A Forgotten Summer Adventure

In all of my photo e-journaling about this summer, I forgot to blog about one very consuming adventure. In mid June we spend about two to three weeks painting the church in preparation for the wedding. Well, actually, it needed to be done with or without nuptial ceremonies, so we figured it was a good excuse and gave us a deadline!

Our church building was a meeting house constructed in 1840 and we wanted to keep the historical authenticity of that era. Rhonda set to work and with the help of the ladies, picked a few "historically correct" colors. Our goal was to restore the church and make it a welcoming place for people to come and hear the gospel.

First, the pews needed to be sanded....

Next, the holes in the walls (and there were many, many, many!!) needed to be mudded (don't know if that's an actual work) and sanded.

Don't the walls look simply gorgeous, darling!

After that, our warm, yellow paint went on the walls- doesn't it make you think of the sun on a mild summer day.....

We were also in need of some serious caulking on the walls! Thankfully Sarah was up for the job! (get it, up for the job! yes, I know...) Some of us were getting in the way (mostly clumsy red-heads) so they sent us outside to do some yard work. I got a chance to use a weed wacker for the first time! Hip hip, hurrah!

Although, we did have a bit of a problem getting it started....

....Katie came to my rescue! Thank the Lord for friends!

Here, Hannah has put on a brave face! Raking can be quite treacherous! And yes, there is a story behind our odd looking paint. We chose a brown that was to have a hint, A HINT mind you, of purple in it. It went on a lighter shade of purple and then faded into a purplish maroon. We were a bit scared. People started referring to it as the "Barney purple paint" and George called it black raspberry. Finally, Rhonda got a better version of the same color, but it was floor paint, instead of whatever it was before. Huzzah for Rhonda- she fixed that worry!

Well, as you can see, the paint fumes were starting to get to some of us, so we headed outside for some fresh air and to rejuvenate in the sunshine!

It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. It wasn't really physically exhausting, but it was a lot of repetitive motion and you had to keep talking or musing on something else or you would go a bit batty- as you can see in the above pictures!! We got to tent out for a few nights- even in the midst of a rather frightful thunderstorm! But it was a lot of fun. Due to the warm June weather, we also went swimming in the lake just about every evening, which was also nice.

Stay tuned and I will show you the results of all the time and energy put into our lovely church.....