Renovation Project: Weeks 0 & 1

 The day the we returned from North Carolina, we confirmed that our renovation project would begin on the following Monday, August 15th. Needless to say our first week back was very busy, packing up the first floor and trying to figure out how we'd set up the 2nd and 3rd floors to make living as comfortable as possible.

Here is the current living room, before demo and all empty.

 The second floor hallway has been transformed into our kitchen. We bought a small refrigerator and a few electric appliances and brought up as few dishes as possible.

We transformed my great-grandmother's trunk into the dishwashing station, after protecting it with a shower curtain and a towel. Washing dishes without a kitchen sink has been, by far, one of the hardest adjustments. 

The basement now serves as a pantry and storage for things we don't need day to day. To get to the basement, you have to go out the front door and around to the back of the house, then through the demo area....so I try and plan for the things we need before the demo team arrives. 

The refrigerator wouldn't fit in the basement, so it's now housed in the garage. 

The 3rd floor guest room has been transformed into our den, with cushions from the old couch being used to make the bed a little more cozy. 

 Here is the old kitchen.....

 ...and Lina's room which now serves as the dining room (and some storage too).

 Adelina loved running around the empty house!

 After day 1, the kitchen and bathroom were well on their way to being demolished! It's kind of a sad feeling seeing your home of 15 years look like this.

It's no fun being in the house with the demo is happening, so I've tried to keep the kids busy and outside this week. 

 Day 2, kitchen progress

 Bathroom progress

 I've managed to keep on cooking throughout, although we have eaten out too. A big pot of beans in the crockpot lasted a few nights, and then I made tofu stir-fry another night. We dined on BLTs last night, enjoying a bounty of tomatoes from our garden.

 Our escape on Thursday was Crane beach...not a bad place to be!

 We returned from the beach to find the living room demo underway....

 ....and the wall between the kitchen and foyer being taken down.

 Another addition to the house....

 We've been to the laundromat 3x already. Our washer/dryer are in the basement, but not yet in working order.

 Friday brought the removal of a concrete pad located at the rear entry and the piano being moved into it's new location. Because of the dust levels, the piano is all wrapped up and off-limits for at least the weekend.

Egg Drop

The kids participated in the 2nd annual library egg drop the day after we returned from North Carolina. They tried a couple of different designs, before settling on a Ziplock bag filled with hay and cotton and a parachute fashioned out of a trash bag. The librarians dropped each team's entry from the second floor window and then the kids checked to see if their eggs made it intact. Their design worked perfectly, with the parachute deploying and the bag of hay landing quietly on the ground. I was proud of their efforts and it was a very fun way to see the creativity of other kids in town. 

Summer 2016 North Carolina Trip

Since the journey to North Carolina is a couple hundred miles longer than the trip to PA, we decided to split up the trip into two days. We left late Wednesday July 27th in the afternoon and made it across the Beacon bridge and spent the night in upstate NY, in an attempt to miss traffic around NYC. The trip was very long on Thursday, but we made it to NC by 5pm. The car was packed completely, since we had to bring both the keyboard and the cello! I think we'll need to invest in a roof rack soon. 

The weather in NC was as expected, hot and humid! But the kids had fun playing with cousins Everett and Parker and neighbor Tyson outside. Grandma GiGi and Papa had set up a pool, sandbox, swings, and had a bike around for the kids. Of course, there was also Buffalo Beach/Creek to explore!  Levi and PaPa to a break from the heat to play catch in the garage several times. We had lots of good food and special family time while we were there. 

 Levi had fun blowing bubbles for Parker....Caleb captured some of the action on his new camera.

 We left Grandma GiGi and PaPa's house on Sunday and headed to the beach. We overall had a great week of weather and soaked in lots of the Atlantic every day. Here are some of the highlights...that I actually took pictures of.
Caleb practiced piano at the Baptist church down the street from our house every day. On Monday we took a nice walk on the beach before heading over to practice.

 Lina loved my "fashion" heading to the beach....I thought the kids looked cute in their beach gear too!

 Levi was our classic beach bum one again. He sported tattoos, crazy hair, a shark tooth necklace and a nice tan all week.

 On Tuesday we went to our favorite restaurant, Amos Mosquito's for dinner.

 There is always a wait for a table, so we went to Fort Macon to take a walk while waiting. Here we are showing off our "guns" with one of the big guns at the fort.

 A big storm was rolling in as we were leaving to be seated. You don't see clouds like this in Massachusetts!

 Lina's attempt at a family photo :)

 For dessert, the kids got s'mores!

 I became a beach bum like Levi....sporting never dried, salt-curled hair all week!

 My runs during the week were pretty tough, with crazy heat indexes...but the sunrises were quite nice.

On Saturday, I had a 16 miler and temps were already 82 (with 90% humidity) at 530am. It was a grueling run, but I was rewarded with a mother doe and her fawn on a trail at Fort Macon. 

 Lina was really into shell collecting this trip. Every day she would wash her shells and sort them according to type and size.

 Some beach shots....

 We all enjoyed time with our next door neighbor Miss Betty. The kids continued their tradition of visiting her daily and she joined us for dinner one night. She's one special lady!

 We all agreed that we could have spent a few more days at the beach and were very sad to leave on Sunday the 7th. We cleaned our house, packed our bags, and walked to the beach one last time. I took the same picture as I did the past two years (those photos are below too). The kids are getting big.

 We started to make our way home and took the very scenic route along the eastern shore on Virginia and Maryland. We all enjoyed crossing the Chesapeake Bay, even though it made our journey VERY long. We stopped at a wonderful diner in Exmore, VA and ate very tasty diner food (including crab cakes and milkshakes). We made it to Newark, NJ that night and had a quick night of sleep before heading home on Monday. Now we are prepping for our renovation and back to school, while savoring our memories of carefree days at the beach. Until next year.....