June 1-7

Busy Week with a LOT accomplished!! Grass seed in the back yard is coming in nicely. Just keeping up with the watering now. We only seeded a large portion of the back yard so that it was easier to water. After that section fills in we will seed the section closer to the house. Didn't want to have to walk on baby grass to water.

Mark and Nick dropped a couple trees, cut them up so Nolan and Bianca could take all the brush out to the road for town pickup. It was great that they were gone a couple days, too!

Nolan and Bianca are making a wish! Probably wishing they could go home and watch tv, lol.

The stump was SOOO heavy that Nick needed help!!

The house is totally painted now and the landscaping can begin! The part we've all waited for!!!

Day 31

This is the end of the first month! A whole 31 days and LOTS to show. Mark works full time, the kids got to school and have Civil Air Patrol, etc. And we still accomplished all this: New Garage Door Painting the interior and exterior of garage Gutted the first floor (except for kitchen) Painted the exterior Complete tear off and new roof installed Electric panel box installed Several full-grown trees dropped, cut and disposed of Over 150 bags of leaves and brush from the back yard gathered and disposed of Overgrown shrubs removed from front gardens Landscaping stones removed from front garden, moved to back, and fire pit created Back yard 1/2 seeded and sprouted Basement emptied, power-washed and painted Sun room sliding doors power-washed to remove moss in tracks and.... what did I miss? WOW!!! Great Job Family!! Here's the pictures from the last day of the month:

Day 30

Nothing done today cuz it was Tiffany's Junior Prom!

Day 29

We are finishing the first month and WOW what progress we have made!!! Here's a refresher for the before and after!

Day 28

Four kids have Civil Air Patrol, Tiff works til 6 so nothing being done by the kids. Tiff and I went to dinner with some friends who are up from Pensacola. Their son is going to Tiff's Jr Prom with her. Nice day off!! Mark met with one of his coworkers who is an electrician to get going on restoring service to the house. A new riser, wiring, etc., is required. Mark installed a new panel box. After that is all done the electrical inspector will return to give it the PASS we need, then the Gas and Electric company will bring in the lines. So for now we are "off the grid" like the wilderness folks! Sounds really trendy!

Day 27

Worked on the front gardens. Nick was not too happy about using the pick axe to dig out the roots, but he got it done. It was a slow painful day to get things accomplished. Took WAY longer than it should have to get a little bit done. Lots of complaining and bickering. Tomorrow they will have OFF. The sidewalk on the side of the house needs to be power washed still, but I raked it all out, Sammy pulled the few weeds starting to grow, Tiffany cut the grass and our grass seed is coming up nicely in the back yard. Still many more areas to fill in, but since the pile is totally gone out there, it looks like a whole new yard! The high peaks will be painted next week by a contractor - Burgmaster Painting, and we will do all the lower parts. Probably Bianca, Sam and myself with Mark doing the highest parts. I saved the original shutters and I think they will look very cute. Deciding if they should be black or red. White was a no, didn't like that stark contrast. The brick on the basement is red, so the shutters in that color and the front door will be as well. Should look nice. New windows are next!

Day 26

The dumpster was removed and a new one brought so the kids loaded it up with some bags of yard stuff from out back. They also emptied out the remaining stuff in the house like the pool table we had initially hoped to keep but it was moldy... so it's gone, broken up and into the dumpster. The old bar went as well. There are a million antique Ball Mason jars down there that we may sell. All in good condition, too! The dumpster is about a third full already! I used the shop vac to continue to clean out the first floor. But it needs a filter so once Mark gets a new filter I'll be back to vacuuming. The dehumidifier is working slowly in the basement to remove the water from the power washing that Nick did on the walls. Since there is no electric yet, it only runs when we are there with the generator. Slow and steady. Going to wait to paint the basement until it is totally dry, not rushing that process.

Day 25

Bianca was the best kid today! She primed and painted the entire exterior of the garage with a little help from Sammy. Sammy was not too thrilled about being on brush pile duty, but it had to be done. Town brush pick up is a week from Monday and I wanted to be sure it was out there EARLY. The neighbor keeps complaining to Mark about his fire pit so we just had everyone focus on the brush pile and get it tied up and out front ready for the claw and dump truck. Nicolas worked on breaking up the asphalt that they had around a tree in the back yard. Why they did this we are not sure. Back breaking work! Mark took down a couple trees which added to the pile but everything was cut up by Mark. I raked the entire day, just moving the pile together and closer to the driveway. Sam and Nolan did the bulk of the moving; after Sam went to work Tiffy got out of work and jumped in where Sam left off. Watch in the pictures below where Bianca paints and you'll see the first coat of color go on. Stormy Night is the color. Then you will also see the brush pile disappear throughout the day.

Day 24

Now that the first floor is nearly gutted the dumpster is full! And then Nolan just HAD to mess with the mechanism that keeps it shut.... you just know what happened.... the back of the dumpster came OPEN and all the walls and blown in insulation came pouring out. And Nolan cleaned it up himself. He required Nicolas to get the heavy door closed again. It did take him all afternoon, but he cleaned it all up. Lesson learned: when Mom says, "Don't touch it," ya probably should actually listen to the old girl. I used the borrowed power washer and started the outside and Mark did some more of it. Then Tiffany got ahold of it and really finished up! The front sidewalk was black and is now regular concrete. Amazing difference. Mark also did the inside of the Florida room. Tiffany used the shop vac and a screw driver to clean out the tracks on the sunroom. It is a really nice room! Bianca and Nolan were tired and took a little siesta in the truck.

Day 23

Not much done today by the kids because Tiffany, Nick and Nolan worked tonight. But Nolan opted out of his 8th grade trip to Boston for the Civil Air Patrol trip to Washington, DC last summer and was thrilled with his choice. Since his class was gone and those that remained would be watching movies, Nolan was sent to work on the house with Dad today. Mark hired a crew for a couple hundred bucks to spend 8 hours demolishing the inside of the first floor. DUST!!! OMG DUST!! Blown in insulation is a MESS! But the first floor is nearly done. Saving the kitchen for the kids as they wanted to do it. Still have the second floor... but there's time! Filled that dumpster right on up.

Day 22

The roofers have completed the roof and it looks great. We saved some money by having someone Mark knows do the garage part for a few hundred bucks. The mess was left to the kids to get into the dumpster. They were sure glad that we had a contractor do the tear off and clean up on the house roof! What a MESS! But they got it all cleaned up and into the dumpster. I think I am in love with that leaf blower cuz it does a great job with the dust.

Day 21

Today is Wednesday and four of the kids have Civil Air Patrol.... so a quick stop to check on things and we were outta there! Here's Sammy heading back to the truck

Day 20 More Roof!

Finishing the roof! Looks great! The crew of 5 really HAULS it!! OMG watching them work was great!! The kids did lots more cleanup inside of the old junk in the attic.

Day 19 Roof!

The Roofers arrived this morning and began the complete tear off. What a MESS!! They'll finish tomorrow and then begin the new roof!

Day 18

The neighbor is a total freak when it comes to fire. She's the one that called the fire department the last time. The lot is 50' wide and they said a fire pit has to be 3' across and 20' from the lot line. Done. Mark put the landscaping stones in a 3' circle and stacked 'em high. He even invited them for S'mores but they declined. They did ask what the fire department said. Mark explained that it's there and safe..... now they don't wave. Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished. We're fixing up the house and improving the property values in the neighborhood.... sorry.

Tiffany and Daddy having some fun! Nolan, Tiff, and Bianca using the chain saw with Daddy hanging on!

Bianca finished the garage! She cleaned it all up too. Our little breakroom is complete!