All the In-between

 In-between renos we have been catching up on extended family time and relearning the Fraser Valley in all its places to go and weather to enjoy. Here are a few snippets from Dec to March.

At Hazel and Jade's first parade.

Poor Jade fell asleep on the way there and was awaked by loud bagpipes and flashing lights, her eyes were very saucer like. 

Hazel liked the little ponies.

some floats were blowing fake snow around. 

Another pretty decorated horse

I've had some time during the raining season to work on some crochet projects 

The girls decorating their first Christmas tree

Chilling with Opa, the connection between these two has been uncanny, they just click. Must be that same mischievous glint in both their eyes or something.

Puddle fun! 

Jade has been off and on with needing an afternoon nap. Apparently this was not the day to skip it. 

Jade was very fascinated with having a baby cousin in the house.

Bucket rides with Daddy, two at a time proved to be tricker then expected.

Brothers reuniting as Dads with buggy races.

Story time with Aunty Val

Exploring 5 corners with all the lights up.

Story time with Nana

Working on sanding down our dinning room table to refinish it, while we are not using it. 

Story time with Grandpa and Grandma Van Vliet. It has been so special seeing both girls warm up faster to all the extended family. 

Good old Police Man Small!

Four cousins on the piano

Went for a little walk to the slew for a change of scenery and to try out the new double buggy. Hazel found a floppy stick to use as a fishing rod.

The girls attempted to contain a barn cat in a 5 gallon bucket.

Mountain biking in January! Jared recently got a new bike that fits him better so that we can go biking as a family and he can get back into mountain biking. Now Luke and Jared have matching bikes and hopefully equal amounts of fun. 

I finished sanding the table top.

The two days of warm sunshine weather woke up the flower in our yard.

A Sunday morning.

Hazel and her cousin picked flowers and planted their own garden in the mud. It was such a treat to play and garden together outside in the sun after many days of rain. 

Placing the new layer chicks in the hobby barn.

We went for a windy walk around Mill lake with Nana. 

We found a pink cow and a pink tractor at the Trade show. This show will likely be a yearly highlight with Jared back in the farming world.

Petting the animals at the trade show.

New almost matching outfits from Nana.

Jade loves the little chicks and can catch them all by herself. Hazel likes them too but it much more cautious about picking them up and holding them.

Papa, Nana and Teagen came to help clean up, we filled up the whole trailer full of broken but saved items from the storage room beside the shop! These buckets of peanut butter and jam were a fun find, apparently bulk had a whole new meaning at some point! It was quite overwhelming to go through that many years of stored stuff, I believe we even found the original for sale sign!

More stories!

I had dug up and potted all the plants from this garden, but apparently there was lots of bulbs still left. 

Lots of early flower coming up.

We can see this beautiful cherry blossom tree from the kitchen and dinning room windows. 

Story time with Aunty Val starts up again with her second visit.

With even more nieces and nephews to read too.

We discovered that the bunnies are willing to eat out of our hands if we are patient enough.

Soon both girls were very eager to try and they now have a renewed interest in the bunnies.

Phasing 4: Putting it back together, Part 1

A new year has started and with it the hope of rebuilding as well. 

The original thought was to redo the roof in a year or two, but with structural adjustments needed and heavy rain fall it showed some leaks, so a new roof got added to the list.

Curious and a bit concerned about what was behind the upstairs paneling the demolition mode that was finally done downstairs moved upstairs. "It will be worth it in the long run" seems to be the common theme around here.

All furred out and strengthened. 

Downstairs the framers and other trades were also done the plumbing and wiring. Ready for insulation and then drywall. 

God gave us some spring in the middle of "winter" and we were able to paint the outside trim on those two nice days. This bedroom window proved to be very handy roof access. 

Half way done the first coat and the nice white paint was looking clean and bright with the sun shining on it. 

The view from the roof top

The upper side peeks were very tricky to paint, I laid on the top roof to paint the face of it while Jared and Luke tagged teamed the trim underneath. 

The girls watching all the roof trim painting excitement from the comfort of the buggy.

The upstairs rooms are being redone with T&G boards rather then drywall. Adding some structure to the roof and walls, while also adding a rustic look. Very thankful to have a big dry work space for painting. It brought back lots of memories of painting poles and jumps from when I was working at Milner. 

Insulation is in! We had a very pink house for a few days, which was appreciated by Hazel. 

Drywall got installed, definitely felt like a turning point in the whole reno process!

Upstairs room number one is 95% done, and looking super cute. It was very fun watching them work on this too. Jared was set up on the driveway with his chop saw and table saw, while Dad and Luke were upstairs calling down measurements for the boards, which would then get passed up through the window. 

We starting painting the kitchen cabinet wall, so we can get them in asap, it was very interesting trying to guess where the cabinets were going to end up. I was a little skeptical of the paint colour choice at first, but Jared really liked it and I'm warming up to it more each time I walk in. 

The kitchen cabinets arriving!

The first cabinet in the house! Corday was over to help paint that day, and we were just finishing the second coat on the cabinet walls when they started bringing them in. It was a very efficient day!

Very curious to see how the layout that we planned in the shop works out in the house.

It worked out very well! The only thing that ended up changing was that the glass cabinets ended up going together rather then one on the fridge wall, which was a really nice change in the end. We still have some figuring to do on the fridge wall and island, but those are less time sensitive at this time as we focus on getting the rest of the house ready for flooring.