My week of home-owning bliss

So what did you do for your mom on Mother's Day?

Did you make her strip the paint off your stairs? No? Clean your basement? Hm, not a popular one, huh?

Well, I did.

In fact, I made it Family Day. I brought my WHOLE family over to work hunched over amidst the spiderwebs and crawlies and in the pouring rain in order to get the crawl space under my extension insulated. I'm the Queen of Fun Activities For the Whole Family!

In my defense, I did provide a fairly regular supply of beer, coffee, tea and food. And I also pitched in to help when I wasn't water-treating my patio furniture, sealing the tile grout in my kitchen, cleaning up, installing a new tap or picking up supplies from Home Depot. But the boys pretty much did it all.

Saturday morning, we were digging up the soil, fastening the cement board in place, breaking up bits of cement and tossing them into the hole before filling in the spaces with the remaining soil. All in the pouring rain. Then came the vapour barrier and the insulation when I pretty much became a third wheel in process. So I undertook the aforementioned other projects and made some meals.

My brother, Will, stayed overnight. And everyone else left for the night (when my niece got a little too tired to be staying up with the adults). Sunday morning, I took my brother and my wonderful boyfiend (who seriously must hate my house by this point) out for breakfast. We got back just in time to catch my parents' arrival. And in went the second layer of rigid insulation.

And my mom WANTED a task. I mean, I'd bought her the shrimp ring and her egg tarts and even the bagels and lox. And since I'd already given her the purple scarf, I figured it was OK to give her ANOTHER present. And so I let her strip the paint off my staircase. And it's already looking better!

It was a BIG weekend for the house, thanks to my wonderful, giving, helpful family. I am so ridiculously lucky to have them.