We had passed our plumbing, electrical, and HVAC inspection on Friday. Yipee! Whoo-hoo! Yeah! Can you tell that I am excited? Yeah, I kinda thought I got that point across….Sorry!
So, the insulation was scheduled to go in on Monday. Then, the insulation inspection was scheduled for Tuesday morning and then the sheetrock was scheduled to go up on Wednesday morning. We had a plan! That plan kinda sounds like we were in a hurry or something? Huh. That’s strange, I’m not impatient or anything…
Well, that weekend I got the wild idea to get a jumpstart painting the house. Surely, starting the primer wouldn’t hurt anything, right? I also had to prime and do 2 coats of paint on the back wall where the electrical panel was going to be so the exterior underneath the box would be fully protected. That meant I had to pick a color of gray for the house. No pressure. Just pick a color that you have to look at everyday for the rest of your life. Yep, the rest of my life, because I don’t plan on repainting any time soon! Once that color is up, it’s staying. No take backs. No changing colors. So pick a color that we will ALL love. Forever. Sure, sure….
These were the color samples we decided to choose from. Yep, I’m a simple person. And I like gray.
Thank you Lord for your miracles! All my kids and Jim picked the light gray color on the far right. I thought it might turn out to be white, so I kept asking about the middle color of gray. I was ignored every time. They had already made a decision and I was becoming a nuisance by continuing to ask. So, in other words, it was a perfectly, normal day with the Carter family.
Yep, I like this color very much. Thanks Jim and kiddos for picking this color…over and over…until I listened.
Well, after a few days of making sure that everyone was sure, I finally realized they had ALL already said yes to the same gray color. Why am I still asking??? Oh, yeah, because it’s me!
This is what happens when I paint…
The kids play on Scott’s scaffolding like wild things, Jim makes his phone calls and Maleah enters events into her phone calendar. Gotta love family time!
Then I got the idea in my head to get a jumpstart on priming the rest of the house. Yeah, not a good idea. Poor Scott. He had already marked everything with red chalk lines. Do you know how hard those are to see? Well, they are incredibly difficult to see…especially when you aren’t looking for them! Or if you don’t know they are even there!
Can you see those red lines? No? Good, that makes me feel better. Because I didn’t see them either!
Once Scott showed me the tiny, little, nearly invisible, chalk lines on Monday I could clearly see them. Ok, I could clearly see them because I knew they were there now and I was looking for them. But on Saturday and Sunday….nope, never saw them….not even when I was painting over them. Yep, silly me painted over all the chalk lines on the back of the house.
And I even painted over the chalk lines on this side of the house too.
I think I may have to start calling Scott, Saint Scott too. He didn’t kill me! I did however take him a dozen orange twists because his wife had told me they were his favorite. I’m still sorry Scott! I promised him that I was not going to paint until the end of the week when he was going to be all done. And he managed to let me live! Scott’s a pretty good guy.
In happier memories, this is what the kiddos did all weekend while I painted over Scott’s red chalk lines…
I honestly can’t remember what Camden was doing in this picture. He looks like he is trying to smash something.? Isn’t that what boys are always doing?
There’s my happy boy. All smiles because he was planning to put hay on Maylin’s head.
At some point, I may have to break it to Cam that he is, in fact, Not Superman. Or Thor. Or Captain America. I just can’t stand to break his tiny little heart yet. So, if you see him dressed as Captain America please don’t tell him he isn’t the real one. He will be so disappointed!
Well, all went well after that. I didn’t pick up a paint brush and Scott let me live! I decided my time would be better spent restaining our decks at our house than messing with Scott’s chalk lines again. I feel certain he appreciated that act of brilliance on my part. Ok, it was a act of self-preservation actually. I didn’t want him to kill me!
The insulation went in on Monday. Oh, and the insulation people had left extra insulation so Jim and I insulated the interior walls as well. That was an itchy job! But the house is very well insulated.
Well, insulation made it much darker in the house.
The kids actually hated the insulation because they couldn’t run through the walls anymore.
We passed the insulation inspection on Tuesday. And then the monstrous piles of sheetrock were delivered!
The sheetrock has arrived.
Actually, I keep calling it “the walls” and Jim would laugh. Then, Saint Jim would explain to me AGAIN that sheetrock is only the covering on the walls. Yes, dear.
On Wednesday the sheetrock was supposed to start. Nope, didn’t happen. He had called Monday to see if we were ready, but we hadn’t had that pesky inspection done yet, so we couldn’t really start yet. But he said they would squeeze in another job and be ready to start on Wednesday.
Tuesday night he called to say they were finishing up the other job and would be at our place on Thursday. He apologized for the delay and mentioned that he had had surgery that day. Jim didn’t want to be nosy, so he wished him a speedy recovery. Honestly, that was the last time we thought of his surgery until he called Thursday morning.
Thursday morning came and we were ready for the sheetrock to be put up!! Well, the sheetrock guy called at 8am and said it wouldn’t be happening. The surgery he had had Tuesday had revealed throat cancer and he would be starting treatments immediately. He would no longer be able to do the mudding and finishing of the drywall, so he was not starting anymore jobs.
Well, that threw us for a loop. We were so disappointed, but how can you be upset when the man has cancer? That really put some perspective on things for me. We, (mainly me) can get in a hurry, or get disappointed with the slow progress, but we have our health among a multitude of other blessings. That’s the important thing to keep in mind. We will continue to keep Tommy in our prayers as we begin looking for a new drywall guy.
Scott was done by Friday and the house looked wonderful on the outside.. Well, except for those silly stripes created by putting up the battens on top of the primed wood.
Our little house looked like a candy cane. Scott thought it was hilarious at this point and actually offered us money to paint it red and white! That man really does have a sense of humor.
Once the battens went up, I really loved the look of the exterior.
This picture was earlier in the week when he was framing the windows and doors. Scott did a great job!
By Friday the house looked like this!
I loved the look of the house and promptly decided I didn’t want to paint it at all. I wanted to stain it a natural colored stain and call it a day. Jim laughed and walked away. Where are you going, Jim?!?
Anyway, the exterior is now ready to finish priming and then paint. Great timimg since Sherwin Williams is having a paint sale this week. And I have coupons too! So, there is more painting in my future. A lot more painting in my near future!!!
