What our life looks like right before we throw a big party
We have been through a lot of different remodeling phases on our house over the past 13 years, and no matter the stage we were in we never cancelled a single summer theme party.
Usually we made the best of the whatever happened to be in the yard as part of the decor. The Rebels and Rum Runner party was the year I acquired my vintage camper so we used it as a photo op:
Similarly, we held a Rockstars and Groupies themed party when we had a gold colored Cougar (classic car) in our driveway. This prompted the party goer dressed as the “groupie” from a White Snake video to take a few pics posed on the hood.
We also had an already existing super scary garage wall that we turned into a zombie apocalypse photo backdrop for our Walking Dead party- more on that event later this month!
But this year we had no idea how out of control the construction process was about to get in the two weeks before the party…
it all started with one simple request scheduled out weeks before we anticipated feeling the crunch of our annual shindig, this year planned around Nick’s 40th Birthday.
1. Move the LP tank.
The LP tank had always been in a temporary place until I could figure out a more ideal spot for it. However, the time had come to have the concrete finished in front of the garage service door and that meant it was also time to make a decision on a sidewalk to the front door. One way or another the LP tank had to go. I scheduled that appointment first and everyone else after.
- Monday: they cancelled because it rained.
- Tuesday: they came to move the tank but didn’t put in the gas line because it wasn’t on their work order
- Wednesday: it rained again? I don’t even remember why they didn’t come
- Thursday: they hit a rock and gave up trenching.
By Friday I felt desperate to take matters into my own hands. The party was one week away and the goal was to have the sidewalk poured by now. Which is how it came to be that 5 days before our big party, with over 50 invited guests, set to take place in this very font yard, it looked like this:
Ummmm…yeah. The trench goes right through the entrance into the house…
So just to clarify, two weeks ago I was frustrated that I was throwing a party and my yard looked like this:
So I decided it would be much better if just 5 days before the party I make it look like this:
Yup, well done, really well thought out.
There was a little panic. There was a moment of- how can we make this look like the Hawkins Tunnel from Season 2 of Stranger Things? (Since that was the theme of the party)
We were also taking the shake off the Zombie wall from last years party that still existed despite demoing the entire old garage and rebuilding a new one.
See that little bit of red paint “blood” splatter on the edge of the white shake?
The now interior garage wall revealed the old exterior wall sheathing. That tarp? Leads into our laundry room. We lost the door you see pictured at the beginning of the post (with the zombie image behind the window) when they poured the concrete floor at the beginning of the summer. It had to come out because of the threshold height changing.
We also had a few other things going on. The plumber came in at 3 days before the party to hook up the new faucets in the first floor bathroom that haven’t worked since the pipes froze this winter. Of course one of these faucets was faulty and so the project remained incomplete.
We also needed the electrician to come back and hook up some temp lighting for the party or we were going to need about a zillion extension cords and Christmas lights to light up the garage.
Luckily we got a little reprieve just 2 days before the party-
They showed up to pour the sidewalk to the front door!
Even if there still remained a giant trench across half the front yard, at least this was an accomplishment. You could actually enter our home!
We did lose a blue spruce tree we agonized over cutting down, and we had a mess of a yard although the trench got back filled (no Hawkins tunnel), but it was all worth it. The brand new sidewalk beamed like a glamorous runway to the front door.
With that project out of the way the countdown was officially on! We had 48 hours to finish cleaning the house, build three demogorgon bodies and pick up a birthday cake! Did it all turn out the way we wanted?
Find out more in a couple of weeks- when I share all the details of our Stranger Things Summer Theme Party!
In the Meantime…
In Case you Missed it!
Our Hippies VS Hipsters Party!
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