This one's for you, mom!

Well, it is Thursday afternoon and I'm going to see how far I get with this while Méabh plays with her toys... Peter Rabbit is on in the background so maybe that will help?!

Let me start off with a story.  Yesterday was the first morning I was able to make eggs for breakfast, wash my dishes in the sink, and have my coffee pot and kettle all in one place.  We were ecstatic!  "We're nearly there!" is what we were thinking.  I even snapped a couple of photos to mark this big step in progress:

no bar stools yet and still need some of our lighting... plus no floors.  But appliances in!

Niall a happy man to get his eggs again

So, continuing on... last night Niall was at our homegroup while I stayed home with Méabh (we switch off going every week).  I got her to bed, cleaned up our dinner dishes, and took a shower.  I was about to go relax downstairs when I noticed a leak coming out of the part of the shower nozzle that is attached to the wall... not just a trickle, but a pretty steady stream of water.  Oh dear.  I tried turning it on and off again but no such luck.  I went down to the kitchen to get my phone and call Niall... as I entered the new dining area I knew immediately something was very wrong!  It sounded like our ceiling was filling up with water, and already the damp was showing through different parts of the ceiling and dripping down the walls (ruining our fresh paint job that we spent hours on a couple of weekends ago-- noooooooo!).  I panicked a little, called Niall, and turned the main water line off.  To make a long story short, Niall rushed home and called our builder who was here this morning ripping apart our upstairs bathroom.  Our plumber is coming later this afternoon to hopefully fix the problem... burst pipe I think?  I'll get more details later I guess!

*sigh*

Just when we thought we were almost there!!  So no running water since last night.  On a brighter note, we thought the earliest date we could get for our floor to go down was May 9th but we were just informed today that we are now getting them this coming Tuesday (the 3rd) instead.  Hooray!  Méabh is a giant dirtball by the end of the day after crawling/walking/falling around the dusty concrete.  So I am very anxious to get our floor down.

Okay, here's a few more photos...

a few weeks ago after the units went in

My hero who has organized everything and put up with me analyzing every decision :)

it was freezing in there but I think this was the first morning we sat at the table!

I spent a few hours over the weekend clearing out our office, which has mainly been used for storage and a substitute kitchen for the past 3 months:

I'm happy to say it does not look like this anymore!

we put our old kitchen units in our office after they were ripped out-- this was our 'kitchen!'

A little over a week ago Méabh started walking!  She's a little unstable but doing great.  Thank goodness she only started now... just when we're about to get our floors in.  She planned it well for us!

she loves 'bunny' and gives him lots of pats on the back :)

you can always tell where Méabh has been...

she loves the light switches too!

Poor kid-- we have spent soooo much time the last few months just 'playing' upstairs.  Mostly trying to stay out of the builders' way and away from all of the noise.  She's been a trooper, watched more TV than I'd like to admit, and kept a smile on her face at times when Niall and I have felt like crying.  She has her 'spicy' moments but overall she is a great little sidekick to have around  :)

I think this was taken the weekend Niall and I had loads of painting to do.  She was stuck there for quite some time :(

neighbourhood watch!

Overall it's been an emotionally and physically draining process, but we're getting there!  Last night's drama was a disappointing setback but ah well; what can you do?!  We're very excited that the finish line is at least in sight.  In other ways, life is good and the Madden clan is busy.  Perhaps our next update can focus on our daily happenings rather than this dang kitchen!

I'll end with a prayer request:  SUN!!!  It snowed loads here this morning and yesterday there was hail the size of marbles.  I even took a picture from my office window because I thought it was funny that I had my bedding hanging on the line while it was zero degrees out...

the photo doesn't do it justice... there was a lot of hail!

Right, I'm stopping there.  Over and out!

lots of love

xox