Christmas Eve Eve and Everything is Stirring...

I really like the barter system especially in the last few years when money is usually not just scarce but non-existent.  Luckily, I've got some skills with which to barter...which is why my house was in a complete upheaval yesterday in a good way.  

Several months ago, my sister-in-law asked if I would put together a memory quilt for her.  She had saved her son's onesies, her favorite baby outfits and preschool tees, crib sheets, the gown she wore when pregnant and various other things.  Sure I said...if my brother would come fix some things around my house.  (side note... my dad and brother can build and fix just about anything since both of them were born into the construction business.  My husband...that's another story...)

So, I finished the quilt and was holding it hostage until the things here at the house were fixed.  Here's all I wanted:  1. a hole in the kitchen wall near the floor filled...old house so this little hole was a free invitation to whatever critters came to visit the basement. (I was ready to sell the house...) 2. The hole in the outside basement door (the one big enough for the cats, raccoons, possums, etc. to come on in the basement and enjoy the great indoors). 3. Replace the rotted door frame on the patio that suffers from rain back splash.  It's been a very rainy year.

That's not much to ask for a 80" x 80" memory quilt...

Here's what happened...

My brother recruited a crew to come help...and they chose Christmas Eve Eve to come over.

The crew from left to right... my brother's long-time friend, Sean, my bother, Jim (the tall one in the back that looks like Paul Bunyan), Sean's son, Patrick, Jim's wife's nephew, Evan (the one that looks like Pony Boy from the Outsiders and yes he means to do that), my nephew Hampton, my husband David (supervisor), my nephew, Asher, the babe in the front, and my Dad, the boss.

Can you say motley crew?  Y'all, I have a small house.  I do not let many people come in that small house because I have enough stuff to fill three houses.   I pushed the freaking out aside and made the biggest crockpot of beef stew EVER and some cornbread and sat back and watched my quarter-acre turn into Never Land with a herd of lost boys.  (Luckily I took Shelby to the groomer first thing so she didn't have to deal with the stress of protecting her territory.)

Remember the list of three things I wanted done?  Here's what these boys got done in about five hours:

1. Replace the toilet in the front bathroom (this is what I asked for for Christmas, seriously...)

2. Replace the lid on the toilet in the back bathroom (because they had an extra)

3. Fix the leaky sink in the front bathroom (we now have cold water for the first time in at least two years)

4. Replace the faucet in the back bedroom (because that leak could be fixed)

5. Replace the shower head in the back bathroom (didn't need this but my brother and my husband got carried away at Lowe's)

6. Hauled off a load of junk out of the basement (I don't even want to know what came out of there)

7. Put the legs on my new Ikea desk and set up my little office space)

8. Replaced the basement door

9. Painted said door

10. Installed a jam to seal the door (outside entrance basement in an old house...there's no such thing as level, plumb and square)

11. Sealed that hole in the kitchen with a steel plate (if something comes through that, I'm moving)

12. Evaluated why my dishwasher doesn't works (and will one day come back and fix it...one day)

13. Decided that the french doors need to just go away and be replaced with windows because the rain back splash ain't going away)

14. Unstuck the light fixture on the patio so we could replace the light bulb (okay...really Sean broke the globe on the light fixture but the light bulb works now..)

15. Cut the ivy off the house.

16. Trimmed the wild bush beside my house than can't be killed with nitroglycerin.

17. Trimmed the giant holly tree and pulled all the vines out of it.

18. Raked and blew the leaves... 

...in the pouring rain which is how Pony Boy ended up looking like this... (soaking wet with chunks of dead leaves all over him...his mother may kill me).

Once most of the work was done, all the boys came in the house and at a whole crockpot of beef stew (really...I have about a cup left over), then did some serious damage to my Christmas cookie collection (thank goodness because that mess needs to get out of my house.)

As they finished up, Asher and I went downtown to pick up Miss Shelby.  He talked the whole time...multiplying up how much money Grandfather was going to give him for working and how much that would be if you worked seven days a week, singing the Loca the Pug song, telling me about Gibby, his blind jack russell/blue healer...I was highly entertained.

Shelby was not.

We got back to the house and the crew was wrapping up.  I gave my brother the quilt and they all went on their merry way.  Sean says this may become a new Christmas tradition - come fix stuff at my house and I feed them.

I'm good with that.  I think I came out pretty nicely on this barter in so many more ways than just having things fixed at the house.