Latest project

My latest project came about after I finished building my storage shelves in the garage and I was looking for more things that I could build. My sister happened to be looking for bunk beds but was unable to find ones that she really loved with a price that matched. So, I offered to build her bunk beds. It couldn't be that hard right? Plus, I thought it would be fun. After months of looking and debating and planning, we decided to go ahead with it. We got building plans from a website, http://www.ana-white.com/, Lisel bought all of the supplies, I had a weekend off and it all started to come together.

 The lumber

Step 1: Cut all the lumber

All of the cut pieces of lumber

Step 2: Start building. First, the head and foot boards

Step 3: Bed frames

Step 4: Assembly

Step 5: Add ladder and side rail

Step 6: Stain the entire thing

Voila! The finished project.

It took me about 27 man hours from start to finish, including the 2 hours that Lisel helped me stain it until 12:30 in the morning. It turned out awesome and I can't wait to see how it looks in the remodeled room for the boys. I am proud of it.

I had a neighbor lady come over and ask me if I did it for a living? When I said I just do it for fun, she asked me how much I would charge to build them? I thought about it for a minute, all the time it takes and the hard work that it takes and I responded with a number that I hoped would deter her from further questioning. I wouldn't mind doing it again, but at the moment it didn't seem like I wanted to start on another one right then.

I am already looking for my next project. Maybe something in my house... Stay tuned

Yard Work

I have been spending a significant amount of time in our yard this spring/summer and have made a few improvements in the yard.

We added a vegetable garden in the back yard. Hopefully in the next week we will be able to plant vegetables and start picking vegetables and making delicious fresh food soon.

Justin let me borrow his trailer to haul all of the bricks. Luckily he did because the bricks weighed a ton and I'm not sure how I would have transported them otherwise. As it was it was quite the process to get them all to our house.

The begining of the process. Good thing our lawn has filled in since then. It does not look good in this picture.

The finished product. We have since filled it with dirt and soil to prep it for planting. We hope to have all of our vegetables in the top portion and herbs, flowers, etc... in the botton portions. 

We also added a raised flower bed all along the side of our house in the front yard. With the same bricks, we added a small flower bed around the tree in the front yard.

Our front flower bed

The raised flower bed on the side of the house

The flower bed around the tree. I need to make it a little bit bigger, it looks so tiny compared to the tree.

Sam loves to help Mommy water the flowers

Lots more work to do but it is coming along. It's a work in progress, but definitely making progress. We actually like going out into our yard now. We plan to spend lots of time there this summer.

Kate's Blessing

Kate was blessed on May 6, 2012.

Sam

Our family. Sam is so funny

Little Miss Kate in the dress that Aunt Nellie made for her

It was a beautiful day. We are so grateful for our family and friends that were able to come and support us. We love our little girl!

Seeing Salt

Seeing Salt Lake from the eyes of a tourist.

I was born and raised in the Salt Lake area. I thought I had pretty much done everything there is to do in SLC. I was wrong. It was our pleasure to host a friend who came to visit us from Massachusetts. We asked her what she wanted to do while she was here and she did research and made a list.

The list:

1. Bonneville Salt Flats

They tasted just like salt

Sam, Trisha and Jessie

Sam liked playing in the puddles of water on top of the salt

2. Park City- I haven't been to Park City Main St since I was in high school. Why I haven't been back, I'm not sure. I loved it. It was pretty fun.

Looking down Main Street

Looking up Main Street

3. Great Salt Lake

And we added:

4. Kennecott Copper Mine-Massive. That's all I can say, it is massive. I had no idea the economic impact that this mine had in the SLC community and Utah. It's amazing. I also had no idea how committed they are to the environment. A large portion of the presentation in their museum describes the many great things they have done to support the environment around the mining process as well as in the community in general. Pretty impressive.

5. Picnic in the canyon

6. Temple Square with the family

Sam loves playing with his cousins!

Flowers are always spectacular at Temple Square

It was a great weekend. I hope more people come to visit us so we can find more things to do that we have never done before.