Kiwi's Odyssey: The walls are down! And the House is still standing!

About Pierre

Aaahhhh, hubby! We met at university and just 'clicked' and the rest is, well, history ... in fact, not only did I get my BSc at university, but I also got my Mrs. after graduation ;) ... and Pierre is still as handsome as the day I met him !

Pierre has proven to be a wonderful man and wonderful provider to his family. Pierre is loyal, loving, kind, funny, warm hearted, and a 'trickster'!

Try this on: ‘Babe’, I’m seriously thinking that I can’t go back to work – I just can’t leave Cody … he took so long in the making and with 5 loses every day is a gift! What’s the point in having our son and not been able to watch him grow up and being there for him? Followed shortly thereafter by: Followed by – Oh and babe, I want to homeschool our son … I assure you I’m ‘normal’, but this just seems ‘right’ for our family.

I just want to confirm here just how amazing my husband is. And how much he has sacrificed to make this possible. And how he has given me the greatest gift - the gift of time to spend with my son.

Thank you babe!

About Cody

I just hate to put Cody is a ‘box’ when he’s growing, changing, accepting responsibility for his actions – or not - depending on his mood, and developing into a wonderful human being. Cody’s first passion is his love of nature, animals, insects, and reptiles … a true naturalist!

Cody is very sensitive and affectionate. For a seven year old Cody has a wicked cool sense of humor and has that twinkle in his eye when he cracks a funny. His belly laugh is contagious!

As for inquisitive – Cody truly must know. And in his mind, he already does know how to lay flooring, work the skill saw, install the sprinkler system, drive the minivan … he isn’t convinced he’s not old enough for a drivers license:) He has a wonderfully analytical mind! Keeps his mum and dad on their toes!!!!

Cody enjoys playing outdoor games/sports and is well coordinated. But Cody would give it up for the finding of a toad, snake, salamander, dragonfly, butterfly etc. I’m thoroughly enjoying spending time with him, learning hands-on with him, seeing life through his eyes, encouraged by this enthusiasm and passion for living. Right now we’re a ‘team’ and it works well for our family.

How we got started Homeschooling

Cody is my miracle Canuk! And I knew that homeschooling was right for our family when Cody was 3 months old. I sure didn’t have any of the details mapped out in my mind back then, but I decided the best way to figure it out was to dive right in head first. But first, I had to figure the ‘mum’ thing out! (I’m still trying to get that one right!)

I initially read any homeschooling books I could get my hands on and started to make contacts with local groups. My goal was to get involved with other homeschooling families and ask them a ton of questions while my son started slowly building friendships with other homeschooling children.

I knew I looked like an alien from the expressions that found their way to the many homeschooling parent due to the age at which I started Cody’s involvement, yet, even to my amazement – and thankfulness, there was a ‘niche’ for us. At 12 months old Cody and I were involved in three different homeschooling groups and activities, and regularly meeting some amazingly wonderful families with a wide range of homeschooling views and directions.

Cody really started connecting with the younger siblings of homeschooled children and just as we were getting settled and into a routine with our fellow homeschoolers, my hubby up and gets a job in the States.

So we had to start all over again. I must say I wasn’t looking forward to being the ‘three eyed monster’ once again, but still believed that finding a good support group was definitely beneficial in our homeschooling experience! So, when it came to house hunting it was important to me to research homeschooling groups that would be accepting of a 30 month old.

I could not believe my luck when I found a homeschooling group that actually catered for younger children – we hit the homeschooling jackpot!!. Our activities with the group include: recess, lesson days, library days, park days, field trips, monthly parent nights (which actually does discuss the forward growth of the group) which blends into what we are doing now.

Where we’re planning on going

One of the cool things about homeschooling is being able to look at what others are doing, asking tons of questions, sometimes being allowed into the ‘classroom’ at home, and often ‘touching and feeling’ projects that others already tried with their feedback.

It’s awesome when the ‘light bulb’ comes on and you think to yourself – that’s wicked cool and man I just have to do that. Knowing my son’s learning strengths and challenges, I can see what could work for us and maybe how we can change the resource/activity to be tailored to his needs.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The walls are down! And the House is still standing!

So as it turned out, Cody and myself have been sick over this week-end starting Friday. So I had a choice, use this downtime to potter or to demolish the kitchen walls! If you know me at all, you know that there really wasn't a choice as I really wanted the wall to come down!!!

Cody has asthma so demolishing would cause too much dust and caios which in turn would cause breathing problems, so it is really was a week-end of deconstruction.

Pierre worked from home on Friday. No, really, he actually works - in the middle of our household happenings, he actually gets a lot done. He successfully ignores us, and visa versa! So here's how my Friday went ... I woke up to this - the kitchen wall inquestion ...

I first had to get all the screws out. I was definately in a quandry as to the best way to find them through the plaster and paint. Without giving it a thought Cody pipes up and says - I know mum, that's easy! Just use a magnet to find them ... out of the mouths of babes! Sure enough ...

The magnet worked! And I was able to clear the sheetrock of the screws that held it to the wall. Next out with the tools .... hahahahhhaaaaa

There's me after clearing all the tiles off the wall, taking the screws out, and now cutting the sheetrock into manageable pieces. Here's the wall looking from the other side.

After some time, alot of work, and a nice hot cup of tea ...

By this time my husband was finding it very difficult not to try to 'supervise' me and was getting slowly drawn in to the project. I kept sending him away! It was all me baby!! I felt very invigarated doing this part of the project by myself - it really gave us a headstart into the week-end!

Next was dealing with the electrical and deconstructing the frame. Seemed like I ended up using manual tools alot!!! This time a haxesaw to cut through the nails at the top of the studs then I was able to pull them out with my hands ...

There's hubby hard at work - his work day drawing to a close! To make a long, but very exciting day short ... here's what it looked like!

Then began the clean up. PJ had finished work by now and was taking care of the electrical and was snooping in the ceiling which lead to another finding! The smaller wall was NOT load bearing! So do we keep the wall, or do we get rid of it???? I was 100% out of here ... but Pierre was aprehensive ... so we slept on it. But in the mean time, I had cleaned all around it in preparation for deconstructing in the morning!!!!!!

There's the wall in question ... and here's a picture of Saturday's deconstruction!!!!

TA DA ...

So there you have it - you can see where the wall was by the outline of the hardwood floor to the right. On the subfloor was additional plywood to lift the tile to the left. I must say I just absolutely love it. It's turned our level into one big humungus room with a fireplace in the middle ... It is wicked cool and I'm just loving it ... we have a long ways to go yet ...

The white columns are both load bearing and suit the architecture.

So today, Sunday we thought would be a piece of cake - that was our first mistake!!! As we are going to hardwood the kitchen, we have to take the plywood off the floor ... what a day it has proved to be!!!!!!

Really not alot to show for it - but it involved a lot of work ... and I did end up with a nail in my hand ... tut, tut!

Boring stuff! But it's the boring, teadious stuff that makes the job great! And well worth the doing ... so here's where we left it tonight ...

There's scuba washing the floors, getting all the nasty fine dust off so that Cody can play tomorrow!

We freecycled the cabinets - they were in good shape and a family will be using them to replace their kitchen cabinets. So next I need to pack the other cupbords, set up the other shelves, and then we're ready to take the remaining cabinets down ... so that's next weekend folks!

Tomorrow will be back to school, plant some vege seeds, and trying to get my to-do list caught up ... and hopefully to fit in a nice hot cup of tea! Hopefully I'll get my voice back!