If the barn needs paintin'

     It's been a long time joke at our house; Superman says, "If the barn needs paintin' ", referring to me wearing makeup!  lol Well this time it was the porch that needed paintin'.  Ladybug and her mama came up to help. And "Uncle" came for the weekend! We got busy on the porch while Superman and Randy tore up the kitchen floor; literally.

We had a lot of fun. Ladybug found out the hard way that you should never stand  under mama when she is painting! We thought it was funny but she didn't find it funny at all.

Uncle made it his project to tear off the remaining siding from under the porch. You can't imagine how many nails were used for the tar paper.  He finally got all shingles, tar paper and nails removed. It looks awesome.  We discovered that there was a door on the East side of the porch that had been covered up.  Some of the boards need to be replaced. We thought it would look cool to keep the original boards exposed and finish them.  Now we have some other ideas. We haven't decided yet so the porch will be continued.

Superman and Randy tore out the floor boards to see what needed to be replaced. The kitchen floor shimmied when you walked on it. It turned out that we had to replace all four support beams. The kitchen just has a crawl space under it.

While Superman and Randy ran to Lowes (not a quick trip like at home), I tore the boards and rocks away from the exterior of the kitchen wall. I have been wanting to do that since day 1! It drove me crazy.  There were random boards, grills, and rocks stacked up to TRY to keep critters out. It looked terrible and it didn't keep anything out! You should have seen the gaping holes underneath.

On Sunday, Ladybug helped her "Boo" secure things up with some cement. That got rid of the gaping holes and secured everything in place. A firm foundation is key. (I'm sure there's a Sunday school lesson in there somewhere! ) Ladybug had a blast.  She also helped "Boo" meausure the boards.

When it was time to place the last support, Uncle helped muscle it in. But when they cleared some stone and dirt away to put the new support in, look what they found!

At first we thought it was a toy because it's so small. After looking closer, Superman confirmed that it is real. It cleaned up really nicely.  We will keep this with all our other "treasures" we've found along the way.

A couple last minute projects before we left......
     Superman found these cool leaded glass windows for me. I thought they would look great on the porch. I was right! They look so pretty. Then Superman trimmed out the front door.  What a nice finished look.

She's starting to really come together!