Raise the Stars and Stripes

Our weekends are starting to feel a bit more weekend-y and less dominated by renovation projects. That's not to say that things are done; there are plenty of projects to start and complete. As I type on this cool Saturday morning, Nate is downstairs building the final wood tiles for the screen porch from the remaining ipe that bought for the back deck. But don't feel too sorry for him, because in about 45 minutes we'll all bike down to the farmers' market & children's museum and he'll continue on to University Bay to play ultimate for 2 hours.

On the glorious long weekend before July 4, the goal was to complete the front porch. While it doesn't look that different to any of you, we're super excited to no longer see the uneven cuts of the ceiling and blotches of yellow primer on the fiberglass columns. Everything is trimmed and has two coats of pearly white paint. My favorite part is the dentil molding under the eaves, however subtle it is. On July 3, before driving to Oconomowoc to spend time with my parents and grandparents, we raised the American flag and hung the house numbers.

In Oconomowoc, the kids were thrilled by the $12 fountain fireworks I bought at Menard's the day before. Papa had them chanting "We love Dad! We love Dad!" over and over as Nate lit them off one by one. Another highlight of that evening was the boat ride the kids took with Belle and Papa while Nate and I stayed back to make dinner. Win, win, since my parents would prefer not to cook but would prefer to spend more time with our kids.

But back to today. Again, my husband never ceases to amaze me with his "get it done" attitude. He hardly stopped for more than a glass of ice water after we biked back from the capitol. He had the floor installed by 4 pm. The screen will come soon enough, and then we'll be dining mosquito free until it's too cold to do so.

Looks pretty great, Nate! And I'm sure the tiles will last way longer than the ones we saw at Ikea last month.