Fixing the "mudroom"

The weekend of July fourth I woke up and decided I wanted to do a project.

Dave willingly complied.

So, when he got home from work, we packed up the littles and headed out to Lowe's to pick up some lumber and supplies.

Our project was this:  A remodel of our mudroom.

The problem:  It has been a dumping ground for clutter, the place where the children hang their coats and backpacks is getting over crowded, and we have a serious shoe problem.

 Task 1: Empty the clutter

 Task 2: Rip out the base boards, and move the dryer.

 Task 3: Begin building the framework.

 Step 4: Build the shelf, and securely attach all framework to the studs.

 Step 5: Build the remainder of the wainscoting (it's so pretty!)

 Step 6: Finish the intricate measurements and nailgun the remaining boards in place and stand back to admire that bad boy.

 Steps 7 & 8: Prime, paint, and hang the hooks.

 Not bad eh?  Side by side before and after (you'll just have to imagine my purse and the kids' rain coats hanging on those hooks.

I'd like to say we cracked this out in a day (Dave did his part in a day), but it was well over two weeks later when we (meaning me---painting) finished it up.

Now we are looking for suitable shoe organization.

Heaven forbid we should thin out our shoe collection!

The Tall Ships Festival: A look back at Dave's mid-shipman tour

One day I saw an ad on my computer about the world's largest rubber ducky coming to Philly.

I told Dave about it, and how it was coming to something called "Tall Ships Festival".  He knew kind of what it was since the ship he was on during his mid-shipman tour in College was on a ship that used to do tours at festivals like these.

WELL, come to find out, his ship, the NRP Sagres was going to be at Tall Ships Festival!!

Wow!

So we grouponed that bad boy and got tix for the family to go see where Dave used to romp about the southern seas during his college summers.

We took off toward the waterfront in New Jersey and took the ferry across to the Philly side (where the Sagres was)

 We were on the lookout for the world's largest ducky too.

 We went to the Sagres first, there was quite a line for this guy.  Dave took some pictures while we waited.

 The ship is quite beautiful.  And our kids were quite bored.  It definitely made us re-think Disneyland plans.  They can't even wait fifteen minutes in a line.

 I kept annoying Dave by asking him what things were.  "What's this big pole for?  What's this rope for?"  etc.  I think I'm so funny.

 He indeed showed the kids what the ropes were for, and we got to see the doorway where the midshipmen slept (where he used to sleep).  He even got to speak Portuguese to a few of the sailors (which were all super tan extremely muscular hot foreign guys--then again, I'm a sucker for a guy in uniform).

I heard him a few times apologize for his Portuguese being ugly.  That's because they used to make fun of him back in the day for speaking ugly Brazilian instead of pretty Portugal.  It was also fairly amusing watching him claw at his brain for words like 'mid-shipman'.

 Here's the steering apparatus.  I thought it was for show, but Dave assures me it's what they use to actually steer the ship.

 Here's all of us by the apparatus.  I just want to go on record that I think it's highly unfair that Dave outweighs me by twenty pounds and still looks thinner than me.

 This is the view from the back of the ship.  There's a word for it.  Stern, maybe?  This is another ship which name I cannot recall.  It's a famous one that is used in a bunch of movies.  Later when we were down there standing in line for the ferry we watched three guys climb up to the top to secure the rigging (just kidding, I don't know what that means), they were doing something with the sail and it was quite shocking because they weren't tied to the ship.  As in, they fall, they die.  The ship is impressively tall.

I suppose it would have to be, being at the "Tall Ships Festival" and all.

 Here we are at the bow.  That means front.  I think.  Why am I writing this?  Dave should be writing this.  Perhaps he will come in here and edit all my mistakes.

 After the Sagres (please note Dave is wearing his Sagres hat and t-shirt), we went to have lunch at the overpriced food cart, then got free pudding at a vendor on the way to the line for the ferry.   We waited forever for the ferry, then went back to Jersey.  We got some waters and pretzels and decided to go down to look for the ducky.

Apparently the ducky had a hole and never was inflated that day.  The kids were mightily disappointed, then they misbehaved on the way to the smaller inflatable ducky to take pictures with.

Their behavior was so bad we rushed them back to the car an hauled tail out of there.

But it's hard to be mad at a face like this.