Winding down 2011

Here it is New Year's Even and I sit blogging.  I still have two hours left of this year.  I'll start partying soon.  Then again.. I might just go to bed.

We are still settling in to the farmhouse.  Our clothes are in boxes, on shelves and stacked up nose-high on dressers. Peter and I can't seem to agree on what should go where in the kitchen so it sits piled on the counter.  Our dining room still has two dressers in it. A work in progress to be sure.

We are not retrieving my things from storage just yet.  We peeked under the 1970's shag carpeting in the living room and found beautiful fir flooring.  Unfinished even.  Apparently when the house was built in the first half of the last century they tossed a carpet over it and never looked back.  We can't believe the luck!  It's like striking it rich at a goldmine.  Next week we're going to take out our meager furniture and start on the floors.  I'm very excited - although a week or two break wouldn't be entirely objectionable.  I'm starting to miss my fiber.

Jill came up for a couple of days and we found ourselves forced to shop.  We needed shower curtains, drawer dividers, storage cabinets.  Gobs of things.  It was a dirty job but someone had to do it.  We slapped lipstick on a pig and managed this fine product out of the guest bathroom:

The walls and fixtures are a lovely harvest gold - which honestly doesn't look too bad, considering.  I can live with it for awhile.

Today I had to put my daughter on a train headed south toward her home.  She passed her brother and his wife somewhere around Tacoma as they were headed up for a visit.  It was kind of like the changing of the guard.

At any rate - Kyle and Mary are here now.  They've gone to bed already as they've been up since 3:00 today.  Kyle helped us with the refrigerator swap.  It involved three refrigerators.  We took mine from storage and brought it into the farmhouse.  Took the one from the farmhouse and put it into the mother-in-law's suite (former batchelor pad), and then took the one from the batchelor pad to storage.  I found orange juice with a "best buy" date of July 9.  It was green.  Ewwwwww.

Now I must go join the non-festivities. 

Happy New Year!

Move it move it move it!

End of moving day one finds this blogger pooped.

I had this theory that since we were swapping houses I should not make any trips back and forth without my arms full.  So Peter's mom spent the day packing and boxing things up and I spent the day carting stuff from here to there and there to here.  Usually when one moves one at least has the trip back out to the moving van to gain some sort of recovery before the next armload.  Not today.

My trips back and forth were sufficiently hampered by pets. 

My cat, Monster, insisted on dashing out the door the second it was opened.  I would have to put my stuff down and dig under this and over that to fetch her and put her back.  I eventually had to incarcerate her in a pet carrier.

My chicken, Carmen was incredibly intrigued by all the goings on and she kept getting under foot.  Twice I found her on the porch trying to gain access to the inside of the house. 

House rules:  Cats stay in, chickens stay out and the dog has full rein.  To me these seem like simple rules.  I'm not sure why they struggle so.

By 4:00 I was telling Agnes (Peter's mom) that we still had our bedrooms to set up and there was no rush and we should stop moving stuff back and forth and concentrate on getting our bedrooms and the already moved items put away.  She happily agreed and when next I checked on her she was still packing things up.  This, of course, guilted me into continuing moving.  An hour later we had the same conversation with the same results.  An hour later the same thing.

Peter came home and did some of the heavy lifting.  By this point I was ready to drop but they both kept going.  How could I possibly stop?  By 7:00 I was almost ready to weep.  STOP MOVING ALREADY!

Fortunately they did finally stop.  However there is still a long way to go.  When I was finally allowed to sit, this is the view from a chair in my new living room.

Not very restful - but we're making it work.

Although there are many features I like in this farm house - a big kitchen, cove ceilings, arched doorway, I want to make some changes.  Most of the light fixtures (although I really REALLY like the one in the laundry room - it is trendily retro).  I want to paint everything.  Change the floors and the wallpaper.  Seriously.. Here's the wallpaper.  Should I keep it or should it go??  I'm voting for go.

Another thing I like about this house is that the master bedroom has it's own bathroom, with a BATHTUB!  I have a pile of stuff in there that still needs to be sorted through and put away - but I just think I may actually take a bath.    Ohhhh.. That'd be swell.

Midnight Madness

Peter has a job.  He has to go to the office and see patients, which means work around here, like building walls, has to wait until he get's home.

We started work around 7:00 after a run for more lumber.  By 9:00 the framing was finally done.

By 11:00 the drywall was almost finished.

By midnight the drywall was completely done.  We still have to mud and paint but that's the easy part.

And.. somewhere under all that drywall is a construction lovenote.

Today's progress means the move is actually on for tomorrow.  We will finish up the details (mud and paint) afterward.  With Jill getting here on Thursday and Kyle and Mary coming on Saturday we really need to get moved so they have places to sleep.

Still on Tenterhooks?

Still on Tenterhooks?

Let me put you at rest over that right now.  We didn't get the closet done.  Monday Move day will have to become Tuesday Transfer.  Tis very sad. 

We spent the morning exchanging presents and generally relaxing.  It was Christmas morning after all. Then we went for a lovely drive to Silver Lake and Maple Falls.  The weather isn't particularly cold today but it has been.  There was ice on the lake that glistened and sparkled, the water pushed it to shore in sheets that stacked up on each other.  It was beautiful.

After relaxing and enjoying the day, we finally got around to working on the closet about 6:30 pm.  We already had time working against us.  We made some progress and then it became apparent that I wasn't really being very helpful.  I'm not sure if there just wasn't much for me to do or if I just wasn't in the mood.  Anyway - I found other useful ways to keep myself busy, dishes, facebook, dancing with the cats and Peter continued building. 

Then we ran out of wood.

Construction ceased about 8:00

We have most of the framing done.  We still need to put in studs.  And of course the sheet rock.  And mud.  And paint.

I just hope it doesn't become Wednesday Welocate.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve fun!  This certainly has not been a traditional Christmas Eve.  No kids around.. No meals to plan, no presents to wrap.

Instead - construction.  We were supposed to get to work on closet building right off the bat this morning.  The problem?  It turns out my husband is pretty much a typical man. Quite an eye-opener for me because up until this point I really believed he was anything but typical.

We had just finished our morning coffee this morning when he looked at me and said..

"I have to go to town." 
I said, "without me?" 
His reply:  "Yes, without you." 

You know what that means... he had to finish his Christmas Shopping..  Maybe even start it.  No amount of prying could make him tell me what he was up to.  Oh well - I'll find out tomorrow.

Once he got back from his errands we had to eat lunch, then go all the way to Bellingham to purchase sheet rock, THEN we got to work on the walls.  About 7 pm.  sigh..

At 8:00 I was enthusiastically cutting sill seal.

By 9:30 we had some studs.

We quit at 10:30.. 
Wall is not finished.  Monday Move Day might be a bit touch and go. 
Are you on tenterhooks?  I am!

Merry Christmas! 

Be good humans.

I'm in hot water - Thank goodness!

Today was flooring day.  I'm sure I've mentioned it (like a gazillion times).  By this time we should be getting very good at it, and we are! Flooring a room now takes us hours instead of days.  We still have a lot of opportunity to use these skills again.  In the spring we will be converting the garage into additional living space in the batchelor pad and at some point we will most likely be putting down new floors in the farm house.

Yesterday we put self leveling stuff on the concrete floor and last night we applied sealer. We set the hot water heater in place this morning and got started on the floor at noon.

By 3:30 we were ready to install the last row.  3 1/2 hours!  See?  We're getting good!



By 5:00 we were actually hooking up and filling the hot water heater.  I tell you..  these are the best inventions ever created by man.  Give me hot running water over microwaves, dishwashers, electric blankets and toasters any day.  I'd even take hot running water over sliced bread - which is apparently the pinnacle of greatness (so they say).

After dinner we began laying out the outline for a wall we'll be building tomorrow.  This wall is going to provide a partition creating a hallway and shelving between the two doors on the one side and a closet and a more intimate bedroom space on the other.

We "decided" to call it a day by 8:30...

Countdown: T minus 4 days

This little house on the ditch has no hot water.  The hot water heater is sitting in the driveway.  If we want hot water out of it, we will need to set it on fire.  We can't re-install it until the flooring is down - and we still have to put leveler and sealer down before we put the flooring down.

My "dresser" is a saucony shoe box I keep tucked under the bed (talk about downsizing!). 

Peter, myself, two cats and a dog are living in approximately 300 square feet.

Thank GOODNESS we've set a move date for Monday.  Just 4 full days away.

Tomorrow we put down the stuff that levels out the floor.  While that's drying I'm going to pick and choose what we can move into the farm house.  Friday we should be able to put down the new floor.  Saturday we'll build the closet.  Sunday is Christmas!  Monday - we move.  Tuesday & Wednesday we start moving stuff about and getting organized.  Thursday Jill get's here. Saturday she goes home and Kyle and Mary get here.

It's sure nice I don't have to worry about what I'm going to be doing from one day to the next.

Ceilings, walls & floors

Saturday was "Wash the walls and patch the holes in the walls and ceiling" Day.
Yesterday was "Prime the ceiling" Day (as well as "visit the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and eat copious quantities of Pad Thai" Day).
Today was "Wash more walls, apply 'Kilz' where necessary and paint the walls" Day.  You probably thought it was Monday.  Ha ha.. you would have been wrong.
Today may also be move the "hot water heater so I can paint behind it and we can put flooring under it" day.
Tomorrow will be "Put another coat on the walls" Day and hopefully "Seal the floor" Day.
Then there will need to be:
A day for skim coating the floor.
A day for laying the new flooring.
A day for building a closet, and of course painting it.

I'm getting a little punch drunk.   As I was painting the walls today I got a little silly.  The previous color of the walls could best be described as the color of dried up orange sherbet.  You know - how it darkens and loses it's orangie-ness unevenly after it sits in the freezer for two or three years?  (Not that I've ever done that).  The new color is a creamy color called distant white.  It looks much better and provides a nice contrast to the old color for writing words on the wall.

Racing toward the finish line...

Christmas is just 7 days away.  Kyle and Mary will be here in just 14 days.  I'm so glad we are making progress!

Yesterday I moved the bed into the living room.  It's quite cozy in here and I can drink my coffee while still in bed.  Gosh.. It's so cozy I can almost MAKE my coffee while still in bed.

The bedroom had 5 different kinds of carpeting in it.  There was an orange shag, a brown swirly patterned atrocity, and orange swirly patterned piece, another incredibly ugly and gross piece and then a salvagable beige berber over the top of that.  You can see three here:

By two o'clock the ceiling was coming down and the carpeting was coming up.

Sparky supervised.. and because there was a risk of asbestos in the popcorn ceiling, she wore protective gear:

By 10:00 pm the ceiling was all down and the carpeting was all out.  Tomorrow I attack the walls with bleach  (there seems to be a bit of a mold issue) and start filling holes and prepping the ceiling for the new finish.

Gotta love the Haaaaaa-lidays!

Thanksgiving was lovely.  Wish I had a photo to share but would you believe I forgot to take any pics??

Peter and I rented a house down on the Oregon coast for 5 days and the kids came over and joined us.  Jill, Kyle, and his bride, Mary were there. The house was strange but we were all together.. as it should be.  We did jigsaw puzzles, played card games, went to the beach.  We harvested mussels and feasted on the bounty.  Jill was only able to come for Thanksgiving day.  (Peter and I briefly discussed the legalities of kidnapping my daughter and forcing her to relocate up here.  Would it be a crime if I'm her parent?)

Christmas is going to be hard for me this year.  Not only is it the first one with out my mother, but neither of my beloved children can be here for Christmas and it's really not possible for us to go there again so soon.  That's the bad news and it's sad news.  I'm slightly comforted by the fact that they will be spending Christmas with their father.  Something they haven't done in years so it's certainly past time for it.  Other good news is that Kyle and Mary are coming for the New Year and will be able to be here for most of a week.  Jill is trying to make arrangements to be able to join us as well.  (It would be a perfect time for a kidnapping!)

So now the push is on to move.  Today is the 11th, they will be here the 31st.  Yikes!  The trick is to coordinate the move with Peter's mother.  She has to move in here the same time we move in there.  We still have the floor, ceiling and walls to finish in the bedroom but we're taking stuff, one closet and armful at a time, into the big house.  I'm figuring a week (20 days tops) and we'll be moved - if not settled.  All of this chaos and activity will be the perfect remedy for my holiday blues.

Now I should go

no time to chat

I must grab a load

of this and that

Happy Holidays