Labors of Love

I have to admit I've been horribly distracted the last little bit.
A week and a half ago our 3rd squirrel Fifi disappeared, at dusk, which only means one thing.
Big bird gobbled her up.  No not the one from Sesame Street, most likely a Great Horned Owl.
We're not sure we are liking owls very much right now.

She has been our sweetest squirrel so far and our little family is heart broken.
I know, you're probably thinking, wow, it's a tree rat, a rodent.

There is something that happens when you feed and care for a little creature from the very beginning of it's life, it awakens the Momma in you.  I'm especially sensitive to this since I have suffered with infertility.
If you wonder where my crazy animal/pet fetish comes in, it's because I've always wanted to be surrounded by the pitter patter of little feet.  I just didn't know "how small" they would be.

So when my Dad called me the night before my hubby went out of town last week
I completely jumped at his offer to help me with a project I've been wanting to tackle for years now.

I've been wanting to rip out our fireplace ever since we moved in here.
Yes, that's popcorn ceilings~that's another project to tackle...eventually.  That's my hubby in his lucky Ohio State hat.  I don't think people even recognize him if he doesn't have it on.  Go Buckeyes!
I realized I don't even have a picture of the "before" fireplace wall really.

The wall is about 12" deep, with a faux wall, laid over a solid brick wall (so the house would look updated to sell~to us of course.), then the original wall.  When we moved here I traded in my large house for one almost half the size which was fine because the yard was too die for!  Huge trees and not a sign or peep from any neighbors, my very own little private park!

Right before Turkey Day my hubby and his friend installed 2 windows that I fought tooth and nail for with the hubby.  Now he can see the errors of his ways.  Period.

My hubby~I let him be "the man" for the day.  I didn't even touch a power tool, just ran for drinks and lunch.  It was really nice!

I bought cabinets for my birthday 1 1/2 years ago that have been sitting in the garage waiting for the "opportunity" to be used.

Here's my Instagram photo of my Super Man Dad!  He gave me 30+ hours in just 3 days to remove everything and haul it to the dump.  Oh did I mention that we also lost his hearing aids in the debris and had to dump out all 4 garbage cans of rubble to find them?  We did find them though and they still work.  He is the most amazing man I know, he'd do anything for his girls~and boy does he get the opportunity for us to take him up on it!

Stay tuned and I'll keep sharing everything as we get closer to being done.  I ripped off the entire mantle yesterday and got all my wood cut to rebuild it.  Also next Friday we'll be decorating doors down at the school for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Photo's will be posted that night, I promise!  Now back to installing those cabinets.....