Wendy House deconstruction

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Ah, the world of deconstruction moves on. I’ve gotten curtains up in the main room and Bryan and Dan have started digging the ditch for the water and sewer pipes. This has taken longer than expected as the ground was rock hard. Luckily we’ve had some rain and that helped.

I also changed around the entrance so that we had a place to put shoes and stuff.

Then the fun bit… Bryan and Dan were digging yesterday and Bryan caught Dan falling on video. He didn’t do any more work on the ditch after that.

 

Changes to the Wendy House.

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Life has been interesting. Dan and I moved into the Wendy House and Bryan and Katie have the main house. Of course this requires upgrades and renovations.A lot of work that we are doing is literally repairing what has already been done.  We’ve been doing demolition and repair work this last week. I now have a bedroom, an office, a quasi work area and a spot that will be a bathroom. Eventually. As I told Dan, rainwater running down the walls does not equal running water. Ahem. The one side has a leak and we put a bucket under it. Where is the bucket? In the bathroom. Hence the running water jokes. Here are some pictures.

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We still have lots of work to do. Dan and Bryan put in a French Drain on the one wall and drifted the bricks back into place. The hill had shoved them out of true. Then the mortar work… Fixed the front step too. We are seeing how much work we can do without having to spend any money at this point. We have some lumber and have lots of dirt work to do. Wheee…

 

Family!

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Bryan, Katie and their two boys, Gavin and Talon are now living with us! Crazy! Busy! Very nice to have grandbabies here to play with!

We’ve moved into the Wendy house and Bryan and family are in the main house. We are working on the Wendy house to make it more livable and upgrading the plumbing in the main house. Dan and Bryan fixed the old screen door for the back door and have built one for the front door.

As Katie unpacks boxes, I’m packing things in boxes until we have the Wendy house done. We have some stuff in a tent too. Weird, but it’s working.

There are days…

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That I hate the phone. Marvelous communications tool that it is, there are days that I would rather it not ring. Of course, those are usually the days that I am VERY glad to have the damned box.

Early Tuesday morning, my two grandsons, Gavin, 4.5 and Talon, 2.5 woke up, broke down the baby gate, got frozen tv dinners out of the fridge and when they discovered that they were too cold to eat, stacked things up and got to the locks on the front door. They went for a walk. This was about 4-5am. They were picked up by the police about 1.5 blocks from home. They were taken back to the house and the police woke up Bryan. Katie was at work.  Of course, the police took the boys to the station, gave them clothes, toys, treats, movies, etc… Bryan got a citation for third degree child endangerment. DHS visited, the cops visited again, etc…. DHS checked out the house, said the back door lock was tight and shouldn’t be a problem, but they needed to get a chain on the front door.

Bryan missed work, they got the locks on the door and chaos was supreme. Bryan and Katie were aghast that the boys did this. Of course, living in Arkansas doesn’t help either.

Of course, they called me. A lot. Oh, and don’t forget the texts.

Yesterday morning, Bryan again wakes to the sound of police knocking at the door. The boys broke the baby gate again, couldn’t get out the front door, so they got out the back door. They only got half a block away this time. The same policeman arrested Bryan after giving him a citation for second degree endangerment. Katie of course had just gotten off of work and was dealing with the boys while Bryan went to jail.

Once again, the phone began to ring.

Many phone conversations later, including some which were NOT so pleasant, we find that Bryan had been released on his own recognizance. He was suppose to change clothes and get to work. What you have to understand is that Bryan works at a swanky country club in Arkansas. So does his brother Stefan. The chairman of the board of the club is the Chief of police. Stefan called in a favor. So, Bryan got out of jail, got yet another lock that was put on the OUTSIDE of the back door and then went to work.

More phone calls.

As the dawn began to break, I wondered if 1) the boys had been kept inside or escaped again, 2) if Bryan or Katie got any sleep 3) if the phone was going to ring again.

It did.

The boys did stay inside. Locks, baby gate, Bryan sleeping in front of their bedroom door, etc. Bryan and Katie did get some sleep. Enough so that Bryan went to work. Today, he’s seeing a probono lawyer who also is a board member at the country club from what I understand, about the case. He is due to go to court on August 11th.

I have to admit, that the whole lawyer and police chief involvement gives me the creeps. Granted, the police rewarding the boys bad behavior bothers me too. Around here, things would have been handled differently. Even DHS said that the cops shouldn’t have arrested Bryan or given him a second ticket. sigh…

I expect the phone will ring more in the next few days…

Home again, home again…..

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We arrived home at midnight last night. Oh, and of course I had to get up and go to work this morning. Yawn…..Yawn….Yawn…. I’m just a little tired.
I am still laughing about the white thongs and the wedding dress! Plus, the fact that the Justice of the Peace was confused over who was the bride and groom cracked us up. The Chinese buffet was great, and afterwards we went home and relaxed. We had a pizza party and watched movies for dinner. Not the traditional wedding reception, but we didn’t mind.
The next day, the 28th, was Bryan’s birthday. After sleeping in, we goofed around for a while. Then Dan and I went shopping. I got prezzies for the boys… yes, all three. Talon and Gavin got these little dragons. Bryan got more ammo for his Nerf guns. We also grabbed lunch.
Then, Bryan, Katie, the grandbabies and Morgan went to Hebber Lake. They went swimming. Dan and I went with Stefan, Anabell, and some of his friends out to a ranch where he goes hiking. We had a jeep drive and then took a hike. Yes, I took lots of pictures. 🙂
When we got home, we had barbecue. Pork, chicken, eggplant, squash and corn. Yummm… Then we had cake and ice cream. Oh, and lots of beer and other alcohol. Movies were watched and Stefan, Anabell and I went off to a coffee house to meet with some of his friends. It was a nice end to the evening. Funny bit was all of his friends reacting to the ‘oh my god! His mom is Just like He Said she was!!!!’
By the time I got home, Morgan was asleep, and Dan and Bryan were silly drunk. It was so funny. Funny bit was Bry and Dan wrestling. They were about matched.
Next morning, I woke up with a migraine. Dan woke up with a hangover. Tons of aspirin later, we left by 7:30am. Of course we forgot things which Bryan has promised to mail. Sigh…. my teacup… Oh well. The drive was interesting. Trying to deal with a headache in a car is not good, but I survived. It was HOT! I was so glad when the sun went down.
Oklahoma was Still under construction. So were parts of New Mexico. Most of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico roll up the sidewalks on Sundays. We had a heck of a time trying to find food that wasn’t fast food. Oh well.
Over all, the trip was great. It was lovely to see everyone. However, Arkansas in August is like crawling into a wet hot dryer. Uggghh….. Next time I will go in December, like I did last time.