leaky plumbing? no problem

 We haven't been in our new house very long, but it didn't take long to notice that there were some pretty extreme plumbing issues going on, the worst problem being the bathroom in our room. The back of our house and the living room share walls with this bathroom, and we noticed that those walls were getting wet, then staying wet, then the paint and plaster crumbling to the floor. The landlord handed the plumbing issues back to us, which is fine, we just wanted to get started on the project asap. The pipes in this particular room are in the wall, which meant that those repairing the water leaks had to take a hammer to the wall and begin taking the wall down in the right place. This can be a bit tricky. This bathroom had 2 major leaks, one behind the sink (below) and one behind the toilet, so pretty soon, we had 2 large holes in the walls. This picture shows the blue piping in the wall behind the sink.

The walls are made of brick, and then covered in plaster, so knocking out a portion of wall is a big project. It can also be just the tiniest bit depressing in between.

 This picture shows the wall after the pipes were replaced, bricks back in place, and cement filling up the holes. I went out and bought some nice new tile that almost matched the existing tile on the walls and floor.

This is our living room wall, which the landlord painted a nice, yellow color for us before we moved in. I took this picture to show how the process goes when looking for a leak. 

I could tell this part of the process was starting to get to me as I'd look at this part of the wall each day and wonder how much was going to get ripped up, how many holes would be drilled, and how big the hole was going to get. It got finished though, so how it looked in the middle of the process doesn't really matter much. :)

The biggest hole was the back of our house, and that huge hole was there almost a week. To sleep at night without worrying about snake entry (snakes of course didn't even cross Nathan's mind, this is just my own personal worry), we blocked the hole into our bedroom at night. This picture shows the pile of wall that was knocked out on the back side of our house.

Once the pipes were replaced and the leaks repaired, the walls were patched up with cement. 

Here's a close up of the cement. The patch job here took a toll on my emotional well being, but thankfully Nathan got home and fixed it up a bit before it was too late. After watching the plumbing repair process for 7 days, I almost feel like I could take a stab at it myself next time. But let's just say I'm extremely thankful for the work that others did to give us the bathroom back again and extremely thankful that I didn't have to do it. One of these days, we'll get started on the other plumbing issues here, but for now, I'm taking a Merry Christmas break from the plumbing! And counting my blessings. :)

Christmas morning...

Delicious pancakes for breakfast, but apparently Zach was more interested in the powdered sugar. As we were washing up breakfast dishes in the kitchen, suddenly that feeling of the house being way too quiet came over us, which usually means we need get moving and look for Zach. Here's where we found him, plate loaded, and I mean LOADED with powdered sugar, mouth stuffed full, unable to swallow another bite.

Zach says, "cheese!"

Zach's TWO years!

kicking a bad habit

Eva is our cutie pie who has a bad habit of biting her fingernails. Sometimes the skin around her nails grows red and tender from biting down too far, and often times, she doesn't even know that she's biting her nails. But guess who just kicked this habit and now has beautiful, grown out nails?! Just in time for the holidays, Eva grew her fingernails out, and we were able to paint them a festive red on Christmas day. So to celebrate, we took her out for lunch and ice cream today! Her choice? BBQ fish and sticky rice along the river. We are super duper proud of you, Eva.

Swinging

pizza pizza!

Happy Birthday, EVA!! 5 years! Woot woot!

 Pictures from this week: 

Helping make an apple pie

Check out this gecko, mom!

Picking Eva up from school

 Yummy turtle cake!

Eating special birthday dinner at the river! yee haw! Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love YOU!

the kids at play with their top three

What is it with kids and wheelbarrows? These kids played with ours until the bin finally broke off and no longer sat on the frame, and now they push it around like it's a tractor.

It's one of their favorite things to do!

The garden hose, and water in general, is also a daily draw for all three of them. Yesterday I got them to use the hose to help water the trees, and not surprisingly, they loved that too.

Eva helped water the trees behind the turkey fence, which I sure appreciated.

Zach yelling, "Cheese!" He's such a performer.

The doll stroller is the best ever! Eva's never really had the chance to use it the way it was designed, because in short order, they always get the material off and tear around the yard with it.

The kids' top 3- Wheelbarrows, water, and stroller!

4, 5, and 6 to follow!

completion!

The kitchen is finished! We started with these three "before" pictures below:

1. Standing in our "kitchen" and looking towards what is now our kids "play area"

 2. Half of the kitchen- see the half brick wall and boarded up window to prevent thieves from entering?

3. Other half of the kitchen, where our cabinets have now been installed.

 Step 1- clear everything out and prepare for paint!

Step 2- knock out brick wall and remove planks on window.

Step 3- While we waited for the landlord to move his bed on out, we began the painting process.

Low ceilings are great for painting

Step 4- build new wall. Due to the low ceilings and the beam along the top of the wall that you can see in the above picture, we were unable to hang cupboards, unless we wanted the bottom of the hanging cabinet to pretty well sit on the top of our counter top (this tells you how low the ceiling actually is). Now we have eliminated the beam and can hang the cabinets 6 inches higher. Precious space.

Painting completed on the other half of the kitchen. Here you can see our fridge, food cabinet, and microwave. The microwave sat here temporarily for a while. This is because our kitchen has just one electrical outlet, as you can see on the wall there just above the microwave. Kitchens really need more than just one outlet. Thank goodness for extension cords!

Step 5- Hang cupboards! My brother Joel was able to help Nathan hang the kitchen cupboards. Again, notice how low those cabinets would be if they hung 6 inches closer to the countertop! haha! Oh my.

Step 6 is not shown here. It involved getting "water in" to the sink and "water out" from the sink, as there was no plumbing in this room when we moved in. We love our new kitchen! It's not completed yet, small things like electrical outlets have yet to added, but for now, it's usable, easy, and we love it!!!

And the kids love their play area too. :)

the kids sporting their local tourist tees!

Our 500th post on blogspot goes to... DADDY!

HURRY HOME, DADDY!  WE LOVE YOU!!

Eva says, "I love you! Hugs, kisses, hearts, smiles, high fives!"

Elijah says, "Don't be wicked like your ancestors!"

Zach says, "Where's Daddy? Where's Daddy?"

Good night from the kiddos!

helping fill the fish bowl with water

stockin up the pantry

 Thailand is where we do most of our bulk shopping- items such as milk (see large boxes below), flour, oatmeal, and cheese. It's also where we pick up foods that are significantly cheaper (butter for example). The kids love these trips, and not just because they almost always include special things like ice cream cones and rides in shopping carts. :)

 Space gets a little limited after a while, but no matter, they just sit on top of each other! haha! Just kidding. When our cart is full with boxes of milk, the kids usually begin pushing the carts with us, and when that gets old, they begin running through the store like wild turkeys. (a phrase I use in a whole different light now that we are proud owners of two live turkey birds). The kids could get away with about anything over here though and everyone would still smile, pinch their cheeks, and pose with them for pictures.

Hooray for stocking up! Hooray for ice cream cones! Hooray for opportunities to introduce our kids to things like cash registers, loudspeakers, and shopping carts. The kids don't know it yet, but they are some lucky munchkins.

My brownies didn't exactly turn out, but guess who's still eating them up?

Kiddo room- finished!

The kids are loving their new room and have decided it's one of their favorite places to be. When we moved in, I painted 2 walls blue and left 2 walls green, and now it's a perfect room to accommodate boy's and girl's colors alike.  Zach's about ready to move out of his port-a-crib and into a big boy bed, and when that happens, Elijah will advance up as well. Elijah outgrew this toddler bed over a year ago and began sleeping happily on cozy floor mats, until the day Eva and I found a snake slithering along the wall in the kitchen. That night, we moved Elijah back into his little toddler bed again. Both boys will be super excited to move onto the next level, and all three are super excited to be sharing a room. We are blessed!

Gingerbread fun!

Check this out, Elijah!

 Watching the construction and eating as much frosting as he can

Let the decorating begin...

 AWESOME!!!!!

Thank you, Uncle Joel and Aunt Marie!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!