Finished!!!...

Wednesday I finally finished the last of the murals for Leapin' Lizards. Gee, it's only taken a month & half to do 4 1/2 walls, since I was there every free moment that I wasn't in school. But you can tell I was getting pushed for time on the last couple, they're not as detailed as the fish mural was, and so they're not as realistic. You can really tell on the princess in the window that I painted last, I had to do her and the banner and paint a table with zebra stripes in another room all in the same day, so they were pretty rushed.

I had already painted the background scenery a week earlier, so I just had to paint a quick banner. Which might I add, is not easy to draw freehand on a large scale like this and try to make it look even on both sides!

So Wednesday when I was finished painting I was recruited to help with the make-ready on the rest of the building. The owner's been paying Hubby to help with the construction stuff, along with a whole host of other folks scrambling to get it all done, so she said she'd pay me to help too. She has 22 kids parties scheduled for this weekend starting Friday (today). On Wednesday evening she had the city Health Inspector come do an inspection, and the inspector was brutal. She gave a whole list of things to the owner that needed to be fixed before the business could be opened on Friday. So Hubby and I stayed until midnight Wednesday, came home for a few hours, and then went back early Thursday morning to continue working. My job for the most part was caulking- EVERY SINGLE NAILHOLE AND EDGE SEAM in the roughly 20,000 sq ft building had to be caulked. Especially the kitchen area, which has a zillion seams everywhere, and some back behind large kitchen equipment that had to be moved, it was such a pain. As I sit here typing my hands STILL have black caulk on them that I can't get off!

Anyway, I can't even begin to describe the pandamonium Wednesday night through Thursday night, with everyone running around like their heads are cut off, trying to get it all done before the Health inspector came back for the final inspection that night. They also had their Fire Inspector come out at the same time to add to the chaos.


And one more note about the Health inspection... it's almost ironic how many UNSAFE acts we were doing to satisfy the items on their list. Here I was after getting hardly a wink of sleep, up on a rickety ladder 25 feet in the air trying to spackle holes in the tops of the walls, and straining ourselves moving heavy equipment in the kitchen area, and running my fingers along edges of sheet metal to smooth the caulk on them (yes I did cut myself, luckily the caulk sealed the cut!)

But it's all worked out in the end and the inspections were passed. Last night Hubby and I went to the sports bar to watch Denver lose and I had several Hot Toddys. There's still some small things that need to be finished on a later day. When we go up there again, I'll take some photos of the rest of the building with the games and inflatables and everything. It's a pretty neat place.


And most importantly, it's ready to be opened! Hubby and I are taking a friggin' DAY OFF today and doing absolutely NOTHING! No schoolwork, no construction, no painting!!! Just lounging around in our pajamas, playing Madden football and Pogo games, hot cocoa in hand.