Here's how it looked when we arrived--Graysen added the branches after Brother Bob cut them off the corner of the house. He also raked and did upstairs jobs to avoid whatever it is that makes his allergies react in the basement (where the rest of us were working).
There was some sort of compost sludge in the recycling bin that about made the 14-year-olds gag, lol!
At the end of day one--lots of really heavy bags, cardboard boxes, and a few moldy exercise mats (because basements are basements, even the finished ones get wet sometimes).
And this was at the end of the second day! I know Brother Bob and my two at-home bros later topped it off with a whole ceiling :)
My nephew very carefully dissected the horse of the kids' childhood :) My brother builds things to last a century! With both the horse and the playhouse, the boys were marveling at the extensive construction--built in door bell, working lights, dry wall, trim, carpeting, framed windows--I think you could have ridden that horse into the playhouse through a tornado! My nephew kept pretending he was Chip from Fixer Upper--kicking through the walls and sledgehammering at random. I told him he should get some eye protection for himself and Brennen, and maybe some gloves for me since I was left bleeding (barely :) in the debris fly zone. Eek!
My brother designated this picture "Hashtag Basement Gang" :) We worked really hard in the subterranean! It was also like a treasure hunt for the boys--they tended to get a bit distracted, but all work and no play . . . :)
Caelan found a box full of letters my sister and I wrote my mom to convince her we should not share a room. We were pretty sure each other was the peskiest critter alive and should be allowed her own space. Eventually this worked out, and my brother ended up in the laundry room by the creepy basement at the farmhouse. Way to take one for the team!
I found my dad's original selective service card, his mayoral certificate, newlywed pics of my parents I'd never seen, baby afghans, a rug my great grandma made (I wish I knew how to fix it, it was falling apart, so we let it go, but I had to snap a picture first). School pics of my dad, his old jewelry (some made of our baby spoons) and all kinds of school memories and memorabilia. Caelan even found the DJ contract for Buck's and my wedding! Gabby kept a senior picture and name card from my brother's backstock, and my nephew commented on how he still has the same hair ;) Speaking of hair, I found a sample of my youngest brother's baby hair and my second youngest brother's teeth in an envelope--mom thought we probably didn't need to save the teeth, lol :)
We made a lot of progress in 11 hours :) My mom kept busy watching the baby she's keeping for days at a time. Gabby got to sneak some snuggles, while mom went to the store to get Graysen a face mask because he wanted to help in the basement. I wanted to hold the baby, but with this cold, there was no way I was going to get her sick, too.
Clearly, the face mask didn't help very much. This was Graysen day two, after just a few hours downstairs. He was a lot of help though!
After another six hours or so on the second day, we had all the cardboard boxes in the dumpster, all the remaining important things in plastic tubs, the carpet removed from the entire downstairs, we vacuumed the concrete, and little did I know how amazing I looked during the process LOL!! Wild hair lady :)
My brother-in-law sent these pics today. My two youngest brothers helped him take down what was left of the drop ceiling and insulation in the room that my oldest youngest brother built as a nursery for my girls the year we were house hunting. Whew, that was a complex sentence!
And this is the mountain of waffles Graysen made to feed us the next day, when we arrived home. It took him an hour, and they all got eaten--except for the one with no cholate chips, ha!
1 comment:
I'll bet your mom was happy after all that was cleaned up...wow!
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