Nearly Finished

So our basement is 99% finished. We now have 800 square feet of extra house plus another full bathroom.  It's all finished enough to start moving things in. I'll give the tour.
We start with Week 4.  I never take a "before" shot of anything, so you'll just have to use you imagination.  Our basement looked just like this minus the framing and the overhead lights.  The overhead lights are a fun story: in Virginia, they never install overhead lights when they build a house.  Except in the hall, kitchen, and bathrooms.  So, when Terry the Contractor and I walked around the basement to plan light placement, I had him put one about every 5 feet.  In this open area of our basement, there are 17 can lights.  This space positively gleams like a beacon.


Look how tiny this puppy is!!!
Our basement is above grade.  One space, a whole room, was above grade but had no window.  I obviously have an obsession with light because I had Terry cut a hole in my foundation and put in a double window.  

That's Ariel standing in front of the new window.

Cute!
So, my whole house, including the basement is painted boring, neutral "booger" in anticipation of renting it out to the masses in a few months.  It's killing me.  So in one place in the house have I left myself a little nook of self-expression: the basement stairs.  Which I painted Tiffany's Blue with dark teal risers.  It makes my heart skip a beat every time I see them.



When the carpet was installed, the girls came down and did a celebratory dance.

This is Halloween

Jedi

Skeleton (notice the broken right arm)

Ghost Dog loves bones.  He went Trick-or-Treating too.

The Left-Handed Solidarity League

Saturday, Livia did what you do with trampolines: she broke her arm falling off of one.  When faced with the fact that it was her right hand, Livia wept, "But I do so many wonderful things with my right hand!"  To cheer her up, Ariel volunteered to eat all of his meals with his left hand until Livia's cast comes off.  This prompted the whole family to form the Left-handed Solidarity League.  I love the vicious look Livia's got -- like she's going to kill you with that spoon.  After she knocks you unconscious with her cast.

Columbian Exploration

Our usual Saturday adventure was interrupted by a busy day, so we moved our expedition to Monday, Columbus Day. Ariel had the day off, and we planned to go hiking with the H Family. Turned out that Mr. H did not have the day off, but we enjoyed the day with Mrs H and the three H boys.

Not knowing how much day-out we could all endure with 5 kids aged 2-9, I picked a gentle hike -- a little 2.2 mile stroll just outside the Beltway following Scott's Run (a body of water, not a daring escape) down to the Potomac River.

My camera failed to reset its settings back to a nice low f-stop, so I took a lot of crappy, grainy shots in the shade.  I'm really embarrassed about some of these, but they're all I've got.

We were lucky enough to ford the river a few times on these cement stepping stones.

Scott's Run meets the Potomac with a lovely little waterfall.  I like these two shots (above and below) because you can see the illusion of photography.  The top one is my SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot, while the bottom is the magic of post-production work (and the zoom of my lens).


Lena with Maryland across the river behind her.



Sometimes I let Ariel hold the camera.

Livia and Timmy were born within a week of each other, and have been friends since they were in nursery.  



We didn't see a lot of critters on this trip.  Most likely they heard us coming from a mile off.

First Battle of Manassas

We're trying to get out of the house every Saturday, and my rule is, if the sun is shining, we hike.  In 5 weeks, the dog will be cleared by the vet to go out in public, and I plan on taking him hiking.  The girls have been informed that these hikes in the interim are a test.  If they whine now, they won't come hiking with me and Blitz.  This prompted Livia to repeatedly remark, "This is awesome!"

So Saturday we went to Manassas Battlefield Park, site of two big battles in the Civil War.  We hiked the trail for the First Battle of Manassas (the most famous) and had a very enjoyable 6 mile stroll with occasional snippets of history thrown in for good measure.
Ariel with Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.



Dad, what kind of tree is this?  Looks like a green bean tree to me.

Edit: Dad said, "Your bean tree is the Northern Catalpa Tree (Catalpa Speciosa). It is much prized by fishermen in that  worms and grubs enjoy dining on its fallen leaves. Many grow along the banks of the French Broad River near Brevard and everyone just called them Bean Trees when I was growing up."  
My handsome husband at Stone Bridge.



The old-wives tale says that the wider the brown band on a woolly-bear caterpillar, the milder the winter will be.  The band on this little thing is so wide, there's no black on him at all.  I'm hoping that's a portent of a hot, sunny winter, and not that it's just a different all-brown type of caterpillar.
We also found cicada husks.

To prevent the husks from being crushed in their pockets, I recommended the girls wear them in their hair like hairbows.  Ariel and I showcased this new fashion trend.  (Kira, I expect to see Rosie with insect exoskeletons in her hair.)
On a spur trail to see an old family cemetery, I spotted this beautiful Eastern Hognosed Snake trying to slither away.  I scurried to get in front of him while he puffed up and hissed and coiled into springing position.  For this shot, I was about 2-3 feet away, crouched down nearly on my belly.  Ariel was behind him with a stick asking if he should poke it towards me.  I knew it wasn't poisonous, but that didn't mean that I wanted it to bite me.