The ROCK.. or rather.... ROCKS

We have continued to stay busy on the home front!  

We have to be out of our current place by September 1... which leaves us approximately 31 days to work on Project House to Home.  The good news is, if we don't finish everything we want (to a level so that we can at least live there), my parents graciously said we could stay at their house (which is about .4 of a mile away).  It's nice to have an alternative so that we don't feel super rushed.  

Also, I go back to work in 2 weeks!!  Those first graders will be a-coming on August 22, so I must get my other "home" setup and ready to go!  All that being said, we are working hard on our new house and trying to get all the dirty work done so that we can install all the nice, new things!  

One project that has been on our minds since day one was our fireplace.  We actually have two fireplaces: a brick one and a rock one.  We decided to live with the brick for now and make it a "later" project.  I actually sort of like it... a little bit of "old" among all the "new" might look nice!

                     Obviously, it'll look better once the orange carpet is GONE!!

The rock fireplace on the other hand... it has to go.  There is nothing we can do to make it "cool".  Check it out for yourself:

Special, eh?  Well, the big day came this past weekend.  It was quite the project!  I think the boys secretly had a lot of fun hitting rocks with a sledgehammer.  Don't worry, I got video.  

Hey look, our own personal rock climbing wall!!  Good thing we got rid of this before having kids. I can already see my little "mini Nick's" climbing this.  

                                               Slow and steady wins the race.....

This isn't a bad quality picture... it's foggy because of all the DUST coming off the rocks and concrete!!  Masks were a must.

                                                  Look, a rockless WALL!!!  Yes!

                                                                       Strong.

                                                               The aftermath.  

Our next job.... removing and recycling those rocks.  I don't even want to know what that is going to cost us!  Debris removal is pricy!!

                   I'm not sure what this pose means... but I like it.  It's very fitting!

At last... a video of the action.  It's pretty short.  Listen to the last thing I tell Nick.  I love his reaction!!