Monday, February 6, 2012

Attic Bedroom

Like December isn't a busy enough month with 2 birthdays and Christmas.... Todd and I decided to renovate!!  Our hundred year old home has a third story attic.  It's fantastic!  When we bought this house with only 3 bedrooms, we definitely had our minds set to finish this story.  So here are our before pictures.  
 I really should've taken pictures before we even started anything.  This space was chuck full of storage stuff.  Todd worked on knocking down the unused chimney.  This is what you saw as soon as you walked up the steps.
 Above is a picture of at the top of the steps directly to the left.
Below is a picture from standing in that gable above and taking a picture of the stair area.
 Below is the gable sort of in front of the stairs, to the left of the chimney.
 

 Below is the picture of the roof looking down into the chimney.  Todd used a mortar chisel to knock off the top part of the chimney, but the chimney inside of the house was so old that he could just pull the bricks off!
 Half the chimney gone... look at all that dust in the air!
 No chimney (picture taken from stairs)!  It really opened up the area.  And as for those bricks... they're sitting in my backyard waiting to be used this spring to pave a path in my garden!
 Luckily when we bought this home, there was already sub-flooring, heating and airconditioning in the attic.  We hired a contractor that framed, dry-walled, taped, mudded, replaced windows, installed carpet and adjusted the heating/air vents just a bit.  This is after framing the second day.
 Above is the gable directly left of the stairs.  This is just the view from where the chimney used to be.
 This is looking down the stairs.  We ended up taking that right side of the steps wall down to a half wall.
Above is the gable in front of the stairs.

 Above is after framing is completed and they started windows.  That's the gable to the left of the stairs.  We put in a larger window to meet code for fire safety.
 This is the gable in front of the stairs.  We ended up replacing that window with a crank window so that we could keep the old look of a full window.  That was expensive miscommunication!
 These are looking from the one gable at the stairs and the framed in closest and door to storage!

 Ta-dah!  A finished room.  It took us until this past weekend, but we did all the trim work and painting ourselves.  What a job.


Up the stairs and then looking to the left.
 
I love the gable to the left.  I have plans of built in bookshelves and a pillows on the window seat!

Here's a close up on the wood work.  Todd did a beautiful job.
 This is standing in that gable looking at our double closet doors and the door into our storage area.

 Looking towards the stairs...
 This is the gable in front of the stairs.  Just enough room for a single bed.
 Our small, beautiful, crank-out window.

And down the stairs!

We moved beds in on Saturday, but I don't have their new bedding yet.  So, stay tuned for more pictures!

Meg Walking!

So this video was taken January 18th.  Meg started to walk!  I can hardly believe it still.  The funniest part was just how small her little steps are!  She's a bit faster now, but it's taken her awhile to lengthen her stride!!


Merry Christmas


Merry Christmas!  Better late than never, right?
 Christmas morning.  Rylee wasn't so sure that she wanted to be awake.
 
 Somehow we missed taking Meg's picture this morning.  It probably had something to do with needing to get to church by 10:00am. 
Marcella got a scooter from Santa.  She was riding it everywhere!
 Audrey got an American Girl Doll bed that has a trundle so both of her dolls can sleep at night.
 Olivia got a very cool camera.  Perfect for girls camp this year.
 Rylee got a Lala Loopsy tree house, which she loves, but was just as excited about all the candy in her stocking!
 I love getting a picture of everyone in their new jammies in front of the tree.  And yes, Meg is pajama-less.  Just before pictures she had a blow out.  Oh well, she's still cute!
 We had a very merry Christmas!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Elementary Christmas Concert


Franklin Elementary had their 6th annual Christmas concert last night.  This was seriously the best elementary concert I have ever been too.  It echos the wonderful concerts that Mrs. Parchey put on at Eisenhower Elementary back in my elementary school days.



Marcella had a solo!  Please be patient, if you decide to watch this video, I was figuring out my camera.  There's one song called "A Time For Love",  then a long break and then Marcella finally sings.  It is a very sweet solo called "I Have Lost My Jingle Bell" by E. Gilpatrick.


Emily had a short solo at the beginning of one of the 4th grade songs.  The piece is called "The Peace Carol" by Bob Beers.


Audrey had a solo for the 3rd grade class.  Her song is called "The Magic of the Night" by Enya Brenna and Roma Ryan.

All in all, the Gagon's were very well represented at this years Franklin Elementary Winter Festival Concert!  I'm hoping our next round of concerts I'll remember the tripod so we don't get sick from watching the videos!


Olivia's Christmas Orchestra Concert



Olivia's Orchestra Concert was Monday the 12th.  She had 4 pieces to learn this year and participated in 2 orchestras.  This is one of her pieces. 



This orchestra is formed of 6th and 7th graders.  She was required to try out and made the cut.  They call themselves 'Strings at Sunrise'.  The members of this orchestra meet on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before school starts. She is becoming quite the musician!

Meg Elizabeth Turns One!

 Happy Birthday to Meg!  I was talking to Todd a few weeks before the big day and mentioned that I wanted to do something special for Meg's Birthday, but couldn't think of a special theme.  Since she is girl #6, we've covered just about every pink party theme you can think of.  Todd came up with the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Love it!  It's Meg's very favorite song right now!
 So, I made spider cup cakes.  I found this idea on someone's blog.  Soo cute!
Meg seemed to like them and all my other girls thought they were super awesome.
These next few pictures are just for bragging purposes...




 There's a few curls back there!
Check out the spider headband...

Meg didn't really like having a cupcake on fire sat in front of her!


 And she really didn't know what to do with it too.  But as soon as she tasted it, she was excited.



 It took her forever to eat her cupcake!  First she pinched off all of the icing and thought that was it.  Her sisters just laughed and laughed!  They showed her to eat the cake part too.  Meg actually liked the cake better than the frosting, but she also just pinched little pieces off! 

Yum, she doesn't eat cupcakes like that anymore.  She had a cupcake that next day and just shoveled it all in as fast as she could.  But it sure was funny for her birthday!
 Ooooh, yah!  It's present time!

 Her sisters were quick to show her how to play with her toys.
 And of course we ended the fun with a bath!

 Meg LOVES to stand on one foot!  So funny!
 Bath time's always more fun with a couple of sisters!

I can't believe our Little Meg is already one.  She is such a wonderful, happy part of our family!