Family Visit and House Updates!

I mentioned in my last post that my father-in-law came to visit for a few weeks.  It was so nice to have him here.  Gwendolyn quickly learned how to say "paw paw" and he liked to make her laugh, so it was a nice time. 

Our first few days together were pretty chill. 

 

 

We took a day and showed dad the capitol in all it's glory. 

 

This time, the NY state museum was open, so I enjoyed going there!  My favorite exhibit was the antique carousel on the 4th floor.  All of the horses are original and hand carved and hand painted.  It is free to ride on and the rides begin every fifteen minutes.  Because I love carousels so much, we took two turns on it. 

 

Turns out Gwendolyn is a real fan of them as well.  :D

 

 

 

After that one day chilling in Albany, we put dad right to work on the house.  I felt bad that he worked so much on his visit here, but you can't stop a Shedd from working! 

 

Dan and his dad put new drywall up in the whole upstairs, and patched holes, mudded everything, sanded everything...

 

 

 

Dan is so close to finishing!  We can see the end is near and it's very exciting.  Here in May, we have fun things coming!  A baby will (hopefully) be born, we'll plant the garden, Gwendolyn will have her first birthday, we just celebrated our anniversary, and it's officially Spring, which really makes me feel alive.  I love the winter too, but when Spring does finally come, I'm very ready for it. 

 

 

While dad Shedd was visiting us, we also had a pretty intense Missions Conference.  I mentioned that in my last post.  We had four different missionary families in and really enjoyed getting to know them all.  While the one family was here staying in our prophets chamber, Dan was happy to have an extra hand then, re-doing the church name on the front of the building.  These wooden letters have been rotting off since we arrived two years ago, and recently, the bottom of the I in "Baptist" fell off, so it was really time to do some updating.  We purchased new lettering that won't rot.    

 

 

It's very nice to have that project completed.  Today, I finished planting all of the watermelon, cantaloupe, bell peppers, tomatoes, some kale, and a few pots of squash and zucchini and cucumbers indoor.  I'm slightly late doing it...so hopefully everything grows fine.  The hope is that we'll be able to plant outdoor the last week in May.  Dan already got a truckload of chicken manure and spread it and tilled it into the garden. 

That's what we've been up to!  I have a midwife appointment today, so who knows...maybe I'll be posting an update on baby Shedd #2 someday very soon!

(at least I hope so!)

😃😃😃

Renovating and life updates!

First of all, let me start by saying I'm sorry for not posting sooner.  Life has been flying by these past few weeks.  I can't say that anything huge has happened, but in general, regular life events keep me busy.  In the first week of March, I made Fastnachts for Fastnacht day.  I enjoy doing this each year.  It's not that I actually make them to celebrate fat Tuesday...it's just that I absolutely love donuts, and its fun to have a family tradition. 

 

 

 

The way I see it, if you're going to get out the fryer, get it running, and use a huge container or oil, you may as well fry everything in sight.  So I also made apple fritters.  Dan really enjoys them. 

 

Aside from donuts, Dan has been working VERY hard on the house.  I mentioned a few of the big projects he was working on in the last few months...furnace, kitchen and mudroom floors, and re-plumbing the house.  After finishing those things, he started in on the next big job...resurfacing walls. 

Just to give you an idea of the changes that have been made, I'm posting before and after photos. 

This is the downstairs bathroom before.  There was a large heart-shaped tub rather than a shower.  Besides the fact that the tub didn't work, it hadn't been plumbed properly.  In fact, the pipes had been duct taped together, and in one place, an old vacuum hose had been used rather than pvc pipe. 

 

 

Dan installed a new shower instead.  It's hooked up and fully functioning. 

 

 

 

In the dining room, wallpaper was falling down, and there were several holes in the lath and plaster.

 

 

 

Dan has started patching, and mudding all the holes. 

 

This one is hard to see, but the staircase on the left is the one that goes upstairs.  Some years back, a former owner changed the stairway to be a narrow, low ceiling with a sharp turn.  So sharp in fact that the plywood Dan bought for the floors in the upstairs bathroom wouldn't fit up them.  So you'll see the change Dan did to the staircase opening in the next picture.

He took the ceiling up (not pictured) so it's much higher and more open now.  He widened the doorway, so now large items can be moved easily upstairs.  I also just have to mention that I love the banister posts he built...they fit the Victorian style of the house much better than having none.

 

This is the upstairs bathroom before.  I took down all the wallpaper last summer, and now....

 

Dan removed the hideous purple tiles on the walls and the peel-and-stick tiles on the floor and redid it.

 

He resurfaced the walls, put in a newer shower surround, and removed the toilet (we'll be putting in the new one this week).

 

What a hard worker!  I'm very proud of all the work he does.  Dan is trying hard to finish the house before the baby comes in May.  This week, my father-in-law is coming to stay with us for a few weeks, and will be helping with the renovation projects.  We've already purchased all the drywall needed to complete the upstairs...and that's the goal for the next two weeks. 

 

Be expecting to see some more photos soon!