I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a traditional Thanksgiving, which for us always includes a house-related project. We don't have any projects to do at our house so this year we planned to install new windows in our grandkids' bedroom.

After a recent local fire I got extra nervous about the fact that the windows in their bedroom were not openable. When our boys were little we lived in a house with the same problem and we didn't have the money to fix it. We do have the money now.

We've replaced windows at Chris and Lorna's house before. Getting the old windows out is half the battle so, in preparation, Steve took off the aluminum storm windows on Wednesday. I joined him and, luckily, before busting out the first window, we unwrapped the replacement and guess what—it was wrong! All three windows went back to Lowe's and we are now waiting for new ones. Sigh. The Thanksgiving project will be moved closer to Christmas.

However, Thanksgiving just doesn't feel right to us without a project so we came up with a new one. Steve did some promised sheetrock patching in their living room and then went home to prepare the turkey dinner. Chris and I put a back on a leaning bookcase—it no longer leans—and then we spent several hours tidying up their mudroom. That included knocking off the glitery, flaking, ugly popcorns from the ceiling. That's not me in the photo, but you get the idea.

I wore a dust mask, but not a hat or goggles, which would have been a good idea. I didn't use water, but I did use a wide scraper just like that drywall knife. It took almost no effort because no one had ever painted over the popcorns.

TIP: If you have a ceiling with popcorns that you don't like, don't paint it! Scrape the popcorns off. It took less than a half hour for the 7' x 10'-ish room.

Chris decided what to take to Goodwill and what to keep. He decided how to rearrange everything, while I almost successfully didn't make (many) suggestions. It was fun to spend the time together! 

I know why holidays feel like the time for projects to me and to Steve. We would always head home for the holidays and we always took part in projects at my mom and dad's. And once my dad (a project king) died, mom still had things that had to be fixed. I blogged about building her fence at Christmas in 2009… good times, as Jeff would say.

No matter how you are spending this holiday weekend, I hope it includes fun times with those you love :-).