The New Deck

before

demolition...

rotten wood - the reason for this project

half-way done

The children found their own use for the old rails of the deck - a cage!

The finished deck!

Much Better!

Labor Day weekend, Keith decided it was time to tackle our rotting deck. We had an usually rainy July and we found mushrooms growing in the railing of our deck and realized we couldn't wait much longer to fix it. So, on the hottest weekend we had in a while, Keith started demo-ing the deck. The three-day weekend flew by and he wasn't able to get it quite all done. But by the next weekend, it was finished! It looks amazing and Keith did a fantastic job. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about the plan, but it turned out great and we are all enjoying his hard work!

A new dishwasher and a new toy

Hannah was very interested in what was going on and wanted to help.

This isn't a good capture of little miss helpful, but she is bent over, trying to look in the space where the dishwasher came out. I'm not sure what her plan was, but I think she thought she could hide in there.

It took about .2 seconds for the boys to discover the fantastic box the new dishwasher came in! It only took another minute before they asked Daddy to cut a door and a window.

Please not the "posts" on the sides and the extra Styrofoam, plastic and cardboard on top of the box. These are shingles and household decorations.

Last week after complaining for months about my worthless dishwasher that no longer dried dishes and barely washed them, we got a new dishwasher! Matt happened to be in town and was kind enough to come down and help install it! He had many little helpers, the most helpful being Hannah. She kept stealing tools and trying to mimic everything Matt was doing. She also thought his toolbox was a great treasure chest, especially when she discovered Sharpies. Before I noticed she had found them, she left a nice decoration on the wood floor...The price of a new dishwasher. Totally worth it!

"New" Chest of Drawers

$10 chest of drawers + $12 paint = new dresser in boys' room!

Last weekend was Labor Day, and we labored away. Not in the Labor and Delivery kind of way that I'm ready for, but we did complete several projects on our pre-baby list. One project was to re-do this little chest of drawers. I failed to take a picture of the before, but trust me it was UGLY! For starters, the pull handle was shiny gold and running the length of the drawer under the handle was also a 1-inch strip of shiny gold. The wood was a shiny veneer, light oakish color. But it only cost $10. Quite the steal my parents found for us at a recent auction!

Keith started by removing the fancy gold trim with the help of Goof Off - magic stuff that removed all the adhesive left behind by the lovely gold trim. He was worried he was going to have to sand it off, but no. Although, he may have lost a few important brain cells thanks to the strong smells. Then he removed the pulls and spray painted them black. He had found this espresso-colored spray paint that adheres to all surfaces with no prep work required and decided to try it for the exterior. (Andrew wanted him to buy fire-engine red paint. Fortunately Keith was able to talk him out of that color choice!) I was skeptical that spray paint was what we needed. I was ready to sand and get out the brushes, but we tried his way first, and in mere minutes the drawers were transformed from ugly to pretty chocolate.

After letting it dry, he put the pulls back on, and we moved it into the boys' room. And now it holds some of Jonathan's clothes as we continue to work on the bedroom transition.

As a side note, the boys are getting better at going to sleep at night. But the past two mornings, they have woken each other up at 6:45 am. I don't function before 7:30. Actually I really don't function before 8:30, so you see how this is a problem for me...plus they are cranky most of the day and Andrew no long believes in naps...and I'm cranky because I lost at least 45 precious minutes of sleep. So our new policy is about once a week the boys sleep in separate rooms to assure that everyone in the house gets a good night sleep. We can only do this for a couple more months, but for now, it is what works for us.