The one where all we did was work on the house

So where was I... time has been flying.  I've essentially been working a part time job this summer on top of my regular full time stay at home mom job.  I spent close to 4 hours at the house every day painting and staining trim.  My kids are/were becoming both feral and very self sufficient. 😜

So anyway, the china cabinet in the day light.  It came crated and we left it on the pallet for 3 years in the shed so this was the first time I've seen all of it in person!  I'm so excited!

We went out one evening to see the new countertops.  

And they hadn't seen the cabinets yet either. 

Tim and Asa hooked up a basic utility sink for me.  I have an old one that I want to put in eventually but it is going to require some thought and planning to get it to work.  I don't have the time or bandwidth for that right now so instead I was going to have them install Matt's old basement sink.  Tim said it would be cheaper to put this in... soooo... Matt's sink may get hooked up outside as a mud sink. We'll see. Anyway, it is really nice to be able to clean the paint sprayer and paint brushes in a sink.

The utility room is coming along nicely. 

I don't have picture proof, but Dianne K and Desaray came one morning and helped me stain baseboards... it makes a tedious job go faster.  :)

Aunt Pearline went on hospice soon after the 4th.  I was able to visit her at the home and say goodbye a few days before she died.  

My earliest distinct memory, when I was just shy of 3 years old, is of Aunt Pearline holding my hand in the hospital after my family was in a car accident.

She was like a bonus Grandma, and was not afraid to let us know what she thought about ANYTHING; our clothes, our activities, even the boys that might be interested in us. 😆

She was there for all of our birthdays and holidays and baptisms and graduations and was even in the car with me when I got stopped by a cop for a burned out headlight.  

When I had a cooking question in college (back in the dark ages before smartphones and unlimited texting) and my Mom or my Grandma didn't answer the phone, Pearline was next on the list.  

Pearl (and Grandma) showed up first when we moved to our house with food (tapioca pudding!) and coolers and immediately started emptying my freezer.
She fed Cecily her first ice cream with the most mischievous grin on her face the whole time.

I miss her good-natured scolding, cheese at Christmas, and the way she said "worldly."

We took all the kids to the visitation, and Perrin only made one awkward/inappropriate comment about "the dead body." *sigh* He keeps life interesting.  Bob ended up working from home and watched Perrin for the funeral so I only had to keep track of the girls.   All but two of my cousins were able to make it to either the visitation or funeral... we loved our Great Aunt Pearl and 'Uncle' Paul and 'Aunt' Kary... and what do you mean Kirk, Kayla, and Kyle aren't first cousins?!?! 

And it's always fun to see Dad's cousins (some of whom are blog readers- HI! 😁👋).   

Meanwhile, back at the house doors got hung!   

Eeeeeee!  Haha.  Sorry. 

We moved all of the painted baseboard from the basement out the window, then from the ground up through the window.  Bob did the hard part.

Cecily and I got the easy job. 

Emmy put hardware on the cabinets.  

 

These three squirrels were just... squirrels.   

Skirt boards!!  This was a lot of surface area. And they were heavy, but I am a #stubbornwysswoman and I did it myself.

The Koch water fight happened.  

I'm not totally sure what Goose was up to, but they walked around with tiny water balloons all evening so that's probably what she's holding.

There were fireworks.  Perrin was mostly interested in playing with the 'tanks' after they were set off.  

I was out working on things and Perrin wanted to come with me "so you won't be all alone"- he's parked in the pantry on his chair with a movie (his actual motivation for coming).  Conrad wanted to get the china cabinet in and there were no strong men available that afternoon so I got to help lift the top cabinet onto the bottom piece and slide it into place and I'm only a little bit proud of that.  

 

 

Why yes I did break out the pole sander to scuff sand between poly coats because I couldn't reach the middle of these massive 18 foot skirt boards...   

Do you hear glorious bells?  Because look at that trimmed out china cabinet.  😁

Mom and Michelle and I brought all the kids to Dragonland one afternoon.  

Perrin was just barely tall enough for the slides.  I went down with him once, and he loved it, but the double tubes were pretty scary with such a large weight difference.  So he went with his sisters instead.     

I finished all the baseboard and started staining stairs!  I had to learn a whole new process.  The floor guy left me extra stain and two types of finish coats so theoretically, if I followed his instructions, the steps would match the floors.  

Treads and risers- stain, 1 sealer coat, 2 poly coats.  I moved the entire main staircase (basement to 2nd floor) on and off of sawhorses a total of 8 times.  #stubbornwysswomen 

My souvenir spoon collection came up in conversation so I dug it out to show the kids.  They were unimpressed.  😝

Let there be light! This house looks so old and I love it. 

Lake day! Watercolor colored pencils work a lot like face paint and it washes off really easily. 

And more lights!  

Box beams were last on my list of things to stain. The long ones were unwieldy and I wrestled one out to my saw horse, and decided I had better ask Conrad to help me move the second one so I didn't accidentally damage it.  😜

I shooed them outside and they hooked up the sprinkler in the driveway so they could play in the puddles.  

One evening Bob was working late and the kids really wanted to eat outside.  

Certain of them really wanted campfire meals but that was a stretch.  We settled for hash served in foil packets.  And toast. 

The boys wanted to 'play at our old house' which translated to play minecraft with the Koch girls. hehe.  Mom brought them and sweet corn, so they played games and we shucked a bag of corn.  😏

I worry about leaving them while I'm working on the house, and then I come home and Em is busily making homemade noodles.  They were very rustic but good so we made some more for supper. 😜

I finished everything that needed spraying! Hallelujah!  Time to take the spray tent down.  There are a few spots on the floor where over spray sneaked through, but it's a basement so I won't let it bother me. It suddenly feels so spacious down there. 

Gah.  So dusty but so pretty! (please notice the skirt boards...😄)

Tim and Asa hooked up faucets!   

They dressed up stuffed pigs in tutus also, so I guess this is "Swine Lake."

I hauled them all out one afternoon to fill nail holes.  Some were more willing than others.

And some were very enthusiastic but used 10 times more filler than necessary. 

Never ending job.  And we haven't even thought about doing the downstairs.

Their reward was snacks and a movie while I worked on something else. 😋

Bob made them pull the volunteer radishes in the yard in the rain "because the ground is soft and they'll come out easier."  They were not happy about it after the excitement of playing in the rain wore off.   

July went faster than it felt like it was going.  I love the summer schedule and August makes me dread the start of school, and it's early this year.

Blessings. 

We've been in orbit since... June and July

We continue to do very little except house things this summer.  😝  My kids will probably look back and talk about the summer they didn't do anything. 

The library has all kinds of fun programs this summer, but the only one we've been to is when my friend taught a dance class one afternoon and I took Miri and Cadence.  They had fun.  

Rustin brought a trailer over and he and Bob loaded up half the yard.  Perrin helped and had opinions of where everything should be loaded.  

We're really leaning into the 'old farm' aesthetic with our piles of stuff sitting around. 

We went to the farm for fathers day/ birthdays.  

So many kids, so little cow tank.   

Perrin wanted to check out Grandpa's new truck.

I stained the mantel.  

Cabinets! And a laundry shoot!  Eeeeeeeeeeee.... 😁

And a built in ironing board!

We're just going to ignore the fact that I probably measured wrong and it will hit the dryer.  Bob can say 'I told you so' and we can modify it at our leisure.  I don't iron anyway.  

Floors got sanded!  

The floor guy said it was 'refreshing' to stain something other than gray.  😏  

The timing for floor finishing turned out well- we were headed to Wyss vacation so it wasn't a big deal to be kicked out of the house. 

We barely made it in time for supper, and didn't miss the picture woot woot!  

40 years.  

It's mind boggling really.  Grandpa started vacation so his spread out grandkids could spend time together and actually know each other.  40 years later we still really like each other and are bringing our kids who are sooo excited to hang out with their second cousins. Not only do his grandkids know each other, his great-grandkids know each other.  He would also tell people he was spending our inheritance to pay for vacation... but really these people and these relationships are the greater inheritance I think.  

We also revert to childhood on vacation... these full grown adults were shooting bottle rockets at each other. 🙄 At least they were responsible enough to put on eye protection?  😂

Swimming!

Friday night breakfast assembly line.  :)  It's not quite a Lyd & Pearl breakfast, but it's pretty good.  

Evening fireworks show, complete with aforementioned grown adults leaping over fireworks.  😆 It's a good thing we travel with an ER doc and several nurses.

More pool time.

Yes, that is Miri poking her face out of an upside down hammock.

It's not vacation without some Mario Kart.  

We got to stay at Austin's old house that they are turning into an Airbnb.

Bronwyn learned how to use a dagger.  Ha.

Kate and Cadence both had birthdays over the weekend so of course there was cake! 

The kids spent hours out on the boat tubing.  

Loren just got a pretty snazzy new pontoon boat.  And Austin let Cadence drive it.  😬 She thought it was the best thing ever.  

It was time to go home far too soon, though I'm sure Rita will be glad to get her kitchen back.  We took a detour through West Lafayette to eat lunch at Triple XXX family restaurant.  They serve Bob's favorite root beer ever, and the burgers were really good too.  

Somebody was excited for ketchup and french fries.  

We got to drive through part of Purdue's campus and we waved in the general direction of some friends and family who live nearby.  :)  We got back home in plenty of time for supper and since it was Cadence's actual birthday, cake!  She wanted clouds and lots of mini animals on top.  

She's 10, so she picked out a doll house!  I don't know when I will have time to build it though, poor kid.  

A whole decade! It's not possible...

I got to peek at the floors the morning we got back.

It was very hard not to squeal.  😄

Meanwhile back in town, the kids washed the rugs and were using the porch as a slip and slide.  Then they wondered why they had weird bruises.  

Aaaahhhh

eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!

I saw a cute idea for patriotic t-shirts online so we tried it.  Ours did not turn out as well as the originals, but they were fun and cute for the 4th.  

We went to Ron and Kary's for fireworks.

Perrin was a little stinker and threw one of their toys into the lake. gjldjfsld  Uncle Matt came to the rescue and fished it out with Uncle Ron's extendable pole saw.  😣

They used up all the glow sticks waiting for fireworks to start.   

The first fireworks they shot off created so much smoke we had a hard time seeing the rest of the fireworks.  It did slowly start to clear, but I was a little disappointed. You don't die that easy though.  We stayed for root beer floats and got home pretty late for Saturday night baths.  

It was very exciting to get to walk on the new floors!  

Don't mind me drooling over the push button light switch and brass plate....  (I limited myself to just a few, they are a lot more expensive than regular switches.)

The girls convinced Perrin to swim out to the floating dock at lake day.  

Cecily has spent her entire summer reading, which isn't all bad, but we have to remind her to go get some fresh air now and then.  😜

Newel post!.... I keep thinking I'm making headway in the staining and then Conrad brings me more things.

There's some kind of radish mixed into the pasture grass we had planted previously that is popping up in the yard.  The kids pulled up some of it and then got bored.

But then Grandpa and Grandma showed up with treasures!  

They brought my china cabinet and the tornado bed!  There was great rejoicing! (from me AND dad, because now he has that space back in his shed! hehe.)

And some shenanigans.  It smelled a little bit like machine shed for a couple days, but I washed it down and haven't noticed any strong odors lately.  😏

We still don't know for sure when we'll be able to move in.  Eventually. 
Blessings.