It's really looking like home now...

Here are some photos from the last several days of work on the new house. Now, every time we go over there, we are taking a load of stuff. So, the moving has started! We still have work to do, but the major stuff is taken care of now. :)


On Thursday morning, I took all the kids except David, who was working on his schoolwork, to the new house to "de-plasticize" the house. They all helped take up the plastic, which was helpful.

Jesse ran through the house, pulling up plastic and laughing. I thought to myself that I doubt he'd be more excited if we'd taken him to Disneyland!

Here's Naomi, pulling up plastic in the upstairs hallway by the kids' rooms.

On Thursday during naptime, I took Joshua with me to vacuum up the bits of dried paint that were all over the carpeting, to prepare it for being cleaned on Friday.

I have discovered that Joshua is very good at screwing things in... and it's been fun to see his cheerful offers of help. :)



Matt & I installed the new windows in the living room on Saturday evening. Neither of us had done anything like that before, so it was fun to learn!

It's *so* nice to see three intact windows in there instead of the broken, cracked mess that we found when we first saw the house! :)



Joshua shares a birthday (February 9th) with Matt's brother Mark. In honor of their birthday (a week early) Mark & Anita took Joshua to see The Water Horse, to McDonald's and to their house for part of the afternoon. Joshua had a great time!!

Here they are when they came to drop off Joshua. They gave Jesse a cap that was given to them at the theater, so he's looking pretty happy, too. :)




We installed 9 interior doors on Saturday. Here are Matt & David after the three of us installed the pantry door.

David was Matt's "apprentice", learning how to put the hinges on & install doors in the doorways, because he wanted to do the boys' room door by himself. He did, and also helped Marissa with the girls' room door. They really enjoyed helping. :)


Here are the rest of the door-installing team (except me, the doorknob lady, because I was taking the photo) in the master bedroom. You can also see a pile of boxes we've already moved into the house.

It looks *so* great having the doors in! It really gives the house a nice, finished feel. :)



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Today, I'll be doing a few miscellaneous things, but the main focus will be sanding kitchen cabinet doors. The goal is to stain the cabinets & doors before we move our kitchen things into the house later this week.

Pastor Wayne (who has helped quite a bit already) has volunteered the youth group's help with moving boxes Thursday evening. I believe I'll be cleaning the rental house on Friday. Then our friends Dan & Laura (very helpful assistants) have lined up help from their Bible study group, as well as a truck & trailer for Saturday morning. We'll have helpers from our church, too, I'm sure.

It's all happening in five days, on Joshua's 7th birthday! He's really excited that moving day is on his birthday. :)