...12.31...Alaska...Day SIX...

...Our Airman's Wife sketched a semicircle on top of the line using a glass pot lid with tape across it to make it easy to line up... and then painted in the scallop with the darker colour...it looks awesome...

...I wiped down the kitchen tile to get it ready for grouting...

...and it's been long enough now to grout the pantry as well...

...grouting complete...

...first wipe-down...

...adorable pink scallops are finished as well...

...pantry grout complete...don't worry about those wires...the previous owner had cut a hole in the wall and pulled all of the tv wires through it to plug them in in the pantry...the Man is going to put the outlet back on the living room side of the wall...and I'll patch all of the holes...unfortunately there are several...haha...

...but in the meantime the Man is replacing all of the outlets in the girls' rooms with nice new white outlets and switches...

...we took a little break for some Thai takeout...my curry was delicious...

...Our Airman putting things back together in the girls' rooms...

...everything looks so nice now...

...one final wipedown in the kitchen and tomorrow we can put the appliances back...yay!

~Have a lovely day!

...12.30...Alaska...Day FIVE...

...still including these sweet girlies anytime we can...they helped this morning by pulling out all of the little spacers...so sweet...

...and then it was time to tackle the pantry...I cut all of the tiles along the wall where the shelves will be all at once so that was convenient...

...Our Airman's wife started painting the darker colour in the girls rooms...

...the pantry floor was finished and the Man is going to deal with that mess of wires that the previous owner just cut the wall and pulled through into the pantry...haha...

...the darker colour will come up four feet and then there will be a scalloped edge all around the room...

...so we taped the wall at four feet for a clean line to work off of...

...and of course the girls helped...

...did you know if you paint the lighter colour over the taped line first it will fill in any little imperfections in the wall...and then you go back and paint the darker colour and you get a perfectly clean crisp line...

...the girls thought pulling the tape off was a lot of fun...

...a perfect line...Our Airman's wife will draw a scallop above it and fill it in with the darker colour in each room...

...then it was time to go to Big Sissie's Tae Kwon Do class...

...and that really brought back the memories...

~Have a lovely day!

...12.29...Alaska...Day FOUR...

...today will be the major tile setting day...

...the Ditra was dry...so we started laying out the tiles...

...we're just standing them up for now...we'll measure and cut in a bit...

...the little ones love to help...

...so we're trying to include them as much as possible...

...we have plenty of tile...there was some debate on whether to set them square or on the diagonal...but it was decided that there wasn't enough difference to warrant the extra trouble of diagonal cuts...if you just stand at an angle you see it diagonally anyway...

...the pantry will be pretty simple...

...the Man started painting the top colour in the girl's rooms...

...and I started setting the tiles...

...just working outwards...

...it took a few hours (several)...and the kitchen was finished...but I honestly didn't have it in me to finish the pantry...so that will have to wait til tomorrow...but I'm really pleased with how the kitchen floor turned out...

~Have a lovely day!

...12.28...Alaska...Day THREE...

...another 'chilly' morning driving over to the kiddos...it's very foggy...surprising...

...the kitchen tiling project started in earnest today...laying out the Ditra...

...Ditra is set...so now we just have to stay off of it for 24 hours...

...so we set up the tile cutting station in the garage...

...and then even with all of the advance planning we thought of things we needed...so we headed to Lowes...

...the fog is crazy...they call it ice fog up here...

...arrived...

...these little girls are troopers for sure...

~Have a lovely day!

...12.27...Alaska...Day TWO...

...dawn at the cabin...10:50 AM...haha...it's almost 40 below...

...one final twirl on the old kitchen floor...

...the Man had mapped out a 'Plan' for what we needed to accomplish each day to finish all of the projects...

...so I started the morning by painting the trim in both girls rooms...of course Big Sissie helped in her room...

...and Little Sissie helped in her room too...

...meanwhile the boys started removing the kitchen flooring...

...it was really...REALLY well glued down...not funny...

...so when I finished with the trim...I started helping to chisel all of that glue off the subfloor...

...it literally took hours...and we were pretty exhausted...

...so we ordered pizza and picked it up and took it out to Our Airmans base for a little bit of fun...

...our rental car has some issues...the heat does not work...the heated seats do thankfully...at the hanger we parked inside so no need to plug up...we were used to plugging in our cars in North Dakota...

...one of Our Airman's helicopters was in the hanger...

...we just ran around playing...racing...scootering...it was a big fun open space...that wasn't 40 degrees below zero...

...we got to see Our Airman's office...

...the girls drew on the whiteboard...

...it was a fun evening after a hard day of work...

...the darkness is sort of disorienting as you have no clue what time it is...except at midday...you know it's around noon...haha...I imagine the total daylight is as well...

~Have a lovely day!