house work goes on and on and on

Last week was exhaustingly full of house work,

but very little progress

by our own hands

was made.

~

One huge step forward

was the installation of the water line.

What a relief to have that done.

Of course, 

we still don't have any fixtures,

so we don't actually have water in the house yet,

but - soon.

~

Our cabinets are finished and awaiting pick-up - woohoo

~

We also hired a young man to sand the floors,

which was a job that Tyler was dreading,

and I wasn't positive I was up for physically.

(floor installation has added some new pains

to this already falling apart body)

Ordinarily,

I'd rather do the work

than hand over a check,

but in this case - I'll be pretty happy to pay.

~

We installed the final upstairs door

and my brother (and his sweet family) came back down

to teach us the best way to caulk, fill nail holes, and paint trim.

He also helped Tyler and Brandon install

another room's worth of trim.

After they left,

Tyler and I finished caulking and painting the trim

in the playroom

and the bonus (eventual) movie room.

the wall color is SW waterscape, mixed at (I think) 60% and then toned down a smidge with some of our main wall color

So pretty!!

~

Marin and I tackled the back porch,

(which was in desperate need of picking up,

thanks to a month of scraps and sawdust from floor installation)

while we waiting for our trim lesson.

~

We also began our hunt for the perfect stain color

(harder than we anticipated.

but then,

how long did it take to pick out that one color of paint??!)

(Incidentally - I love that one color,

and most people who've seen it love it, too)

(Clothesline Fresh, mixed at 40%.

so, 2 gallons worth of color

added to a 5 gallon bucket of paint...)

~

I guess we actually accomplished quite a bit

with our own hands

after all...

~

Today and tomorrow's focus

will shift to finishing up Halloween costumes.

My kids are always really big on accessories 

- are yours?!?

I keep reminding them they'll have to carry 

all of these extra things,

but those extras 'make' the costume,

so the kids don't care.