DIY: House Siding Part 1

My husband was on vacation last week and he decided it was the perfect time to work on our siding. Our home is 20+ years old and still has the class action lawsuit pressed paper siding on it. In most places, it still looks good, in others it needs work. We are slowly replacing the old siding with new cement siding. We started on the side of our house and moved on to the garage. We replaced all the boards and waited on the board and batten. The smooth panels were on a crazy markdown at Home Depot last week, like half off. Jason couldn't resist. I had my doubts as last week was also our youngest son's 8th birthday. We had 2 parties to get ready for! We made it work somehow :)

All prepped for the new siding. You can see the new cement boards on the front of the garage.

Here you can see the old siding on the top level. This will look like the garage one day.

These panels are heavy. It took my husband, our oldest son and me to get them up there. We also used the ladder to secure the board in place. We borrowed a nail gun from my in-laws. That was a huge help!

3 boards done!

Trim pieces going up! The panels will be painted the same color as the trim after all the caulk cures.

The house is looking great and we couldn't be happier with the results. If you have a question about how we did it, please ask and I'll try my best to answer :)

Cassie

 

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

Gluten Free Musings

    We've been gluten free for about 3 months. Our reasons are varied but mainly due to our youngest son. Being gluten free has helped him immensely already. He has gained about 2 pounds, grown a half inch and his attitude has improved.

photo credit and gluten free info: gluten free   

The cooking hasn't really been a problem. I find all kinds of recipes on Pinterest. Pie crust has proven to be difficult, but I'm confident that I'll figure that out. The main issue is just having enough food. I have a very tall and still growing, almost 13 year old boy. He eats a lot. He's very active with swimming and running. I can't keep him or his younger brother full. Since going gluten free, Andrew (our youngest) is always hungry, which is great since he needs to gain weight. I am just really tired of hearing, "I'm hungry." ALL THE TIME! Any ideas!! I would love to hear them. I just went to the grocery store today. I bought the whole store. When I came home my husband said, "Now we have food for 2 days!" No joke! I meal planned and it should be enough food for a week, but I am sure that it won't last. I honestly don't know if it's the gluten free food or just growing boys. Has anyone else noticed an increase in hunger since going gluten free?

Our Summer thus far and future plans

I know I haven't posted in a while. Honestly, I don't think anyone reads this! So far this summer we were crazy busy with swim team(we are now on break). We recently finished our school year about 2 weeks ago. We are off until October! I have been trying to squeeze every bit of fun out of summer before our vacation. We have been bowling, to the lake beach, swimming in our pool most days, braving the heat to go to playgrounds, Six Flags and today we are headed to Cave Springs to visit the cave and spring fed swimming pool. September 1 starts our month long vacation to the beach!!

We have decided to take an RV trip around the country in 1-2 years. We have some planning to do before then! The whole family will get a lot out of this trip and it will be an amazing experience! We have already decided on which RV we want. We aren't buying it yet, but it helps us all to visualize where we will live during this time.This RV has a sleeping areas for everyone. A bedroom for mom and dad, a huge bed for Grady over the driving area and bunkbeds for Madison and Andrew! There are also 2 more beds for company. A huge adventure awaits us!

Our Weekend, March 18-20, 2011

This weekend was crazy busy for us and we survived! It started Friday night at our homeschool group's talent show. It was a lot of fun. Grady showed a Lego creation and Madison displayed some of her art work.

Grady getting ready to dive.

Madison's race is next!

We had to get up at 6 Saturday morning to make it to a swim meet that was an hour and a half drive from our home. It was our first meet of the season and we all enjoyed ourselves. Both Grady and Madison did a fantastic job :) After we got home, the kids ran across the street to a birthday party. They played all afternoon.

Waiting to cheer Daddy on. Andrew is not sleeping, just being silly.

There he is!

All done and very tired!

Sunday morning we all got up at 4:45am!! My husband was running a half-marathon and we were all going to support him. The race started at 7, but it was in downtown Atlanta and had an expected 18, 000 runners so we wanted to get there in plenty of time. We did. Jason did a fantastic job and the kids were very well behaved. We came home and Jason and I sat on the sofa and watched 3 movies in a row. I don't think we could have done anything else. The kids didn't do much either :)

Feb7-Feb11, 2011

Monday and Tuesday, Madison played online multiplication games while we waited for her new math books to get here. They really helped to reinforce her facts. On Thursday and Friday, she worked on mental math in Singapore 3B. She has done a pretty terrific job. It terrified me as she usually takes a while to "get it". The rest of the math book looks pretty easy and i think she will move through it quickly. In LLATL, she read about George Washington and today (Friday) she did an oral presentation on our first president. She did a great job!

Grady took a quiz over decimals in TT7. He scored an A! Then he moved on to the percentage chapter for the rest of the week. In LLATL, Grady learned about tall tales. he started writing his own tall tale today and will finish it next week. He also had a presentation to do today. He read a Dr. Suess book to his brother and sister. He is a shy child so this is a great thing for him to practice. He did a fantastic job!

Andrew flew through division and telling time. Today, he worked on numbers to 100. He had zero problem with this. He will finish Singapore 1B within the next 2 weeks I am guessing. I will purchase the intensive practice and word problems books soon. I am hoping this gives him something challenging to work on. He continues to do well in his LLATL. He can sound out pretty much anything they give him. He does have some trouble remembering the sight words.

All together the kids learned about radioactivity in Chemistry. We worked on word roots on Tuesday. Wednesday we took the day off since we had to be at co-op at 1 for a Valentine Party! We all had a lot of fun making Valentines and boxes and then exchanging them at the party:) After the party the kids went to their separate classes and I helped in Grady's first class and in Madison's second class. Andrew went to his classes by himself!! I think at,6 years old, this was a first. Everyone loves their time spent at co-op! Thursday we studied the vikings in SOTW 2. Today, we made viking bread and watched a documentary about the Vikings on Hulu.

It has been a good week! Next week swim team starts! It will be crazy for a while around here until we can establish the new routine :)

Week of Jan 31 to Feb 6, 2011

I keep meaning to blog and then I get sidetracked and now I have so much to write about. I'm going to stick with last week and leave the rest for another time.

Monday, we stayed home. It was fabulous! We did our school work and then I don't remember what we did :) Tuesday, Madison had Brownies and daddy took her so I could stay home and exercise. Wednesday, we went to a local jumpy place with our homeschool group for social day. That night, all 3 kiddos had karate class and I got a whole hour to myself, at home alone. What did I do? Exercise! Are you sensing a theme here? I'm trying to defeat this hypothyroidism weight gain. It seems to be working :) Thursday night, I took Andrew and Madison to their tumbling class and Jason took Grady to Tellus where they listened to a lecture from an archeologist. Grady has expressed an interest in archeology and I was thrilled that Jason was off that day and could take him. The weather was iffy and they did have to deal with some ice on the drive. I was glad when they returned home and that Grady had a good time! Friday, we stayed home and daddy went to work. We did our school work and played all afternoon. the weekend was full of me painting our living room ceiling and making new curtains while the kids played happily outside. I was crazy tired last night and my neck and arms hurt like crazy, but our ceiling looks fantastic. I'll share pics later!

On the education front, mostly we are just continuing on through our curriculum. Madison finished her Singapore 3A math book and so I ordered her the next one. While we wait for it she is playing multiplication games online to help her memorize it all. Andrew is almost finished with his first grade math book. This has led to me to think a lot about what to do next. He's already advanced a grade level and the work is easy for him. I didn't know if I should move him into 2nd grade math or what. I have decided to get the Singapore word problems and extensive practice for him before moving on to second grade math. I have no clue why, but I have a hang up on moving him to second grade right now. He's super smart, but I don't want to move him too fast. Grady is plugging along as well, he just hasn't finished anything recently, so there's not much to report!

Grady's Bday and Lots of Snow!

So, it snowed last week, with ice. We were stuck inside our house for a solid week. Thankfully, I had prepared and we didn't lose power. Also, Jason was home until Thursday. There is still snow/ice on the ground at my house, 8 days after it snowed. This is crazy for Georgia, but I fear it will become commonplace. The kids had a lot of fun and played outside most of the days we were stuck at home. We also continued with our schoolwork while the public school kids had the entire week off.

When we finally went out of the house and drove on the roads on Saturday I was amazed at how much ice/snow/slush was still on the ground. It really is time that the DOT invest in some snow removal equipment.

our front yard

Our front porch/side yard

Grady turned 11 on Jan 3. We had a family party that day and we all had a great time! Here's Grady blowing out the candles!

His cake, made by me. It was vanilla and mint and it was pretty good :)

Opening gifts with his bday glasses his Grandma gave him!