Big Changes

Last year my parents painted the outside of their house, replaced the pool liner, tore out their deck and rebuilt it (well, that project is actually not quite done yet), and built an awning off the back of the house.

Now, they've started working on the inside. They just put down wood flooring in the kitchen. It all looks great! My dad thought he'd fix up the inside of the house gradually over the next year, but with mom's health declining and the stairs becoming more and more dangerous for her, we decided to move things up to like... well, NOW.

So, Jared and I left most of our kids and gathered with all of the family that could to help mom and dad do a massive overhaul on the house. I felt like we were on some home improvement show. Chris and Tally brought their 10 year old son and he thought it was so cool that he got to demolish an old bathroom cabinet in the back yard. We moved out a bunch of furniture to make the place look more spacious, painted most of the inside, put on new baseboards, replaced chandeliers and light fixtures throughout most of the house, etc. Dad already put down new flooring in one bathroom and is planning to do another, plus replace a few sinks and faucets. The list goes on and on, but things sure are looking nice.

Here are some of the boys moving furniture... lots of furniture.

Anthony always makes things fun :)

Chris was the expert at pretty much everything. I'm so glad he was there to direct all of us.

We did plenty of painting.

Austin spent a lot of time in his jumper.

Mom was busy keeping food and snacks ready for us at all times.

The only major set back was that while Anthony made it home in one piece, his car didn't. He hit black ice/frost coming over the Blue Mountain pass and picked a fight with a guard rail and a semi. Pieces of his car were spread across the freeway and it looks like it might be totaled, but miraculously he walked away without a single scratch, not even a sore muscle the next day. We are so grateful for that.

He was in pretty good spirits considering he came home to find that everything from his old room was piled in the kitchen and all that was left of his bedroom was his light socket. All he had left from his prized car was a hunk of metal that said NISSAN and he spent Valentine's Day with his mom and sister.

We love him though and are glad that we got to spend the weekend with him.

The list of projects is still pretty long, but we were able to accomplish more than I ever thought possible. The plan is to list the house March 1st. Wish us luck and pray that it sells. My parents are planning to build a new house catered to my moms needs. I'm so grateful for such a great family who all come together and support one another. It's always great to be together, even if all we do is work.