Daddy Date

Twice a year, the girl scouts have a father-daughter function. Here's this fall's picture. It was a prom theme.
Dad took the girls to Basta's, a nice Italian restuarant. The waitress did an outstanding job recognizing the special occassion and treating the girls like young ladies.

Helping hands cont'd

The contractor's helpers tossed one of the concrete forms to the side. It hit the garage and put a hole in the wall. We needed to replace some boards anyway. Primed the inside to help seal the wood on both sides, and help lighten the interior of the garge.
So here we are working together. Helping each other. And smiling. Still.


A 4 foot wide and 12 foot long sheet of 5/8" drywall weighs about 90 pounds. That's plenty for two people to hold over their heads while standing on ladders. Now put a drill/driver in a hand and try to accurately drive screws into the drywall sheet.
Drywall lifts are wonderful. Only cost $25 to rent for the weekend. And not just for ceilings. It helped with the upper wall sheets too.

Bigger House = Harder to paint

Another big help has been Diane's brother. He's got the tools or access to them, experience, and most importantly the ideas. He fits the big brother job description well.
We had to build scaffolding to access the peak of the west side, and to reach the north side over the porch roof. Ladder on picks on scaffold, oh my. It was not an OSHA approved setup for sure, but no injuries. Only one accident when the paint sprayer hose came off the spray gun and shot brown paint all over Gary and the roof. Sorry, no pictures of that incident.

Work / Play Balance

Our dear friends from Rock Island (Master Design's Boomerangs) came over to help for a weekend. We got alot done. And we also made sure to enjoy the time.
When you don't have to ask somebody for help, just answer their question of when should they be there, that's a true friend.

Let's get started

For now, I'm using this as an easy way to post pictures. When I find another easier way, then I'll move there.
Most of the pictures will be the remodelling project. And we'll start with pictures from last week, then work back in time. Scattered along the way we'll slip in some forward progress.
So here's last week's snow storm.