Time to rent a scissor lift!

When Ken had done all he could possibly do with the ladder, he rented the scissor lift.  He gave us all warning that we would not be seeing him as long as the scissor lift was here.  We didn't have the money to be wasting, and so we needed to get the work done as soon as possible.  So we buckled down and got ready to help Ken in any way we could, and Ken got ready to be working his bottom off!!  He would get up at sun up, work outside until it was time to go to work, then spend a full day at work.  When he came home, he would work on the house until the sun started setting. Then we would eat dinner together, get the children ready for bed and then Ken would CRASH.  The next morning, he would get up and start the routine all over again!  On weekends, he would work on the house from sun up to sun down, breaking to eat meals with us and to go to church.  This went on for about two weeks.

Starting work with the lift

Done with the body - on to the trim and chimney.

Trim and Chimney in process

Up next - Repairing the soffit and sill

Painting continues

So Ken worked every weekend to get the house painted, however, our house is a very tall house located on the top of a very windy hill.  So to be 3 stories up a ladder, trying to paint with the wind blowing isn't very fun. And since our friend and neighbor had fallen from the scaffolding while painting this house, the idea of my husband up on scaffolding didn't leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

So Ken decided that he would work on the house to the height in which his smaller ladder could reach, and after that, he would rent a scissor lift.

Paint is scraped as high as we can go on a ladder

Ken climbed on the roof and painted what he could reach

The kids were SO eager to help us paint.  We feel strongly about letting the kids help, even at a young age, so they have hands on experience.  There is ALWAYS some job for someone who is willing!

Ainsley Mae

Nathaniel painting the porch

Having the kids work with us makes for good memories all around.  It's a great way to work on work ethic, diligence, attitude and skills that they'll need in the real world and all time spent together is always a blessing, no matter what we are doing!

The work starts

God blessed us with unusually warm and dry weather in April 2012.  Ken was itching to get out there and start working, and so with the very first warm day, he was outside scraping the flaking part of the house.

My handsome hubby working on the house

Scraping the exterior Kitchen wall

The previous owners had painted 3 sides of the main part of the house, and if we lived on a road where the road went straight by our house, half done job wouldn't have been such an eye sore.  But we live almost on a peninsula of land where the road curves around our house, letting you see it from all angles except from the very back.  So no matter which direction you came from, you saw half a house painted.  Quite the eyesore!  While it wouldn't have been the first thing on our list to get done, I was glad it was getting done!

Once the one side of the kitchen wall was scraped, we decided to paint it, in order to make sure that we loved to color.  We saw a house in a nearby town that had a similar design to ours, and we fell in love with the color scheme.

Inspiration House

We were too embarrassed to just walk up and say, "Hey, we love your paint colors.  Do you know the names of them?", so instead we took a million pictures of the house, took a million paint chips for Home Depot and Lowes and set to work trying to match the colors.  I'd say we came pretty close!!