March

Our latest project-refinishing the floors. I feel bad because going into this project, I was thinking I'd be able to mostly help Thurm do this.  I didn't realize how strong the polyeurithane and stripper were.  So Thurm basically did this project by himself.  I feel so bad because it was me pushing to get the project done. But he never complained and worked alone for four days after work, while the kids and I went to Idaho.  What a great husband : ) The floors had so many spots that were worn down to the wood. It was staining the wood and looked really bad.  We of course, ran into many problems.  We had to first pull up all the tiles in the kitchen and the glue underneath was really sticky and hard to remove. We finally got an adhesive stripper that worked.  The second problem was as we were sanding the living room floors, the edges of the room were less worn and had more build up of stain and varnish.  It gummed up the sandpaper in a matter of minutes.  And the drum sandpaper was $9 a sheet, which made this project alot more expensive than it needed to be.  We should have stopped sanding and stripped the edges, but the sander was rented, the kids were being babysat,  and I couldn't be around the chemicals because I'm pregnant. The third problem was the old wood had warped over time and the boards were rounded so the sand didn't reach into the grooves. So I finally decided to go the opposite of the grain and that removed the stain from the grooves. But it caused some huge areas of scratches that can still be seen.  The fourth problem was the heat baseboards that perimeter every room in our house.  There was no sander we could rent or buy that would fit underneath them.  So Thurm had to put on stripper, scrape, and then hand sand underneath all of it.  That alone took him a night and the next morning to do : (   The last problem was the staining in the kitchen.  There is black in the grain of the wood that wouldn't strip or sand out.  It gives it an antique feel, but doesn't match the rest of the wood.  Its fine except around the edges where we couldn't get an electric sander too.  The hand sander just was aggressive enough.  BUT Thurm did a great job. He worked his guts out and it was a pretty huge job especially for someone who had never done anything like it before.  We are learning lots of skillzzz on this house.  

My best friend made these quilt tops for me in exchange for pictures.  She was in the middle of a move to CA so she gave me the tops and I just had to tie and bind them to finish.  It took me 6 months to work up the courage and energy to do it, but they turned out really cute. I have a set for Jens and Quinn.  

Jens learned how to climb out of his crib and has decided to sit by the door till he falls asleep. We have to move him to his crib every night. We put a mattress on the floor right by the door, but he still chooses the floor. Funny boy.  

The start of our project.  

Took the boys to Wheeler farm, our favorite park in SLC.  They built a new toy for the kids and its awesome!  They could have played there all day.  

Jens and his cousin. Deklan is 6 months younger, but is the same height and weighs more.  He loved his Aunt Natalie. He would come to me all the time and even gave me a kiss : ) 

COUSINS!!! I hope they grow up with close friendships with their cousins. I never did and feel like I missed out.