and on the seventh day, she (collapsed) rested

So, Saturday started with me running to the grocery store.  I was about to have a house full of men, who were there to perform deconstruction and then (hopefully) reconstruction.  Plus, they're my family... so making sure they are not run ragged was high on my list of considerations. 

We were scheduled to start at 9AM, and I hadn't gotten groceries Friday night because I was picking up oldest son.  It's a bit much to ask of the little guy to wait the entire drive there and back, plus getting groceries.  At 4, little guy just doesn't have it in him.  So, at 8AM, I gave up on flogging the smallest child into clothing and ran to the store on my own.  I got food for the week, and food for the push on the porch, and food for my husband's friends who visit on Saturday afternoons.

(Aside:  my husband works from home.  Sometimes, he can't interact with people, sometimes he can.  It depends on how busy the day is while he works.  It does mean that, although he was there, he would not be helping with the construction.)

I paid for the groceries and left.  As I was running out the door to my car, I called my husband and expressed that prying the oldest boy out of bed would be a large help.  Apparently, getting teenagers out of bed requires dynamite and an act of God on a good day.  I forget this fairly often, so I'm always a bit surprised to discover that the boy can go to bed before me and not get up until lunch-time. 

9:03, I arrive home.  Three minutes late, and fearing I'd be last.  No fears on that account!  9:15, everyone shows up and I shovel food into them.  9:45 and we leap onto the porch and prepare to do battle.

From there, it gets a little fuzzy.  I didn't manage to get pictures of the porch prior to the start of the deconstruction, and I only got a few pictures in the middle of all of this.  My porch, my labor;  I spent most of the day carrying, holding, and measuring with little time for anything else.

Anyway, this is the wall that gets frozen EVERY YEAR.

Ugly Bugger, isn't it?

The sad thing is, we've spent a ton of time and money on insulating this.  We used foam insulation in the wall after we knew that the pipes had all been replaced (in the most expensive and disruptive fashion, of course).

This is kind of what the deconstruction looked like:

Dad, my oldest, and my youngest.. deconstructing!

My brother, deconstructing!

The deconstruction.. what a show...

Unfortunately, by 1PM it was just me & Dad doing the work.  My brother had other commitments (and fair enough), and the youngest son was pestering my  husband while he was on concalls so we lost oldest son to watch him.  We'd only slapped in the very outside boxes in both openings, and none of the window had been roughed in.  It looked discouraging.

I'm not going to get into the details, but by the end of the day my Dad and I had gotten this finished:

Poor guy, doesn't he look tired?

This is now THE MOST STABLE part of my entire house.

We upgraded from 2x4 construction to 2x6, we framed in spots for the (air stopping) windows that would go in.  Some of the construction isn't visible from this spot, as we've put in more support up top as well.  The top beam is actually a 2x8, but we added even to that.  With two of us gripping the center beam of the window support, we cannot shake it.  Truly the most stable part of this house...

Sunday, my Dad was stacking a cord of wood with my Mom.  So, I took myself, shorty, and the oldest son and we went and helped out.  Mind you, little man decided to stay up until 10 PM the night before.  My husband's shift ends at 8PM, but he was visiting so I was the one putting short stuff to bed.  Again... and again....  It's amazing.  You can't get your teenager OUT of bed, and you can't get your pre-schooler IN bed. 

So, by the time all of that work was finished I just put my tail between my legs and drifted back home.  To do light chores.  But comparitively speaking, that's resting, right?