Graduation, family photo, and two pieces of siding

 This was not the most productive week on the garage because Leah's commencement ceremony was this weekend! Congratulations, Leah!!! Not surprisingly, she is going to the University of Minnesota Nursing School this fall, something she is very well suited for. 

Amazingly, we got the whole family to go to her commencement (Owen is almost always not in town over the weekends, and doing "family" stuff is not Bobbi's thing - especially if it's boring! but both of them made it, and Mira's not in the hospital...) so here we all are!

As usual, our standards of what constitutes a "good" family photo are pretty low. "Is everybody present and visible?" is our main criteria for the last 8+ years! 🤣 Smiling? Not so big of a deal. Even looking at the camera? Also not required. Coordinating outfits?? Ha! That was so last decade! So all in all, I'm pretty pleased with this one.

And, because doing something like going out to dinner is complicated enough with our crew (especially since two of them don't eat by mouth!), we decided to just head back home for ice cream sundaes. Grandma can doze in her chair, Krassi can get *out* of his chair, Mira can get back in her crib, Reuben can nap on the couch, and the REST of us who appreciate ice cream all crowded onto the new front porch of the addition!

Even, better, the weekend wasn't a complete wash, as Matt and I had just enough time to get the first piece of vertical siding onto the entry...

...AND to cut and install the second piece! 

So, two done, and I'm not sure I can count how many more to go!

Last bit of news worth noting is that surgery that we're hoping Mira will eventually get to have is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, and she has made it this far without ending up in the hospital again!! We might make it to the surgery date this time!!!

Gutter and front deck

After not getting anything pushed forward on the garage last weekend, *this* weekend was a little more productive. 

You'd think we planned it (but we didn't!) but the depth of the new garage just happens to be EXACTLY the same size as the width of the old garage, so the gutters are the right size to just reuse! Like, to the inch exact! So we this week picked up the better of the two old ones and stuck it up on the new garage! Yay!

Then, on Friday Matt didn't have too much of his regular work to do, so he got a head start on the rest of the front deck. Here you can see all of the boards are in, so the top surface is fully complete. The grate at the back left is for access to our well, as we are still not hooked up to city water, and every once in a while you need to get down in there! The size of the overhang is also deliberately set back from the front edge of the deck so the well truck can get its vertical clearance as well.

Then Saturday as taken up with installing the real deck boards on the steps down the front and wrapping along the side of the entry/mud room until it dies into the garage. We don't yet have the white trim that will finish the risers, but the functional part is now complete.