Many Hands Make Progress Fun

Today, Sunday, Oct 19th, we are taking a day off! Yes, a day off. But, before we do, we created a couple of earth berms to help keep the rain water from the road away from the house and it needed some sod to keep it in place. Then we cleaned up so we could be somewhat presentable. We are having friends from Minnesota stop by for a few days to lend a hand or two. We met Dick & Karla at a Habitat for Humanity caravan build in Thibodaux, Louisiana, in 2005 and have been good friends ever since. They have a winter place in Florida and are on their way south and stopped by for a few days – we had a great time and with their help, moved our project forward.

Anne, our cousin in London was judging in Toronto and also stopped by for a tour of our project and stayed overnight. First though, Anne wanted a tour of Buffalo before arriving here! She was in the wrong lane on the QEW and missed the last turn off before crossing the Peace Bridge into the USA, she gave us a ‘panic’ call as she was crossing into Buffalo. After she arrived, the 5 of us had a terrific evening.

The next day after saying goodbye to Anne and with 8 very capable hands, we start assembling the kitchen cabinet bases. After we paint, we have to have the kitchen counter company in to measure up so we can order the counter top. So Dick & I carted the bases in from the garage/workshop/storage space and the 4 of us start the assembly. Once you get through one, the rest seem fairly easy to understand and complete – there has to be something wrong with this picture, there were no ‘spare’ parts left over when a cabinet was done! Anyway, by mid afternoon we are done and decided that we need to install the door and window trim before we paint – all the trim is going to be painted out with the walls to help make the place look bigger. So, off to the store to buy buy buy.

 

On Tuesday, Dick & I measured, cut and fit the trim while Karla and Barb nailed and filled nail holes. By the end of the day, we had all the trim up, nail holes filled and could be ready for paint after some sanding. It was a busy couple of days with our Minnesota buddies and we all had fun being together, building, yakking and enjoying the company. Thanks guys, we hope to see you again soon.  May you have safe travels on your journey south.

 

On Wednesday, Barb & I started the task of final inspections and corrections before we break out the paint brushes and rollers. As we were getting ready to paint, Larry, my next older brother walked in the back door – what a surprise for us. After the ‘cooks’ tour, we sat about chatting and catching up. He left early afternoon for his drive back to Whitevale. Barb & I got a couple of ceilings painted before we ran out of light.

 

On Thursday, Barb continued working on the trim and I got the lighting installed in the front room. At the end of the day, we drove into Ikea to return a damaged cabinet and exchange a wall cabinet for a bigger unit for over the fridge. Another long day but we see progress and it’s exciting to see the kitchen cabinets.

 

 

Friday was more of the same, painting, lighting and priming trim. Terri arrived later to help with the paining over the weekend. So on Saturday, it was the three of us, rollers whirring, brushes slapping and even I helped out a little!

 

That’s it for our week, we hope all is good where you are….