A Big Weekend

The weekend was productive, enjoyable, and memorable. Saturday morning we arrived to find Papa and Ron working on reinstalling the kitchen cabinets and putting molding around the tops of them:

They did a fantastic job, and Jessica and I are very pleased with how it looks. It was nice to see the cabinets go back up; it felt like a big step forward.

I continued working on the shower tile:


Dad scraped, primed, and painted the exterior of both garage doors (note the difference in the painted one on the left and the unpainted one on the right):


Jessica, Mom-Mom, Debbie, and Mom painted:




Aunt Debbie and Mom-Mom prepared a wonderful lunch of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches:


Saturday evening, Ron installed the bathroom light fixture we bought Thursday:

(Note the test patch of "Fiery Red" paint that Jessica was considering for the bathroom walls. Yikes!)

Sunday was just as big a day. Jessica and I went shopping for cabinet hinges and found some very similar to the old ones but in a "brushed nickel" type finish. Papa and Jessica worked on putting doors on the upper cabinets (we want to wait on countertop and slate installation before putting the doors on the lower ones):


Ron and Papa had investigated the condition of the chimney Saturday evening, and found it to be lacking flashing (among other problems), which explains its persistent leaking. Ron performed some repair work that should stop the leaks at least until we save enough money to replace the roof, which is clearly ready for retirement.


Of course, two constants remained: tiling the shower and painting:


Dad came over and mowed the yard, then worked with Papa and Ron to replace two clogged drain pipes that run underneath gutter downspouts. They also investigated the drain pipe for the washing machine. It had originally been run underground to about 30 feet away from the house, where it emptied into a sort of makeshift gravel aquifer covered by rotted plywood about a foot below ground. It had gotten clogged there, so the pipe had been intentionally broken where it came out of the wall, so the waste water would just empty right at the corner of the house. They suggested I have the drain pipe rerouted to run right to the sewer line. I'm going to try to have a plumber look at that this week.

Mom generously brought over white chili and chips for dinner. It was fantastic again.


This weekend was undoubtedly the most productive yet. I'm certainly starting to sound like a broken record: we feel so blessed and loved to have everyone help out so much. We would be in awfully bad shape were it not for the selfless hard work of our families. We could not possibly express adequate gratitude for what you've all done for us. Thank you so much!