On Friday, Bob and Julie headed in to Chicago to help us work on the basement. With the powerwashing complete, our next step was to skim sections of the basement walls that needed some concrete/repair. Here, Liz and Bob are checking out the requirements for each bag (1.25 gallons of water per bag).
The apple pie was delicious, as always. Final count: 22 (which interestingly enough was the same count from 2014).
Today, Julie and Bob stopped over to help us with the house. Outside, Julie and Liz were at work on the parkway. Inside, Bob was taking measurements and making plans while I was in the basement, continuing to work on removing bricks from the chimney.
It’s been a long two days of work, and a remarkable four days of change. Considering how things looked Thursday, it’s hard to believe. I think we’re lucky to have this bench, because for the foreseeable future… every time I get back here, I’m going to be blown away. And will need to sit down, to marvel at it all.
I arrived later in the afternoon. I didn’t end up photographing many people, but there was definitely a rhythm to the way the sale worked. At certain moments, things were quiet and calm. And then out of nowhere, a few cars would pull up and nearly everyone would be busy talking with customers or answering questions.
A lot of the tables were taken up (blame it on a nice Saturday evening), so Bob and I grabbed some stools at the bar. It’s always neat coming here with Bob, as this was a bar he frequented many years ago, when he was working on the South Side.
On Sunday, Bob and Julie came over to help us work on the house. Here they are with Liz, down in the basement going over future plans.
After flying back in to Chicago from Atlanta, Liz and I decided we wanted to spend the night in Frankfort. Doing so allowed us to spend more time with Julie and Bob, and also had us at the house when Katie came over with the kids.
On Saturday, Liz and I met up with Julie and Bob at the University of Chicago, inside the Center for Care and Discovery building. Bob was scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure (something I really haven’t mentioned on here, before now). Without going into details, suffice it to say it was a serious procedure and we’ll leave it at that.
Saturday was a big push to focus on our front lawn. It’s been sitting in a fairly blank state, ever since Liz and Julie powered through the overgrowth and managed the tame the craziness that was here previously.
Liz and I went down to spend the day in Frankfort, with me hanging out with Bob and her hanging out with Julie. While the girls went off to go shopping for plants and things to put in our front yard, I spent my time helping Bob clean out the garage a bit – and running several errands.
We pulled out the aluminum brake, and worked on getting some large sheets measured out and folded up. In the course of the process, I ended up misaligning one of the (large) pieces, and we made a bend that nearly wrecked one of the pieces. Instead of a straight line, my mistake ended up causing a slightly diagonal bend.
A dangerous combination: children and sprinkles. The containers for sprinkles have extremely wide spouts, and really are designed for adults. When a kid gets a hold of one of these things and pours, the sprinkles just come out like they’re pouring water.
On Sunday, Julie and Bob were at our place to help work on the house. It was an all-plants weekend for Julie, as she shifted from running her annual plant sale just yesterday, to helping us tame the out-of-control front yard.
On Saturday, Liz and I were in Frankfort to help out with Julie’s annual plant sale. We arrived the night before, and were all up early to help out (Julie had gotten up around 5:30AM, looking to water her plants before the visitors arrived).