Projects 3 and 4

On Tuesday of last week, mom finally sold their house that was next door to our old house.


This was an answered prayer. One less thing for mom to worry about.


But sad that one chapter in our lives in completely closed.


When I tell some people that I live next door to my parents, they think I just mean that we lived close to them. No we literally lived next door. Our street number was 3450 and theirs 3451.

 

Here is the walkway we made to connect our driveways.

 

Here we are coming out of mom and dad's house to Easter Egg Hunt and you can see a little of my old house. (The one with the red brick)

This was a great help with childcare. When the boys went down for a nap i would just take the monitors over and get out and run some errands.


At the same time once Wild Man understood how close JJ and Pop were, that became a challenge. I would tell Wild Man no and then he would try to get out of the house to go to JJ and Pops where he would get a yes.


One memory that came to mind of dad at the house was right after they moved in dad noticed that there was moisture under the house. When he went down to the crawl space he saw that there was quite a bit of water and NO drainage. So dad being the ever optimist thought "this is going to be fun! I get to play in the mud!" So for a couple of weeks he worked under the house to dig trentches to drain all the water to a subpump that he installed. He was so proud of his accomplishment.

 

 BTW, the reason there is tarp over the back of the house. If from the hail storm we had earlier that month. The back of their house looked like swiss cheese. Literally.

I am sure that it goes without saying. Tuesday I was kind of sad. 

So what do I do?

Well the title says so also... but 2 projects!

First one was the staircase. 

 

 

Here it is with the chalk mark for where the trim will go. 

Also here is Romeo's new trick. 

Yes he has climbed to the top like this.

Quick story.

Here is how I found out his new trick.

I was cooking dinner. 

The I hear this quiet.

"Mom....help....please"

 

He speaks in fragmented sentences.

It was not a desperate cry for help, just a simple one. 

Said in the same way when he asked me to hand him his water.

Since it didn't sound desperate. 

I told him to hold on just a minute while I finish doing what I was doing.

To which his reply was a simple OK.

So I minute later, I went looking for him.

So I called out for him to see what he needed help with.

I then found him hanging from the top of the staircase...feet dangling.

I went... "Oh My Goodness!!!!"

I grabbed him put him on the ground.

He turned around and says simply "Thanks....mom." and then runs on his merry way.

What the heck!!!

Anyways, back to the projects.

Here is the staircase/foyer after.

 

It will look so much better when I paint the top part with the Blonde color that I have in the den/kitchen.

Here is one reason we haven't done that yet.

 

 

Do you want to get up there?

I don't.

For the next project I moved into the kitchen.

 

The island to be exact.

Mr. Genius told me that we aren't going to spend anymore money on projects. So I had to use what I had.

I have always wanted an island in my kitchen and then put beadboard on it. 

Why... I don't know.

Some people dream of awesome vacations or meeting a celebrity... I dream of beadboard.

I live a sad existence.

Since we didn't have any beadboard and decided I needed to break the law again and pull out the beadboard wallpaper.

 

Then I painted it white...like I have done with everything else I have done.

Then there was a problem.

I didn't like it.

The white was too bright for the counter top.

I looked at going to Ikea and getting a new countertop.

But that would cost money.

So that was out.

So I found some glaze.

Thought...what the heck. Why not?

Brushed on the glaze, then whipped it off.

Here is the contrast.

It isn't a great picture. But I guess you get the idea of the difference between the door and the rest of the cabinet.

I am really happy with the results.

 

 

Like the little toys on the floor?

That would be the boys decorating touches.

To show that the boys have not been completely neglected with all these projects going on.

 

See they are still alive.

They are waiting for some more food.

Big surprise there.

When these boys are awake they are either running around or begging for food. It is a vicious cycle.

Do you see that random package on top of the stack of paper plates?

That is our new bribery technique.

I mean what is parenting without some form of bribery?

Wild Man has learned the art of disobeying.

Let me tell you, he is a pro at it.

He has also learned lying. But I think we killed that with a dose of hot sauce.

So we have told Wild Man if he obeys for 5 days in a row, he gets a new toy. 

But not just any toy.

A hot wheels toys.

And not just any hot wheels toy.

A Battle Force 5 hot wheels toy.

He admires and worships it until he gets to open it.

 

 

 After a month of talking about opening the car, hopefully tomorrow after supper he will be able to open it!

Fingers crossed.

But then what will the new bribery tool be?