My sister flew in from Madison.  My aunts and uncles came from Maryland.  My parents and John’s mom came over and catered (and worked on the house too!).  Wow. This was no ordinary family gathering.  This was a work party of epic proportions.  The ten of us put in baseboard moldings.  We demolished the cabinets in the way of the fridge, inserted two boards to support the counter and provide an edge to the cabinets, painted in the new wall space, and moved the fridge.  We also removed the painted-and-caulked-shut storm windows and cleaned out years of gunk, leaving the windows positively gorgeous.  There’s a new faux stained glass window in the bathroom, to replace the Target (TM) bag for privacy, that has already gotten compliments from visitors.  And the old, moth-infested air conditioner was replaced with our new one, which took significant carpentry.  All in one day.  My family = heroic.  Such a blessing.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Heroic crew after a long day of work

Mom painting baseboards:

which Mike and either Gow (shown) or Lynn cut, and installed:

Uncle Arthur and Richard work on the kitchen project:

Man at work:

Eileen painted the cabinets and the wall:

Looking through the hole in the wall left by the air conditioner:

Working on the hole left by the air conditioner:

Megan and Aunt Lynn work on the window:

A beautiful window!  (Thanks, Megan and Lynn):

And then there was FOOD!  Hooray for the moms and Megan!

I love my berries, of which there were many:

Eileen made speides (and Raisin lurked behind):

My mom made a delicious strawberry short cake:

Our deepest thanks to all our workers.