An Attempt To Slow Down

Emma started school on Monday.  Every parent know how crazy school days are.  A rush from sun up to sun down.  Showers, breakfast, drop offs, pick ups, dinner, home work and hopefully some family time before bed.  That's not to mention the other dreadful household stuff that needs attention - laundry, dishes, cleaning.  Uggck...the list goes on.

So the night before school started, Brent and I made the decision that we were just going to have to vow to stay away from working on projects at night after work.  We are just too busy to try to squeeze home improvement in plus keep up with our other responsibilities.

So Emma went to school on Monday and we all walked up there to pick her up.  Dinner was a lovely affair around the table talking about our day.  The kids finished and left the table and Brent and I were left alone.  Our eyes met, they were filled with desire.  Desire for our shed.  I was the first to speak, "do...you...wanna...work on the shed tonight??"  Brent timidly replied, "Yeah, do you want to?"  And that was all it took.  Picture us grabbing our hammers and skipping out the patio door to go build stuff together, filled with delight.

We knew our time was limited.  If anything was going to happen, it needed to happen hard and fast.  Brent decided to tackle the new windows.  They needed to be cut into the north side of the building.

While Brent was framing out the windows, I grabbed my pry bar and started ripping old siding off the north face of the shed.  It's pretty thin stuff so it came off pretty easily.  In hindsight, we are so glad we took it off because it exposed a few pieces of rotted sheathing that we can easily replace now.

Ripping all the siding off, picking it up and hauling it into our mini-van for future disposal took me an hour...not bad!

Brent got his windows cut in and they are going to look great!

Here is sort of what it will look like with our new windows.

Can you see that rotted sheathing at the bottom?

And a few interior pictures to show you how much extra light we will gain.

Our attempt to slow down and take it easy was an epic fail.  We can't help it...this is what we love to do and the progress we see is like an addictive drug.  Plus, neither of us want to stare at a back yard eyesore for any longer than we need to, which is the best motivation you can get.  I can't promise that it will happen like this every night and I suppose before we know it, it will be dark by 6pm so then we'll be trapped in the house.  Not looking forward to that day but I bet our pile of laundry will appreciate the attention.