Whatever You Do, Marry a Handy Man

Ok, let me rephrase:

whatever you do, marry a man who loves Jesus first and foremost.
THEN
make sure he's handy.

Well, those are requirements just for me.
But they're not a bad start.

I had a list, that I didn't know I had, when I was growing up.
I wanted to marry a man who:

- loved Jesus
- could rebuild a carburettor
- lead his family spiritually
- would go hunting
- frame a house
- know how to handle firearms
- be a leader
- could grill

Ok, random, and not complete and most certainly not all in order but I think I got a man who fits all that AND can sing and play the fiddle.

What?!

Jackpot to Jordan.

Anyhow, sometimes on here I do completely-unrelated-to-anything posts and today is such a day. I wanted to share some amazing things my husband did for me.
If I can dream it, he can build it.

This is an invaluable trait to have in a husband when you are a Pinterest addict.
Amen.

It began when we were engaged. 

The man went all over his parents land finding cedar trees.

And he cut them down...

And made a bed for me for a wedding present.

For reals. 

Then once upon a time we had a hand-me-down TV cabinet from my aunt and uncle.

Sorry for the Christmas distractions--

I didn't really ever purposely take pictures of the cabinet.

Bippity, boppity, BACON!

Name that comedian. 

We didn't have the funds to buy a new cabinet, so we reimagined how to dress up the old.

This thing weighs about a bazillion pounds.

Mark swore after moving it once, he'd never move it again.

So it now lives at our dear friends house.

Hope you enjoyed moving it, Shane!

Then when it came time to build a big boy bed for Caedmon we co-designed this little number.

And then this shelf for Caedmon.

It's perfect playing height.

My stars and garters, I can see the FLOOR of that room.

I remember those good 'ol days when I'd clean my babies rooms for them.

Now it's every man for himself!

I'm merciless

I run a tight ship.

I can hear laughter from those who frequent my house...

After one apartment and 2 parsonages we finally bought our own home.

It was....a little rough to start with.

But the Andersons love a challenge!

One of these days I'll do a post solely of the evolution of that house.

I'll title it: "The House that Mark reBuilt"

But to give you an idea: 

this is what the living room looked like when we bought the house.

Hi sweet baby Nessie!

Annnnd this is what it looked like when we were finished with it.

Front door at purchase...

During 6 week remodel....

BOOM!

Everything in there was paneling and linoleum.

My nemesis.

It's ok if you choose to have those things in your home, 

I've just spent approximately 6,319 hours painting over paneling and tearing up linoleum in MY home.

I can't stand 'em.

We're not even friends enough to be FB friends

...and that's saying a lot.

But after all that time, we came to an understanding:

"You're 30 years old.

You've lived in my house a long time, paneling and linoleum;

too long, in fact.

It's time you moved out."

Oh yes, I can have these serious kinds of conversations in inanimate objects.

I always win those arguments.

Mark also does small projects that I think wold be fun.

This one is a toy box we did for Nessie's 2nd birthday.

But then he also does the GIANT projects.

This one was after we'd moved into the house. 

It was habitable when we moved in, but we still had work to do.

So Mark tackled Nessie's bedroom the next year.

Tax return time is when we do our remodels--for obvious reasons.

Mark is actually in the "john room" (toilet room) of our master bathroom.

Really cool it opened up through to Nessie's bedroom, huh?

Not.

Another favourite thing Mr. Anderson and I do is draw blue prints on graph paper.

That's how we started this project....

Sealing off the door and tripling Nessie's closet space!

LOVE!

Thanks, Handy Man Anderson.

Once we had Deenie the girl toy situation was getting out of control.

It was cheaper for us to buy lumber to do this than it was to buy an IKEA toy organiser.

But I do love me some IKEA.

Also, it was super way cuter, if I may say so myself.

It solved our toy woes perfectly!

 This was back during our first construction. 
Those curtains stayed up there like that for a year or better.

Voila!

Jordan designed, Mark made,
 lovely cornices to dress it up!

Anyhow, those are the photo documented projects we've done.

Seriously so much fun to do!

Mr. Anderson is my handyman, my project builder, my BFF and I love him.

Uh, yes ma'am I surely do.