Snuggle Bums

Just dug out an old post I drafted last year and never posted. You can tell it's old because of the couch. Never too late to share.

Sometimes they're really sweet to each other.

This year the kids have refused to have the TV on in the morning. Can you believe that? They self-regulate their screen time. They want maximum amount of play time before school and they say the TV "hypnotizes" them. The down side is, I don't have any recent cute couch cuddle photos. I'm glad I captured these when I did.

Kids Bathroom Renovation - Before and Demo

I mentioned January is our home improvement month. This year's big project is renovating the kids bathroom upstairs. This project was pushed off last year in favor of fast tracking the kitchen. We couldn't wait any longer as the functionality of the bathroom was disintegrating quickly. 

The primary issue with this home is not a problem with the house itself but rather the local water. We have extremely hard water that is full of minerals that overtime corrode the pipes. It happened in our primary bathroom and our powder room and our kitchen sink. After 20+ years the faucets have all needed to be replaced. When we moved into the house in 2020, the kids bathroom was fine. Nothing special. No real issues. 

We decorated it but otherwise didn't touch it with any improvements aside from replacing the medicine cabinet and adding towel bars.

Over the years we've lived here, everything slowly started to die in that bathroom.

When Dan and I were redoing our main bathroom, we used to kids shower. After we moved back into our bathroom we rarely ever turned the shower head on since the kids were still taking baths. As a result, the shower head pipes corroded shut. Literally will not turn on. To fix it we'd need to replace the pipes inside the shower/tub and to do that would make more economic sense when we planned to replace the tub. So we just never used the shower in there again.

Then, over Christmas, while we were in Kansas, Mandy called and said one of the sinks in the kid's bathroom was leaking inside the vanity. The pipe was corroded and needed to be replaced. So that sink was out. 

And the toilet. Well, that thing was always a use at your own risk. It had a crack in it and you had to flush it "just so" in order to keep it from constantly running.

In the meantime, the kids were using our bathroom. That's fine. There's plenty of room, but by the new year, it was clear that we couldn't stall on the bathroom anymore, it felt like a disaster waiting to happen. 

This is our first truly gut renovation project (all other projects were more like half renovation upgrades). Even our primary bathroom wasn't a full gut. Let me tell you, demo is a mega mess we do not enjoy.

There must have been multiple leaks in here over the years with the previous owners as the sub-floor was rotted under the toilet and tub. There was inactive mold (dried out) and it was clear we made the right choice by scrapping it all the way down. 

They also cut a hole in our kitchen ceiling to make sure whatever leak had been there was fully fixed. We didn't expect that.

There have been several set backs. The ceiling for one, and then the weather delaying work for close to a week. And then the dishwasher disconnected and dumped water under the kitchen sink. So that got tacked onto the work. And well, it is at these moments during home improvement projects that really wear you down. I truly don't understand how the DIY-ers do it. None of us enjoy living in a construction zone. But, we know the end result will be worth it.

The construction crew has been working every single day this week and I'm crossing my fingers they finish by Friday.

Weekending it

We're in that nothing-much-exciting-happening time of year. This weekend was fairly mellow.

The kids finally went back to swim lessons. Their old teacher is taking a break to focus on her college courses so we switched to Mr. Nick who taught Kip during some of his first group classes. But the last several weeks our lessons were canceled due to schedule conflicts at the pool. We finally got them in on Saturday. Endurance was lost but the skills are still there!

On Sunday we pulled out the bounce house to burn energy. It's been so cold the kids haven't had outdoor recess since the beginning of December and we haven't been doing much of anything outside. Kip has nearly outgrown this thing but it saved the day. 

After 30 minutes of jumping I convinced them to make it cozy and read. Kip took right to it and started a book he picked out last week called The Last Dragon on Mars. It's above his reading level and I think he is only following about 50% of the plot, but he read it independently for a whole HOUR so I said go for it! Ivy was outraged by the idea of "reading" so she jumped.

Oh, and the KC Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl again! Happy fans over here.

Sweet Scenes

Cute captures lately...

A heart-shaped bite from a cake pop

Baby in a bag.

Some kind of crowning ceremony

Cupcake stayed home from school one day and laid on the couch.

One day Ivy was outraged because she couldn't find a piece of gold garland string she found at school. She made a missing poster so we were aware of her feelings.

Santa puppet and Coonie on some kind of adventure.

Kip picked this toy from Storybook Land. I think it's was cute how they combine their toys sometimes.

 

A favorite treat for a favorite friend

Life-size tin solder

Giant mess...I mean "homes" in the hallway

Cutest little sibling creations

Kip on a dragon flying after Ivy on a unicorn

House Tour - Laundry Room Makeover

January seems to be a primary home improvement month. That's when we have the time and when the contractor is mostly available. This year's project is renovating the kid's useless bathroom. But before that, we had some leftover flooring and a bit of paint to give the laundry room a little facelift. 

Here's what it looked like in 2020 before we moved in:

There is nothing functionally wrong with this room, just purely cosmetic. The biggest issue was the crummy flooring. You can kind of see it in the photo above but it was a yellowed laminate that was stained in several places. 

Here's the tiny broom closet where you can see the flooring a bit better.

Shortly after moving in we gave the laundry room a small refresh. We got new machines and did a bit of decorating. 

It was fine. We lived with it without issue. But we had several boxes of leftover flooring from our primary bathroom renovation. And this flooring is now discontinued so we decided to use some of the extra boxes we had for in the laundry room. While we were at it we had the contractor update the light and paint the walls.

A few decorating details, and voila!

Mandy installed a little shelf thing in the closet for more storage.

The new flooring really makes a difference in here! It doesn't look like the color of pee!

We are going to install a drying rack bar but otherwise, it's done! Quick and effective project without glitch.

Weekending it

How are you surviving this arctic blast? It's bitter.

We were hoping for a HUGE snow storm this past weekend but ended up with just a few inches. At least it was enough to play in and we had yesterday off from school to make use of it. Mandy and I were out with the kids before 9 AM running them down the little hill on the side of the yard and pulling them back up again. 

Kip loves having hot chocolate after playing in the snow. It's about the only time he asks for it.

And Ivy likes a cup of marshmallows and sprinkles. 

Ivy let us put her hair in pigtails! So cute.

 

We took the kids to Slime University for the activity of the day. It was fun for the four of us. 

And Panera for lunch with cookies the size of your face.

We spent the afternoon FaceTiming with Auntie Jagee and playing with make it mini balls and potions and then watched Harry Potter. 

Only a four-day week could make this bitter cold a bit better. Thank goodness for that.