When I wrote last week’s column I was “summer” cleaning. This week I’m still cleaning, and I will be cleaning for some time — in between my other jobs. While I work, memories of times spent with family members in this house just keep flowing.

For example, yesterday as I vacuumed the carpets on the living and dining room floors, I couldn’t help but be reminded of those days when these same floors were littered with air mattresses as grownup kids, grandchildren and sometimes the grandchildren’s friends got ready to sleep away the night. The couch was made into a bed, too, and sometimes we made room for an army cot as well.

In later years, great-grandson Brian often slept in a playpen set up in the living room.

Our two-bedroom house isn’t very big, but over the years nobody has seemed to mind. It certainly didn’t stop the sleepovers. In fact, to some youngsters it was fun. When grandchildren Jessica and Megan were young they piled blankets and pillows under the dining room table to make a dandy bedroom with a roof and everything. I remember one night when youngest grandchild, Jaycee, joined them, at least for awhile, to watch a movie on a DVD player before they went to sleep.

Sometimes grownups slept in the living/dining rooms, and when grandson Kenny was an older teen he and friends often spent the night before going on snowmobiling or hunting adventures early the next morning. Especially memorable was one night when young adult Kenny was repairing fence up on summer pasture at Morapos where the family cattle grazed. He set up a tent there where he hoped to enjoy a sleepover in the midst of nature. Turns out, it rained.

It was about midnight when Kenny came down to the house. I heard his truck as it turned into the driveway. I was concerned that something was really wrong. I didn’t turn the lights on. I just met Kenny as he opened the door.

The only words I could manage were: “What’s wrong?” I scared the kid to death.

It turned out that the rain had gotten Kenny’s bed wet, and he gave up trying to sleep in it and decided to drive down to the house. He thought he could sneak into the house without waking me up and make a bed on the couch. We have laughed about the incident over the years. (In later years, Kenny did sneak into the house without waking me, and he was pretty smug about it).

Entry into the house is first into an enclosed porch and then into the living room. The porch is where there is a freezer and a wardrobe for hanging outdoor clothes. However, it isn’t large enough for a lot of clothes so family members have always piled their coats, gloves and hats on the freezer while boots and shoes are taken off and piled on the floor.

With the freezer lid covered with clothes, it has usually taken two people to retrieve food items from the freezer — one to hold onto the clothes so they don’t fall off the lid when it’s opened and another to try to find the food item.

As I clean, I realize that the house is showing its age and it certainly needs a little tender loving care, but the family growing-up years spent in it are worth a fortune.