Our Busy Summer

Obviously I've been a terrible blogger this summer.  But there is a reason.  This summer I made the switch from average stay-at-home mom, to12 hr a day contractor/construction worker.  But you all know that I'm in my element and loving every minute of it, so please don't take that as a complaint.  

Here's the quick back story:  old dilapidated garage, never had a door,  big chunk cut out of its front, might fall on us at any moment.  Also totally obscuring the beautiful view of our property which was the main reason that we bought this house in the first place.  Observe:

So we figured that by moving the garage location to the other side of the driveway (ours is a horseshoe driveway), we could clear this eyesore and have a much better view out of our window and from our deck.  So we ordered a lot of materials and one day it was all delivered to our driveway.  Several pallets of stuff that looked like this:

And then the building began.  And so did the heatwave of 2011.  But we had to carry on.  Let's just say that I spent most of the time building in a bathing suit and repeatedly dumping buckets of water over my head.  First the framing:

Then the sheathing (yeah, that's right, I learned a lot of building terminology this summer.)

Did I mention that it was 104 degrees?  No joke.  No exaggeration.

We brought in a special crew:

And a decorating committee:

And a professional photographer.

We are now super-awesome at installing shingles and vinyl siding.  (although, there might be a smidge of white caulk involved in the aluminum fascia covers and the soffit.)

I even built a window box to complete the new look.  And we are pretty sure that the overhead door is secure and will not come crashing down on anyone's head.

With the new construction complete, we turned back to the source of the problem.  Here is the stunning view that we used to enjoy from our deck:

No one was happier to begin this part of the process than I was.

Immediate improvement in the scenery (even with the piles of rubble).

Let the clean up begin!

Next up (next year.... being that our bodies and our bank accounts are now exhausted) - Building a second, lower level to our deck to make it more useful for our family and friends!