Extreme Makeover: Stairway Edition

The other day we had to replace the carpet and subfloor on the landing leading down to the basement. Sam had peed on it repeatedly when he had a bladder infection, and it was all beyond repair. I thought we could get away with just replacing the carpet, but the wood underneath had been completely soaked, and not even a gallon of Nature's Miracle worked. It took us about 4 hours to do the whole job, and we still have to do the other landing! Luckily, there was some carpet leftover in the basement, so all we had to buy was wood, padding and tack strips.


Removing the old subfloor. This was the toughest part of the job.


Down to the framing!


New subfloor nailed down


Tack strips and padding down


All done!

Good sermon today.

Great sermon at our church this morning. We weren't there (we're going tonight after Adam gets off of work), but I listen online. You can too. visit http://www.mcleanbible.org and click on the link to play the sermon at the bottom of the window.
It is all about dedicating our whole lives to glorying God, and how it is the chief purpose of man.

Today we're praying that God will send us to Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area. We really want to be able to raise our kids in this area (when we have them) and live in a place where life isn't so crazy, and you don't have to spend half a million dollars to buy a decent townhouse. If you have a moment, please pray that God will show us the right path for us, and prepare a place for us to live. Please pray that we will be able to glorify God in the way we live our lives.

Yard work and the cute bunny

This is the bunny that comes and eats the grass from our front yard. He always goes to the same place. Adam took this picture- the bunny was sitting outside having breakfast when Adam was on his way out to his Bible study at Starbucks.


This is one of the pots that I did yesterday. There are 2 of these, one on either side of the steps in the front of the house. THe front plant is creeping thyme, I don't know what the flower is.


This is the new and improved front of the house. It was hard work getting this done yesterday. There was a ton of junk buried in the ground, so we filled a trashcan with the junk, and the oher azalea plant. I think it looks nicer now. We also put rocks around the other side of the steps.

Father's Day

Today we went over to see Mom and Stephen for Father's Day. This is Adam and Stephen looking at Stephen's present (not from us!).

Some more pictures and life in general

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you have probably noticed that Adam never posts. This is because he has no interest in our blog. Oh well, that is what wives are for. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.



This is a picture of Max hanging over the railing near the front door.



Here is Max over the railing again. He really wants me to catch one of the birds that live and made a nest in our half-bathroom vent.



As you can see, the tiny white flowers in the front have completely overgrown the lovely pinky-purple ones I planted in between. Oh well. I guess the pinky-purple ones are the weakest link of the yard.



I got this flag from Sears and put it up not actually realizing that today is flag day. I think it looks too big, but I'm getting used to it. Leave a comment with your opinion. Should I take it down?



We tore out this overgrown azalea bush today. It was hard work (sorry Adam:-( ). Now I have a big empty space. I found the most interesting things buried down in the soil. There were beer bottle tops, shards of glass, empty drink bottles, and a children's plastic necklace.

I have no idea what to do with this space now. I need Extreme Makeover: Townhouse Front Yard Edition to help me.

So thats our life in pictures.

Adam is working the oddest schedule right now- 2 night shifts, then 2 late shifts, then one early shift. Its really odd for him to leave for work at 4pm and get home at 4am. It is only for a month though, and then he gets to do all night shifts! I'm really not looking forward to this, but hopefully it is only for a short time. Our current prayers are for God to bring Adam success at work, and, if it is His will, to prepare a place for us in North Carolina so we can more down there and start a family. If that is not His will, we're praying for Him to help Adam to get a promotion so we can afford to live on one income (even though I'll still teach a few hours each week) and so we can start paying down some things like the cars, etc.

We're having the deck powerwashed and sealed next week. The deck is in terrible condition, and it keeps getting eaten by wasps. I've noticed that they only eat our deck, and not our neighbor's. This is probably because ours isn't sealed. The wasps took all the wood they chewed up, and made nests underneath our deck and in the tree next door. They might be coming out of the woods behind our house too, so I think it is best that we have the deck taken care of. We tried to use the powerwasher we bought last year, but apparently we're completely unable to do it right, and we messed up a small (okay, medium) section of the railing. So this year we're hiring professionals to do it. I'll probably try to sell the stupid powerwasher on Craigslist.