Helping Papa

Ray was moving the brick that had been taken out so the concrete could be poured tonight.  Andrea thought carrying the bricks to the trailer was a lot of fun.  She put bricks inthe trailer as quickly as she could.  Then she road with Papa to the back of the house.  A good days work in her mind.

Dragonfly

I always envy the people who take wonderful closeup photos of photos, birds, insects and the like.  It isn't that easy for me to get a good photo and that was the case today.  Except for once I ended up with some good close up pictures.
It didn't hurt that the subject was cooperative.  This large dragonfly was buzzing around the front yard this afternoon.  He was there when we came home and went to the house and was still there when I came back  out with the camera.  My main challenge was keeping him in focus, my camera kept wanting to focus on the background, but I worked that technical question out. He allowed me to shoot pictures of him from several angles and up very close.  It was like he was posing on purpose.
To be truthful, he is more interesting to look at in the photo that what I could see in real life.  I didn't get to appreciate his glowing colors while I was looking at him.  Up close he almost shimmers.  Thank you Dragonfly for your time.

Almost There

The work is almost done on the remodel.  I still have to paint the walls and move the furniture around.  That should happen this weekend, so I will post photos then.  I am so happy with all the work the Classic Remodeling did.

Dad's Last Fathers Day Page

I have been doing some scrapping recently.  It is still strange not having pages to do for Scrapbook Garden and I will tell you now I am really looking forward to working at the new store.
This page uses MME and Basic Grey paper from a great kit I got from Miss Art's Paper School.  I have another page to do about my Dad, but I felt I needed to do the Father's Day page first.  The pictures are not that great.  I could do only so much with the green hue from the fluorescent lights but they are the last pictures I have of Dad.  He was so tired and so frail.  We all saw that, but still believed he was going to get better and be more like he was before he started his final slide.  I guess that is the definition of hope springing eternally. 
Photos like this are what make me glad that l take pictures, lots of them.  I didn't miss out on the party, but I was able to record the memories with my camera.  That allows me to record them in writing.  I don't always appreciate it, but that is a gift from God.

Poor Kitty

Our cat apparently got his tail caught in something last week.  The tip was all nasty looking and he was losing hair.  I took him to the vet yesterday and he determined that Gabe's tail wasn't broken, but there was some nerve damage at the end.  Lucky for Gabe this meant he gets to keep all his tail.  Unluckily for me, it has meant that I have been wiping up cat blood from the floor.  The tip does look like it i is drying up though.  I would be more upset if I wasn't going to have the carpets in the whole house cleaned after the work is done in the basement.  I took a picture of his poor little rat cat tail, but decided that it was too gross for posting on this blog.  If it made me sort of gag, it was not for you folks.

Random Photos from the remodel

The work is almost complete on the windows.  The concrete for the driveway and the patio extension is being poured today.  Needless to say we are tickled pink.  The light in the basement now is amazing.  For over thirty years we had almost total darkness in the family room without the lights.  Now you can go down there during the day and do things without turning the lights on.  The bedroom is the same way.  People won't have problems knowing when it is light outside anymore.  I have to paint when the construction is complete, but it is only a part of the wall in the family room and we have paint from when it was painted last.  The bedroom is going to be completely changed so that will take a bit longer.  Lucky for us this is the labor day weekend.  Then it will be carpet cleaning.  

Remodel

We are at the halfway point on the installation of two daylight windows in our basement.  One will be in the guest bedroom and the other one in the family room.  Ray and I had been wanting to put windows down there for years and this year we finally made the decision to proceed.  Tracy Dayton of Classic Remodeling is doing the work.  At this point I am quite pleased with everything.  Just looking at the amount of light that is coming into the guest bedroom from the opening is amazing.  It will make all the difference in the world down there.
In addition to the windows, we are adding a concrete pad where Ray has had a gravel driveway.  The gravel worked, but it didn't look all that great.  Having it all paved will improve the look of the front of the house.  It is exciting to have all this done to the house.  It is going to make the basement look completely different.