The Keenan Family 411

Patriotic Make-Over!

When the kids' bedrooms were re-shuffled at the start of the school year Owen and Shane ended up in the bunk-beds in Cameron's old room.  Meanwhile, Cameron became the sole owner of Owen's old room so that he wouldn't wake his brothers up on school mornings (up at 6:30am!).

The only problem was that the "Firefighter/Firetruck" theme in Owen's room didn't fit the room's occupant anymore.  So out came the blue paint, red shelves and every World War II decoration we could get our hands on.  And voila...Cameron had himself a room that any red-blooded American Patriot would kill for!

The full spread is in a photo album on the right...

 

Finito!

Well, after a lot of fretting and fussing, hosting armies of workers for about 8 weeks and opening an equity line of credit, it appears that it was all worth it. 

Our "new old house"  is essentially done. 

And while the painting crew toiled away at scraping and painting, we did a bit of outdoor toiling of our own.  Now the freshly-painted house is complimented by a pleasant backyard gathering place.  Well, pleasant if the boys aren't using the elevated firepit as a fort for their little army guys.

And that reminds me...let's not forget that "Fort Timberwolf" is now out of eyeshot!

A small photo album of the new/old digs is on the right...

The Homestretch

Alright, we're about 7 weeks into this painting ordeal, but the finish line is now in sight!  There's still a bunch of touch-up to do, some shutters and light fixtures to re-install and a nice American flag to hang out front.  But otherwise our "new old house" is close to completion.

You know, it's very hard to articulate how badly I want to tear that crime-scene tape down...

 

True Blue

OK, I think we're in the homestretch.  The crew is reportedly determined to wrap things up by the end of Wednesday!

 

Paint, Glorious Paint!

Alright...Now We're Gettin' Somewhere!

The "paint removal" phase is now history.  So now the first coat of primer is on.  I think.

Not for nothing, but that stinkin' crime-scene tape is starting to bug me...

No, This is NOT Freddie Krueger's House...

In stark contrast to the backyard, the house is gettting dramatically worse each day...

Who Needs South Tavern for "Pizza Night"?

Instead of trekking over to South Tavern for our regular Wednesday "Pizza Night", Amy cooked up some home-made pizza and we trekked out to the "enhanced" backyard instead!

Thanks to help from Nana and Pop-Pop last weekend, we were able to just about polish off a big backyard upgrade.  What started out as a goal to pimp up the altar quickly expanded to include a fence and garden.

All that's left to do is order a couple more benches.  Thankfully, that will not entail digging up stubborn roots or moving 2-ton blocks of granite!

Granted, it's not Better Homes & Gardens material, but our lamentable backyard has come a long way.

A mini-photo album of the nearly-finished project is on the right...

 

Your Momma Say You Ugly!

Yes, well, this is the "ugly" phase of our titanic house-painting project. 

Today the crew stripped off the plastic coating, which took most of the old paint off with it.  So now the house looks like it has instantly aged about 150 years.

But never fear...they've promised us that it will start looking better soon.  Yes, I'm certain I read that somewhere in the contract.

Wrapped Up and Ready To Go!

I decided to play a practical joke on Amy and seran-wrapped the entire house. 

I have an odd sense of humor.

Actually, we hired a company to paint our house in a special "Tek-Coat" paint which has a 40-year warranty.  It's wicked-expensive, but since we plan on entertaining our grandkids and great-grandkids in this house, the long-term numbers made sense.

Anyway, step #1 is apparently spraying the whole house with some kind of chemical that turns into a weird plastic material when it dries.  Then, when you strip the plastic off is takes all of the paint off with it.  How cool is that?!