Walls, cement and shrubbery. . .

Progress is slow-ish, but moving forward and much of this is due to the help of some great friends, big and small, young and old. . .

Here is some new stuff and some of the folks who have been helping:

WALLPAPER IS DONE!! What a big relief. Thanks to Judy Polsgrove (my sister-in-law's mom) and her amazing ability to remove wallpaper, there is none left at Riverside Drive. (My mom helped too early on; she'd want you to know. Thanks mom.) Judy had never used a steamer before, but I think she might be a fan now. She caught on quickly. In fact, she was much faster at it when I was NOT helping her than when I helped. Not sure if that says more about me or about the steamer. . .

PAINTING has begun in the attic. My friend Avonne (from church) has come over twice (and might come again this Thursday) to help with painting. Somehow or another the help I have is always better at everything than I am. We are getting close to turning the pink attic into the much nicer, more neutral tones of sand and bamboo. . . (pictures when it's done!)

BUSHES BE GONE! Thanks to the Johnson family--Hugh, Laura, Kyle and Eric--who came over with tools, truck and chains to remove the ugly bushes in front of my house. They wrapped the chain around the bushes, attached it to the truck, and pulled it out. It was cool!! and fast. They were done in record time (and even took all the bushes away!) here's a before and after. . .



CEMENT POSTS--never did I expect that Micah (who is 12) and Michaela (who is 10) and I would be able to remove four 40-50 pound cement blocks from the backyard, but we did it! It really would never have happened without Micah and Michaela--we worked hard, gave lots of high fives, and got really, really dirty, but we got them out. Literally, we had to pretty much get IN the hole to heave them out, but we did it. They were pretty cheap labor too--a few bucks and some donuts did it. Thanks Micah and Michaela!