Busy Bees

So rotten! The wood supporting

the deck is mush!

After discovering the deck was even more rotten than we expected, Buck spent the morning driving from lumber yard to lumber yard collecting all the support pieces we didn't know we needed. For this adventure, he took our air-conditionerless minivan. On the trip home from the second store--he turned our Kia into a jousting beast!! Sticking out the front passenger side window was at 20 foot run of timber! Attached to the front was a fluttering flag of red . . . our van looked sweet!! :)

We got the wood unloaded from both trips, and then had to head to karate. However ever since we've returned, Buck's been out there rebuilding and it's looking good! The boys are helping carry rocks, paint boards, and I did see an attempt with a saw that I thought was better not to be attempted :)

Here's what was left of the deck before the storm hit last night.

The girls have been taping and painting! It's pretty fancy around here now, I've gotta say ;)

Our room has never had a make-over . . . until today! I know the previous owner tried to find a paint color to match purple carpeting, and the sage green actually was a pretty good choice! The problem is, I don't have a drop of it left. So all the scuffs and scratches of former owners and ourselves have no way to be concealed. I know it is super hard to see the new color, but it's called "worn turquoise"  ... I think :) It's a pretty, happy shade of blue and the girls love it--even if it is not for them :)

So glad we let them paint their room and get the experience.They enjoy all this painting jazz, which is a huge help!

We're living like campers--sort of :) We need to get all the furniture and everything that touches the floor ready to move when the carpeting gets installed. We have no idea when this will be ,but expect sometime within the next three days to three weeks . . . you just never know, we are learning. I'm super digging the new color, even if I can't walk in my room! Matches our sheets :)

We're also repainting the kitchen--I know this looks black, but it's actually navy. The table will be refinished in the same color, but that project is farther down the road :)

The boys are getting a head start on painting all the sides of the deck boards. We learned from our three previous deck painting experiences that this is the hardest, most time-consuming part of the job. So, since the boards aren't attached yet, we thought this would be a faster way to accomplish the job :) Stack 'em up, roll 'em out!

Since the girls are getting a new, much smaller bed, Brennen helped detach their staircase for relocation to the guestroom/classroom.

Both boys helped me push it into the living room where all the boxes are filled as though we are moving. This is a HUGE project inside to go along with our HUGE project outside :) And the inside job depends on the timing of the outside job, because the painted wood planks are in the only open floor space not being carpeted that we can move the furniture from the girls' room to. Yes, the carpet installers will move furniture for us, but it's like those little handheld plastic puzzles . . . you have to have one open space so the rest of the pieces can slide around until you make the picture :)

And btw, heard from the accident girl and her dad thinks they should fix the (13 year old) truck, so we're waiting to hear what estimate they get back. Come on assessor guy! We've paid your huge fee, come look at our house, so we can get some refi cash flow for all this! :)