Experience.

Biscuit, our Wexford host.

This past weekend we took a trip down into Wexford to visit the Scherrer's friends Johanna and Eva, though I think the kids were more excited to visit their pets Biscuit (dog) and Sparky (cat). Our trip down took a bit longer since we witnessed (and were almost included in) a vehicle accident coming round a corner. Matt, being a paramedic, immediately took charge making sure there were no injuries. Since no one required medical attention but the cars were blocking a lane, he proceeded to direct traffic while we waited for the Garda (police) to arrive -which ended up being two hours. Not realizing how long it would be, we'd left the van running for the sake of those of us inside until it overheated and started leaking out the bottom. Come to find out we'd blown a hose in the engine. Once the Garda arrived and we were free to go, we backtracked to the nearest town for some food (5 kids trapped in a car for hours with no bag lunch is not a good idea. I taught them the word "hangry.") and to try and find a mechanic. Clearly God saw ahead of our need and there was one not too far from town. So with moderately full bellies and a relatively simple repair done free of charge (isn't God cool?), we were on our way.

A crystal Waterford Coat of Arms.

Wexford was a cute little town -definitely on my list of places I'd visit again. We took a day and drove over to Waterford, the oldest town in Ireland, where Molly and I took a tour of the Waterford Crystal factory while the rest of the family (who took the tour during their last visit) wandered the town. It was really fascinating to see the process of creating the beautiful crystal. My favorite part was the sculpting/engraving room. We ended the tour in the store portion, but a couple glances at price tags and I came away with memories rather than a souvenir.

Back in Wexford, we drove east out of town with Johanna and Eva to take a walk along the beach and search for shells. I'd never seen black shells before, but apparently they're common on the Irish Sea. It was a wonderful sunshiny day, though the temperature still reminded us it's November. As always, I'd be happy to stay at the beach for forever, but we'd had enough fun and exercise I think we even wore Biscuit out.

Sunday we drove back to Drewstown and took up the continued renovations. Before our trip we were working on painting and installing baseboards along with mudding and taping the section of wall that had to be torn out because of water damage and wood worm. This week our to-do list has consisted of everything floors. We rented a drum sander and circular edger from Kells and went to work on three rooms on the top story of the house. It took quite a bit of elbow grease as we were fighting with a combination of unfinished boards, carpet glue and old paint -I'm talking super old, as in original floor paint that was more like glue. Next up is staining the floors and we'll have much of the upstairs projects completed. Here's a look at the work being done.

The black is old paint.

Stole this pic from the Scherrer's. See? I work too!

Before.

Post-sanding -half way done.

Mudding and taping complete.

Scraping walls. It's a family affair.

We have made impressive progress since I first arrived here, but there is always more work to be done! I'm also pretty proud of the "skills" that have been added to my repertoire as well. I have learned how to plaster walls, sand floors, install baseboards, trim hedges and have added to my previous (however minute) experience with scraping, painting, staining, mudding and taping, power tool using and plenty of cleaning. Things I have learned: not to breathe in lime mixture, plastering corners is hard, oil based paint doesn't come out of your hair, don't let go of the sander while it's running, sometimes you have to "just walk away," and paint chips will work their way out of your eyes, even if it isn't till the next morning. I have loved it all and I wouldn't trade my time here in Ireland for anything. Except for maybe a medium supreme pizza with extra pepperoni... maybe.
    

Operation floors in effect.