Like a fart in a skillet...

My hubby, that is!  The boy can't sit still.  What does this mean being a teacher and having June, July and lotsa August off?  He's a busy boy scratching things off our "to do" list!  So in honor of him going back to school (sigh) I'm doing a post about all the things he's done around the house over summer break!

Many of you know that we are re modelers.  Darin remodeled and flipped a house near Indy before we were married.  His bachelor pad.  I understand that the whole thing was panted gray inside with losta silver modern fixures.  (Then he met me and my style.. not so gray and modern!)  Then a few months before we were married he bought another fixer.. fixed  it up and we lived there our first year of marriage.  Sold it for a nice little profit.  Then we bought the home we are in now and have been remodeling it ever since!  And about 3 years ago we bought a home in town and flipped it.. never lived in it. It was solely for an investment.  So yeah, 4 total.  I am SO appreciative of my hubbies talents.  He is so gifted in the handy-man department.  He's done it all.. plumbing, electric work, drywalling, building, carpentry, carpet laying, tiling, roofing.. and he learned a new skill this summer too.  You'll find out what it is later in this post.  =) 

I'm dedicating this post to all the things he's done this summer with his time.  And this just isn't all he's done.. he also had a bit of track at the beginning of the summer with two of his girls making it to the state meet, had lotsa football open gyms and weightlifting, did some work for my dad as he flipped an apartment, spoke at 2 summer camps and took lots of breaks to watch the girls while I had photo sessions! Oh, and took a week to go on that cruise with me too. =)  The boy deserved a rest, right? 

I wasn't kidding when I said he was a fart in a skillet, was I?

So without further ado.. here's all the things he's done this summer around the house! 

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First one he did was install an all-house-fan.  (No picture becaues it's pretty boring looking.  It's a fan.  in the ceiling)  I never knew these things exsisted until I married Darin.  You put it in your ceiling (ours is in our hallway between the girls' room) and it sucks the hot air out of your attic.  It basically makes your house the same temperature that it is outside.  And usually our nights here in Indiana get pretty cool so our house becomes the same temp as outside.  I think we've only ran our air during the night one night this summer.  Pretty cool. 
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Planted a few trees because in May we took a large tree down that was dangerously too close to our girls' room.  Trying to be green, yo.

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Made some shutters for Adie's "barn" area of her room.  (See em at the end of her windows?)

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Built a sand box and reconfigured their swings...  putting a top on the 2nd story of the playground is on the list.

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Put up a door that goes into our closet.. and yes, this needs painted...

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Made a parking spot for his truck by the side of our house and lined it with limestone. Had to move a couple of bushes and dug out a bunch of sod (like 6 inches down) and then laid the stone.

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Rebuilt our deck.  Yep, REBUILT.  He originally had used a bunch of cherry we had and didn't like the way it turned out.  Couldn't get it sealed right.  Needed it to be treated wood.  And before it hadn't gone all the way over to our new addition so he re-did it!  And added a flower box for my planting pleasure.  I still want to find a cool table and chairs and put some wall hangings against the siding when I talk Darin into letting my put holes in the siding. =)  Pretty sure I'm not gunna win that one..

(Yes, the flowers are dying because it's August and it's too hot to go out and water them. and I'm ready for mums. )

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Built me some new shelves for the dinning room...

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Made a new top for our table. That's cherry too. It's not dark yet because cherry darkens with age.  We used the legs and the hardware from our old table.  The old was mahogany and well, it was very old.  =)  Didn't like it and wanted it to match the cherry hutch.  And the cherry floors.

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Now. This is fun picture.  This is the original picture of our home.  This is what it looked like when we bought it. 

Yes, red siding.  Lovely.  With matching red carpet on the porch stoops.  Well, it used to be red.  He it's sporting a lovely shade of grossness.  We've replaced the roof, windows, siding and doors. Also painted the soffits and all the trim. Take note of the gorgeous 60's metal columns...

(see the red carpet by the door?  That is where it was protected by a pretty rug!  And when I say pretty I mean pretty GROSS!)

And this is our home now.

Darin made me plant stands for the front door and our side porch. 

And the new trade he learned this summer was stone-laying.  He covered our 60's style wrought iron poles making an updated new column. 

He had heard of a home that was being demolished that was purchased by our local airport.  He got permission (after Habitat for Humanity went through to get what they wanted) to take the limestone off the home so we could use it on our columns.  For free.  Like we took thousands of dollars of limestone and it was completely free.  And by golly the limestone matched ours exactly!  He made about 5 trips with his truck loaded getting all the limestone our little hearts desired.   Gosh do we love a bargain!  Heck, it wasn't a bargain, it was free!

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We've been wanting to do stamped concrete on our 2 front porch stoops and just couldn't muster up spending a few grand for it. We did some research and some shopping and found tile that matched our limestone. Darin did a random pattern to match the random pattern of our limestone and wala! We have new porch flooring!  This makes me SOOOO happy because the red carpet that was formerly on the porch stoops left wonderful glue stains when we brought it up.  LOVE the way it turned out!

Here's a shot of our new porch head on.. with yours truly in it. =)

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And I came up with this idea and Darin pulled it off.  He made a cross at the foothold of our front door.  =)  Can you see it?  Subtle but you know that this house serves the Lord.  =)

So that was our porch project.  With free limestone, mortar, and clearance tiles.. we spent right around $200 for our entire porch project!  WOW we are cheap!

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Did a little landscaping around the door heading to his wood shop...  I guess that was more me.  The boy is not a huge fan of landscaping.  That and painting aren't his specialties. =)  And I really hope my peonies perk up next summer. .they are looking rather droopy...

Darin also lined our front walkway with limestone.  If you see further on you'll see that we are going to line our landscaping with limestone as well. 

So there you have it! This is what the hubs did with his summer.

Can't believe it's time for him to go back already.  He can't believe it either.  Tonight at dinner he said he wanted to mow the yard tomorrow. Um, can't mow the yard when you gotta actually work tomorrow!

Proud of all you do for us, sweets!  Thank you!