A Lot Going On

We started off our week last week, slowly and quietly.  

 Alora lost her third tooth on Monday night!  Once again, the tooth fairy had a little difficulty in getting to our house on time and when Alora woke on Tuesday, she had not yet arrived.  Thankfully, with another not of apology, she did make it on Tuesday night.

 Monday evening, the kids and I went to pick out pumpkins.  Each of them got to choose their own, and while we were there, they got to play with their cousin Sofia for a while, having a grand time running through the rows of pumpkins.

Tuesday night, we headed off to Menards with both of the trucks to pick up blow-in insulation for the barn ceiling.  40 bags was a lot, and while at first there was thought that we could transport it all on one pallet in the truck, sensibility won out and we shortened the stack and packed individual bags into the other truck bed.

Wednesday night, the kids carved their pumpkins.

Elam had no preference on design, so Mommy helped him out.

Tierney wanted a silly face with a moustache!

Alora opted for a big sunshine on her white pumpkin.

And Ezri carved a bunny holding a pumpkin into hers.

 And then there were the silly pictures...

Thursday was school and life as usual.  Lucky decided he wanted to be a part of Alora's reading lesson that day...

 Thursday evening, while Grandma came to hang out and watch our kids and the Sebright kids, Alex, Tony, Kathy and I tackled the big job of blowing insulation into the barn ceiling.  It was a dusty, dirty process that took us about 5 hours, several attempts to unclog the 100 foot hose and a last minute coordination to get more bags before Menards closed at 10, requiring Jay to go and buy the bags, Tony to go and retrieve them, while Kathy, Alex and I stayed to keep working.  In the end, with Kathy and I opening bags and feeding the blower hopper while Alex ran the hose end of the blower and Tony helped out upstairs, we finished about 11:45pm, having started around 6:45pm.  We were tired and dirty, but the job was done!

 Friday morning, after we got through school, Grandpa arrived to help Mommy sand all of the drywall mud so the walls could be one step closer to being finished.  The kids hung out with us in the barn as we worked and Grandpa got in plenty of breaks playing with the kids as we worked for about 4 hours, sanding away.

 Friday evening, this Mommy went out with her friends Kathy, Becci & Jacci for dinner and dessert.  We decided to dress up and wear our tiaras, because, why not?  By 10, we were back and crashed on the couch.  It had been such a long couple of days with the insulation and sanding and this mama was tired!

 So, instead of sleep in on Saturday, I got up bright and early and headed back out to the barn to start preparing it for paint while Alex went to get the paint and borrow a paint sprayer.

After lunch, while Opa and Oma hung out in the house and watched the kids, Alex and I headed out to the barn to get started.  We started on the ceiling using the lift as a platform.  We soon found that the lift did not like to drive over the plastic sheeting covering the floor that was growing stickier  from the mist of the paint.

 We ended up using ladders for the first coat on the walls and the second coat on the ceiling and walls.  Alex helped to move the ladder and monitor the sprayer, changing out paint buckets as needed while I ran the sprayer. 

What a mess!!! There was such a haze of paint in the room by the end we could hardly see from one side to the other.

After about 4 hours, we finished putting the second coat on and decided enough was enough.  We were both covered in a fine layer of paint, even with the protective gear.  

We then had to clean up all of the equipment while Opa and Oma helped feed and bathe the kids.  Later, we realized there were some drips and runs that might need attention, but that would have to wait as I was off to take some family pictures for another family while Daddy tended to the kids.  By the time I got back and we got kids all asleep, it was after 10pm. Needless to say, we were pretty wore out that night!  

Sunday morning, we woke up and got ready for church and made plans to have my parents help fix the trouble spots after church.  With their help sanding and applying a little more paint in those spots quickly after lunch, we decided how it was then would be how it will be moving forward.  Enough with the wall prep!

Sunday afternoon, we gathered up our props and costumes and headed back to Dorr for Trunk-or-Treat.  This year, with our friends the Sebrights and Poldermans, we pulled off the Clue game.  The kids were the characters (Ezri - Miss Scarlet, Alora - Mrs. White, Tierney - Mrs. Peacock, Elam - Professor Plum, Travis - Colonel Mustard, Emmett - Mr. Green).  The adults wore shirts with the Clue logo and each carried a weapon (Alex - lead pipe, Kristy - rope, Tony - revolver, Kathy - candlestick, Jay - wrench, Becci - knife).  

Each family set up a room from the manor, we had the Kitchen, 

Sebrights had the Library

 and Poldermans had the Dining Room.  

It was fun for our crew, and even if the kids coming through the line didn't understand, the adults did.  The rain stopped shortly after we got there to set up and started up again just after we packed up and headed home.

More Progress

Our week was full of activity. 

Monday evening kicked off the chaos with our first 4H meeting for the new 4H year.  The girls were very excited for the meeting.  It was Ezri's first meeting as an active member and Alora's second as a Cloverbud.  This meant Ezri no longer got to do the Cloverbud craft, but had to sit for the whole meeting.  Alora got to hold the 4H flag for pledges and it was a big deal!

Tuesday afternoon began the next leg of the barn finishing extravaganza.  With the help of our friends Tony and Kathy, we began hanging drywall.

The kids thought all of the action was interesting and wanted to be right in the middle of it.

 We hung all of the walls 2/3 of the way before calling it quits. 

 There may have been some unwelcome smells assisting us through the process...

Wednesday, again with the help of our friends, we hung the upper row of drywall.

 Thursday, we rented a drywall lift and tackled the ceiling with the help of our friends yet again as well as my Dad.

 Thursday night was also eventful as Ezri lost her 8th tooth!

 Unfortunately, the Tooth Fairy had some difficulties with the rain and stormy weather and was unable to bring her money that night.  But she was still all smiles when she woke on Friday morning.  The kids and I headed off to MOPS for a busy morning of meal prep with the group.  While we were gone, Daddy and Grandpa worked on finishing the ceiling.  By the middle of the afternoon, they had completed the project, at least that portion of it. 

While they worked in the barn, the kids and I visited with Aunt Kerri, Aubrey & Wesley, who did not have school and came to play and have their pictures taken.  There was also the activity of Barney and his tractor moving more dirt around our yards, filling in holes and raising low spots. 

 While Aunt Kerri was here, the kids decorated cookies for Halloween!

 Friday night, we rested.  Saturday morning, we were back at it again.  Thankfully, the Tooth Fairy was able to make it for Ezri, and she even left a not apologizing.  Now it was time to tape and mud all of the seams.  Alex and I worked on finishing the wall seams and toward the end, Opa and Oma arrive and Opa offered his help with that on the upper walls, while Oma played with the kids.  Then it was on to the ceiling.  First we had to come up with some type of scaffolding or lift... enter the engineer.  With a little modification, we had ourselves a platform that lifted to stand on for putting up tape and mud.

 While Daddy and Opa worked on finishing up wall seams and driving screws in farther, I began to mud the ceiling.

 Sunday, after church, Alex and Kathy sanded the wall joints while I finished taping and mudding the ceiling.  By mid-afternoon, Kathy had left, but Opa & Oma returned to help watch the kids and work in the garage.  We were able to finish the first round of mudding thanks to their help.

What a tedious, fussy, tiresome job!  And my neck was sure sore!  But we are that much closer now...  And what a difference it has made!  In the course of just over a week, we have turned the barn from bare studs and siding into a semi-finished building.