A Gift of Home Improvement [PICTURES]

Last Christmas, the Erickson (my wife's family) kids and their betrothed promised a gift of a full day/weekend of labor plus some cash that my mother and father in law could use in any way they wanted. For their gift we helped them plant their garden, clean out some flower beds and replant them, build a walkway and more. The crowning achievement was designed and spearheaded by my brother in law, Paul, who we might as well call Bob Vila. This guy can build. He found simple design for a shade pergola to put on their back porch and we had it finished in one day!

It was a great family day, and seeing the results was extremely satisfying. I, for one, was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the day. These kind of jobs are what I did when I was a young man. I don't really do them anymore, because I have my job on the air, plus other businesses that I run, and it's often more cost effective for me to pay someone to do these things. If I do it, it takes me 5 times the as long, and I'm not good at it. So I haven't done a full day of this kind of work in years. I have to tell you, it felt great. Not "I want to do it everyday" great, but great nonetheless.