Mom and Dad come for a visit

 This has already been quite a while, but Mom and Dad Steffen decided to come and visit us for a weekend.  They asked that we have some specific projects for them to work on.  Justin picked the new front door and the two sets of stairs for Dad, and I chose to have Mom help me get the front landscaping under control.  We got a whole lot done.  Dad even came up with a new floor plan for us to use that will give us three bedrooms and two bathrooms instead of four bedrooms and one bathroom.  It was such a good idea!   Thanks, Mom and Dad, for all of your hard work!

 

The old stairs were basically a ladder.  Justin removed part of the floor at the top of the stairs so we could move them back a little bit, creating a more gradual fall.  

Dad cut out the form for the new stairs and Justin installed them with Dad's coaching.

The new wood on the floor shows were the floor was cut out.

Dad testing the first stair to make sure it turned out alright. 

Mom is helping to hold the boards in place while Dad cuts out the new steps.

I forgot to take a good before picture, but here is a taste of what the landscaping was like before we messed with it.  It was very overgrown!

We transplanted a lot of things.  We didn't have to buy anything because there were plenty of hostas, lilies, and random other plants to fill in any gaps.  We also discarded some things that I really didn't like and added mulch.  Mom Witzig came over and helped a ton as well, but I didn't get any pictures of that.  What a blessing to have moms who know what the different plants are and who have such good advice!

After!  What a relief!  We left a few spots for some annuals, too.

I had to put in a picture of my new hydrangea plant!!  Heather  gave it to me as a house warming gift.  I was so excited! I gave it a place of honor right next to the porch so I would be able to see it when I go in and out.  What a great gift!  These are my very favorite flowers!

Here is the new floor plan that Dad drew out.  It is not to scale, but it gives a good idea of where we plan to put things.

Justin had already made a doorway for the bathroom where we had originally planned for it to be, so Dad's first order of business was to board it back up. :)

This wasn't finished by the time that they left, but Dad cut out the forms again and Justin assembled it.  Looks great!

The last project of the day was putting in the new front door.  The old one was only a thirty incher, so Justin took it out, widened the doorway, cut the siding down, and installed a much wider one.