Board and batten

Board 'n batten, board'n'batting, boards and bacon, bacon and cheese, cheesey bacon clusters, I'm sorry where is my bacon??? Bacon!?

Okay, I'm realizing that no one in the real world actually said anything about bacon. But I'm hungry, and I haven't eaten breakfast yet, and bacon is the most delicious thing in the world, so naturally I thought of bacon when I said something else that sounded like bacon. Because batten sounds like bacon, if you say it fast and don't use your brain.

Anyway, this past weekend was one of the craziest, busiest, and most tiring weekends ever. You all knew that last Thursday night our Realtor called and was all like "Heh! I want to bring someone to see your house Saturday morning, even though I said originally that I wouldn't bring anyone until Monday! So!"  and we were like "Nooooooooooooooooooooooo yes. I guess." Which meant we had to work our butts off to finish the living room ceiling. 

You know, when you put drywall up in a room, you have to take everything (and I mean EVERYTHING, the only thing we left in there was the piano -the heaviest piano in the world, that is-) out of there, which means that every other room in your house has a disproportionate *I just spelled that correctly on the first try! AIR FIVE!!* amount of furniture, gadgets, etc. So even though all the drywall dust is kept in one area, everything else still gets FILTHY. 

So, Thursday night Tyler finished sanding the drywall. Thursday night and Friday morning (as in, 1:00 a.m.) I put a coat of primer on the ceiling while Tyler went to bed, because I made him! He had to get up early the next morning (as in, 3:30 a.m.) and there was no way I was going to let him help me. I may have yelled, I may have stomped my foot. Twice.

Later that same Friday morning, my sister Linda came over and helped me put on the first coat of paint.  She brought my brother Christopher to help watch Deklan so we could paint without having to chase a 1 year old. 

At lunchtime, I had to go pick up Ty's Mom, who was going to help Ty with the planing and cutting of all the cedar boards for the board and batten we were planning on putting up on the weekend. So when we got back, Critter continued to watch Ducky, and I put on the final coat of paint on the ceiling. 

Then, it was time to clean!

Ohhhhh.... the cleaning. 

My living room has wainscoting. I now hate wainscoting. Have you ever washed drywall dust, mud flecks, and paint flecks out of every nook, cranny, and crevice that wainscoting has? Well, I have. It sucks. My knees hurt. My back hurt. My arms hurt. I hate wainscoting. If it didn't look so darn nice, I would get Tyler to rip it out and burn it. Phooey. 

So, Friday night I finished up all the cleaning that I could possibly do by myself, and then at 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning I collapsed into bed.

Deklan woke up at 4:30 a.m., I tried to get back to sleep (unsuccessfully) until I just decided to get up at 6:30 a.m., and then my brother-in-law Jeff showed up to help me with the finishing touches in the living room. Mom and Linda came a little later, to help me clean everything after moving all the furniture and gadgets back into the living room! We only had until 11:00 a.m. to do EVERYTHING, and I must say I got pretty stressed out (there is another word for it, but it's too shocking to write here) and was bulldozing my way through everything and everyone at about 9:45. I was panicking, thinking we were going to run out of time, but I didn't need to worry so much. Everything was done, everything was cleaned and washed and sparkly, all at 10:57 a.m. We walked out the door just as the Realtor pulled up, and everything was perfect!

I couldn't have done it without Jeff, Linda, Mom, and Critter. You guys are amazing and awesome. :)

So, fast forward to yesterday... Ty's Mom and Dad came after lunch on Sunday to help start the board and batten on the back room. 

 

I must say, it's going to look fantastic when it's finished.

It's going to be so cool!

Oh, and now for a scary rabbit trail... Friday night we removed the back porch, because it's old and rotten and needs to be replaced, and underneath the first step there was a skeleton! Probably a cat skeleton, although it could have been a skunk, I don't know. The people who owned the house before us were crazy cat people, they had something like 20 cats, so I'm assuming it was a family pet who just decided to crawl under the porch and die one day. It was pretty creepy to find that, and to think about what ELSE might be lurking under things we haven't moved, like the front porch or the.... stairs.

Deklan got a wagon from his Grandpa and Grandma for his birthday, and it's his favourite thing. He'll sit in there for hours, just hanging out, chillin' and chilaxing.

Yes, that bottle is full of dirt. Why? Because my 3 year old niece Amelia thought it needed to be full of dirt. And since the dirt was inside, not outside the bottle, I didn't think it would matter if Deklan put his mouth on it. Besides, everyone needs to ingest a bit of dirt in their lifetime, that's how you build up the flora in your gut, in order to support a healthy immune system. :)

Deklan was smiling and laughing at Grandma, who was making silly faces and silly noises. :)

My son is the cutest. 

So, this week Tyler and I have to finish the board & batten, repair a few boards on our front porch that have given up the ghost, and then we just have to wait and pray and try not to stress out. Because if it's meant to be, it'll happen. The house will be sold, we'll move to our new home, and life will go on. ;)

Now, I must go eat some breakfast.

And stop thinking about bacon.