchen, it must be gutted first."  I arrive back at the house to find this:  All of the lower cabinets were filled with mold, the floor buckled because of water damage.  There were multiple leaks from multiple sources. 

 This is what the kitchen looked like while there were still people living in it.  The pictures really look much nicer than it was in person.

 

 

I told Frank-our guy doing the fixing-to remove the upper cabinets too.  I want everything in my kitchen to match, and I really didn't like the cabinets in the first place, I was just going to make them work for me...and now I don't have to.

This is the dining room...or at least this was the dining room.  It was also a very small room right next to the kitchen, but since we were remodeling the kitchen we decided to make it larger.

So we told Frank to take out the wall.

 

Here's Frank taking out the upper cabinets.  You can also see how small the kitchen was from this viewpoint.

Did I mention there was water damage in the walls-up 4 feet!  Isn't the kitchen just lovely?

The black stuff on the wall is smoke damage, so there was also a fire at some point that they tried to cover with ugly appliances.  The stove and microwave were there.

I am standing in the dining room taking a picture of the kitchen.

And now I'm standing in the kitchen taking a picture of the dining room.  I told you they were both small.

So since we are turning the dining room into the kitchen, we are knocking out another wall-the one on the left is going too and the area between the window and the other wall is going to have a wall.  And if you can imagine it...there will be two pantries there.  The windows are going to be shorter, but up higher and there will be cabinets under them.
This is what the windows looked like this morning.  They don't look like that now though...I'll take more pictures tomorrow.  Frank hopes to have the support beams in, the windows redone and the walls done.

Everyone has been working really hard the last two days and there have been great improvements already.  The backyard is looking much better as we took out A LOT of ivy and cut back many plants that were overgrown.  We filled up all 7 of our trashcans.  Then I borrowed four from the neighbor (they're super nice) and filled those up as well.  We still have bushes that have been cut, but no more cans.  I might ask the other neighbor too.

The house is being tented on Monday so work will stop tomorrow afternoon and resume Thursday.

BIG NEWS!

We bought a house!

Back in March Peter suggested we should look into buying a house.  With interest rates so low was it better to buy now, or wait a year or so when we have more money and buy later with the chances of a higher interest rate by then?  Well, our lender said to buy now.  So we did!  We put in an offer on this short-sale in May and it was accepted.

We wanted the ugliest house in the nicest neighborhood....and that's basically what we got.  This beauty ;) is most definitely a fixer upper.  She's also located in PQ 2nd ward boundaries.  This is the only picture I bothered to take today as we picked up the key.  This house and one other on the street have an awful curb appeal and the rest all have manicured lawns, well kept fronts and homes look brand new. 

Walking up you'll see two dead trees, a dead lawn along with dog droppings-how lovely.  Inside the living/dining area isn't too bad, there's skylights so that's nice and vaulted ceilings.  The family room is doable as well.  Then walking into the kitchen...well if you can avoid the kitchen that would be the best thing.  It's UGLY and DISGUSTING and well we'll fix what we can and clean A LOT and in a few years we'll gut it and replace it.  The master bedroom is located on the first floor and it is HUGE!!!!  The closets need a bit of help and the carpet is yucky, but all the carpet in the house will be replaced.  The bathroom-eh-well a baby lizard went running into it, we just left it.  Oh the seller took the shower heads in both bathrooms...lovely.  This bathroom needs a bit of help.  Then we go upstairs and there are 4 more bedrooms up there.  All of the bedrooms need a bit of help and then the upstairs bathroom is DISGUSTING!  There's mold all over the baseboards, the water was on in the tub-we tried to turn it off, but couldn't.  We plan on gutting that bathroom.  So yeah we have our work cut out for us.

We'll post pictures as we fix things up, cause right now the pictures would be a bit depressing.  "You bought that?" 

It has a lot of potential...it's a diamond in the rough.

Ambidextrous?

 Monday's breakfast-Left handed

 Tuesday's breakfast-right handed

So is Connor right handed or left handed?  I really don't know.

He is equally skilled with either hand and often switches which one he uses to eat.

Our week

On Monday our little critter decided to help himself to some breakfast. 

Then after absolutely refusing to take a nap at 1:00 when I put him down.  I returned to find him stinky and very talkative at 1:30.  I changed him and told him it was time to take a nap.  He wanted absolutely nothing of this nap business (which is odd, because he normally willingly takes one).  After much screaming and bonking his head...aren't the bruises lovely?  I gave in and let him get up.  By 2:00 this is what he looked like:

Seriously?!

At 4:00 he woke up crabby, climbed into my arms and then promptly fell asleep.

This is how daddy found us when he got home.

On Tuesday we ran errands.  Connor enjoyed the first five minutes of Target and then wanted nothing to do with sitting in the cart.  We quickly finished up and then it was off to Vons.  He lasted much longer at Vons and enjoyed putting things into the cart.  He also likes to help carry the groceries inside.

On Wednesday we watched Chris and Mary's kids while Chris had a job interview and Mary slept.  Peter took some time off work to help too.  He took care of the boys-Connor-20mos. and Calvin 12mos., while I played beauty shop and did arts and crafts with the girls.  At one point we all went in the backyard and Connor was told to go get his shoes so he could come outside too.  He returned with only one shoe...thus started a search for the missing shoe.  We all saw Calvin playing with the shoes at one point, but nobody saw him leave with the shoes.  We all tried to think like a baby and find the shoe.  In the end Connor got to go outside barefoot.  It was several hours later, after we had all given up on our search, that Daddy found the shoe sitting in the bookshelf on top of photo albums.  It was right next to where the shoes were originally located....ARG!

Today was super warm in the morning.  I put Connor down for a nap and he woke up covered in sweat.  I had his ceiling fan on high and another fan on low and that wasn't enough.  When he woke up he was still clearly tired, didn't want to get out of the crib.  So I turned the AC on and he was quiet in bed for at least 30 more minutes and then started talking.

I stripped him of his clothes while he enjoyed an apple juice popsicle, and then just let him wander around the house in just a diaper.  He seemed quite content without clothes.

He noticed some bibs on the floor next to the washer and decided they needed to be put away.  So he started the laundry....it's never too early to get your kids to do their own laundry:

After finding more laundry, we were back to finish the job.

After Daddy got home we went for a walk and stopped at a few favorite destinations.

The Mailbox, 

The fountain at the pool

The tennis courts,

and then the PLAYGROUND

Connor figured out how to climb back up the slide too.

For some reason this video is all pixelated...but you get the idea.

Staying Cool

This is how we keep cool

 Connor and Daddy running in the sprinklers.

Connor and Mommy playing with squirt toys-a great Sunday afternoon activity

Connor driving the car with the door open...he's a real dare devil

Helping Mommy wash the car

Connor and Daddy running in the sprinkler

Connor and Mommy squirting Daddy

This past week/4th of July

Connor enjoyed going to Hilltop Park for a few hours last week with grandpa.

On Saturday we went to Sea World with grandma and Laurel.

 And of course the water area was fun.

 Connor loved this bouncy area with big blocks to play with.

 We stopped and took in a little show with some Sesame Street characters.  Then as we were leaving we ran into Penny Penguin who happens to be good friends with Laurel.  She came running over to make friends with Connor.  He thought it was pretty funny.

 After a well deserved nap we headed over to grandma and grandpa's house for a swim.

 Connor loves water!

My dad caught this photo of Connor coming down the slide.

For the fourth of July we went to my parents' house to make ice cream and go for a swim.  However it was really chilly and overcast so no one wanted to swim, so we played around instead and enjoyed the ice cream and sorbet we made.

Then we went over to Peter's parents' house for a BBQ and to make another batch of ice cream.  After dinner we cleaned up and headed over to the church lawn to watch the fireworks.  Connor enjoyed playing with light sticks.  (They really do glow, but with the flash on the camera you can't tell that.)

 Daddy had fun making glasses for Connor.

 Then as the fireworks were going off we were all complaining about the tree being in the middle of each explosion.  We enjoyed our view, but next time we'll sit somewhere so the tree isn't directly in the middle of the show.

Friends came to visit!

On Thursday evening Melissa and Vince arrived from Arizona.  Peter and Melissa were college buddies.  Melissa had a librarian's conference to go to in Anaheim and since we're only 1 1/2 hours away they decided to stop and visit with us a little and see San Diego.  On Friday we toured the USS Midway.  Vince really wanted to see the airplanes.  He was like a kid in a candy store...so excited.

 This glassed in area made you feel somewhat uneasy.  Step on and look straight down to the inside of the boat.  Connor was more interested in the chain.

 A big plane

Next we went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo.  Peter kept telling Melissa and Vince that our Zoo was world famous.  Then on the bus ride around the park, the driver said something along the lines of welcome to the world famous San Diego Zoo.  We thought it was funny.

 Look at all those happy critters

The Polar bears were out having a bit of fun.

 There's a baby giraffe on the right sitting down.

 Mama and baby Jaguar

Above-Melissa and Vince on the Skyfari, below Connor and Daddy on the Skyfari.

We left the park totally exhausted, grabbed dinner and then Melissa and Vince left for Anaheim.

On Saturday we ran errands and then went to Sea World for a couple of hours.  Connor made friends with a seal.

Connor loved Elmo's Bay of Play area.  It was roughly 8pm and Connor was having a blast playing in the water.

Saturday evening Melissa and Vince came back.  Sunday morning we went to church and then headed home to put on comfy clothes and then headed out for a little more sight seeing.  We stopped and walked along the temple grounds.

Then we went to La Jolla Shores to see the seals at the children's pool and were shocked to find people playing at the children's pool and no seals!  The seals were further out lounging on a rock or many were swimming in the water with the scuba divers.  I've never seen the seals get that close to people before.  After the seals we went to Mount Soledad to see the war memorial and the really nice view.  Then we went home and Melissa and Vince left for their 6 hour journey home.

Later Sunday evening we went to Alex's homecoming party at the Leavitt's.  Connor enjoyed playing with Landon.

Here are some fun videos we took.  The first one is the dolphin show at Sea World.  All the high pitched screams are Connor.  He thought it was just wonderful when the dolphins jumped out of the water.  The second video is Connor playing in the water.  The third is Connor showing us how he jumps while we're at the temple.