I anticipated this to only last about a week.... oh foolish me! Instead, the weather remained unsteady and wet! We discovered that we had two cracks in the foundation that needed sealing. Not serious, they were small, but this would be a project to take care of before our much anticipated and planned vacation. So after having the area marked out by JULIE service, we dug and dug (by hand) and sealed on the outside. Then we took down drywall and sealed from the inside. Thankfully, when the next set of storms hit (just about three days after this work was done), we stayed nice and dry.
At the same time, I had already arranged for stone to be delivered to the driveway where we park the camper while the camper was away at the shop being prepped for our vacation.
It is all about timing, right? With the help of my mom and nephew Colin, we soon as the drive looking good.
Did I mention that our nephews and my brother came to live with us temporarily? They have been a tremendous help.
But our adventures were just beginning. Fortunately I had the air conditioning fixed before we started work on the playroom.
Which we found out needed insulation (it was insufficiently insulated), so we tore down the two outside walls to the studs (as seen above) and began to insulate properly. Next would come the green board and spackling and priming and painting and trim...
Doesn't everyone start a major house renovation right before leaving for vacation?
Not long after we started, it was vacation time... And we had already booked and paid for vacation, so darn it, we were going!
And go we did, for two blissful weeks we traveled to one of the hottest parts of the country in the middle of July. My daughter was really surprised as we told her we were going to the Dells. How, you might ask, did our 11 year old not figure out that we were not going to the Dells when we headed south - as far south as Florida?
She has sneaky parents.
We told her that we were going to spend the first week of our vacation south, where it was warm (the day before we left for our vacation it was only 55 degrees) and then head back up north to the Dells for the second week when the weatherman had predicted warmer temps. And I told her I wanted to go to a state that had a beach. When we were headed onto Disney property, she asked if we could visit, but we noted how expensive that was, and that we were just following GPS to the highway that would take us to our next campground. Thank you Disney for having highway signs on the roadways. It wasn't until we pulled into the Fort Wilderness Campground that I handed her the box with our Magic Bands.
She was truly surprised.
We loved our stay. I have to say, the campground was the best place I have every stayed on Disney property. I could live there. They have no mosquitoes. They have magic bands. I spend the next month tapping everything with my wrist trying to get it it activate. I need a magic band for everyday life. The second week of our trip we spent time recouping from our theme park adventure and visited space ships, the beach, one of the oldest cities in the United States and gas stations with chickens roaming between the pumps. I kid you not, there were chickens.
While we were gone, Mom and Dad took on the Playroom Project (as I have named it).
They had some help from our nephews, who learned a great deal about construction. Probably more than they wanted to know.We returned in time to pick up the primer and paint and begin the finishing work.
Which was a lot of work. After we painted we could see where we spackled. Grrr. So that was redone until we were satisfied.
Next came the trim and ceiling molding.
And I could not put that stupid brown cabinet back into the nicely repainted room, so it received painting. And the handles received painting. And I managed to paint myself in the process.
On the face.
I give new meaning to face painting.
But finally, this long project is near an end. We have sorted what was going back into the playroom. Donated to charity. Put up shelves. Put away toys. The results are wonderful. Still need blinds and curtains. Probably could use a new area rug. Will need a new plug for the electronics shelf (hey the rest of the plugs were moved up and replaced!)
But alas, as we started to relax, our summer drew to an end. School shopping ensued. Ice cream socials and parent technology meetings took place (the latter during a tornado...but more on that another time).School bell rang and we were back to routine of lunches and early mornings.
But not before my hubby fractured his elbow.
You did not think we could end summer on an easy note did you? And is that a dripping I hear in the utility room ceiling?
Crap.
