I am so sore, but, thanks to our AWESOME family and friends, Day 1 of painting was extremely productive!!

We (Dave, my dad and me) arrived at the house around 9am. Dave and I had taped the night before so I thought we’d get in there and knock out a room or two before lunch. Um, no. We are amateur painters and it took us some time to get into the groove of painting (i.e. the first room we did was streak-city so we had to keep going over it). By lunch, we had zero rooms complete and I was a bit discouraged and asked Dave if we “could just call in the professionals, PLEASE?!”. He said we are not paying someone to do something we can do ourselves. Yes, sir.

I sent our good friends a text at that point and invited them to a Painting Party complete with free dinner! Sounds enticing, right?

Well, as Katie later told me, if we would have showed up to church on Sunday with stories of painting our entire new house by ourselves, John (husband), would have been highly offended that we didn’t call them to help. That is just the type of friends they are and we are blessed to call them friends!

By the time John and Katie arrived after work, we had managed to paint the entrance foyer and the formal living & dinning room. We had started on the family room.

But then – with everyone working – we got SO much done!!! Katie and I painted the entire master bedroom ourselves and the others continued work on the living areas.

Amanda (Dave’s sister) arrived for the “night-shift”! I was a tad bit worried about even starting this process without her because every other painting job we’ve ever done on our house, she has been Commander in Chief. But, we survived and when she showed up for “night-shift” we painted for about 1.5 hours and got the hallway done, which was a big job. AND- she is coming back today to help some more.

SuperGrams took care of the girls. She brought them to the house and they hung out with us in the morning playing with toys in one of the bedrooms, reading books and going on a bug hunt. (They collected all the dead bugs they found laying around the house. Little Bug loved that!) Then Grams took them to her house for naps and then brought them back for dinner with everyone at the new house. And then she took them back to her house and got them to bed. SuperGrams. I am so thankful for my mother. If not for her, I wouldn’t have been able to help.

All in all, we are on a roll with this painting business, too. Here are some pics from our day yesterday. (Minus any with our friends because I forgot to ask if it was okay to post them!)

The girls were fascinated!

My Daddy is a hard worker. He is very good with detail and he is the one who noticed the streaks and taught us how to avoid them.

SuperGrams with her littlest charge who wasn’t in the best of moods that day. She is teething her incisors. Those are never any fun.

I thought to myself, “Girls are coming, I should pack some toys and books.” With everything else going on, it slipped my mind. I should have known. Grams thinks of everything. She came prepared as I should have known she would!

The sisters are in love with this deck. Little Bug is constantly asking if she can go play out there!

And now it is time to wake my snoring husband beside me and get up for Painting Day #2! I’ve been up since 7am, which for me on a Saturday morning, is a miracle.

I must be a little excited or something.

It’s hard work, but it is fun seeing this house coming together to become our home. The home, where, Lord Willing, our grandchildren will come one day! That is an awesome thought.

Many memories to come within these walls….

Yesterday was a good start on the memory making.

- Elaine