.: Is it summer yet?

This last weekend was a summer tease if there ever has been one... Knut left town for a guy's golfing trip and the kids and I managed in the heat by ourselves, and took a break from the work going on at our house. With our resident handyman gone, no work got done.

We've officially begun a huge project at our house - remodeling all of our bathrooms and our kitchen! Here is a recap of what we're doing - and what we will do over this summer...

1. Finished our basement bathroom (phase 1 of our remodel)
2. Demolished our main bathroom to the studs (phase 2)
3. Redesigned the blank slate and carved out more space for our new master bath (phase 4)
4. Started ordering fixtures and furniture for the new bathroom
5. I'm slowly collecting ideas and decisions about our kitchen (phase 3)
6. We had 4 huge trees cut down in our yard... Our house now seems naked, and we may have gone a bit crazy with the tree guy. Oh well, now the new planting can begin. Another outdoor project for me this summer!

Here is a funny pre-remodel picture of Silja in our main bathroom - she was playing hair salon with her stuffed animals and dolls in there for about an hour!

Needless to say this remodel will take lots of patience and work around Knut's already busy schedule. Go handyman, go!

We figured spring and summer was a good time to do this, as it will be easier to be outside with the kids, they can stay up later, and then the air compressor going at 7:30 p.m. won't be such a big deal.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend - our trip to the Syttende Mai (the Norwegian Constitution day) parade. Jens was a stinker and was just plain mad that he had to wear his Bunad in the heat. Oh well. I kept cracking myself up at his "puffy shirt."