Before

Everyone should plan a home maintenance boot camp with his or her kids in the summer. I have three teen boys and I know their dad spends time with them and teaches them how to use tools for woodworking, general maintenance, and do welding and many other things, but I thought that we hadn’t spent much time at all with them on how to do yard work or fix some things around the house. A couple of weeks ago (for a different purpose and a different story about Jasper) I started making a list of things that needed to be addressed or taken care of around the house. Soon I had a list worthy of an entire week long Home Maintenance Boot Camp, which I scheduled when there were no summer jobs or sports going on – so I know they didn’t have anything better to do (video games don’t count, sorry!).

The boys, for the most part, were awesome with their tasks (well, McKinley needed help engaging, but a few extra chores were added to his list as a result of his disengagement and quality control issues). One of my favorite moments was when Jasper and I went to the equipment rental place to rent a sander for the deck. Jasper marched right in there and told the guys what we were doing and what we wanted to rent. He listened intently as they gave us a couple of choices and then we decided which sander to rent. We grabbed a bunch of sandpaper sheets and were about to leave when one of the other guys came over and warned us that the machine we were about to rent was meant to be used by “flooring professionals” and that we risked making our deck uneven if Jasper wasn’t strong enough to keep it flat. I looked at Jasper and said, “I think this one will be fine and that you can handle it.” So he agreed, we’d still rent that one. We loaded it in the car and left with 4 guys starting at us with a “Stupid Girl” kind of grin on their faces. Exactly the kind of look that incentivizes me to prove them wrong… more on that in a minute.

Our list of Home Maintenance Boot Camp tasks:

• Spider webs – we have the most prolific spiders in the world hanging out at our house. The windows, corners, eaves, and deck chairs all have oodles of spider webs on them, which needed to be removed and brushed off.
• Door hooks – the raccoons have figured out how to get into the house by opening the sliding screen door, thus the need for hook & eye latches.
• Cat pan – pretty self-explanatory…
• Sticks – there were these decorative sticks that needed to be dismantled and recycled.
• Propane tanks – hook up the grill and make sure it works and won’t take off our eyebrows and lashes next time we use the grill.
• Drain & clean hot tub – also pretty self-explanatory. Although the filter was gross and needed to be replaced…
• Gate latch – fix one of the bolts that came clean out, now letting the latch hang down uselessly.
• Sprinklers & drip irrigation – those darn squirrels keep biting and eating the sprinklers and making them water the sidewalk and deck rather than the flowers and plants, as intended.
• Hanging planters – run drip irrigation to the hanging plants, get plants/planters, and install hooks.
• Gravel/walkway – calculate the amount of pea gravel & travertine needed to fill out the remaining walkway area.
• Sand and refinish the deck. I suppose this could have been power washed but I got it in my head that it really needed to be sanded and sealed.

I assigned certain tasks to each kid and explained each task. Not much happened the first few days of the week when I was at work. By Friday I was like, “Alright, you need more instruction, demo time to get started”… so, for the next three days, I did just about everything with them and that worked out well. Jasper and Bryce did a majority of the work and I actually ended up paying them $20 each for their extra work on the deck. The rest of the work was unpaid and the price of living here.

Jasper mastering the sander

Prep work

McKinley with the drill

Bryce scrubbing the hot tub

Jasper did an amazing job sanding the deck and it took us two days to do that and two days to seal it. Of course, the deck grew bigger once we removed all of the furniture and started sanding on it. Besides watching Jasper figure out how to use the sander, my favorite moment was when I returned the sander and the guys at the rental place wanted to know how it worked out and I beamed and said it was great. I think they were surprised. We got the last laugh and the deck looks beautiful.

A work in progress

Yes, but this really WAS my favorite kitchen spatula

Yes, it did stick to the hot tub cover

We have a couple of tasks that still need to be addressed – like the gate latch. I think I’m going to have to walk McKinley though picking out the right size bolt and going to Home Depot for the umpteenth time to get it. Although he could (and I wish he would) ride his bike down there and do it himself, and save me from having to go into that Godforsaken store one more time. We still need to calculate the amount of gravel and travertine needed to finish the side walkway, but everything else is done and looks fantastic.

I’m most proud that the kids did the work with VERY little complaining, and even then it was only the youngest complaining at all about the actual chores or tasks he had to do. The other two just complained that McKinley’s work was crappy (and it was in some cases, like when he was pounding the nails and drilling the screws back into the deck and left too many sticking up to tear the sandpaper on the sander. I had to go along afterwards and hammer the nails in again, which reminded me of when I was a kid and loved going on the roof to hammer in the gutter nails holding up the gutters.)

I think this whole Home Maintenance Boot Camp week has been a great example of how kids step up to meet our expectations. Others kept asking me how I got the kids to do the work. I just asked them. I made a list and assigned tasks. They stepped up and did the work, and they were awesome. I’m really grateful for what they did and what I learned along the way.

Hanging baskets completed

PS – Don’t tell them, but in fact, this week was so successful in my mind, that I have already started making a list of the next set of tasks for Home Maintenance Boot Camp, Part 2!