Luck and Derbies

Last night was the Cub Scouts Space Derby. It was the last pack meeting for logan before he has his birthday and is out of Webelos.

I'd like to say that we worked really hard on his spaceship... but.. well... we didn't. The night before, we remembered that we needed to build it. Trevor was sick and asleep in bed, so it was just Logan and me.

Having never seen a space derby before, I felt completely lost. We watched a few youtube videos on how to assemble the thing, and then we went to town building it.

Then we went to bed.

The next morning, I was editing pictures in my room, and Logan decided to show Samantha what we had built. Unfortunately, these spaceships have parts that can fall out very easily. Long story short, logan lost a very vital piece to his spaceship.

*sigh

We looked for the lost piece all day, but couldn't find it. Luckily I had some wood that was just the right size, so about 20 minutes before the derby, we cut it out and notched it and made it work. Also, we didn't have time to paint it, so Logan used a black sharpie to add a little zest to it.

At the derby Logan won his first match-up.

Then his second!

And in the end, the very last race was Logan against this boy whose rocket was really fast, but not as fast as Logan's.

He won!!!!

He finally won something!!!

I'm convinced these things are all just luck. I don't know what we did to make the rocket so fast.

But just in case you ever have a space derby and want to copy us, here's what we did: carve it a lot. Keep carving until it's really round. Make sure your wings are balanced and straight. Don't paint it. Resist the urge to wind it up and try it out. Every time you wind it, it stretches the rubber bands out and it won't go as far the next time.

Push & Shove

This was the weekend from H-E-double-hockey-sticks.

We worked our rear-ends off.

We got the ceiling joists in. We framed our bathroom and closet.

Good thing too.

I was feeling so down about the whole thing.

This whole never-ending project.

We are close now.

We need to 1. Frame the entry.

2. Lay sub-floor in the bedroom and laundry room.

3. Install the front windows and master bath window.

4. Install door frame into pantry.

Three of those projects are large, and one is small. I figure it is about 1 months worth of work.

Then the inspector can come!!!

Woohoo!!!

Also, notice that the ceiling is now gone along with half of the wall in our closet/bathroom. We took that down and bagged all the loose insulation to blow in later. That's not an easy or quick job. We really got a ton done this weekend. Thanks for your prayers!!

Goodbye Nasty Linoleum

Now that the roof is mostly done, it's back to the inside of the house.

The laundry room was one of the last untouched rooms and it had the nastiest gold and yellow linoleum. That was ripped up, exposing the sub-floor. Yay.

We tore out the old 2x4 wall beside the stairs. We replaced it with a wider 2x6 wall, which is where we will run plumbing for the washer and sink. Yes. I get a sink. Yay!

We also raised the ceiling height to above 8 feet, like in the kids' bedroom on the same side of the house. Now the final step is to put the ceiling joists back up across the whole thing, then that side of the house will be done.

That means we will only have one room left to frame: our closet and bathroom!!! Wow!!!

It feels like it's taking an eternity!!! Someone give me some patience!

Let's move on to more exciting things. I'm thinking about the pink stone and mortar on the front of the house. If I were Chip and Joanna Gaines,  I'd paint it white and call it good. Man, I'd love to do that, but Trevor would kill me. Plus, I kinda want to prove there are other ways to fix this horrible kind of problem besides just painting it.

I found this cool company www.dyebrick.com that has a really cool way of literally dyeing the brick or stone in this case. It is not a new company. It's formula is tried and true against the test of time. I'm thinking about ordering a sample and having a go at it. My  hesitation, if I have any, is regarding the color of the mortar. What color do I go? Light? Dark? I'm ordering browns and grey to play with for the stone color. I'm thinking of a variation in the stone color, but I don't know. Having never done this, and seeing that none of their customers have either, I'm on my own.

Luckily, I have a whole pile of pink stone with red mortar attached sitting on the side of the house just waiting for me to play with. The people who put the fireplace in were kind enough to use the exact same stone as what they used on the front of the house. Lucky us. We saved the stone when we tore the fireplace out to reuse on the front of the garage.

Enough of my boring life for today.

More later. Maybe we will do soffits this week.

Baby Steps

I feel like the house in town is an accumulation of small little miracles. We've been working on it for so long now, some days I look back on what we've accomplished and feel like we've gotten nowhere. But then again, LOOK AT WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED! ! It's all a matter of perspective. Looking back at where we started from, we really have come a long way. And just for reference, when I say "we", I'm referring to my dad, Trevor, and me.

We basically have replaced and sealed up all but one window of this house. That's a heckofalotofwindows.

Lol.

We have redone or replaced every wall inside the house on the main floor, with the exception of the laundry room wall which we are in the process of replacing. I'm talking knocking down lathe and plaster, stripping of nails and electrical, and in some cases, reusing old studs and salvaging whatever we can to save money when rebuilding.

The floor plan has been completely reworked and flows so much better. There is only one wall that will be in the exact same place at the end of the project.

Fixing the spongy floor was such a huge thing! It was so much work to carefully pull up each plank in the hopes of salvaging the original hardwood floors. Our subfloor is SOLID now. I can't believe it's the same floor.

And then there is the roof. What. A. Project.

Whenever we've been in a bind, like with the subfloor or with the roof, we've always been blessed by family coming to help. There is no way we'd be able to do these things without them, and I am so so so thankful for my family!!! Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!

The roof is finished. It humbled me and kicked my can and a whole bunch of stuff like that. I learned that being a wus is just being a wus. It's not cute and accomplishes  nothing. At the end of the day, you just have to put your wus away, buckle up, get a backbone, take a breath, say a prayer, and get to work. It's scary being on the roof. It's hot being on the roof. It's not fun. But there is no other way.

We burned up the motor on my beloved saw that belonged to Trevor's grandpa. I used that saw for everything. I could cut with that thing like it was an extension of my body. The new saw is nice, but it's just not the same. I had fine tuned exactly where to line up the saw in order to get the cut I wanted. I could keep that thing steady as heck for a cut you would think came off a table saw. The new saw has all these bells and whistles and almost too much power. It's as quiet as a vacuum. It will take some getting used to for sure. I got yelled at for cutting crooked with it today.  Me. Cutting crooked. I miss the old saw.

I still need to write a post about Samantha and her baptism. I've not forgotten. Stay tuned.