Secret Project: A Photo Story
Jun. 5th, 2008 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_skyWe were up pretty early on Sunday morning because Evelyn decided that she had really had enough sleep, thank you. Instead of lazing the day away, I pestered M into getting up immediately and heading off to home improvement stores to get materials for one of our most recent obsession project plans. We make a lot of plans, the two of us, but usually we neglect to carry through with them until we lose the motivation to get started. Admittedly, we have a lot of other stuff going on (yard sale prep!) this week so it really wasn't the best time for it, but we are sort of fickle and cannot stay committed to only one crazy project.
So, we go to Home Depot and Lowe's and return with lumber hanging out of the trunk of the car. It is difficult to work with a baby, but since she likes to be outside, we can put her in baby prison for short periods of time. She was pretty cool with it on Sunday for at least an hour, which is unprecedented!
It's been a long time since we've done much work outside until the last few weeks. You may not remember what our house even looks like, so here's a photo from this weekend while I'm at it. I tend to wander around taking pictures while my husband works. I'm nice that way.
I offered to cut things up with power tools while he began construction, but instead, he gave me a piece of sandpaper and a never-ending pile of 2x2 boards. I am not so smart when it comes to the woodworking, but I am pretty sure there exists such a thing as a "sander", and I am also certain that my husband, the luthier, owns more than one of these devices. And yet, he does not allow me to use one of them. Also, he immediately cuts up the rest of the pieces so I can't bring that up again. Noted: hands off the husband's power tools.
It is about at this point that I remember that Evelyn got a little baby pool for her birthday, and it is eighty degrees and sunny and nice, so we take a detour on the secret project in order to blow up the pool and fill it with water. It was a complete success, even though the water was a bit chilly.
After this, I pretty much had to take her inside and you know, dry her off, so I was unfortunately unable to continue taking pictures right then. The remaining pictures were taken during the rest of this week..
M is allergic to attaching wood with nails, so he starts drilling holes and cutting up dowels. There are 36 of these wooden pieces, and they need drilled on each end. He cursed a lot.
But then, progress is made! You can sort of see what it is we're building now! It's a ladder!
Err, no. It isn't. Sorry.
It's a railing for our front porch! Isn't that awesome! We are building something awesome! From scratch! For no particular purpose except to look nice. It will be inconvenient, too, because we like to cut through the mulched area upon occasion. But, did I mention that it will look nice? We were rushing to get things done because my parents will be here tomorrow and we haven't mentioned it to them, so we wanted to make sure it was done. M worked his booty off this evening AFTER he mowed to make sure that the first coat of paint got done.
Although I will be the first to admit that M did most all of the work for this project, I would like to add that I assisted largely by keeping the baby entertained, thus earning myself no time off for good behavior this week. I am not quite as slothful as it sounds! Also, I helped paint the railing until she started crying and I had to put her to bed. I really wanted to paint so it was unfortunate that I couldn't, and M had to do most of it alone.
DONE! We will have to do a second coat later, at which point we'll also paint the existing posts. It was almost dark by the time he finished up the painting (about five minutes after the baby finally went to sleep) and we hadn't yet cleaned up the mess or put away the playpen, so as "after" pictures go, this one isn't so hot, but I wanted to post it tonight anyway. It looks so nice! We are planning on putting up a couple of flower boxes centered on the two inner posts. I think it'll look extremely cute. He also put down fresh mulch this morning, before he went to work. (Seriously, did I not marry a wonderful, wonderful guy?) All in all, we have worked hard this week, but it was worth it.
Of course, we SHOULD have been working on the yard sale preparations. This was so much more fun, though!
So, we go to Home Depot and Lowe's and return with lumber hanging out of the trunk of the car. It is difficult to work with a baby, but since she likes to be outside, we can put her in baby prison for short periods of time. She was pretty cool with it on Sunday for at least an hour, which is unprecedented!
It's been a long time since we've done much work outside until the last few weeks. You may not remember what our house even looks like, so here's a photo from this weekend while I'm at it. I tend to wander around taking pictures while my husband works. I'm nice that way.
I offered to cut things up with power tools while he began construction, but instead, he gave me a piece of sandpaper and a never-ending pile of 2x2 boards. I am not so smart when it comes to the woodworking, but I am pretty sure there exists such a thing as a "sander", and I am also certain that my husband, the luthier, owns more than one of these devices. And yet, he does not allow me to use one of them. Also, he immediately cuts up the rest of the pieces so I can't bring that up again. Noted: hands off the husband's power tools.
It is about at this point that I remember that Evelyn got a little baby pool for her birthday, and it is eighty degrees and sunny and nice, so we take a detour on the secret project in order to blow up the pool and fill it with water. It was a complete success, even though the water was a bit chilly.
After this, I pretty much had to take her inside and you know, dry her off, so I was unfortunately unable to continue taking pictures right then. The remaining pictures were taken during the rest of this week..
M is allergic to attaching wood with nails, so he starts drilling holes and cutting up dowels. There are 36 of these wooden pieces, and they need drilled on each end. He cursed a lot.
But then, progress is made! You can sort of see what it is we're building now! It's a ladder!
Err, no. It isn't. Sorry.
It's a railing for our front porch! Isn't that awesome! We are building something awesome! From scratch! For no particular purpose except to look nice. It will be inconvenient, too, because we like to cut through the mulched area upon occasion. But, did I mention that it will look nice? We were rushing to get things done because my parents will be here tomorrow and we haven't mentioned it to them, so we wanted to make sure it was done. M worked his booty off this evening AFTER he mowed to make sure that the first coat of paint got done.
Although I will be the first to admit that M did most all of the work for this project, I would like to add that I assisted largely by keeping the baby entertained, thus earning myself no time off for good behavior this week. I am not quite as slothful as it sounds! Also, I helped paint the railing until she started crying and I had to put her to bed. I really wanted to paint so it was unfortunate that I couldn't, and M had to do most of it alone.
DONE! We will have to do a second coat later, at which point we'll also paint the existing posts. It was almost dark by the time he finished up the painting (about five minutes after the baby finally went to sleep) and we hadn't yet cleaned up the mess or put away the playpen, so as "after" pictures go, this one isn't so hot, but I wanted to post it tonight anyway. It looks so nice! We are planning on putting up a couple of flower boxes centered on the two inner posts. I think it'll look extremely cute. He also put down fresh mulch this morning, before he went to work. (Seriously, did I not marry a wonderful, wonderful guy?) All in all, we have worked hard this week, but it was worth it.
Of course, we SHOULD have been working on the yard sale preparations. This was so much more fun, though!
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Date: 2008-06-06 09:18 am (UTC)