UPDATE!!!

Hi, long time no see eh?

I took a little blogging hiatus to focus my energy on our remodel (pictures soon to come), which is coming along rather nicely thanks to a great group of friends, babysitting grandparents and superhero construction inlaws! Since my last post was so heart wrenching, I wanted to update you, the blog readers, to how the situation panned out.

I read through all of your advice multiple times, mulling over the options I had. After a great conversation I had with a school teacher friend, I decided to take George to school one morning and then speak with his teacher. I spent the morning talking to George about why kids bully, and why it is important to stand up for himself by telling the kid to stop. When I got to his school, his teacher wasn't there, so I spoke with the office about the problem. That afternoon, I walked George home from school and he told me that the bully kid had apologized and played with him at recess. I thought, "Great, problem solved." Wrong. As we walked home, we walked past an older group of boys, and I overheard one boy mention George's name as we walked past. I realized that the younger boy who bullied was not the only one, there were older boys.
The following Sunday at church, I spoke with a friend, who often looks fashionable and coordinated! She offered to speak with her daughter and son, who is also named George, to see if either would want to go out of their way to make sure George isn't getting teased at recess or on the way home. That plan worked great! George had someone to walk him home a few days, and a few days later he walked home with other boys who were friendly and shared their toys as they walked home!

Thank you for all of you advice, it was great!

My heart just sunk...

It's not often that I publicly admit that I am feeling sad or blue, but today is quite the exception. I normally try to keep my blog posts upbeat with a light touch of humor, but I feel so much anxiety about the following situation, that I thought I would put my saddening problem out on the blogger world and see what advice I get back.

Problem: I left our new home today to meet George afterschool at grandma's house. When I arrived, George was standing across the street at the neighbor's house. He was in the yard talking with the little girl his age and her mother. As I pulled up I could see that he was clearly upset. George climbed into the van, and with tears rolling down his cheeks he mumbled through broken sobs, "the boys are mean to me." To find out more about what he was so sad about, I rolled down my window and asked the neighbor girl what happened. She informed me that the other boy they walk to school with everyday had started teasing George. George asked the boy to stop many times and told the boy that he didn't like what the boy was doing. Apparently this started happening over the last week, and today it escalated to other boys joining in. The first boy was incouraging the other boys to tease George as well. George told me how the first boy started by calling him names and telling him that he didn't like George, and today the first boy got a group of older boys to join in.

George was so upset and he didn't know what to do. I too feel upset because I am not sure that I know what to do either. I told George to just tell the boy to stop and if he doesn't to walk away and not walk home with that boy. I practiced with George a few times so he would know what to say to that boy. What should I do to make sure this bullying stops before it catches on? Please share all your advice, I feel at a total loss.

Nothing Much to Say

I really don't have anything to blog...just construction, construction, construction. I am tired, there is paint permanently stuck to my hair, hands and nails, and my back feels like I was hit by a semi. There isn't much more to say but we are in the thick of it!

I did want to send a note out to all the wonderful friends and family that have taken pity on our money pit project and spared countless hours to help us. THANK YOU! I feel so grateful for the time and energy you have given us. I am thankful for the new skills many of you taught me and I am thankful for the waves of energy you have brought into our house. It seems like everytime I felt like I was too exhausted to keep going, all of a sudden, someone would show up to help and I would feel refreshed!

THANK YOU AND HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The Joy of New Construction

Now that we are fully invested in our home remodel and into our 3rd week on the job, the home is starting to come together. In some rooms I have already attached trim and painted the walls. I am going with subtle sage/gray/greens in the living areas, and yellow in the kitchen. We are trying to do most of the work ourselves since we had to sub out the electrical, plumbing, cabinets and new windows. Those four areas alone have cost more than I ever expected to spend while remodeling a home. So, we have resigned to doing all the framing, dry walling, mudding, finish carpentry, and tiling.

One area that we debated on is the wood floors. The wood floors were in really poor condition and in the bedroom, the floors were unsalavageable. In the living room we are going to lay carpet on top, so that leaves the dining room, entry hall and office in wood. If we finished the floors ourselves, they most likely would not look as good as if done professionally, plus, because we moved walls, there are many gaps in the wood floors that would need to be repaired and look seamless....I am not to sure that we could do that. After long debate over the cost of having a professional do the floors, we agreed and got bids. The best bid came from Sokol Flooring. They came two days later. In just one day they seamlessly patched the open areas, sanded down the entire floor and then laid wood filler. The next day they came in and stained and then later on left a poly coat on the floor. We were told just to stay off the floors for 24 hours while the poly coat hardened and set!!! I was totally impressed with how fast they worked and the quality of the work. If I had be cursing earlier for having spent the money on the wood refinish, I wasn't cursing after I saw the finished product! The floors are absolutely magnificant!






This picture was taken one minute before the BEATING!!!

ok, now seriously, if you tell a kid, "hey don't walk on the floors and stay out of the house," OF COURSE, they are going to walk right on the newly poly coated wood floors and then double back so there are multiple sets of foot tracks through the newly finished floors! When I called the wood floor guys to come look, he simply said, "well, I guess it's like when you lay new concrete, your kids always have to leave a pemanent mark." Needless to say, the word 'devestation' does not nearly describe the pit I felt in my stomach after paying the bill for the wood floors and seeing the mark of my child on them!

A RIDDLE...

What do a VAMPIRE, OVEN, A FISH....and an odor eater have in common?




Answer: They can all save your life when you least expect it....thank you very much.

Summerill Slam: Week 2

Once we finished the demolition, it seemed as if our work was slowing down; but, in reality, we were working longer and harder. Rebuilding seems to take a lot more time than I had hoped for. We are slowly plugging away at putting new sub-floor down and reframing the home. We had to add extra support along the areas that we took out walls. Mark framed those areas up with 2x6 beams. At least when we are finally finished our house will stand strong through anything.


Here is the new view from the front room. Mark put in the supporting beam and framed out the old cubby in the wall.Here is a view of the upstairs bathroom. We replaced the subfloor and framed the area for the tub.

You, Me...the billard room *wink*

Happy Halloween! I hope your Halloween was as spooky and event filled as ours. Our day was packed with activities. Henry attended a fall/Halloween carnival for his preschool and then George had a party and a parade at his gradeschool. After running a few home remodeling errands, I was busy the rest of the day with spooky celebrations. I ran the boys around to their parties and then took them trick or treating before the Halloween party at the church. Our costumes weren't a family theme, but I still thought we did well. I picked up George's fireman costume, and Theodore's pumpkin costume at yard sales this summer for 2 dollars! I pulled Henry's costume together the night before after digging through my mom's fabric stash. Luckily, Henry had a pirate eye patch he had picked up at a party a month before. My costume was inspired by a friend who had mentioned that when she and her husband played Clue, they liked to dress up. That same day my friend mentioned that to me, my mom mentioned that she was going to dress up as Ms. Peacock for Halloween. So I jumped on the bandwagon and pulled together a Ms. Scarlett outfit. (And, if you have ever played a game with me or my sisters, you probably know that we fight for the red player...hahahaha...so I was the ultimate red player for Halloween...I guess that makes me THE WINNER!!!) Mark couldn't go to the Halloween party because he was busy at our new home, but he did pop in for chili dinner, dressed as a construction worker!

My dad is Professor Plum, my mom is Mrs. Peacock and I am Mrs. Scarlett!

Here is Henry our Pirate! I made his vest and head cover. Henry just so happened to match his pirate teacher!

George walks to school everyday with the neighbor girl, Alaina. Notice how manly George is trying to be:)

FREE FREE FREE!!!

Yes, we have been working ourselves to the bone, slaving away on our home. That is the reason that I have not had the time to update the blog. The home is coming along, we have finished the 'gutting' process and we are now starting the rebuilding phase. The gutting process took longer than expected because we came across a few 'rotting' problems. Now that those have been taken care of, we can proceed! I am excited to see the house come together. Which brings me to the next point, you are probably wondering what the title of my blog is about. Well, if you are in the area and are interested in a FREE crash course in remodeling, stop by our humble abode! You will have the first hand opportunity to learn to: frame, drywall, mud, sand, run electrical, replace old light fixtures, tile kitchens and bathrooms, hang trim, hang crown moulding and paint like a pro.

You can learn all these valuable skills for a one time low price of: FREE!!!

If this offer sounds like a good fit for you, stop by our new home anytime, Monday thru Saturday, 8 am until midnight.

No reservations necessary.

Since we have been working really hard, it has been really nice to take a break. I was able to take off 2 nights this week to take pictures for a few friends of mine. Here are a few:

Day 2: The Summerill Slam

Here is the new view from the living room. You can see all the way through the dining room and kitchen. You can see the door to the side of the house. This way, the home will be more open and have better flow.
This picture is taken from the dining room. Where there used to be a wall seperating the dining room and the kitchen, there is now nothing. This is the wall that I was hacking on yesterday.
Here is a new view of the bathroom. Right now there is a big hole to the bedroom, but there will be a door between the bedroom and the bathroom and then there will also be a wall seperating a master bathroom from the 1/2 bathroom.
Here is Henry doing his best to help us clean up all the construction rubble. At one point, he hacked at a wall for 10 minutes to help us take down one of the old bathroom walls.

Here is a view from the master bedroom into the old bathroom. There will be a doorway into the bathroom from the master bedroom.

Day 1: Summerill Slam (our remodel)

Here is the first look at what we did yesterday. This is a view from the dining room. Where the small opening was, is now a large opening which makes the dining room flow to the entry and front living room. Where you see the door way, that will be Mark's home office since he works mostly from home.
This view is taken from the living room. I am standing in the living room looking back towards the entry and over to the now open dining room. We will be removing the rest of the studs that you see and making the opening wide!
While we were working on thehome, a bird flew in and rammed into the window 3 or 4 times. So Mark caught him and took him outside.
Here I am hacking away at the wall that is between the dining room and the kitchen. I am standing in the dining room and the kitchen is behind me. When I am finished, the wall will be gone and the kitchen and dining room will be one large room seperated by a peninsula bar with granite counter tops!
Here is another view from the living room. I am standing in the living room and lookin through to the dining room. The far doorway that you see will also be gone, exposing the kitchen!

Now back to work, we are going to burn the midnight oil to see if we can tear down the rest of the walls that we need to tear down tonight so we can start on the re-building!

Put Your Shoulder to the SledgeHammer!

This is the living room. WE were originally going to split this room into two rooms so there would be a front office. Because there is only that arched entry, we were going to make that the doorway to the office. The access to the rest of the room would have been through the wall where you see the built in cabinet. That wall was going to be knocked out and connected to the bedroom behind it. Then we would have had to knock out the wall to the bedroom. Since we started today, we decided that we would just leave the living room as it is and we would just open the entry way wider to add more flow to the floor plan. So in the first picture, the first 3-4 feet of the wall will be gone. We also pulled up the carpet and are looking into re-doing the wood floors. The floors are in pretty bad shape, so if we cant salvage them, we will put wood flooring in the entry, dining, hall and office and the living room will be carpeted.

Here is a view of the kitchen. We are putting all new cabinets and countertops. We are knocking out the wall behind the oven, extending the cabinets into the large dining and adding a peninsula. The fridge will move down closer towards the peninsula and the wall to the right will be knocked out and replaced with a wooden railing that will expose more light to the stairs.
here is another view of the kitchen. The cabinet to the close end of the picture is the one that will be knocked out and a railing put up instead of the wall that is there. Because of the extra kitchen space, an island will be placed in the kitchen.
Here is a view of the bathroom. The bathroom will have an entry from the side which will open to the master. The entry that you see will be an entry for a half bath. We will put up a wall to devide the two bathrooms and knock out the wall to the left to make room for the half bath.
Here is a view of the bathroom. The entry to the master bedroom will be where the towel rack is. Then next to the towl rack, we will knock out a part of the old master bedroom closet to make room for the new 1/2 bath.

So what do you think of our remodel. We started today and have ripped out the old flooring and the entry way closet to make more room into the living room. I will post pictures along the way so you can see our progress!

News!!!

Exciting things are happen for the Summerill family. Take a look.

Kristine and Andrew

Almost every shot I took of this couple turned out perfect! They were so easy to work with and absolutely adorable. I love the rich hues in the red bridge pictures. Thanks Kristine!!!

Ormonds!

Here are three of my favorite from this shoot!

Ivie Family Photos

Here is a handful of pictures from a shoot I did yesterday. I love the fall colors!

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today,
I woke with an ache in my back
Swollen hands, legs and feet,
My body suffered an alien attack.

5 pairs of pants, and 3 stretched shirts,
lay on the bedroom floor,
as I desperately searched the closet
tossing out more and more.

Around ten I dialed the doc,
"I cant take it anymore."
"Are you feeling regular pains?"
she asked as I headed out the door.

Regular Pains? Gimme a break,
Just one look and you'll see-
achey, swollen, tired and bloated,
Today I'm having this baby.

"You don't want to have him too early,
he'll come when the time's right."
"No offense doc, but I know,
This kids coming TONIGHT!"



One year ago today, My sweet little Theodore was born! It has been quite the eventful year, having moved from Hawaii to Utah. In the first year of his life, Theodore has been to Oahu, Kauai, The Big Island and Utah. He has been held by his Great grandma Florence (TUTU--Hawaiian grandmother) and carted around by his two rascal brothers. We feel so blessed to have him as a member of our family. He is so tender and sweet! Happy One Year Old!

Fall Foilage Photo Shoot

Here is a group of pictures from my shoot today up the canyon. I love the fall leaves and the changing colors. Thanks to my new reflecter and lens filter, these shots turned out awesome on an overcast door. The Hale family were the perfect photo subjects. If you would like to experience the same photo extravaganza the Hale family took, please call me at (hahahaha...seriously, do you really think I would put my personal number on the web?)...If you are interested, I would love to be your photographer!