Bullets and Beer!!

This weekend we took a break from working on the house and enjoyed the property with our friends Britta and Dirk (from Robbins, NC) and Cola and Brian. We have been so excited to spend this weekend with them on our new property camping out. Everyone brought their hand guns/shot guns and we had target practice in the field. I haven't ever experienced shooting a shot gun at skeet, and I am HOOKED!! I have told Steven at least 5 times since yesterday how much I want a shot gun now!!! We finished the evening by cooking a pot roast over the fire (for 4 hours, we didn't eat until 9:30), then enjoying a bonfire with our favorite friends. Now when I say bonfire, I want you to imagine Steven blaring Kid Rock and putting a tire on the fire...yeah, it got HOT!!!

As many of you know, Cola and Bryan are expecting so we changed our original plan of camping on the property in tents to staying in my Mom's pop up camper. Cola was not in the least bit excited to sleep outside so we thought the least we could do was let her sleep on a mattress in a camper with a ceramic heater!! It was quite hilarious in the camper with 6 adults and 2 dogs. We finished off the visit with a yummy breakfast cooked by the boys as the girls sat around the fire chatting. We always cherish every second we can spend with this group, and the weekend was a huge success! As Brian said this morning "Well, I think Camp Thunderbird was great fun!!"

Britta and I showing off our country skills :)

Cola doesn't like guns at all!!

As far as the house, the back porch which has water and termite damaged was torn off and the construction on our laundry room began. The HVAC crew started installing our new systems as well. The plan for this week will be to have the house pressure washed to prepare for painting and hopefully the brick masons will be there to start repairing the structure.

Before

After

Layla (our child with four legs) and Timber (Brian and Cola's love) joined us this weekend as well to enjoy the property. As usual, Layla drove everyone crazy wanting to chase the ball and Timber was in his GLORY chasing skeet. My sister Rozzie has been driving me crazy to put up a picture of Layla, so this one's for you Roz...

Scrapin' and Scrubin'

Notice the new windows!!!

The past 2 days at the ole' Spangler Homestead has been been a butt kicker to say the least. We started scraping paint on the south side of the house Thursday and started cleaning the walls and ceiling of the front porch today. Steven and I are so sore right now that it feels like we have been doing P 90X workouts for 48 straight hours. All I could think of the past 2 days is: keep working hard and you will have the best arms this side of the Mason-Dixion! We knew that it was going to rain today, so we planned to clean the walls and porch ceiling today so we would be out of the rain (plus it would give us a break from scraping). Well, what we didn't plan on was the fact that we would be cleaning with water and the high today was 34 big degrees!!!! To say the least, by the time we quit today we were frozen solid and so sore it hurt to laugh!

 The house tried to get the best of us today, but we won in the end. Right when we started to get in a cleaning grove, it was so cold out that the hose on the sprayer busted. So off to ACE Hardware we went (which was our second time leaving within 30 minutes to run an errand). As we were getting back into the truck with our new sprayer, Steven noticed his gloves lying in the parking lot SOAKING wet!!! God love his soul, he rarely loses his temper and becomes frustrated but that one almost got the best of him. Thank goodness for some good tunes on the i-pod and the cleaning finally kicking into high gear!!!! Check out our before and after pics below. The new windows were also put in this week. They look GREAT, we are very pleased with our decision to go with no grids in the windows. Steven will continue to clean tomorrow and Sunday as I head off to work this weekend. I am secretly very glad I am working to give my muscles a break!! If the weather will cooperate Monday, the back porch will be removed and construction will start on our new laundry room.

Before the scrubbing...

After the scrubbing :) :) :) :) :)