June 29-July 11, 2012 Renos At Kevin and Amy's

      Marcel and I stayed at Kevin and Amy's new house for 2 weeks before they moved in. 

      A fixer-upper. We love being able to help them. Each night we were pooped.  They were on a deadline. 

      Amy came down in the daytime with the kids.  Kevin took some days off and between working was also able to work on  their house.   Lots of fun.  

As soon as we arrived,  Marcel and Kevin attacked the bathroom upstairs.
The bathroom is made smaller, and the master bedroom gets a large closet. 

My sister Jennie spent the whole day in the garden. Beautiful garden, but badly overgrown with weeds. An old water pump was behind all the weeds. Hot, hot day, but she is persistent. The ground is hard as clay which makes it difficult to get the weeds out.  
By the end of the day she made it to the shed. 

Still have energy to goof off!! 

Micah cleaning the freezer on the second floor. This will be their main kitchen. Brown cupboards will be ripped out and replaced with Ikea cupboards.

Micah and Danielle washing the fridge. 

The bathroom on the first floor being ripped apart.
Of course I did it by myself...can't you tell by the pose?

Micah cleaning the floor after the fridge was moved.  Yuk!

Faster Kevin!  Faster!  Only 2 weeks! 

Not a good time to argue with Kevin!

Wall taken out for the new cupboard in the master bedroom.
The huge bathroom will be make smaller.

Rachel eagerly helping with making a shopping list.  Lot of mouths to feed! 

All day long Jennie worked in the heat. The gorgeous pump is now visible.
The shed in the back was left full of stuff/junk. One of my jobs was to empty it and use the dump bin.
A few treasures were found. Love it.

View from the master to the bathroom. 

We ate wherever there was room,
Still in the family before it got ripped apart.
 

Ripping up the tiles in the upstairs bathroom.
A very long tedious job.  

They helped till all the paper was off the walls in the kitchen. 

The 3 kids working at lightning speed to get the wallpaper off.
Danielle's pose is priceless.

Two hammers to solve this problem.  Stairwell bulging in the bathroom!

No furniture. Sooo, we had to create tables.
The kids always asked me for the fruitopia.  They got a whole can each, instead of sharing one. lol.  

The arrival of the much needed garbage bin.  

Pulling off wallpaper in the basement.
Wallpaper was put straight on the drywall, so easy to take off.

Great little helpers. 

A movie for all their hard work. 

Michael was able to take a few days away from a family camping weekend.
Great to have a professional on board.  Took the pressure off some of the decisions. 

And another hole for a closet in the master bedroom. 

Basement. Our eating room, storage room and guest bedroom for Michael.

When Michael looked at the warped panelling, he said.  It's coming off.
They had planned to paint it. lol.  Good decision.
  Never know what you find when the panelling comes off. Speckled wall..hhhmmm.

The wood fireplace will be replaced by a gas one...sometime.
The inside is right out of a Halloween scene.  Wall to wall cobwebs.  

Naughty boy. 

Panelling the family room  

A Jeep (big wheel as the kids call it) found at a yard sale for 10 bucks. They love it.

Still loving this job?? Almost done Amy.
Hours and hours of getting this border off.  

Micah helping uncle Michael with the drilling. 

Coffee and snack time! 

Kids got this space as their play area.  New play-doh.  

The stove in the second kitchen. Gross, gross, gross. But not as disgusting as the one in the basement. It got taken away as scrap metal pretty fast. This kitchen will be used until the main kitchen is re-done completely, so the stove needed a overhaul. All the cupboards in this kitchen were caked with grease. Some had to be cleaned/scraped 10 times before the grease came off.

Assembling the Ikea cupboard for the main bathroom.
This is where Marcel and I slept for 2 weeks

Eager to paint the girls bedroom pink.  Danielle and Rachel picked out the color.
Micah also picked out a blue for his room.   

Marcel plastering the family room. He used up 3 big buckets and 2 small ones while we were there.
Then the silly boy sands it all off again.

The linen closet. They say love conquers all!
The ultimate test in this claustrophobic closet...
It tooks months before all the paint grew out of my hair. 

Amy mastering plastering.  lol

The bathroom was make smaller to make the master bedroom larger.
 A little crowded to work in though.

A juicy worm.  Hours of entertainment.  

They taught it how to swim in the pool.
 Little pool found in the shed. Piles of fun for the kids. 
They love it outside.

Lunch was wherever we found a space. 

Sanding off the glue from the old tiles in the main bathroom. Hours of work.

Amy sanding the bedroom closet.  

Kevin sanding the wooden floors in the 3 bedrooms and hall upstairs.

Micah painting the door to his bedroom.

This was basically my work area for 2 weeks.  

Amy putting on the varathane

New tiles above the bathtub upstairs. 

Is this the pail of primer that needs shaking?

Noooo prooblem.

The following day was moving day.
That is the day we went home...and rested...and rested.