DIY -- Weekend Warriors and a Little Wii Fun

Last weekend Kevin and Nick could have filmed an episode for HGTV or the DIY network right here at our house because they were truly "do it yourselfers" and my "weekend warriors." As I have said many times that if you come to my house and come in our front door, you would think that we are completely moved in, however, if you walk out to our garage you would know that that is simply not true. When we were unpacking and didn't know what to do with something we simply "threw it in the garage!" And oh my gosh what a mess our garage was! Now, a little more background -- our house here in PB is tiny and we just don't have the space that we have had in our last three homes. There is really no room for a "playroom" here and the boys have so many toys, that it just didn't all fit in the house. So Kevin and I came up with the plan to make part of the garage "a playroom for the boys." After all we live in San Diego and the weather is nice enough that they can be outside all year round so a playroom in the garage made sense to us. However, you can't walk through our garage. See our problem?!?!? I have to admit, we have a ton of stuff (or crap as Kevin calls it) that we have been moving around this world for years now that we have not used and or looked at for that matter in over 9 years. WHY??? I don't know -- so when we moved here we cleaned out a TON of stuff and it has been great! But, we still have lots of things in the garage. So, we thought that the main issue in the garage that needed to be taken care of was the "empty boxes." Empty boxes, you ask? Well, being a military family that moves a lot we keep the "original boxes" for most of our "big items" -- ie...the tv, computer, microwave, you get the idea! That way when it is time to pack up again, we can put our things in the boxes made just for them and hopefully have them arrive at our new home safely! Gosh, we have a lot of boxes. So, we came up with the plan to "build a shelf in the garage for the boxes." PERFECT!!! If we could get the boxes up, we would have a ton of more space and could finally start to work on that playroom for the boys.

Nick came down this weekend to help with this massive project and what a help he was. All of my boys spent the day in the garage, building, and as Jack put it to me "doing manly things." The only thing that I had to do was make sure they had snacks, drinks, dinner at the end of the night and of course take a few pictures!!! :) So, here is how our garage transformed this past weekend -- and let me just tell you it is AWESOME!!!

The garage before the work started..............as you can see we had started to work on the playroom but there were too many things in the way and you couldn't get in there. (This picture was taken after the "stuff" had been taken out. I just can't bring myself to share the entire mess with you.)

The boys "laying out the shelf" and working on the measurements!

Measuring and finding the studs!!

Its coming together -- the middle support bracket is in!!

This was Jack's favorite part of the day -- getting to use the SAW!!!
It is looking so good!!! Almost done!!!

It's done and the boys get to go up on the shelf and check things out. They thought that was great!! Neither one of them wanted to come down.

Time to start moving things back into the garage, but now, up on our wonderful new shelf!!

Jack helped all day! Here he is helping to hand things up to Nick to put on the shelf!

All done and WONDERFUL!!!! And now you can see what the playroom will look like when it is all done! I can't wait to get it finished. The toys all have a space now, and the boys have space to play. To make it more like a room, we are going to put carpet on the floor and I have some posters to hang on the wall for the boys and it will be perfect!

I just can't tell you how much I love the shelf in the garage and what a difference it has made out there. The boys are really excited to get the space done and have a playroom that they can play in. Thank you Kevin and Nick for all your hard work -- you guys did a great job!!!

Now, this weekend was not filled with all work and no play!!! We enjoyed some Wii fun too!!! Nick bought "the boys" Guitar Hero for the Wii and I'm not sure who had more fun, the little boys or the big boys!! :) It is a really fun game to play but it is really hard -- especially for us non musicians!!! But, oh my gosh, the laughs and fun is all worth making a fool of yourself!! :)

My littlest Guitar Hero -- Nick!!!

Look at that face -- so funny!!! What a character!!

Jack with his best "Rock Star Face!"

He loves this game!!!

Two of my favorite rock stars -- Jack and Nick!

Nick is really good at this (he is a musician) and was helping Jack learn how to play!

Before the work started on the garage.....a little boxing in the morning!

Jack is so funny when he plays!

Notice the table in front of him. We had to put it there to keep him back off the tv.

I was afraid he was going to box right through the darn thing.

So funny!!

Jack boxing Nick!

There are more pictures here: www.dropshots.com/theandersonfamily

Until next time...................

love from San Diego