Tim the Tool Man

I'm amazed at how much work we've done to our house in the three years we've been here (and by we I mostly mean Andrew). He's become quite the handyman over the years (he not so secretly loves this stuff). His latest endeavor- finishing our basement. We agreed on some ground rules- that we'd let a "professional" handle the majority of the electrical (Andrew swears he can wire the outlets himself- big fingers crossed here- everything else we'll let an electrician take care of), the moving of a major beam that supports the weight of the house (kind of a biggie in my opinion), and the flooring. I love that he enjoys doing this stuff so much- it obviously saves us a lot of money, the kids adore "helping" him (especially Connor), and it keeps him out of the bars ;)

In his spare time he's been reading this, which makes me laugh.

Posing with the new circular saw he got at Home Depot. He was practically giddy bringing it in the door. Side note I really love this picture of the kids ;)

Over the weekend he replaced one of the two basement windows, and the stair case. After he ripped out all the stairs I asked how he knew how to install stairs, to which he replied that he just watched a demo on youtube. That made me a bit nervous.

Ready for action.

Stairs before. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the picture of Connor on Andrew's shoulders after the stairs had all been ripped out. Connor thought this was so cool.

When it was time for Leyla's nap I didn't want them to be banging around down there too loudly so Andrew and Connor planted the first seeds for the garden (below are spinach, kale, tomatoes and peppers).

Leyla on the (almost) finished product. The stairs are now wider (and much sturdier) than before. They'll eventually be carpeted. Not bad!!

Today all the lumber was delivered so I guess he'll begin framing the walls over the weekend.

On Saturday morning, before they started on all this, it was Daddy/Special Friends Day at Connor's school (basically breakfast with the teachers and Dads in his classroom.) Words cannot express how excited Connor was in the days and weeks leading up to this! Here they were before heading out.