Goal for the Day: The Demolition and detour

Well. Remember that stuffed animal I was so ready to redo- slight detour on that one. Turns out my 8 month old LOVES it. I can't take it away and tell her it will come back better, because let's face it. It's hard to turn towards this adorable little one and say, I'm sorry I am going to cut up this perfectly good toy and make it better... yeah. likely story mom.

Our lovely magnolia tree is dropping its petals.
Did I know they would end up in her mouth, oh yes.

So she gets to keep it and I decided to go on to the next stuffy as phase 2. I caved and bought a pattern for some stuffed animals (because they were so cute I couldn't pass them up), and even if I didn't design the pattern or freehand it, it is still handmade, so the sentiment is the same right?

In other news, when we bought our house (in 2005) we bought it in the fall, so we didn't discover we had inherited a leaking basement (under the finished basement disguise) until the following spring. We had patched it up and done the quick fixes to hold off on what I was sure was going to be an expensive fix, but this year I have more motivation to fix it for good (see her over here to the left). You see, since the last post we have had several contractors come out to give us bids after 1/4 of our basement carpet was soaked after a particularly heavy rain. We have selected one and will be commencing on construction soon (Oh Joy!).

If you know me personally, you are probably sitting there thinking, you HIRED someone to do something for you? Why, yes I did. You see, no matter how much I love DIY projects (and I do) I am not willing to do projects that are beyond cosmetic if my doing them could potentially severely damage the property. Do I dare insulate the attic (yup I did), will I build retaining walls (yup, we've built 4 now (and they are lovely)), will I tear out a closet- redo the framing, drywall, flooring, spackling, molding, painting and build a new closet system (I bet you know my answer) Yes! but not if it's a load-bearing wall that I am redoing. (Don't believe me? I will post pictures of all my updates soon- that would be a fun post to show what has been done). I've even drug Elliot along on the escapades of DIY and he is quite good, however I find it a bit on the tricky side to get him to see the 'vision' before I force him into it :)

Sweetness is snuggling on the lawn. I adore this picture,
even if it is overexposed...

But this project involves cutting a rather large trench in the concrete inside my house, burying downspouts and installing a sump pump. If I did it myself and screwed it up, everything in the basement would be ruined, because we no longer have a carpet buffer (we tore up the sopping wet carpet). Also, since I'm not doing the work that means I get to spend more time doing this.
So I have submitted to hiring someone. Let the fun begin!