MAJOR catch up

Editor's note: Because Mel started this post a month ago, I had to take it over or it would've never been posted. My comments are in italics.

As Kent mentioned, the two of us have been neglecting this blog lately, but in way of an excuse we have been keeping very busy. Summertime is definitely not a "kick back and relax" time for us, at least not this year. Or last year. Or the year before that.

The week of July 4th Kent's dad happened to be in Providence for a work conference, so we picked him up and he spent the weekend with us. We gave him the "Melanie & Kent" tour of Boston, showing him the places we visit on a regular basis. Then for the big holiday we went down to Cape Cod for dinner and a Summer League baseball game. We had thought they would supply fireworks after the game, but it ran into extra innings and we were all too tired to stick around. We did happen to catch some on the drive home. There were no postable pics from his visit, probably because he doesn't fit in the camera.

For the second weekend in July, I had the Young Women come over and camp out in our backyard as a pre-camp sleepover. They seemed to have some fun. Probably the best was when Kent snuck up behind 3 of the girls sitting around the fire pit and jumped out at them. I don't think I've ever seen people jump that high or that fast. A couple of them almost landed in the fire, so maybe not the safest choice, but hilarious nonetheless. I also had to take off my flips so I could sneak up on them, and ended up stepping on a hot coal, which hurt like the dickens and caused me to walk funny through scout camp and the reunion. Still worth it.

The following week Kent spent a few days at Scout Camp. It wasn't too far away from our house, so he was able to come home every night so I wasn't left completely alone. Scout camp was full of regulations. You couldn't have a fire without permission from the camp director, lights were out at 10 pm (no late night tomfoolery), etc. Those were the only 2 things I liked about scout camp: staying up late and having fires!

Then the last week in July we headed out to Utah for the Hansen Family Reunion. The flight out was fairly uneventful, and when we arrived in Orem we had a BIG surprise for Kent's family.

Our week in Utah was pretty exciting, it was nice to be able to see all the members of the Hansen Herd all in one place. There are SO many kids, it's kind of amazing. Meal time at the reunion was quite the production. Especially when the power goes out while you're cooking assembly-line style with an electric stove and oven...but everyone got fed, I think. After a pretty wet June in Boston, it was almost amazing how consistent the weather was everyday in Utah: dry and sunny during the day with a temperature cool down at night.

Craig's kids getting front row seats for the spectacle that is the Hansen Family Talent Show

Mom looking weary and Bruce looking surprisingly cheerful

Holly holding Lucy, Paula, and Alice with Chuckles

Chuckles!!!

Lana the duck for the Bruces' talent

Max (token black kid) inserted himself in every talent

Oh look! It's Max again! Also, it turns out that Gary CAN fit in the camera

Hurling their challenge to the foe...

About 10 years ago, Brian and Craig came up with these "Air Sports" sketches where they would mimic sports and events in exaggerated form, and in a close space. It's hilarious. Previous mimicries included Baseball, Basketball, the 200m dash, and I know I'm missing others. Anyway, this year Craig had the idea to do a football one. With limited people (me, Kurt, Brian, Craig), you have to play multiple positions. I won't explain the whole thing, but it was a ridiculous option play, involving about 5 pitches going back and forth across the "field". At the end, Brian broke all of the tackles and went into the end zone. I wish I had a video of it, pictures don't do it justice (don't you have a video of it, Heidi?):

Brian as the QB, Kurt the RB, I'm the center, Craig the entire defense (for now)

This was the super slo-mo part of the skit, Kurt and Craig trying to bring Brian down, while I catch up to anticipate the pitch (which didn't come, as Brian wanted to selfishly score himself). Oh, and there's an imaginary ball.

The Bergeson boys rockin out

Chuckles wowing all with his rendition of "Linus and Lucy". Move over, Mozart!

We knew we couldn't compete with the various comedy sketches and numbers, so we appealed to the sensitive side by singing a stirring rendition of "Lucky" by Jason Mraz. Mel nailed it. And hated every second of it.

The female cousins performed a very entertaining and confusing fairy tale, which I am unsure how it ended.

Undokai

Mel showing off her wheels in the bubble-blowing relay. Maw is taking her time blowing her bubble. This is what I get for being too lazy to post the pictures myself...I'm really not that fat, I swear.

The water pouring relay. We took second place, but Paula was cheating, so we would've won.

Scott hurling Thys in the Toddler Toss. He threw him 50 yards and won the gold medal. Thys escaped with minor injuries, if you count a broken femur as minor. The real story: we chose Super Scott to do the Firemen's Relay. He had to carry 4 different team members to safety using 4 different carrying methods - he is truly impressive. I did not participate in this event for obvious reasons.

Maw giving her best effort in the javelin. The javelin is currently orbiting the earth.

Mel in the Croquet hit competition. She lost badly, but for the sake of this post, let's just say she won.

Scott is neck and neck with Thys (broken femur and all!) in the headstand competition. Thys won, getting Scott back for his Toddler Toss. But since they were both on our team we earned MAJOR points in this event.

More Chuckles and Max (above)

I also got to see my little sister, April, whom I haven't seen since our wedding two years ago. Thanks so much for making the drive down April! Hopefully I'll get to see you again soon.

And naturally Max had to insert himself in the photo-op.

We also got to spend some time with the Sam Palmers (including the infamous Turkey Sub) while they passed through Utah on their grand move to the midwest.

Does anyone else see "Christmas Card" with this photo? It's just too cute.

Our trip back home was a little more stressful, what with delays in Dallas, waiting for the bus at Logan, oh yeah, and Kent leaving his wallet at his sister's house that morning. I don't think Kent has EVER left the house without his wallet, but he manages to do it on the day we have a 6am flight with a pretty tight layover and a train schedule to meet in order to make it home at a decent hour. Luckily Paula married Super Scott who, against all odds, managed to drive to the airport and bring Kent's wallet, just in time, to save the day. Thanks, Scott! My bad!

The second week in August I spent up in New Hampshire at Girls' Camp. A few people thought I was crazy for going, but it really wasn't all that bad. A little hot and humid at times, but nothing a bottle of water and some time in front of a fan couldn't fix. I had fun being with the girls and am glad that I stuck it out and went. Kent was very brave, staying at home all by himself for the whole week and I'm happy he was able to survive. I subsisted on grasshoppers, honey, and frozen pizzas.

I was over the 4th year girls, and out here they are responsible for choreographing and performing a light show for the rest of camp. They worked really hard on it and it turned out so well. I was really proud of all the girls.

After an eventful few weeks we don't have any major travel plans in the coming months which is nice. Although we do have plenty of work to do around here...

Frame job

I'm not sure how interesting people will find this post, but I won't mind if you just skip it. There are no people in these pictures, just lots of basement and lots of wood. I will give a good chunk of details, mostly for my own record keeping so I can remember what it looked like before I put the drywall up. I'll probably consult this post whenever I need to find a stud.

Anyway, ever since we bought this house I wanted to finish the basement. Now, I have zero construction experience, just small, odd jobs here and there and nothing using major power tools that can maim/kill you if mishandled. When I was in college, my mom had me redo a couple of the bathrooms in the house and I learned quite a lot by doing that. I look back at my work, and boy did it suck. I've also learned that most anybody can do this if they take their time and have the right tools.

I'm also not sure how to display this in any way that makes sense, but I'll do my best.

The Stairs


Looking down, pre-construction. You will notice the vapor barrier I've installed along the wall, and the floor plates which I put into the cement using a Ramset, which is a powder charged nailgun, using .22 bullets. It was pretty fun, and loud.
Anyway, we decided to take out the left wall along the stairs to open it up a little more. That was pretty fun, as I took the circular saw and just cut along the joist. So much dust kicked up from the drywall that it caused all of the smoke detectors to go off.

Here's a view of the wall that we took out. Don't use the couch as a point of reference, as I moved it a few times.


And, voila! The wall is gone. I think it really opened up the downstairs.
You can also notice all of the framing I put up next to the stairs. With the huge discharge pipe in the middle, it made it a tremendous pain. That took me a few days.
Here's a closeup of the stairs.

Here's the door frame leading to what will be the laundry/storage room.

Here is what will be the hallway leading from the stairs to the family room. You'll notice this is before I took out the wall.
This is actually looking from the bottom of the stairs down the hall, through the door and into the family room. The door in the picture leads to the outside, a steel exterior door. Burly Steve helped me put that in a few months ago.


Here's the family room, looking left from the outside door. This is the best pic I got pre-construction.
Starting framing

Finishing my first wall, framing around the window.

Second wall
I had to build a soffit (the box in the corner) to hide the various pipes. We'll have to put in a drop ceiling because of all the pipes/ducts.Looking through the bathroom door into the room.

The south wallWhere the couch sits is where the bathroom will be, but that won't be in this project.



I decided to frame underneath the stairs so that the little ones can play under there without boppin their heads on the steps.


My original goal was to have the basement framed out by the end of Spring 2010. However, I got the bug and enjoyed it so much that I just went down there every chance I could.

Next step: Wiring the basement!