Redoing the redone laundry room

January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 moaniburkLeave a comment

Yes you read that right. We tore down some drywall that was put up about 7 months ago and we moved some things.

You see what happened was, when we designed the laundry room we didn’t own a washer and dryer, nor did we know what we wanted. So it was designed for standard size front loaders. They would be along the wall on the right side at the back end of the room with a row of cabinets and a sink by the door.

Fast forward to a few weeks after we moved back in, we went shopping for the washer and dryer at a scratch and dent store in Salt Lake. We got a super good deal on the biggest set they had. The dryer holds 9.2 cubic feet! There are 7 of us, we do a lot of laundry. I knew the words ” I wish we had a smaller washer and dryer” would never come out of my mouth. AND think about it for a sec, our kids are young, their clothes are small. The children, their clothes and in turn the laundry piles will only get bigger. So my point is they are perfect, and it makes me happy… Anyway… Back to the story..

We put them in the Laundry room, they did fit but, because of the way the plumbing was set up the machines were really far off the wall. This meant that their doors nearly touched the wall across from them and the laundry room door when opened fully was just inches away from the dryer. So in essence it made doing the laundry a bit of a hassle. There was barely enough space for a sink right at entrance but definitely not cabinets. It was just a very poor use of space and we realized quite quickly that we would eventually need to redo it.

So eventually finally started this month! Matt tore out the drywall, our friend James is a plumber and moved all the lines for us one Saturday, then this week Matt did a little extra framing and put the drywall up. Then he got it mudded and ready for paint!

Thankfully he was able to pull this all off in just over a week and a half. We only had to use a laundromat once!

The room still needs paint and cabinets but it’s functional again, a lot more functional I might add.

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Happy New Year!

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 moaniburk

2019 was another big year for us. Starting the year in our new-to-us old home making remodel plans and an unexpected but much celebrated pregnancy. Stephanie got baptized and was supported by many friends and family. We went to Legoland and the contractors started our remodel. We lived in several different places (hotel, Air BNB, friends and family members houses) while they took apart and rebuilt our house. Everything always took longer than expected. In April we went to Arizona for Allie’s Baptism.

In June we moved back into our much unfinished home with no kitchen, no flooring and one functioning bathroom. The kids finished their first year at a public school Franklin Discovery Academy. We took a much needed family vacation back to California and loved it. We came home and it was our turn to do the projects on the house.

Summer was full of lots of play time with friends and lots of projects. We received so much help from family and friends in many, many ways and we are so grateful. We couldn’t have gotten this far without it. One such person was around so much and had such an impact on our family, He is all Drew talks about still. He says his name dozens of times a day. Uncle Bennie. Even though my Grandma’s brother hadn’t seen me or probably even thought much about me since I last saw him 15 years ago, He showed up and helped. He helped with installing flooring, replacing the subfloor, irrigation, excavating and leveling the backyard, tree removal, getting up early picking up multiple trailer loads of bricks by hand, preparing and pouring our cement patio.

At the end of August Georgia made her quick arrival after a very physically taxing and stressful pregnancy. She has completed our family and filled us all with joy and awe. She is beautiful and perfect.

Fall started a new school year, and the season of sickness and surgeries. Matt had a surgery to fix four issues in his sinuses and is happy to report he can breathe through his nose MUCH better now.

Georgia has got bronchiolitis once a month since birth. Thankfully she was healthy enough in November She and I made a quick trip to California to celebrate the life of my Aunt and visit with family. Then the following weekend was her Blessing day. We had many family members in town to participate and celebrate this day with us. It was a beautiful experience as our sweet last baby was surrounded by loved ones and her Dad gave her a special Blessing. We continued to celebrate this gift of life at our home with a dinner of Thanksgiving. That weekend and days following filled with family and friends were so wonderful and filled our hearts with so much joy and gratitude.

November 27th Josh and Lucas had surgery to have their Tonsils and adenoids removed. That was a very difficult time. The boys were in lots of pain all day and all night for 2 weeks. At one week after the surgery Lucas had a tonsilar bleed. A crazy rush to primary children’s hospital in salt lake, He lost a lot of blood and needed to go back into the Operating Room to stop the bleeding and pump the blood out of his stomach. He was such a champ and had no fear. It was a very long night and our sweet friend Wendy came to our aid no questions asked. She stayed up into the wee hours of the night and took care of all our other kids, and her husband Brian brought Matt up to the hospital so we could be together with Lucas. We are so thankful for them.

In mid December just as the image of Lucas coughing up blood was fading out of my mind it was time for a few more projects to get our house ready for Christmas. We were very selective this year and didn’t give our kids toys. They got things they need and gifts of family fun and memories to be made.

Finally on the 28th of December for the first time in years Matt and I were able to attend the temple. It was extra special because it was our first time in the Salt Lake Temple and it’s very last session before it is closed for 4 years for renovations. It was nice to be together in such a special and beautiful place. I really miss spending time in the temple. I am grateful that we have moved to a place were they are so easily accessible to us as a family with young kids.

We spent our New year’s Eve in service to friends, visiting some elderly friends and seeing some spectacular Christmas lights. A perfect way to end the year.

We had a big year full of many blessings and many trials. We have learned so much and grown closer as a family. We look forward to a New Year, and growing closer as a family and even closer to Christ as we study the scriptures and follow the teachings of President Nelson.

Love,

The Burk Family

Enjoy some other pictures from our year year

Some of our other amazing helpers!

spontaneous viewing of the 4th of July fireworks at thanksgiving point

Summer was also full of dogs. lots and lots of dog sitting.

flooring is done and cabinets are waiting in the background to get installed

We love our gummy! she spent many weeks with us after Georgia was born.

Trip to park city to see the hot air balloons with Grandma and Grandpa Apple, Uncle Scott and Harmony .

Helping Daddy refinish Stephanie’s new bunk bed that we got for free!

Stephanie and Joshua had a Christmas concert at school. Their music Teacher Mr. Woodruff accompanied them.

Family photo in the snow on the last Sunday of 2019

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The Before

April 28, 2019 moaniburkLeave a comment

So if you’ve followed our Instagram we have shared lots of pictures of the construction process. I’ve finally come across all the images from sale ad! So this post is mostly pictures but you know what they say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” So please enjoy these before pictures and leave me a comment if you have any questions! Feel free to zip on over to our Instagram to see if you can figure out where everything is now. Subscribe for our for blog so you don’t miss the posts coming soon to the show the plans and then the last 9 weeks of progress!!