Miss Tami's Preschool

(Note: I had this entire blog almost completely finished when I clicked on something wrong and lost the whole thing! It was over an hour of work lost! Here is attempt #2.)
I just had my open house tonight for preschool. Tuesday I start my seventh year of teaching. When we moved we had to find a house that would accommodate my school. This house had a cute office room with an empty (huge) furnace room directly behind it. We decided to knock down the wall and make the two rooms one big room for the preschool. We started work around mid-July.
This is what the finished room used to look like. The wall with the closet is the one we knocked down.
The first job was to put up the framing in the unfinished room. Tom was awesome to do so much of the work by himself.


The next project was to knock down the wall. Tom's Dad got to do the honors first, then the kids quickly followed.

Next Tom did the framing for the closet and furnace room. His Dad helped with the electrical. It's nice to have an electrician in the family.
Here is the room looking at it from the other angle.
With only two weeks until our deadline it was time to put up the ceiling and walls. A lot of Tom's family came to help us with the drywall, Spackle and taping.

Next was sanding. My Dad and brother, Mike were the lucky ones to help us with this mundane task.
And finally, I felt like I could help do something. Although there were several nights I went to bed with bad back pain due to pushing my pregnant body too hard. Here I am putting up magnetic paint for my magnet wall.
With only a week left it was time for paint. The kids had fun "helping" with this part. Tom's friend, Jeremy was also nice to lend a hand. This nook that Cedric's painting will someday have a sink in it. Thanks to my brother, Isaac for the great idea!

Tom tiled the entire half of the floor in two days! Saturday he got up at 4am to run the Park City Marathon (after playing hockey until 11pm the night before), then tiled until 3am the next morning! He also tiled for another 6 hours on Sunday (Cedric was sick so Tom stayed home with him and also worked on the "service project").



Sunday we also worked on a fun project. I wanted to do my kids hand prints on part of the wall to remember how big they were when we moved into our new house.

I thought it turned out rather cute. They did a great job!

Tuesday we had a new neighbor help put up the baseboards and door frame. Then Wednesday Tom's Dad finished putting up the lights and electrical. I continued to decorate and we moved in the furniture. We also had a friend from our old neighborhood stretch and tuck the carpet for us. Things were almost ready.
I did some more cleaning and organizing this morning and the fire marshal came by to do his inspection. I was feeling like things turned out pretty good!
Here is the outside of the classroom. These glass windows and door were already there. I thought it looked perfect for the preschool!
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The hooks go down the hall for the kids coats and bags.



I am soooooo proud of Tom and grateful for all the hard work he put into this project for me. I felt like a single mom for the past month, but I knew he was sacrificing a lot of time and sleep for me :) I'm grateful for all the friends and family that helped me with this too, including: My father-in-law, Bryce (who also spent countless hours on this project for me); Tom's brothers and sister (& -in-laws), Bryce, Maren, Tim, Eric, & Carlee; my dad, Kent; my brother, Mike; Tom's friend, Jeremy; our new neighbor; Brad; my new friends, Tiffany & Rosalie (who tended my kids for me while I was working on the preschool); our old neighbor, Bob; and all our other loved ones who support me in my job. This preschool has been one of the greatest faithbuilding blessings in my life. I can't wait for another school year to begin!