It was very cool because I learned to do new things and also got better at doing things I already know somewhat and love, namely, painting. My first job was to apply mud in a few of the rooms to all the nail holes and on any little breaks between wood pieces, and then when it had dried I sanded it off. So cool! I've heard about it and even seen it done on HGTV, but this was the first time I got to do it myself! And now I also see so many places around our own house where I could use the mud, cause the guy who renovated the house before we bought it didn't do the best of jobs.
Then I did a lot of taping around the floor in rooms, first with a thin green tape as close to or even under the moulding if possible, and then I followed with taping brown paper all around the perimeter - so Jody could follow with his paint gun and paint all the moldings and wainscotting. I was a really good taper! Even Jody said I did an amazing job. :) Of course, I took my time, but I had the time to make sure I did it really, really well so it would all come out perfectly. Around the radiators was the hardest, but I have little fingers so I had everything covered! :)
And then I got to help with painting!!! When I used to paint my former apartments I would use the blue painting tape, but Jody never uses it because it takes too much time. Instead, he uses really good brushes and a steady hand and cuts a line with the paint along all edges. So I learned to do that! And I got really good at that, too! Yes, I was about four times slower than Jody, but I still did a good job and that's what counts. I love painting, it gets me in a zone and I love seeing the different colors! Jody did the cutting along the crown molding (I find both "molding" and "moulding" online, I don't know which is the correct spelling), and I did the cutting along the bottom moldings and around the door and window frames as far up as I could reach, and then Jody would roll the room, and then we would do a second coat of everything. I'll come clean though and admit that I only helped with two out of the five areas because Jody finished two of the areas before I got to work that day, and did the fifth area on the last day.
And then on the last day, on Canada Day, we knew we'd be there for just half a day and I spent that time cleaning and straightening while Jody finished painting, and then I helped Jody bring stuff out to the trailer, both tools he wouldn't be needing again and also trash and such. We left the whole second floor painted (including ceilings) and cleaned, which included three large rooms, the hallway, and a two-part bathroom, and I was so proud of us, and of course especially of Jody because it looked amazing!!! I love seeing how rooms are transformed by new paint, and with the semi-gloss on all the moldings and flat white paint on all the ceilings, the rooms just popped and looked so fabulous!!! Also, I love seeing the work that Jody does and love seeing it all come together. He's done so much work at this house already and it looks AMAZING compared to what it looked like before (I saw it but didn't take any photos, unfortunately).
I'll include a few photos, two from during and three from after. I won't bore you with photos of each of the rooms, so just a little overview. And I'm going to wait until the bathroom is completely finished to show photos of it, because it's such a work of art and I want to show it when it's all perfect!!
This was on Sunday, Jody using the paint gun to paint the new wainscotting he built. The brown paper and green tape on the ground is from me! :) And of course all the walls and ceilings have yet to be painted. All the moldings you see, from crown molding to door frame moldings to wainscotting to molding along the floor - Jody did all of that. He also had to rebuild three doorways to make them standard-size, and he drywalled over the old single doorway into the office and cut out and framed the double-doorway you see into the office.
Okay, so that's what did in the morning and left feeling very good. We both showered when we got home, and then we went for a long-ish motorcycle ride. (Warning to Mom - you might not want to look at the last picture of this post.) We first rode to our friends' Tammy & Joel's house to finalize plans for the evening, and then we rode north along lovely country-ish rodes for awhile, along the Red River, and then crossed a bridge at Lockport (see the pictures below) and rode back on the other side of the river.
I haven't been a big fan of motorcycles throughout my life, and I'm not going to say I'm in love with them now because I still worry a lot about the risk. But I also know that Jody loves them, and I do trust him to be a very good and careful driver and I know he's always watching out for other drivers. Also, I liked riding on the not-so-populated and more country-highway type of rodes. I wasn't so nervous then.
We stopped just before Lockport for a little bite to eat at a little diner, and it was cute and fun. When I got off the motorcycle I was at first walking like I'd been riding a horse for 12 hours, my inner thighs were so sore! It would get better after a few minutes but was very intense at first! It was of course the same thing when we got back home and I got off. If I were watching myself trying to walk I'd have been laughing!
Anyway, it was a wonderful time and a perfect day and I loved it being just Jody and I riding with the breeze! It was very romantic to me!
Here are a few photos from a little stop we made at the Lockport dam, just after we crossed the bridge over the dam and before we headed back south along the other side of the river.
Jody and I at a park by the Lockport dam
Lockport dam park (oh, there's a lock there for boats as well, which is why it says "lock & dam")
On the other side of the lock & dam. There were a lot of fishing boats there, and also lots of pelicans which were so cool to see!
Crop on a pelican
Jody on the motorcycle (with me reaching the camera around all sly-like!)
Self-portrait of the two of us :)
That's the first half of our day, I put our evening in the post below because I had so many photos!!
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