Dinner!!

John doing some soldering of the new pipes!

the old pipes....GROSS!!

The new recesses lighting in the bathroom

John doing some plumbing!!!

My lack of house updates are not due to the fact that we are not (or John and his dad) working on the house! God bless my father in law. He flew in last Friday and was suppose to stay 2 weeks. It's midway through and he extended his stay for 4 more days. He gets up, barely eats breakfast, and goes to the house. He works all day there and John meets him there after work. They work a few more hours and then they come home....usually not befor 9pm! He has my dad's car, so John gives him a job to do and he gets it done with an occasional trip to the Depot!!! This work would cost us thousands of dollars, so I am SO SO grateful for him being here. We tried to give him the night off on Friday, we were going to a wedding so if he wanted to come home early and watch the girls while we were gone, he could have the night off. He chose to continue working on the house. That should tell you how much work these 3 girls are:)

Their job this week has been all internal so there's not much progress looks wise, but the fact that the water running through my shower will be running through clean brand new pipes is worth it!! They have been doing plumbing and electrical all week. In true Ross fashion it is taking much longer than anticipated. The rotted out floor in the bathroom underneath the tile didn't help matters much. During his down time, my day laborer has befriended the construction people next door! He had them over for lunch and has them giving us a bid on a little remodeling!! His lunch break is breaking away from the plumbing and electrical and ripping the linoleum floor out of Kate's room!! I'm telling you I am so lucky!!!

the original backyard. you can't even imagine unless you see it what it actually looked like. the depth is enormous!

after a little bit of work (really a lot)

a lot more work from herman the hired help!

the finished product

the finished product from the other side

right out the back door. this concrete ended up being 12 inches thick. HUGE!!!

ready to be carried away

the finished product

the original side yard

matt and john and a lot of work got us this pathway

uncle louie, the hired help and his crew helped out with this!

the finished product

words cannot even begin to express the gratitude we have for our friends and family for helping us out. really, we have neighbors driving us to the house so we can pick up a friends truck, friends lending us their truck, words of support from everyone, my dad meeting workers to open up doors, matty leaving work early, driving down from San Diego, and helping us out for hours upon hours of hard MANUAL labor, our neighbor johnny being john's 'helper', the visits we have had from friends, john's work friend lending us his trailer, my mother in law extending her stay so we could have uninterrupted time fixing the house, my mom for all her help watching kids, meeting people at the house, and giving us all her 'contacts', my father in law for coming out next week for 2 weeks, the boxes people have lent us, on and on. i am sure i forgot someone important:) i could go on and on. this past weekend we were helped by my sister and brother in law for a house warming gift of gutting the backyard. this is no easy task as john and matt and our friend johnny will tell you. they worked their butt off to clear the way for a view area. thank god they did because the work that was done this weekend couldn't have been done unless they could get their big truck through the side yard which was just one week ago, covered in trees. jj a.k.a. jeff lewis from flipping out was calling and wheeling and dealing with about 4 different 'penny saver' people. he had people coming over to the house and if they couldn't start that day, they were out. in the end people were calling him back, he had no idea who the job was going to! i was a nervous wreck that people would come at the same time, he was planning on them coming at the same time to show them he wasn't messing around absolutely hysterical to watch him in action! i believe now, due to the generosity of other people, we are ready to make our house a home! anyone interested in our fixer upper, i thank you! love to all our family and friends:)