Here are some 'home' updates.  I started laying some flooring at the house in Pennsylvania.  The prep work for this took sooooo long, but finally I was able to get to the fun part!  We bought a miter saw, air compressor and pneumatic nailer.  I don't usually get too excited about power tools, but I love my miter saw!!!!!!  The cuts are so fast and so clean!  Why didn't I buy one of these six years ago when we started this mess of a house?  And if you're feeling at all agressive or angry, there's nothing like smacking the knob on the nailer with the mallet to make you feel better - and you get to be productive at the same time!

Here we have the beginnings of a fireplace.  The chimney doesn't go all the way through the roof yet, but soon.  Then I have to be patient.  You have to wait two weeks before you can light your first fire, then both the first and second fires can only be 1/2 hour each.  We used components from a company called Isokern.  The blocks go together like giant legos.  We had some problems here; they were delivered on a tractor-trailer, so not only couldn't they come up the driveway, but they almost couldn't get the pallets off the truck, since there's not a long flat stretch on our dirt road.  The driver and I had to open up one of the pallets and off-load the pieces one by one.  (He was not happy.)  Then I got to unwrap the other pallets and load each of the blocks into the Jeep, making about twenty trips to get all the blocks up to the house.  Then a bunch of them were broken.... and the replacements were broken.... and now we have to pay an extra $ for a dedicated truck, or Isokern won't take the blocks back if they're broken again. Aaaargh!  But a warm, pretty fire will be worth it, right???

 So here's the laundry room floor.  The tiles look like slate, but are actually porcelain.  I should have taken another picture, since this one was taken before all the grout was wiped off, but I forgot.  We got a washer and dryer, but still need to hook up the dryer vent.  For now, we have a cable stretched across the garage to hang the clothes on.  I don't know about the dryer, not having used it yet, but the washer is too funny.  It plays a little tune when you turn it on and when it finishes washing.  Mike's opinion - "That's gay."

 Now on to New York.  We took up the old, stinky carpet from the kids' bedroom.  It used to be a kitchen, and when we took up the six old layers of linoleum and vinyl tile, the concrete underneath was cracked in one section.  When we patched it, I put Kelly's foot in the wet cement.  She was two at the time.  Now she's six.  Look how much she's grown!

We got bunk beds to replace the two toddler beds, and added a trundle underneath, so we could finally get Ian out of our room.  Kelly sleeps on the middle bed.  She decided she didn't want the top, because she sleeps on the top bunk in Pennsylvania.  Matthew was happy to take the top here.  I got bedding from Ikea - three down comforters, three duvet covers and pillowcases, and a little, matching light, for $125.  (Sorry the pic of the light is blurry.)  I didn't want to un-make Matthew's bed for the picture, but all three of the duvet covers have these silly animals on them, but each is a different style, so the bedding coordinates, and each kids has their own style.  (On Matthew's the animals are riding in silly cars - like a bunny in a carrot car.)  I also found out that there's a water taxi that will take you directly to the Brooklyn Ikea.  The kids ride free, and if you buy $10 or more at the store, they'll refund your $5 ticket price.  Looks like a weekend trip in the making!!!