So, first Brian came and helped us save some $ by being willing to wheelbarrow MANY trips of cement over the ramps Steve set up.

Thankfully it was a nice, Spring-ish kind of day!

Then Steve spent a Saturday in the very cold, wet, muddy back yard stripping the foundation. The very wet, cold rain turned into TONS (for us :) ) of snow which changed our home to a resort with a mountain range....
if you have a VERY good imagination :) Amazing how convincing a thick blanket of white can be ;)
Lots of kids playing and warmer temps churned the white and brown together for more fun.
And then the snow all had to melt and go somewhere and the rain kept coming and Steve spent another Saturday in the cold, wet backyard with 50lbs of gloop hanging off each boot as he tarred the foundation and put in some drain tile.

And Mr. Sam here endeared himself to his mother by forgetting the rule about just stay away from the mud already!!!!!!!!!!!!! and lost his boot to sinking sand sucking mud. What to do but pull your feet out of your boots and stand there in your socks and dig your boots back out.
It was almost out of sight (right beside his hand) and he was a sorry sight by the time he was finished. Seeing as I had just spent an hour scrubbing all the mud out of the bathroom for Opa & Nana's upcoming visit, I wasn't real excited to deal with him...despite his GRIN?!?!?! Thankfully, Steve came home from work just on time and lovingly took care of the entire mess!
Then yesterday Les showed up again and in a jiffy he had half the pile in the back of the dumptruck.
And by lunch time the other half was distributed around the front and back yard ditches :) And Gramps had the plumbing all ready to go!!!
Before we knew it the kids were delightedly watching the next step...
which had the kids doing this before supper! Please note Sam's hockey player, Cam's deep digger (I think he was hoping to hit China he was digging so deep!) and Cody's dinosaur..
Maybe some framing this afternoon?? Incredible how much those hard working guys get done in a day...especially when it's unexpected!