Finland trip

For anyone who is tired of seeing drywall updates, this post will be a nice break.  

Melissa and I had a great time in Finland over the weekend.  We spent two days exploring downtown Helsinki and had a short day trip over to Estonia.  We walked most of the harbor area, ate good food, then tried to figure out how to go sleep when the sun is still out at 11 pm.  With summer solstice just a few days past, the sun really only set from 11:30 pm until about 3 am.  Waking up in the middle of the night was very odd to say the least.  

Here's a picture taken at 11:15 pm as we were headed back to the hotel...

On a nearby island we saw lots of traditional Finnish buildings, which despite being around 200 years old were still straighter than the farmhouse.  

  

Our cruise over to Estonia was the most interesting.  It was a decent sized cruise ship with two decks to ferry cars across and about four decks above that. Here is a picture of the ship...

What follows is my best effort to describe what an Estonian cruise is like...

Take 2500 people.  Give about 2000 of them a pack of cigarettes each and make sure they finish them before you reach Estonia.  Somehow create a mystical ventilation system that pipes stale cigarette smoke to most of the ship's interior.  Have about 1250 of them go without deodorant for the day.  Get 20 of them to sing Karaoke in Finnish.  Two hours later drop them off in Estonia where they can purchase alcohol and cigarettes duty free.  Once that's complete, get at least 100 of them so sauced that they can't stand up on the return trip and you've got yourself a cruise.  

Despite all that, Melissa and I had a great time in Estonia.  The old town has buildings that have been there since the 1500's.  The place has a very medieval look to it.  We also had a lunch in a very good restaurant that had this bit of taxidermy in the front window...

Those are all real mounts in there, not unlike Mexican frogs.

Here's a shot of the main square in Estonia...

It was a good way to take a break from the construction up north, thanks to Melissa for having a job with a global company.  I'll leave this with just a few other pictures from the trip.

2nd Floor almost done

It was a long week, but we are almost ready for furniture upstairs.  With some dad help we were able to finish drywall, prime and paint, trim out the windows, put down the laminate, wire up outlets and switches and install the cabinet.  The only things remaining are the carpet installation and reworking the stairs and railing.

And with the flooring installed...

It will be great to have the upstairs finished soon.  I know the girls are looking forward to moving into their new room.  I'll personally miss folding up the couch and chairs every morning so that we can use the living room.  More finished pictures to come after a short trip to Helsinki.

Progress update

We've been busy up north lately and are getting closer to the end.  We've drywalled the girls room and finished up the ceiling boards.  The rooms are really starting to take shape.  We won't start work on the two bathrooms until we have a chance to recharge a little bit.

Here's the picture from last fall:

And after last weekend:

We also have some kids who are fully into summer mode.  Here's a quick picture from Fleming's garage sale, where the girls gave us their best pitch to buy them a convertible:

We've gotten the girls set up in their new rooms at home, Jenna wasted no time at all giving it a test.  I went outside to cut the grass and came back in and she was asleep.

That's what we've been up to this crazy summer.  We should have some more pictures up next week.  Or next year, whenever...