Drywall-in process

Butch is standing in the bedroom watching them work in the main room.

Photo taken from breezeway door. Of the two doorways  the left is bedroom and the right is bath

Door on the left is out to the back yard

This is the bedroom- taken from bedroom doorway in the main room

Taken from the front door looking into main room

Looking at front door and future kitchen area

Doors from left: Bedroom,bathroom and front door.

Looking at the breezeway door while standing near the front door.

Standing in the closet looking through the bedroom to the main room.

Standing in the closet looking through the bathroom to the main room

Standing in east end of closet looking toward west end. Door in pic is the bedroom

Standing in west end of closet looking east. Door in pic is bathroom

Butch decided he needed to check shower plumbing for leaks before they drywall. No more to say from here about that. So yesterday he put most of it together in the garage and then when the drywall guys left for the day we plumbed it so we could check for leaks. I said a little prayer for a leak free outcome and my prayers were answered. I was more than a little grateful and I know Butch was as well. Since he had so much of it done ahead it really did not take all that long. Leo and Keri stopped by just as we finished.

They should finish the hanging of drywall and start on the taping and mudding today.

It is coming along and looking very different. This is the day we would have been heading for the Clay County Fair but the gang will have all the fun without us this year. I do have 5 pictures entered so if you are up in the area during the fair have a look see for me.

Drywall application has Begun

The crew showed up bright and early this morning and started right in applying drywall. It is looking quite different in our little house tonight. I will wait for pictures until they are finished. That may not be for a week or so although they certainly came a long way in one day. The next step will be paint. That is when I get super busy in the house....Butch will be in charge of supper. Hmmm

Brady is tired!

Still taking after Grandpa Leo!

Elise videos

Papa Gary sent some Elise videos.

http://youtu.be/wdulQyXvwqE

Playing with Doctor's kit:
http://youtu.be/2-FpmIPyLl8

Elise singing songs. She usually is more clear with the words but she's in a silly mood:
http://youtu.be/TEu3r5DiPG0

Elise singing and dancing

http://youtu.be/7XMQtT2-Wzk

Gary has very little time these days. He is teaching math and coaching football. Here is a picture of the football team. He is the farthest coach on the right.

I know he would rather be watching his granddaughter grow.

Another Roadtrip

We borrowed Leo's pickup, which he felt the need to clean and fill with fuel before loaning it to us. Silly Boy! And made our way back to the Habitat Restore to pick up the doors. That place is a zoo on Saturday's. I love the place. Butch not so much. Butch planned to go back to Jefferson through Ames until I reminded him of the football game and that sealed it. We made another stop at the Clive Menard's where the naughty boys work. I think they need new and tougher management in that store. Their personnel do not act like they want you interrupting their day,thus I call them the naughty boys. We stopped at Adel for lunch. The plan was to eat at Patrick's but they were closed for the holiday so we chose the 169 Burger Barn. It was an excellent choice. We ordered a quesadilla and it was excellente and large enough to fill us both. Matter of fact it was a bit too much. We would eat there again without question.
When we returned home we swapped back to our vehicle stopping at Colleen's to see how she was since she had passed on walking due to a painful lower back caused by weeding. She was doing a bit better. We visited briefly stopping at the DQ on the way home.
And that pretty much took care of our Saturday.
In a few minutes here I plan to paint doors so Butch can get the hardware on them and finish the install of the pocket doors. I will take a few detail pics for those contemplating adding them to their home. The best and about only place we have found hardware for pocket doors is www.johnsonhardware.com  .

WooHoo!!

It seems if you have enough spare time to just sit and contemplate the next event to take place in the house all sorts of things come to mind. We had forgotten about wiring to TV's and Heaven's to Betsy I do not want wires hanging all over the place when they can be hidden in the walls. Butch did have the forethought to put the electrical boxes in the vicinity of where the TV's will be mounted. The TV's, as many of you know are much more important to one of us.
Yesterday I did get out my tape measure and tape to mark out the footprint of the kitchen cupboards and appliances. This aided Butch in knowing that we were going to have a plug-in hidden behind an exhaust fan so that needed changed and so done.
This afternoon we were sitting in the house and both of us had left our phones in the the other house, otherwise known as the MoHo. Butch came out to get them and had a message from Chad the dry wall installer  that he plans to be here next Tuesday. And that is what the WooHoo!! is all about.

Roadtrip

We decided to venture into the big city (Des Moines) on a fact finding mission. And we did indeed find some facts. Fact number one. We spend too much time in Lowes. One of the funny things that happened is the guy who sold us our shower called us from Lowes while were in Lowes. He called to tell us it should be here next week. This Lowes was in Ames so we ate lunch at Hickory Park...again and then headed south to the big city. We needed a new air filter for the motorhome so we made our way to Freightliner where the air filters are $30 cheaper than the Freightliner in Sunny South Texas. Prairie Meadows Casino is near Freightliner so of course we had to stop by there. I made $.51. Butch would not mention what happened to him. Fact number two. Casinos take your money and very quickly too. Then we passed by a Menards and they have vinyl plank flooring on sale so we stopped to check it out and see how it compared to Armstrong at Lowes. It is $.50 cheaper per square foot and the quality seemed to be comparable. The sale goes through Labor Day and it would take a week to get it so we decided to come home and order it online and then perhaps the timing would be better. The space to put things is at a premium and 40 boxes of flooring is going to take up some space. Our next stop was the Habitat for Humanity ReStore found at I-235 and Euclid. I have long been a fan and receive their email regularly. We found our pocket doors for $10 a piece! They are not an expensive item costing in the neighborhood of $30 each but still that is a savings of $80 since we need 4 of them. Paint is dirt cheap too ( $5 a gal) and the color choices are on the lids. Butch found a couple of parts that were $15 at Lowes and we paid 25 cents. That is right folks. 25 cents! And I purchased all our paint tool supplies for less than $10. Fact number three. It pays big to shop at the ReStore. Very cool store.
By this time we were late in the day and fighting the going home traffic to get out of town. Did a fast Wal-Mart stop in Grimes and then came back to Jefferson stopping at a local restaurant for supper. It is a restaurant we do not usually patronize but I was hungry for chicken and Butch was liking pizza. They had soup which I decided to taste and I liked it. I did not eat much of it because there were so many other things to eat that I liked better. I noticed it wasn't very hot but for me it was hot enough. Little did I know that 4 hours later I was going to wish I had never seen the soup. How do I know it was the soup? I really do not know but it was the only thing I ate that Butch did not so that narrows it down. It was a violent bathroom experience of the upper variety. I have not yet graced my tummy with any type of sustenance this morning although I am feeling a bit hungry. May try some toast. Fact number four. There is a restaurant in Jefferson I am not going to be anxious to patronize again.
So you can see it was indeed a fact finding day.
PS: I will tell you privately the name of the restaurant if you have a desire to know and have not already figured it out.

Trim job

Yesterday we managed to get our place trimmed up, mowed and weeded. It was easy to let it go most of the summer because it did not grow much. But now that we have done it, it looks so much better.
Today we are going on a shopping run. Notice I said shopping and not buying. Best to do it that way. Life has taught me it never hurts to mull over potential purchases for a few days or even weeks . We have a long list of things to look at today. We may not get through all of them. As we add up the years it also adds up the time it takes us to do things.
If I have the energy I will check in later about our shopping trip. No post will equal no energy.

Drywall Delay

We are ready for the drywall installer but he is not ready for us. Current job is taking longer than expected. I suspect ours will as well. He might be able to make it next week. So we find us once again in a hurry up and wait situation. The hurry up part is done.
We could go buy things we will need next but we have no place to put it till the drywall is installed. hmmm Catch 22.
I do have a list of things we can get finished in the meantime. So that is what we will be working on. The motorhome needs a good cleaning. A trip to the landfill is on the agenda and that should give us a little extra room and various other odds and ends.
We may even work in a bike ride.

Click to make it bigger...

A rare day

Morning walk cancelled due to rain. I checked radar on the computer when I got up and it showed that it should be raining with much more to come. Less than a handful of times have we missed our walk due to rain. Maybe twice that I can think of.

Well, the house is ready for drywall installation. All construction materials and aids have been moved to the garage. The floors have been vacuumed. It is clean and ready. Russ is coming today to install pocket doors. The place is looking good. We have had some 95 degree days and it has remained quite cool in the house. The inside temperature has not been above 85 and it took all day to get to that degree.

It looks much larger with everything removed. I am sure that will change as we add back cupboards, furniture, fixtures etc. We are now into the fun part where the fruits of our labors all come together.

Now onto other computer work while I listen to the soft patter of raindrops on the roof.(motorhome) It could go all day and no one would care.

Remembering- Lexi

Lexi - A Kind Spirit always ... March, 2000 to August 21, 2012 

Leo and Keri's dog Lexi passed this week. I remember when Elise was just starting to walk and we visited Leo and Keri and Lexi was so careful of her, taking care not to bump into her. Lexi was a special dog.

Company!

We have had lots of drop by company and that is always a pleasant break from whatever chore we are on at the moment. Yesterday Pecan Bill and Kay stopped by. They had been to Colorado to visit their son Mike and are headed back to the Davenport Iowa area to stop in on their son Craig before heading home to Ohio.
We were very surprised and hope they can stay for much longer next time. If you are a regular reader of the blog you know who Bill and Kay are but if not I will tell you they are longtime friends and neighbors from Magnolia Park. We winter with them every year.

We are waiting on the drywallers. There are a few things to do yet but we could be ready for them in very short order. We are also waiting on Russ to come finish up the pocket doors. The hardest part of this whole business is the waiting game. When I look back at where we were when we started we have come a very long way...and we still have a fair amount left like, painting walls, trim work, flooring, bathroom installations, kitchen cabinets,sink and appliances. But we have come far enough this year for me to say if we do not get much farther it can wait till next summer. Next summer's end should be the end of anything major in the putting back together a house.

Odds and ends

We have been clearing up odds and ends on the house getting things ready for the drywall installer. He said he might be able to get here the end of this coming week. We went to an auction Saturday. There were interesting items there but we are still being cautious. Not quite ready because we still do not have a designated spot for whatever we might buy and we have the wonderful position of being able to wait on things until it feels completely right and not just okay.
We did buy a couple of electric carving knives to use in trimming up insulation in a few spots. It works wonderfully for that purpose. They may show up on a sale table in Magnolia park when we are finished with them. The auction was fun though. I think it is always interesting to see what people will pay for things.

We have heard that once the overpass is finished in Jefferson that they will build barricades to prevent people from going around the arms and then they will not be required to blast their horns on the trains. We have great hopes that these rumors are true. Living near trains does build up a tolerance but the silence would be golden.

And that concludes the odds and ends...

Insulation Day-August 16th

I do not know what there is about August but it always seems to get very busy. I noticed this last year as well....and today was insulation day as well as a planned visit with my first cousin once removed Joanna Neff. Joanna, her son Caleb, Colleen and I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon visiting at Colleens while Butch was in charge of watching the insulation installation. The installers from Iowa Foam Insulation out of Carroll Iowa were in no need of supervision. They treated our house as their own and insulated it very well even throwing in extra little things not on the quote. We were very pleased with the job they performed.

All of these photos were taken with natural light. This is looking into the bathroom.

The bedroom

Door on the back of the house

Living room window on the west side of house

The south wall -door leads to breezeway

Future kitchen

To the right of the front door- future kitchen

To the left of the front door-part of kitchen- future crafting area

looking up in the attic 

Kitchen area and attic

west end of closet

east end of closet

In the bedroom looking toward the breezeway door

in the bathroom looking toward future kitchen

The attic area looks as if a giant blizzard came in and filled it with snow.

More attic

and even more attic

You can see our RV in the back yard

Another attic shot

Looking up into Attic in breezeway area

Things fall into place...

Way back on June 1st. when I was a bit perturbed that things were not moving in a forward direction and in a snit I made a note when the insulation would be installed in the back of my notebook. The date was August 15th. Yesterday the phone rang early A.M. asking if we could be ready by today! We said we could so our plans for the day immediately changed course. We had 3 vents to install. Butch had to get the start of the walls for the shower in place. Everything had to be moved away from exterior walls and there was lots of that stuff. We had previously covered light switch receptacles so we didn't have that to do. We figured we could easily get it done and we got it done but by the end of the day it did not feel easy. Friends of ours from Corning Iowa, Jerry and Edna Walker, we know because they too go to Magnolia Park stopped by and took us to lunch. Their timing was perfect and it gave us a most pleasant break. They got the grand tour of the house and plan to come back again to see our finished project and perhaps get some golf played. We look forward to that for more than one reason!
So today they are installing the insulation and they should be done in a couple more hours. That will definitely change the looks of the place. Butch called our drywall guy and he said he was tied up til later next week but even so things seem to be galloping along pretty good right now. Pictures later!
Singing a happy tune...

Papa Leo with Brady

Naked Ladies with Bicycle

Zoomed in on the Prez bus

A busy three days...

Saturday night I failed to mention that Jason, Laura and Ethan came over to eat out at the A & W drive in as well as visit with us. So I have two Ethan stories. Laura and Jason told us to be careful with our keys because they could end up in Boone. Ethan loves keys and as far as he is concerned keys belong in pockets so if he would happen to find them lying about he might decide they belonged in a pocket and possibly his pocket. And then when we were at the A & W a very noisy youngster came in looking to be about Ethan's age. He was fussy and crying. I asked Ethan,"What do you suppose his trouble is?" He said  very quietly and simply, "naughty".  I thought that was very insightful. Ethan is getting more talkative every time we see him.

Sunday Butch and I went to Leo and Keri's to assist with laying a laminate floor. Really we wanted the experience before tackling our own floor installation. I was inspector and Butch and Leo were the main  installers. Keri and Emily fed us very well for our efforts. Their floor looks great.

This is in process but it is easy to tell what a great look it will have when finished.

Today Butch and I made our way to Ames for my final eye exam after my second cataract surgery. That was all good. Then we had lunch at the famous Hickory Park restaurant. It was a wonderful lunch. We made better choices than the last time we ate there. Then we were off to Lowes. Butch needed to look over the showers so he can get the walls built to accommodate the shower. Butch wanted a one piece fiberglass shower and I had conceded to it but the first question asked was how wide are your doors. Answer 32 inches. Cannot get a 36 inch shower through a 32 inch door. So we will be getting an Onyx shower...the one I wanted to begin with. Pricey though, but this time we do not have a choice. We also looked at flooring and chose the design and type but did not place the actual order yet.

Then we headed home. Now we knew President Obama was going to be in Boone Iowa today. We go through Boone on our way home from Ames. He had not arrived in Boone when we came through but on the way home about 3 miles east of town we met up with the bus tour and about 30 or 40 state troopers and other escort cars to the Prevost bus containing the President . We had to pull off on the shoulder because they take up both lanes of the highway. I tried to get pictures but they didn't really show much but I will include one that we will say the President was riding in. There were two buses and we had no way of knowing which one held the President.

 We have had three very busy days but they have been fun too!

Friend Mickey's Granddaughter

 She train's wild mustangs
http://youtu.be/d04lDOu3J18

Lately

Butch played in a golf tournament yesterday. There are three courses in and near Jefferson and they hold a 3 course tournament every year and he has looked forward to playing in it and this time it worked out.
So Colleen and I planned a road trip. We went to Cumberland to see my old friend Floyd Pearce. I do not have the time or the patience to tell you all there is to know about Floyd. I have known him about 30 years and have just scratched the surface of who he is. I knew Colleen would enjoy him because they think along the same lines in many areas.
So off to Cumberland we went stopping at Floyd's house for poetry and much much conversation. And then Floyd treated us to lunch at Scooters. Scooter's is located where the senior center used to be and where I was manager for 14 years. Then Floyd had to be off to Lewis Iowa  where he volunteers as a tour director and oh so much more at Hitchcock House. Floyd is in his mid 80's and how he keeps up the pace is mindboggling.
Here are some photos from the day and be sure to check out the Hitchcock House website at http://www.hitchcockhouse.org/:

Floyd sharing his poetry with us. We loved it!

Floyd has a vineyard and these are some of his grapes

This old pump  in his yard is from the original house .

Colleen put together a whimsical stack.

Prairie plow

The Pottawatamie Indians had a settlement and the Mormon trail are within view in this photo

Floyd conducting a tour. Colleen in the hat.