Ackerman Visit Part 2

Ever since the garage roof was damaged, Steve has been researching slate roofs, gathering tools, and scheming how he was going to get it accomplished.  But before the roof could be fixed, we had to find some slate.  After months of researching on Craigslist and contacting people to get measurements, we finally found some slate that was the right size for our roof.  So one day, Steve and I went on an adventure and drove to a farm on the outskirts of Columbus to get the slate.  As we approached the farm, it was a complete set-up for one of those horror movies where the couple is never heard of again (roaming chickens included), but luckily this was a legit place and we survived with 50 pieces of slate in hand.

So a few months ago, Steve was able to replace some of the lower slate on the roof.  He would just stand on the ladder and could fix the places he could reach.  However, he could only fix about 3 pieces and had about 4 left but were too high to reach.

These next pictures are from over the summer.  I thought I'd posted about this part earlier, but didn't so for the completion to make sense, I had to add in this section out of date:

(The slate that we got from Columubus was bigger than the tiles on our roof.   So Steve had to buy a slate cutter in order to cut the pieces to the right size.)

(Here is an upclose shot of the damage.  You can see some of the wood poking through from under the damaged section.  Steve had to cut pieces of flashing to cover the wood before he laid slate over it.)

(Steve working on the rows he could reach by the ladder.)

(Here you can see the 2 pieces he replaced on rows 4&5 via a ladder.  The slate was lighter than the others, which drove me crazy.  The color of the slate is dependent on the area it was mined.)

(So we came up with a solution to the lighter tiles -- spray paint them!  This is how our garage looked for the majority of the summer up until this past weekend.  You can now see the tiles towards the bottom that were darkened with the paint (the dark patch up to the left was done by previous owners).  We tried several different was to extend the ladder for Steve to fix the upper tiles, but nothing worked.)

He did some research and decided his best option was to by hooks that would attach to a ladder and then hang the ladder over the top of the garage.  I hated this option but made a compromise -- as long as someone else was here to help him (and take him to the ER when things went wrong), he could by the hooks and attempt the process. With his parents coming for the weekend, and a great weather forecast, Steve seized the opportunity and convinced his dad to help out.

(Getting the "hook ladder" on the roof was quite the challenge.  There are wheels on one side of the ladder, that help you push it up to the top of the roof.  Then you have to flip the ladder so the hooks catch.  The ladder was pretty heavy and it didn't just roll straight up like we planned, and it ended up being over the damaged section.  Then Doug & Steve had to shimmy the ladder over.  A couple of tiles up at the top got cracked, but hopefully they won't break all the way off :-/.)

(Steve first wanted to test the strength of the hooks by climbing all the way to the top.  I think I was the most panicked during the process, but even Doug declared Steve shouldn't go all the way to the top.  The sun was about to go down, so we just left the ladder attached to the roof overnight.)

(Even though the rule was that someone else was supposed to help him out, I did end up being his spotter and handing him tools as he needed them.  Once he was up there, he realized that there was more damage than he thought, and that a lot more wood was exposed.  He did a pretty great job of covering all the wood and putting in the new tiles.)

(Our garage roof is finally fixed!!  What a HUGE check mark off that list!  Steve agrees that the extra help was needed in getting the ladder on and off the roof.  He now thinks he can fix some tiles on the top of our 3 story house, but Doug had my back and put a ca-bosh on that idea -- thanks Doug!)

In Steve's words -- roofers have a very dangerous and tiring job.  He definitely underestimated the job, but is thrilled that it was a success.  We also learned a lot from the whole process and know how to do it easier the next time.  (Hopefully there won't be a next time anytime soon!)

Ackerman Visit Part 1

Over this past weekend, Steve's parents came to visit.  They were hoping that there would be leaves to rake while they were here; however, the weather and our trees didn't cooperate, so we came up with other around the house projects to work on.

We had quite the list, but didn't expect much of it, or really any of it, done.  But his parents went to work and plowed through the list.  We are still amazed all that we got done in one weekend!  While they were here they  accomplished tearing all the ivy off the garage, cleaning out the weeds behind the garage, tearing out all the plywood on the inside of the garage, washed all the downstairs windows, scraped and painted some outside areas of the house (where bare wood was showing), raked a section of the side yard, trimmed lots of bushes and small trees in the landscaping, and completed the slate roof project!

(All the plywood -- on the right -- was torn out and bagged up.  Steve has big dreams of insulating, dry walling, and creating a better tool system inside the garage.)

(The back of the garage was left alone for now.  The wood paneling will need to be torn out, but we saved it for a later date.)

(Trisha worked diligently getting the plywood out form behind the wood base.  The plywood was pretty dusty and who knows what was in it, so we wore masks while tearing it out. . . well, most of us wore masks ;-).  )

(After the plywood was torn off, we can see what was behind it.  2 different kinds of "bricks".  The middle section of the wall (on both sides) is done in the original brick that matches the outside.  We can't figure out if there used to be a door there or why they chose different bricks on the inside.  Weird.)

Don't think that we're slave drivers, their visit wasn't just all work.  We also managed to squeeze in a library adventure with Trisha, the Ohio State v. Purdue game with Doug, and took them to our new church.  I still can't believe how much we crammed in with them over the weekend with all that got done.  By the end of the weekend, I'm not sure who was more tired -- them or us.  Regardless, we had a great time with them!

Fall Favorites

Fall is by far my FAVORITE time of year.  The air is turning cooler, I get to snuggle under blankets, light candles, bake pumpkiny and appley items.  Although, I do love winter -- Christmas music, Christmas lights, snow, warm furry boots, scarves, more snow, hmmm. . . okay maybe fall isn't my FAVORITE, but for the sake of this post, we'll say it is.  

October snuck up on us, and November is just around the corner.  Here are some random pictures for the fall this far:

(Our door is still very blue, but we're pretty used to it.  The decorations really help it out, too!  We bought the pumpkin at Menards, but apparently the squirrels really like it because they've taken a chunk out of the top.)

(I made this wreath on a challenge from Steve.  He didn't think I could make one for cheaper than what you could buy one for -- I proved him wrong :).  I'm not happy that I proved him wrong (okay, I do like being right!), but I'm happy that it was cheap & made all by myself.  I only inquired 1 burn from the glue gun in the process.  And thanks mom for my bow-making skills.)

(Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzards -- I'm more of a ChocoCherry Love kind of girl, but Steve loves PPB's.  With a BOGO deal, we got these two beauties for under $4.  I only ate about a 1/3 of mine, leaving Steve to indulge in this October only special.)

(MMMmmm, probably one of the BEST pies I've ever had -- and probably the BEST apple pie I've ever had.  Thanks to Sarah Cardinal, I now own a family recipe that is amazing.  I have also made a couple of pumpkin pies so far this year, but they weren't picture worthy (I just follow the recipe on the back of the can).  But this pie, I made the crust, sliced the apples, and assembled all by myself.  I was pretty proud of it.)

Christmas Crafts

I'm beginning all my preparations for Christmas crafts!  While in Indiana, I spent a lot of my time painting a bunch of different letters and shapes for my nieces' Christmas gifts.  I am keeping up my American Girl gift tradition and making more clothes and accessories for my nieces' dolls.  I tried to find pictures/stories about my gifts last Christmas, but I failed (either in the documenting or researching).  I made a bunch of clothes, purses, and a sleeping bag for their dolls last year.  I had grand plans of getting more done, but it didn't happen, so it's all on my list for this year!  My sister (their mom) found a way to make your own desks & chairs for American girls so we took advantage of me being in town to get the project started.

(You would not believe how long it took to paint all this.  It took even longer just discussing the logistics of the project, color schemes, and how to go about doing it.  I made some mistakes and painted the wrong items the wrong color, but it was easily fixed -- whew!  The round pieces and squares with the fancy corners will be assembled to make chairs, while the letters and plain rectangles will make desks)

(Here's a semi-finished desk.  Although the top still needs to be painted and then glued together.  I didn't get everything all the way done.  I painted as much as I could then dropped everything off at my sister's for her to assemble, but I wanted an idea of how it would turn out.)

Now that I'm back home, I need to begin the rest of the crafts.  I have some diaper bags to sew (for Bitty Babys); American Girl doll clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, slippers, hats & jackets; and I already completed some crochet booties & hats for their Bitty Babys.  So far I have no money invested in these gifts.  I have tons of fabric that I can use for the sewing and had yarn for the crocheting.  I will have to purchase some more fabric for the diaper bags and things like buttons/zippers.  Thank goodness for Joann Fabrics & their awesome coupons!

Unplanned Hiatus

I know, I know.  It's been waaaayyy too long since my last post.  That's what happens when your computer is in one state while you are in another.  During our trip to Indiana for our friend reunion (and staying with my sister while my parents were gone), I left Indiana without my computer.

It wasn't a big deal since I have a data phone and new another trip was on the quick horizon.  This past weekend, we headed back to Indiana for a cousin's wedding.  I got to see everyone on my mom's side of the family as well as being reunited with my computer.  Of course, I had thought of tons of posts to type when I couldn't, so I'll do my best to remember them and will bombard the blog with updates.

In other random news, we missed our little critter's birthday!!  Our little Ramses is over a year old!  He joined us in September of last year and is still going strong :)

This is not a good picture of him at all, but he's not been very photo-genic lately.  It's crazy how much he's changed (even though he isn't much bigger than when we got him) and how fun his little personality is. 

Reunion

This past weekend marked our 2nd annual college friends reunion!  For both reunions, we ended up doing PlanBs.  Last year we had planned to go camping but the summer was so hot, we ended up hanging out at one of the couple's house in Indy-area.  This year, we planned on camping, but were concerned about it being too cold for the little ones that we hung out at my parents' house!

My parent's house was just about as close to the middle for everyone that we could get.  One couple had an hour drive from Carmel, IN; we had a 2.5 hour drive from Lima, OH; another couple had a 3.5 hour drive from Chicago area; and another couple had a 4.5 hour drive from WI.  Somehow, the couple with the youngest baby (at 6 months) had the longest drive.  Thanks to everyone for accepting PlanB & graciously driving to make it!

My parents are gone on vacation and it just so happened to line up with our reunion weekend.  We were able to use the whole house (and all the food and goodies left behind) to host 3 other couples & 4 kids ages 5, 18 months, 14 months, 6 months)!  Every couple had their own room, beds, and space to set up pack-in-plays for the babies to sleep.  My parents always have the mindset that their home is open to anyone, and I'm thankful that even when they're gone, the door is still open!

We were able to hang out the entire weekend laughing and making memories with the people that helped shaped Steve and I through college.  We especially got close to these three lovely couples during a marriage Bible study we all did together our Senior year.  When we meet up for these reunions, we always set aside a special time to have each couple share what God has taught them in the past year and share prayer requests for the directions God is leading us.  Such an AWESOME time together!!

Can't tell you how much all these people mean in Steve's & My life.  We absolutely love and adore each and every one of them.  It's amazing to watch their relationships grow with each other and then bring new lives into their families!  Absolutely crazy!!

(Last year's reunion -- July 2011)

(This year -- September 2012.  The bottom picture is an attempt to recreate the dance moves from "Gangnam Style")