Extreme Home Makeover: Family Edition

For Thanksgiving break this year, the Skousen family loaded up the cars, trucks and SUV’s and headed to Mesa, Arizona.

Our lovely Aunt Dina lives in Mesa and due to some plumbing/flooding/years and years of wear and tear, her house was in desperate need of some TLC.

That’s exactly what we gave it.

We learned to paint, cut-in, spackle, blend, edge, tape, sand, scrape, gut, hammer, mud, scrub, screw, sand, repaint and so much more.

We did it all.
In under four days.

From sun-up til the late hours of the night, the little house was filled to the brim with family.

We had Miyasaki’s, Rust’s, Skousen’s and Horito’s tackling this feat from the inside out.
I believe there was a total of 53 of us. Not bad eh?

We arrived Wednesday night and got to work on ripping out carpet, spackling holes, scrubbing down walls and a million other things.

By Thursday morning we had gutted most of the house and got to work on scrubbing and sanding cupboards. We also started painting all the rooms. 

I love this first picture of Grandma down on the floor scrubbin, what a woman!

Paint. Paint. Pain. Paint.

We were sure to take breathers every so often.

We did take a quick break to enjoy a fabulous traditional thanksgiving dinner complete with my personal favorites: Pomegranate jello and onion casserole. By the end of our feast we were all sprawled out across the entire church passed out on the carpet, face down. Then it was back to work til 10 pm.

Friday morning came and so did a whole nother set of assignments. Again we worked and played and ate all day long.
P.S. We ripped out all the toilets of the house and therefore often heard shouts of "I'm going to Home Depot, who needs to use the bathroom?" What an adventure.
On Friday night, the Mexican Food God's visited us and fed us homemade carnitas. So good. So needed. Then back to work.

By Saturday morning we were worn out. But there was still work to be done. Carpet to be put in, fridges to clean out, cupboards to re-paint, hardware to install, furniture to be cleaned and moved back in and so much more.

My family left at about 6pm that night. The house had been transformed. It was amazing!

I can’t think of a better way to spend Thanksgiving than surrounded by family, immediate and extended, working side by side for a good cause. I got to know my cousins better and meet aunts and uncles I hadn’t seen in years. I learned so much about construction and about my family. Gosh I love them. This week has made me realize how blessed I am to live in the family that I do. I am indeed thankful for them and for this opportunity we had to grow closer together.

Thanks family!

Love, Noelle