ALLLLL the Sweat Equity

 Well the rain has stopped and it is officially HOT here. Especially because our AC kicked the bucket last week. Thankfully only the downstairs AC died completely so we've still had the upstairs one doing its darndest to keep us from melting but it's still been mighty toasty here, especially with the heat index getting up to or above 100 degrees multiple days this past week! But we got lots of bids for the replacement and we have a guy coming out to do that on Wednesday. Only 3 more days to go! Haha.

These past couple weeks of June I feel like everything I do involves lots of sweating. The kids started swim lessons which were a steal of a deal through the city and they have been loving. But it's every evening from Mon-Thurs and I definitely almost passed out trying to get Emery changed in the concrete box cooker of a family dressing room one of the nights last week. 

The kids have had a great time with swim lessons! And I love that there are 2 teachers for their class of 5 kids. Not bad ratios at all! 

I've also been busy working and literally sweating over the Murphy bed. Holly came to visit us last weekend which was wonderful and I was determined to have the Murphy bed done in time for her to come... however, I had misjudged how much contact cement I would need so I ran out 3/4 of the way done with the veneer. And of course, there was NO water based contact cement available to buy locally so that set me back a couple days because I had to order off Amazon and wait for it to arrive. So, long story short, it wasn't done by the time she got here. But we had the mattress for it set up for her and she tells us that it was super comfy so that worked out.

I was soo nervous to work with the veneer having never done it before! I watched a ton of youtube videos and psyched myself up. Then, the day I was planning on doing it, it was POURING rain! So the humidity in the garage was ridiculously high which I was sure would ruin the contact cement and make it not adhere properly. But I was determined to proceed because I was trying to finish in time for Holly. Soooo I looked up all the ways to dehumidify a space. I set up fans and set bowls of baking soda and buckets of charcoal all over the garage and bought a humidity monitor. And despite my best efforts, I never did get the humidity down below 67% or so, but I forged ahead anyway. And you know, it wasn't as hard as I feared! I only really messed up one piece as you can see below but I managed to fix it with a tiny strip of veneer and I feel like it turned out ok. 

I'm actually really surprised that I was able to cut and adhere such a tiny strip of veneer. I had to cut it twice because the first time I accidentally cut it with the grain running the wrong direction. But second time was the charm. 

It was really nice having Holly visit us. Emery got lots of practice with her "h"s trying to say Holly's name. We went to a cool new park in downtown Dallas, ate BBQ from a food truck, celebrated Eric's birthday and had family dinner and just generally got to hang out. The kids had a blast having Holly around to play with and I loved being able to spend the evenings just chatting with her. I wish she lived closer to us. And I realized after she left that we didn't take any pictures together while she was here! Bummer! 

After Holly left, it was back to work on the Murphy bed in the evenings. I don't think I've ever sweated more in my life than I do in our garage in this summer heat sanding, staining, filling, sanding, staining, etc all in a respirator. But after many set-backs including a big one on Friday where I was just sure I had totally ruined the doors, the bed is ALMOST done. The doors just need to be sealed and the handles attached and then the whole thing can get installed. Halllelujah. 

So I was kicking myself so much on Friday because I followed the directions on the wood filler that I used which had told me to stain the wood first, then do the filler then sand and stain the filler. Clearly this was WRONG! I was literally crying Friday night sure I had not only thrown away hours and hours of hard work but that it would be irredeemable because I was worried if I tried to sand it down and do it over, I would sand through the veneer! It was definitely a rough evening and I was more than a little frustrated/devastated. I may have thrown the staining rag... twice. BUT thankfully we had a game night with some friends that evening that was a lot of fun and proved to be a great distraction.

When I woke up Saturday morning I was literally dreading trying to fix the doors. I felt like I was about to go take a test I knew I was going to fail. But I said lots of fervent prayers and asked for prayers from my family and bravely took up my orbital sander. And I guess God decided to have mercy on me because I was able to sand down without sanding through the veneer! And as much as I hate all the extra time it cost me to do it all over again, I actually like it better now. I feel like it pulled out the grain even more and accentuated the character of the wood and I really like how it turned out. I feel like it is some kind of metaphor for life. Like how even when we screw things up, God can make it work out for our gain, we just have to accept ALLLL the sweat equity involved in the process. 

Also, in case you're wondering where there are stain footprints all over the place, yes I dropped the full can of stain (because oh yeah, I had to go buy more because there wasn't enough to do the doors over again after the whole wood filler fiasco) all over my feet and the garage floor! Thankfully I saved like half the can which was enough but holy cow it was like one more thing being difficult about this bed! 

In case the heat and humidity weren't enough of a deterrent to being outside, we also have chiggers back in our yard despite having Moxie come out regularly for pest control. Clearly, it's not working. Eric called them to come out again this week but I'm less than optimistic that we will be successful at getting rid of them since we never did manage to fully exterminate them last summer despite all our efforts. Which is so annoying because our yard is SO pretty now with our trees and our lush grass and our flowers and our trampoline... but it's also infested with nasty pests! So unfair! And yet, we still keep working on our yard. Am I bullheaded or what? I spent a whole hour and a half yesterday at Home Depot trying to order the materials for our pergola! HD's bulk ordering system needs a serious makeover. But hopefully, on Tuesday (after they call me to tell me what the estimated delivery date of the cedar is) we can finally order the materials and get going on the project. 

Summertime definitely calls for new shades for these two cuties of mine!! They are my joy. After LONG days at work or frustrating moments with my DIY projects, cuddling them before bed or seeing their joy as they play with each other, or Emery's excitement when she successfully says "pig" instead of "big" or "ham" instead of "am" makes my day.