Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green?

Do you remember this fabulous old Primary song? "Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?. . .Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high?. . .Do you march in parades or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I!" I can hear the melody of this song in my head, and it reminds me of the wonderful, lazy, happy summers of my own childhood. . .and my kids' childhoods as well. For years, I've taken my kids to our neighborhood pool nearly every afternoon, and I've loved it as much as they have. Give me sun and water and I am a happy girl.

However, last summer we bought a new home and so our summer was filled with repair work, packing, cleaning, selling our home, moving, unpacking, cleaning...and more of the same. It was exhausting in all ways and on so many levels. We had an amazing and fun-filled family reunion to Seattle for a week in August, but other than that, 2013 wouldn't exactly register as a summer to remember. When we finally moved into our new home (a year ago this week!!!!), we knew that we were planning to finish off an attic space into a media room, and do some other small projects. We waited until after the holidays to start getting bids, mostly so I could regain my sanity. We anticipated having our project completed around March.

We have learned lots of things, such as: the bid process takes a looooong time, and no matter how long the contractor says it will take, you should at least quadruple that. The contractor did not start our project until the final week of school, which is exactly what I didn't want--another summer dealing with house stuff. My heart broke a little this summer as I longed for those lazy afternoons at the community pool with my three guys. Instead, we were home with the workmen...or I arranged things for them to do while I was home with the workmen. Thank goodness for friends and scout camps and soccer practices so that they weren't bored to tears. Our project that was slated to take 3 1/2 weeks ended up taking all summer, and in fact, was finally completed just today!!! Hooray!

At some point during the summer, I had the shattering realization that even had no workmen been present, my boys are older now. Tristan has long been working and would most certainly not have been swimming with us anyway. Gavin is far more interested in playing soccer, even when it's 100 degrees outside. Caden loves to swim, but not without a brother/friend to play with in the pool. Those blissful summer memories of lazy days at the pool are really just that...amazingly beautiful and wonderful memories, but apparently no longer what we "do in the summertime" now: workmen or no workmen, home projects or no. Weep! They fall into the same category as reading stories at night with all three of them snuggled around me. You know what I'm saying? Those days are over. Weep some more. I love watching my boys grow and am so proud of the young men they are becoming, but that doesn't mean I don't succumb to nostalgia over the happy, happy times we had when they were much younger and completely content to hang out with Mom!

So...what did we do this summertime instead of swimming or lazily dreaming? Check it out:

This is the "hallway to nowhere" at the top of the stairs. Complete wasted space. It was our friend Liz who recommended knocking out the walls on both sides to "make a moment" here. 

Here's the attic space we planned to convert to a media/game room. 

The first thing they did was knock a hole in the roof in order to bring all the wood in. This way they avoided traipsing in and out of the house and bashing into the walls. I LOVED the natural light in the media room and was all for replacing the roof with a bunch of skylights, but alas, I was outvoted. 

The hole in the roof.

Starting to take shape! 

It looks like a playhouse made of cotton candy!

Our contractor never brought over a dumpster. I'm sure our neighbors were thrilled with the complete disaster on our driveway (NOT!)! Luckily this phase was very short. 

The Ridings, the Spencers, and the Stubblefields.

In the midst of our project, the youngest three Ridings came over for a few days while Melissa and Amy were at girls' camp and Gary and Chris were headed to BYU. It was the BEST for helping to entertain Gavin and Caden...and we even snuck away to the pool Thursday night. Friday, we didn't mind a bit when the workmen finished up really early and we got to dash over to the CAC for the day--more pool time and fun for all of us! The kids were even good sports about all sleeping on the floor in the family room downstairs because the hole in the roof made things unbearably hot upstairs.

Oh what do you do in the summertime? Roast marshmallows and eat S'mores, of course!

Playstation for 5!

We hoped our project would be done when we left on vacation July 3--that was the plan, after all! But it didn't happen. Not even close. We took a big break while on vacation, and even the week after we got back (see separate post about vacation--coming soon!). But things started up again at the end of July. We had a number of set-backs (mostly because the staining had to be done three times!!!!!). However, we are so happy with the finished product (although, of course, this isn't showing the really finished product, with pillows, and books, and art, and so on--but you get the idea!).

They finally get the staining right! (These two pics were taken prior to completion, as you can tell if you look closely at the edges.)

Completed book-nook--much nicer than the little hallway to nowhere!

We need the blinds back on and books and pillows in place, but you get the idea!

Media/game room (pillows and end table still needed here).

Huge food storage closet in the entryway to the media room. Hooray! 

Oh, what do you do in the autumn-time? Relax and watch a few movies and read some good books, I'd say! (Oh, and maybe stock up and fill up the remaining shelves in the food storage closet!) Here's to a completed project and a relaxing poolside summer in 2015!