Summer Projects

Summer is the time for me to get at the many house projects that have been waiting for attention during the school year, and this summer is no exception. However, most of my projects have been on hold due to.....hail damage! My first job is usually the deck. We had just had some rotten boards replaced, completed sanding, and purchased stain when the storm hit, causing extensive damage to: the roof, skylights, siding, deck, back door, some window frames, the hot tub cover, and our new car! So, we've been waiting for the insurance adjuster to check everything out, and finally the checks have arrived. The car has already been fixed, and now we're in the process of getting some bids for everything else. Hopefully, the work will begin soon!

In the meantime, I started working on the main floor bathroom. The wallpaper peeled off very easily for a change (surprise!), so I finished the whole thing in a few days instead of a few weeks, like the upstairs bathroom last summer. I painted it a darker shade of silver sage from the kitchen and mud room color, and since the ceiling is about 20 feet tall in there, I only went up to regular ceiling height and taped off a stripe all the way around so the color change isn't quite so abrupt. There's no way I was climbing that high to paint to the top!

Since we haven't been able to work at our house, we've been spending some time helping Corey and Heidi with their landscaping projects. The dirt has been a pain all spring, and they're ready for a yard! The patio was all laid out and ready to be poured, but they needed some footings for the deck (to be added next summer). The company doing the patio told them if they got the holes dug, they would pour the cement for free while they did the patio. So....that meant renting an auger and going to work to dig five 4' deep holes. Not an easy project in dirt almost as hard as cement.
Corey took to the air trying to balance the crazy machine.

Almost done.

See the nicely filled holes for the footings? The patio is done, too, and it's time for the edging, plastic , and rock. Fortunately, the weather last Saturday for this stage was nice and cool, although we waited out one rain shower in the garage. We had quite a crew working all day! I'll have to admit, my job was mostly watching Maddox, although I did spend some time raking and digging trenches for the edging.

Here's Andy filling in dirt around the edging.

Rob brought along his "digger," as Maddox calls it, and that saved a lot of bad backs from shoveling and hauling rock with a wheel barrow.

Maddox got into the act, too, with his little toy tools. Mostly, he just got dirty! "Watch me dig!"

"Which one should I use now, Daddy?"

"Maybe I'll just supervise."

Ahhhhh, a bath and some sleep. That's what everyone felt like doing at the end of the day! The sprinkler system and sod are going in this week, so pictures of the finished product will come later.