Picardy Project

building shit & raising girls

A Whole Lotta Nothin’

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Normally on Mondays the girls go to my dad and step mom’s, and Tuesday – Thursday they go to day care. That gives me 4 days a week to do day job stuff. But a funny thing happened: my dad and Wendy AND day care are gone on vacation the exact same two weeks! My wonderful friend has been coming for a couple mornings each week to watch the girls so I can get in a couple hours of work, but trying to put in 32 hours worth of work into about half the time is, well, not really happening, lol.

Instead, there’s been a lot of, “uh, that’ll get done later,” and attempts to bring a 3 year old and 1 year old along to work with me. On one adventure Merritt inadvertently turned on the water in a  showroom’s shower

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Luckily they’re one of my favorite showrooms and are a husband a wife who own their own business and have two kids they used to bring into work with them too, so they just laughed.

Last night we went to a tile shop with both kiddos in tow

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That was an adventure. Luckily I waited till Chris got home from work so he was on kid duty while I looked at tile. Still, the tile shop employees didn’t find our children as endearing as the showroom….

Mostly it’s just been about hanging out together more though, and with the kiddos being pretty good, it hasn’t been quite as stressful as I thought it would be

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Baby + diaper wandering = adorable

I’m super thankful for my friend because otherwise I’d basically be getting none of my work done, and I can’t exactly take a 2 week vacation, so thank you Stephanie!

Next week I shall return, maybe even with some work we’ve gotten done!

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A Whole Lotta Nothin’

By

Normally on Mondays the girls go to my dad and step mom's, and Tuesday - Thursday they go to day care. That gives me 4 days a week to do day job stuff. But a funny thing happened: my dad and Wendy AND day care are gone on vacation the exact same two weeks! My wonderful friend has been coming for a couple mornings each week to watch the girls so I can get in a couple hours of work, but trying to put in 32 hours worth of work into about half the time is, well, not really happening, lol. Instead, there's been a lot of, "uh, that'll get done later," and attempts to bring a 3 year old and 1 year old along to work with me. On one adventure Merritt inadvertently turned on the water in a  showroom's shower Luckily they're one of my favorite showrooms and are a husband a wife who own their own business and have two kids they used to bring into work with them too, so they just laughed. Last night we went to a tile shop with both kiddos in tow That was an adventure. Luckily I waited … Keep Reading...

That Trip to Alaska…

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So, like TWO MONTHS AGO now we went to Alaska. Jesus, that was a while ago. For my 30th birthday we went to a theme park, but we had sort of always planned for us to go to a cruise to Alaska, it's just that Merritt was only about 3 1/2 months old at the time so obviously that was not happening. Chris and I have traveled a lot throughout the United States. Before we had kids we went on MANY road trips (a baseball one, the renovation road trip, our yearly college football trips, a Southwest USA trip, etc.) But the one state Chris had never been to was Alaska. That's right, Chris had been to all 49 other states. And not just like, touched down in the state but stayed in the airport, but been INSIDE the state lines and traveled through it. I was at 48 - only Rhode Island and Alaska not checked off. We had thought the idea to go to Alaska on a cruise would be pretty awesome, but didn't really know when we would do it after we had kids. Then the idea of doing it for my 30th birthday … Keep Reading...

Garage Storage has Begun

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It's hard to believe that this space looked a lot more barren just two weeks ago. I'm glad we finally made this space a priority because it's been really exciting putting things together. Chris has been incredibly thoughtful about which things go where (including what isn't used as often and therefore goes downstairs in the basement). And then almost every other day we spend anywhere from 10-30 minutes talking about how things are progressing, where things should be shifted, how we can maximize the space, etc. So how ARE things progressing? The west wall One easy item is that Chris has frosted the windows They probably need about one more coat to make things even, but it's nice to get the light in while also providing some privacy so you can't look in at a plethora of tools. He's also built a little house for our air compressor That mother fucker gets loud, and eventually we'll insulate it to keep the noise down. Against the wall right next to it will be … Keep Reading...

Cutting a Tree Down & Why You NEVER Pay a Contractor Up Front

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We had a GIANT tree in our front yard That pine tree that's leaning over, and doesn't look too hot? Yeah, no bueno. It was infected with something and was really not looking good - so it had always been in our plan to get it cut down some time. It was all entangled in the power line and even though you can't quite tell in the photo, it was leaning over to the side across our driveway a good amount. We knew it would cost a pretty penny, so we thought it would be a while till it came down. Until I talked to our neighbor... Our neighbor across the street was gardening in front of her house many weeks ago. I hadn't met them yet so I wandered outside with one of the kids in tow and introduced myself to her. We got to chatting and she mentioned that she was getting some trees in front of her house cut down. I asked if she didn't mind telling me how much it was because we wanted to get the dead pine cut down too. She had two trees (not quite as big) that he had quoted, and to cut … Keep Reading...

Our Epoxy Painted Garage Floor

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SO, let's just get right to it: the garage floor looks really pretty It was a little more difficult to get there than you might imagine, unfortunately. This past 3 day weekend while I spent a lot of time working, my step dad CBH came over to help Chris clean the garage. The first step in getting the floor painted was a super masterful cleaning job. CBH - in all of his OCD glory - was just about the best person you could ask for to help out on this task. A really, really good cleaning is necessary to make sure that the epoxy paint is going to adhere properly to the concrete surface. Part of this process meant that alllllll the tools had to be stored outside. Which was slightly terrifying The garage needed to be all cleared out, and that meant that our front porch and driveway was crammed with many dollars worth of tools. They were outside for about 3 nights - it was nerve wracking to hope that things were okay, but necessary. CBH and Chris cleaned … Keep Reading...