Thursday, September 1, 2016

Renovation: Week 3 and Back to School

It's back to school week here in the Barnes House. On Monday, everyone was thrilled to find that one of our chickens laid its first egg. 

 We spent our afternoon at the Spaulding Rehab playground in Charlestown, soaking in the last bit of summer.
 Everyone was energized and smiling on the first day of school. Levi could hardly wait to start Kindergarten. I was probably the most nervous one of the bunch! We enjoyed our walk to school and were happy to see our friends after a summer away.



 Lina and Audrey quickly found one another during the first day line up.
 Levi came to Lyla's rescue, carrying her heavy backpack! Everyone had wonderful days, and though I missed them a lot, I was thrilled for each of them.
 On Wednesday, we finally began the framing phase of the project. The subfloor came up and new floor started to be put down. Dinner was ratatouille, tomato stacks, and callaloo. Still eating well in spite of the chaos!



Renovation: Week 2

 Week 2 of our house project started with the harvesting of Serrano peppers from our garden. The demo was completed, and the piano was moved into it's new location.

 The day the crew did the demo in the foyer, the kids chose a day at home, so we were literally trapped on the 2nd and 3rd floor while they worked.
 The day inside allowed me to cook dinner.....pasta (cooked in an electric skillet) with garden-grown tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese.


 To celebrate the completion of the demo project, I took the kids to the DeCordova museum. They had fun looking at sculptures and building their own out of cardboard boxes.



 On Friday, our carpenter team arrived to prepare a little bubble room for the piano to stay in through the renovation.
 On Thursday, the kids and I spent the day in Boston and I tried out our crock pot for the first time. I made spiced-lentils and topped them with a tomato-ground cherry (from farm share) salsa.
 On Saturday, we relaxed at the beach for the afternoon before enjoying a good seafood dinner.





 On Sunday, we prepared a grilled quinoa salad. I thought the veggies looked so pretty!