Halloween

The end of October is here and Halloween is upon us.  That means it was time to carve our pumpkins!  

Mom asked Trigg, "What do you want carved into your pumpkin, a happy face, a scary face?"  

Trigg replied "An airplane!"  

To which Mom responded "Great, Dad can help you with that"

So we came up with a plan for an airplane!

 When we snap pictures, we have been asking Trigg to "Show us your teeth"... and he did!

 First things first, pull out the pumpkin guts...Trigg wasn't too sure about sticking his hand into the pumpkin.

 Look at all those pumpkin guts and seeds!

 Step 2 - cut out an airplane.  Trigg took the airplane for a flight around the kitchen!

 Airplane pumpkin...check!

 We put a candle in the pumpkin to see how it would glow!

 "Look at that plane!"  Trigg exclaimed.

 Mom's turn to carve her pumpkin...she used some power tools!

 Mom & Trigg with their pumpkins!

 Trigg getting a closer look.

 Mom and Trigg with their finished products...good work you guys!

 Then we turned the lights off and let them glow!

 Last night was "Trick or Treat" night, our little elephant was on a stampede.

 We made the trip around the block and then headed back home to help Mom pass out candy!

We had lots of kids stop by and Trigg had a great time!  As he was running down the street he would say "Elephant on the move!"  It was too cute!

New Front Door...feels like fall

With the weather being nice this past weekend, it was time to tackle the new front door project.  Here is a before picture of our front door.  The tricky part is these doors come as one giant unit, windows and all, but we really like the windows, we just wanted to swap out the door...

 The old faded green door needed to go!

 Here is the old door from the inside.  So we bought a new door...

 Here is the new door from the inside.  It took some work to get the new door to fit into the old hole.  I had to chisel out new hinge pockets and shave a bit off the top of the frame...but after a few hours of reworking...it fits!

 We gave it a couple coats of exterior paint, we went with Valspar Dark Kettle Black from Lowe's.

 Here is the front door from the outside...looks like fall!

 Speaking of fall, Heather found our fall decorations from one of our boxes!

 Pumpkins, wheat stalks and falls colors can be found in our house!

 With lots of fall colors outside too!

Fall is in full swing and so are the house projects!  More to come!

Entryway

We have a tall entryway that needed painting... it was time to break out the extension ladder and paint plank to get this job done!

 My extension ladder streches out over 20 feet, so I was able to reach the top

 I also used an extension pole connected to my roller, extending my arm reach from 2 to 8 feet!

 My process was to edge the top and roll one roll from the extension ladder and then switch and use the extension pole from my 12 foot folding ladder.

 It work great until I got above the stairs...then I hit a spot where I reached as far as I could from te extension ladder and as far as I could from my folding ladder and couldn't reach about a 18 inch section...

 So I taped my brush to the end of my extension pole...problem solved!

 After I got the top edged out, I used this long paint plank from the top of the steps to the top of my folding ladder to paint the rest of the wall.

 I also got the front door trim primed while I was at it.

Fresh coat of paint makes the entryway feel clean and fresh!

 ...now just to paint that window trim...

Steppin' Up

We are giving the steps a whole new look.  I am getting closer to being done, so I thought I would post a few before and afters of the steps.  

When we moved in, they were fully carpeted with honey oak handrails and balusters...

 We tore off the carpet and took down the railing to add end caps, then we put the railing back up...this was all before we moved in.  With the new end caps in place, I started staining.

 I used Rust-Oleum wood stain and the color is "kona".

 We tried to get the stain to match the floor as closely as possible...I think I came pretty close.

4 of the end caps had to be ordered and they came in late.  Once they arrived, Brent (or Papa as he is known to Trigg) came over to help get the rest installed!

 I cut, primed and painted the risers to go under the end caps.

 This picture shows 2 risers in place and what the step looks like without them (plus some fall deco in the background!)

 End caps, railing and balusters back up and secured.

 Another angle...

 Then our carpet guys came back to finish the carpet runner down the steps.  We are getting closer to being finished with the steps...this picture captures what the final product will look like.

 another angle...

 I have a few more balusters left to paint...but I'm getting closer

Little by little, we are chipping away at our home projects and slowly but surely our new house is starting to feel like our home!

Pumpkin Ranch

Since we weren't able to have Trigg's birthday party at the Pumpkin Ranch, we ended up heading there the following weekend to pick some pumpkins!

This year, they have 2 giant slides that Trigg and I were excited to test out...

 ...it was so fun, a little fast, but lots of fun!

 We also checked out the horses they have, I think they were doing pony rides, but the horses must have been on break.

 Good horse...

 The crew standing in front of the corn maze...Trigg and I ventured into the maze while Mom stood in line for the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch, we didn't make it too far in before we wanted turned back to find Mom!

 Time to find some pumpkins!

 This looks like a good one!

 How Tall This Fall?

 Trigg is getting bigger!

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Ranch, lots of fun things to do and it is always fun picking out your own pumpkin from the patch!  Now it's time to start carving...