Family and New Floors

Well, we've been a little busy.  And before more time passes, I'm posting some pictures, knowing you will be forgiving of their fuzzy quality.  Rose and Gary came to visit and help with the hardwood floor in the kitchen and dining room, and to help me finish the tiling in the laundry/mudroom.

First, we removed the pergo that was in the kitchen.

 

And under the pergo, there was linoleum to remove too!  The kids helped a lot!

 

Next we removed the linoleum from the laundry room.

 Then it was time to lay wonderboard in the laundry room...

...and remove the carpeting and tack strips from the dining room.

Then the experts, Gary and Rose, arrived.  We had noticed a squeak in the dining room floor, and they correctly diagnosed the problem and fixed it...

...before laying the hardwood flooring.

Lukas and Konrad helped sort the pieces and made sure that Gary and Rose had plenty of supply to keep working.

 Little by little, they put the flooring in...

 ...and then it was done!

The new floor makes a good drum...and we know it will make a beautiful dining room!

 

Meanwhile, in the laundry, the tiling was going in.  

 

Dominik helped me put in the spacers, when he wasn't holding his ears at the loud saw noise in the next room.

 

The hardwood went in so quickly that Rose helped me finish the tiling and the grouting.  The finishing touch was the bench that Gary and Rose's son, Justin, made for the mudroom half of the laundry room.  Now we can take off our muddy boots, hang up coats, and keep things tidy.

But it wasn't all work...we did some fun stuff too!  We went to see wild raptors one day...

  and another day we went for a walk along the river in 32* weather.

The boys got into throwing rocks into the river, and then it had to be big rocks...

...so Gary pulled big rocks out of the river so the boys could throw them back in for a big splash.

All too quickly, it was time for Rose and Gary to return home.  We hope they will come back soon and not work so much the next time!