Demo Day! Reno Day(s)!

Our kids like to renovate spaces. So, I texted the young homeowners, "Are you tearing out carpet tomorrow?" and got the response, "Yup, at 4!" So, I heard myself say to my sons . . . "Grab your masks, gloves, and some knives. Ooh, a crowbar! Good idea!" In any other context, this might have sounded suspicious, ha! And so promptly at 4, fully prepared for demolition (or a robbery :) I showed up with two eager teenaged boys and within minutes they had the carpet removed from the laundry room. Soon after, the closet bathroom (so weird) was also carpetless. Not long after that, the entire basement was down to bare floor. Zoomy! 

What took a little longer was the paneling. In the laundry room, there was a bulge in the dark brown paneling. Mrs. New Homeowner said, "Oooh, what's behind it?" Kind of like 10 minutes after they signed papers and arrived at their new home home she said, "Oooh, Graysen. Get a knife. Let's see if there's hardwood under the kitchen linoleum!" Ha!

Well, as soon as she spotted drywall behind the paneling, we were ripping and tearing that stuff out like gangbusters. The trim--gone! The curtain rods (held in with extremely gigantic nails for such a purpose)--gone! The electric sockets--still in metal housing. Sparks. Zap. Lights out. But only in that room, and no long term damage done :)

Three hours flew by in a flash (that was NOT an electricity-issue pun :)! We loaded the dumpster to capacity, plus. While we were finishing up, the girls were scouting out a housesitting job after they finished up work. They really wanted to come help at the reno house, but at 7 p.m. we called it quits. Mr. New Homeowner looked around and said, "Wow. I thought we were just painting today." Ummm, yes, that was your pre-us plan, ha!

However at 7 a.m.  the following morning, Gabby and G$ were up and out the door to do a couple of hours of painting before Gabby headed in to work. After I picked Brennen up from work, he wanted to go tot he house to help. G$--still there! Calean made up for the time she missed, by going after she got done with work, too. Tile, shiplap, paint, bring it! :)

The immediate plan was still paint, which really the boys and I weren't jazzed about, so I offered to drive Mrs. Homeowner to the home improvement store where she and I picked out power tools and got planks cut for cheap shiplap on this rad giant saw!! 

Back at the house, the boys headed to the basement to work on cleaning out the left behinds of the couple that moved out. They put everything that seemed keepable on some shelving and hauled maybe 60 or 70 bags of trash out to the garage!! Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner are ordering another dumpster soon, but the one that was hauled away that morning had a homeless man in it the night before. I guess he threw stuff all over their yard, looking for goodies. They called the police and the police chased him off, but then the young couple had to clean up what trash treasures the homeless fellow thought he'd found. I should mention that this house is on the more sketchy side of town, and the reason the owners sold it to the young couple at such a good price is because they wanted a gospel presence to stay in the neighborhood. So, we're already praying for the crack house on the corner.

Anywho, so after refueling Mrs. Homeowner with a desperately needed trip to Starbucks, we headed back to the house to find Caelan had arrived after work. She got to work painting the kitchen "conservative gray" while the boys finished up the basement. I headed home to switch laundry, work on school planning, and to tend the chicken birds. At 5 when Gabby was off work, the reno trio wanted to keep going, so Gabby and grabbed the crockpot meal I'd thrown together earlier and hauled dinner to the work crew. 

Gabby did her edge painting thing (artist's steadiness of hand) while Caelan rolled the high places (karate student steadiness of feet?). Brennen helped put the tile down in the laundry room and then moved to the closet bathroom (it's the stick tile, so no spacing or grouting, but a quick, satisfying amount of project completion :)

After 12 hours, I told Graysen, "You have to stop, it's time to go home." He was ready to take down that entire basement popcorn ceiling himself, even if it took all night (perhaps because he was offered $50 to do it :) Unfortunately the day of dust, mold, and basement took a toll on his lungs, as it always does, and he spent the night on the couch with his inhaler. He stayed home from church and I broke out the nebulizer. They forgot to grab the constructions masks that I meant when I said, "Grab some masks"--my pandemic purse-carry face covering didn't really do the trick for 20-year-old + popcorn. He's doing at least three breathing treatments a day. Super glad my Uncle Jim gave this nebulizer to us when the kids were little. God knew their lungs would need its assistance over the decades :)

Today, Mrs. Homeowner came over to sew a gender-reveal blanket for her sister's upcoming baby shower or gender-reveal party or however that works. My Crew followed her back to the reno house to put in some more reno time. Caelan painted, Gabby came home white and dusty like a ghostie (no such thing as ghosties, kids) from helping Graysen (with a real mask) take another run at popcorn scraping. While they were gone, my friend Mrs. Worship Director's Wife came over to visit and she brought me chai (Mrs. Homeowner bought me a chai this week, too! What a great week! :) She and I chatted for so long, that when I texted Mrs. Homeowner for a progress report, she said they were wrapping up for the day! 

I drove over to pick up the boys and learned that Brennen spent his time helping cut and nail the shiplap strips for and to the laundry room walls. They made good progress, but quickly learned covering eight-foot high walls and leveling six-inch-wide boards with matching gaps between was no easy task, especially in a room with six walls to cover. He and Graysen looked EXHAUSTED. Understandable as we've been there a lot this week on top of our usual busy schedule, and we had a late night at delayed fireworks last night due to unforeseen pyrotechnic issues. Tomorrow we hope to finish our coop project! They're going to need a summer vacation from their summer vacation ;)

Anyway, I'm glad God keeps providing a house each year that they can tear into and beautify. Pretty awesome life skills and a fun way to serve families in ministry who are on a tight budget. Plus, who doesn't love a good before and after story? It's like a life transformed by Christ--where it once was worn down and in need of repair, then Jesus steps in and makes it bright, beautiful, and clean again!