Silence is not always golden

Abby and James have departed for their great two-week Costa Rican adventure. Dean and I are left alone in a quiet house. I hate the first 24 hours after my children leave. At least this time I'm not crying and feeling sorry for myself every time I pick up a toy and put it away. Probably only because Abby doesn't leave me any toys to put away. All of her toys are way too high-tech and cool to leave behind for me.

Departing children are not good for our finances. The sudden quiet drives us from home and next thing you know we're shopping as a distraction. This afternoon we're heading to the theatre for a movie. Normally I feel like I'm wasting my weekend if I spend it at a matinee and getting me to pay full price for a movie is pretty much impossible. Today I'm not only going to matinee but we're going to a first-run movie and not the $3.00 cheap seats. Still.....it should be cheaper than shopping.

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Silence is not always golden

Skiing

We just got back from cross-country skiing on the mountain. The trails were awesome, it was cold but calm and the trees covered in new snow were spectacular. The only disappointment was missing the one time James fell. I had anticipated an afternoon of belly laughs as he struggled to maintain his balance and became transformed into various pretzel shapes. He was a complete disappointment. We enjoyed a break mid-way through the ski to eat a homemade scone in the lodge, compliments of Abby, and then hit the trails again. We are now anxiously anticipating Dean's pot pie for dinner.

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Skiing

Feasting, Family and Fun

"Oink, oink" has replaced "ho, ho, ho" around here. Cookies, candy, pie, and creative martinis have been the overwhelming foods of choice with a few items from the bottom of the food pyramid sprinkled in. It's been a low-key, relaxing holiday with Abby and James. We've missed the chaos and craziness of two little girls running around but we tried to make up for it with our own special old people brand of craziness. We pulled out the last remaining cardboard from the kitchen cabinet boxes, bundled up and headed off to Pit Park to slide with the best of them. I had visions of crazy adults careening down the hill so fast our lips would flap. Just cuz we're old doesn't mean we can't keep up with the best of those little short people. Who needs a fancy plasic saucer or specially designed innertube?

Turns out we did. I was crushed and deflated to discover cardboard just doesn't have the slick, aerodynamic qualities I could have sworn it had. Instead of screaming down the hill on our bellies so fast our legs were flopping around in the air, we spent the bulk of our time taking a "running" start, "throwing" our bodies onto the cardboard with no thought of possible injury, sliding a few inches and then stopping dead as our noses dove onto the snow or cardboard. Instead of broken bones and the twisted and mangled bodies I expected at the end of the run I should have been more concerned about possible broken noses.

We managed to push, pull, tug or inch ourselves down the hill, every now and then experiencing the thrill of a slide while those plastic saucers, and specially made innertubes zoomed past us. We were the examples to all the others of determination, hard work and eventual success. Not everything in life comes easy. Not even fun. But before I go sleddin' again...........I'm buyin' a plastic saucer!

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Feasting, Family and Fun

Life is good

Friday I took a sick day to hopefully kick the rest of the bronchitis out of my body. My sick day plan did not include quality time with the plumber but it turned out to be painless and successful. You know you've had way too many plumbing issues when the plumber doesn't even ask for your phone number or address anymore. He just says, "I'll send Matt over." Matt arrived first thing Friday morning and said that the guys who installed the counter tops apparently had installed the upper portion of the faucet and screwed it in because he had only hooked up the other parts. All along I thought they'd just plopped it in there loose merely to make sure the hole they had cut was the right size. Turns out some nut up high had come unscrewed which is where the water was pouring in from. Maybe they didn't get it tightened enough the first time. Whatever happened, it's fixed now and so far no further problems.....knock on wood. I had a very nice visit with Matt as he was working and as he was preparing to leave I expressed to him how much I had enjoyed all the contractors who had been over and how much I enjoyed visiting with each and every one of them, "but I hope I never see any of you again for a very, very, long time."

The little pieces of my puzzle of a life are gradually being clicked into place. I am not ashamed to admit that I am a person driven by routine. I know there are people who thrive on change and surprise but I thrive on consistency, predictability and stability. Simple things such as not having my calendar or the wipe-off board hanging on the wall for three months were a constant irritant. They're back in place now, albeit with one of those temporary removable hooks, but they're there and I smile with contentment every time I walk by and look at them.

I actually stepped foot in the gym yesterday and went to yoga and pilates classes. My muscles were stiff before I went and sore after I left but it was great to be back.

We put up our Christmas tree and did our little bit of decorating. I couldn't make myself buy another cheap but dead, painted green Christmas tree this year. Honestly, in July it was still bright green lying out in the garden area. Don't ask my why Dean kept it because I couldn't tell you. I don't want to know. We bought a small fresh cut tree and the pine smell is worth the extra money.

Not being able to bake one cookie or loaf of bread for the past three months was driving me crazy and today I made up for it by spending six hours baking four kinds of cookies and some cranberry bread. It was one of the most enjoyable days I've had for the past three months.

And I finally feel healthy and bronchitis-free. Woo hoo! Things are lookin' up!


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Life is good

I will never ever remodel again...never

Merrily going about the business of cleaning up supper dishes. Water is running slowly to rinse dishes for the dishwasher when I notice water begin to pour out the bottom of the cupboard. Panic. Towels. Turning water knobs. There's a leak. I'm really, really, really unhappy.◦

I will never ever remodel again...never

Finished Is a Relative Term

I thought I would be spending last weekend putting a few things away and then baking my little heart out. However, as things tend to do, one thing led to another and the next thing you know it's Sunday afternoon and all I have baked is a batch of inedible breadsticks. Breadsticks so bad Dean didn't even argue when I said I was going to throw them away; and he's like Mikey. He'll eat anything.

The first project was a complete cleaning of the fridge, inside and out. I don't think it's sparkled that much since it was brand new. It's now humming happily in its new home. Once the fridge was no longer in the dining room we thought it might be nice to finally put the dining room/living room back in order. Of course we didn't want to do that without cleaning the floors while we were at it. The living room floor meets the entryway floor and that floor meets the hall which meets the bedrooms so next thing you know I'm cleaning every floor in the house. And if you're cleaning floors you don't want ten weeks of dust still left on all the furniture, baseboards, pictures and light fixtures. Get the picture? By the end of the weekend ten weeks of dirt and dust had been cleaned and just about every piece of furniture is back in its correct place. Woo Hoo! "All" we have left to do is tile and stain the woodwork. Once we tile we can oil the countertops and then they will look amazing. The dark spots on the counter in the photos are oil from my bread kneading.

The backsplash tiling has been postponed until after the holidays sometime. Groutgirl/tilebabe got sick and the weather was miserable for traveling anyway. Since we had time to take a breath and think a bit more about the tiling project I felt it would be prudent to review our tiling plan to be sure we were completely prepared for when that future tiling date would arrive. Much to our chagrin, we discovered that even though both the ceramic and glass tiles said they were four inches, they are not. The ceramic are bigger and the glass are smaller resulting in approximately 3/8" difference in their size. So much for mixing in glass tiles with ceramic tiles for some sparkle. We had to rethink the plan which means now we have way too many ceramic tiles and not enough glass tiles. The bad thing is, the glass tiles are, of course, the super expensive tiles. The good thing is, we reviewed the plan and have time to order more tiles and didn't discover this in the middle of tiling with a wall covered in adhesive.

The cabinet guy came this morning to hang the final glass door and install 3 replacement doors. This was my LAST contractor! There will be no more worker bees in my house when I come at home at night. I will be taking no more vacation to meet them at home. They were all very polite, professional, and friendly. I enjoyed visiting with each and every one of them and every one of them did an awesome job but I do not miss their company.

Now it's time to bake, relax, do something we actually want to do.............oh, wait. Didn't I say I was going to do that last weekend?




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Finished Is a Relative Term

Finishedenoughfornowtion

We now have a beautiful microwave which warms food at lightening speed.

We now have door frames and baseboards.

We have three glass doors (fourth to come soon).

We have cookbooks in a real shelf.

We now have tile but the actual tiling has been postponed until post-holidays due to illness and miserable travelling weather.

The last box has disappeared from the living room. We can see the living room floor.

Dean and I are taking the night off to relax. This weekend we tentatively plan to find homes for the rest of the "stuff" in the living room and relax some more. I hope to bake some bread and do some quilting.

In the meantime here's the latest in photos.






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Finishedenoughfornowtion

Another Postponment

We now have an appliance garage which looks nice and I think will be a good place to hide those blenders and mixers.

The microwave installation and door framing has been postponed. Framingguy's truck wouldn't start Sunday morning and is now in the shop and he'll "call me when he knows something." I hope it'll still be soon but what can you do.

I'm improving a bit each day. Last night I was in bed by 8:00 p.m. but tonight I actually cleaned two bathrooms and wasn't left winded so that's a good feeling.
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Another Postponment

We're Cookin' With Gas!

My planned "WooHoo! we have a kitchen" celebration planned for Thursday night was postponed and transformed into a "WooHoo! I feel human and I smell food cooking" celebration last night. After nine long weeks the smell of real home-cooked food wafted through the house. There's a definite difference between food sizzling on a gas burner and food warming up in a microwave or cooking slowly, sort of, on a hot plate. It was a simple skillet meal but it was awesome.

The two days previous to this postponed celebration were not fun. Here are the highlights leading up to my total physical deterioration Thursday afternoon:

**Monday the counter guys were supposed to arrive and begin installing counters but didn't arrive until late Monday. I have a cold I'd picked up on our visit to Delta and felt kind of icky but I thought the house would have counter guys in it so I went to work.

**Tuesday the counter guys began work installing counters. I still felt bad from the cold but I don't want to stay home with guys working in my house. Tuesday night the counter guys aren't finished and I have the electricians coming Wednesday. I'm cranky but I'm not rescheduling--again.

**Wednesday the electrician arrives promptly at 7 a.m. and counter guys sometime afterwards. They manage to work around each other. I go to work when all I really want to do is curl up on the couch with a cup of tea, a pillow, blanket and nap all day.

Wednesday evening the counter guys are finished, yippee!, but the electrician needs to finish up the next morning. There's a mini-scare when they tell me that to meet code they have to put a plug into the end of my "peninsula" which they think is stupid and I am not happy about because it will cause the pots and pans we have in the drawer to bang into the plug every time the drawer is opened or closed. He promises me he'll try to talk his boss out of it and I ask them not to put it in without my permission so I can fight somebody about it. I have a splitting headache and muscle aches all day that will not stop. And my ears are hurting. I just want to take a sick day.


**Thursday I'm at work by 7:00 a.m. I go off to work feeling pretty miserable and come back home at 8:00 a.m. to meet the plumber. When I get home the electrician is finishing up and nothing is said about the peninsula plug-in so I'm assuming it's okay. I'm not going to bring it up! I go over all the plumbing needs with the plumber and head back to work innocently assuming I will be cooking and having my own little kitchen party that evening.

**8:30 a.m. the plumber calls to tell me the stove is 1/4" too large for the opening. "It's physically impossible to put it in. I've measured the opening and the stove. Maybe you can have them move the cabinets. Do you want me to go ahead and install it and leave it out in front of the cabinets?" There are hundreds of pounds of soapstone counters on these cabinets by now. I know there's no way on God's green earth those cabinets are going to be moved. All I can picture is a beautiful kitchen with a stove in the middle of the room.

**I make a frantic call to cabinet lady and make them interrupt her meeting with another client. She calls cabinet guy and he assures her the opening is exactly what it should be. She tells me to tell the plumber to try adjusting the legs because if it's not exactly level that can cause difficulties. And that the stove is meant to be tight so nothing will fall down between.

**I call the plumber back. He tells me "I measured. The opening is 29 15/16" and the stove is 30 1/16". It's 1/8" too small".

**Call kitchen lady back. She says she'll go over and if the plumber can't get it in she'll have her appliance guy make it fit.

**Kitchen lady goes to my house and talks to plumber and calls me laughing. He hasn't even tried it yet. How can he know it doesn't fit if he hasn't tried it? I told him to try putting it in and call me if it won't fit."

**Noon. Plumber calls me. "It won't fit. I've hooked it up and finished with everything else but pushing it in's not my job." I say, fine, I understand and he heads out on his merry way. I have a sink, faucet, dishwasher and stove in the middle of my kitchen. My head hurts, my ears hurt, every muscle in my body hurts.

**Call kitchen lady back. She says, "I told him to call me, not you."

**1:10 p.m. Kitchen lady calls. She'd gone over with her appliance guy and they'd pushed it in with apparently no problem so I now have a stove where it belongs. I thought the stress relief would be physically noticeable but instead of feeling better I keep feeling worse. I'm sitting at my computer thinking, "I have to work until 5 p.m. today to make up for taking off to meet plumber, ...I don't know if I can do it...why don't I feel better now? Is this a delayed stress reaction or what?"

**2:15 p.m. I'm pretty sure I can't work anymore. Chills are just under the surface so I head home.

**3:00 p.m. I'm on the couch with chills, fever, every muscle crying out in pain, head pounding and ears aching.

**6:15 p.m. I rattle off a list of symptoms to Dean because I want him to call the doctor tomorrow and see if they can prescribe somthing for me over the phone because there is no way I can get off this couch, crawl into a car and sit in a doctor's office. Absolutely not....no way....not happenin'.....uh uh.

**6:30 p.m. I am in the car on the way to Urgent Care clutching my trusty garbage bag lined with a plastic bag--just in case. I felt like hell, looked like hell and to be honest I wouldn't even have cared if I'd had to put that garbage can to use in the waiting room. I didn't. Not until I got home anyway. I just sat hunched over on the chair with my head almost touching the floor until I finally dropped over and laid curled up on the chairs, asking Dean "how much longer? how much longer?"

**7:30 p.m. I'm home in bed gulping down antibiotics and various prescriptions.

**Friday a day on the couch drinking apple juice and napping.

**Saturday we begin putting the kitchen back together.

**2:00 p.m. while rinsing nine weeks of dust and dirt off the dishes in the now installed and connected dishwasher it quits draining. Called the repair place to schedule a day next week for service while adding $75.00 to my already somewhat over-budget kitchen. He's a great guy who gives us a possible solution and tells us to call back if it doesn't work. Turns out when Dean installed the dishwasher originally he set it to drain into the drain pipe. The plumber set it to drain into the disposal and there was a little round thing you had to pop out which had never been done. It was a pretty easy fix which we managed to accomplish in only 1/2 hour. I'm sure when I stuck my hand down the disposal to retrieve the popped out but still hanging bit of plastic it didn't meet OSHA standards and to be honest, I wasn't thrilled about it. But it solved the dilemma, the dishwasher now not only washes but drains and I have all my fingers.

So...................even though putting the kitchen back together didn't happen til yesterday things are going together pretty well. I even finally feel like I'll live and I think once Dean gets the million bottles and cans of spices put in their homes we'll pretty much have the kitchen put together. Then we'll begin on the rest of the house. It's collected nine weeks of not only regular dirt from just living in it, but all the dust and dirt that comes along with contractors doing their thing for nine weeks. It's in a sad, sad, state.

We actually took a two hour break and went to the art museum for some cookies and seasonal music. Bad thing for me was I had to change out of my sweatpants and brush my hair. Good thing for Dean was I had to change out of my sweatpants and brush my hair.

And last but definitely not least, I baked my first batch of anything in nine weeks.

I wish I could say we were completely finished but tomorrow the cabinet guy is back to install the appliance garage and hopefully the glass doors and two of the doors we reordered.

Wedesday another person will be installing the microwave and framing in the two doorways and installing baseboards. Tilebabegroutgirl arrives Friday to help us tile the backsplash. Then we will "only" have some painting and staining of woodwork to do which I am positive will not happen for many, many, weeks.



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We're Cookin' With Gas!

Flattened by bronchitis

I had a kitchen stress morning from hell Thursday which resolved itself by noon. By 2:30 I was shaking with chills and fever. Dean dragged me to UrgentCare at 6:30 p.m. and I found out I had/have bronchitis. I'm finally up and moving and we plan/hope to put the kitchen together and gasp! maybe even cook today. Pictures and all the gory details will follow sometime this weekend..........I hope.◦

Flattened by bronchitis

Counters Day One

The guys from Livingston, MT arrived in Casper yesterday late afternoon and began work around 8:00 a.m. this morning. As I was driving home from work I chanted to myself, "please don't let there be a truck at my house, please don't let there be a truck at my house, please don't let there be a truck at my house" but there was. I guess installing soapstone takes longer than I thought. So they'll be back tomorrow. I had already rescheduled the plumber and electrician when the soapstone date was postponed a week and I refuse to do it again. Tomorrow at 7 a.m. the electrician will be here. I hope they all get along. They're all friendly and chatty guys. I'm sure they'll have a great time. I'll just buy even more doughnuts and pastries to ease the difficulty of having to work with extra people underfoot. And tomorrow night when I drive home from work I'll be saying once again, "please don't let there be a truck at my house, please don't let there be a truck at my house"....



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Counters Day One

Stuffed With Turkey

We took a break from the stresses of kitchen remodeling to stuff ourselves with turkey and then burn it off playing with grandchildren. Before we left, the cabinet handles were installed and we even put a few things in some of the cupboards and drawers. The counters which were to be installed last Monday were postponed until this Monday due to weather. Four guys started the drive from Livingston, MT but after 80 miles of snow turned around and headed back home. The snow was supposed to head south and they were afraid they'd get stuck in Casper for Thanksgiving. Weather looks good for tomorrow so I'm crossing my fingers they'll make it this time. The electrician and plumber are rescheduled so now we're counting down to Thursday night for cooking on a real stove and washing dishes in a real sink and dishwasher. Coming home to a hot plate is harder after you've spent four days eating awesome home cooked food.

We had a great time in Delta playing with kids, visiting, eating, playing, visiting, more eating, wishing we hadn't eaten so much and then eating even more.

Tuesday afternoon was beautiful and we took a walk along the river.

Wednesday we went to the park and played on the swings and looked for fish in the stream.


The rest of the time we played cowboys in the fort, some of us dressed up like a princess, we painted and just generally had a great time.


Except for the deer who decided to cross the interstate in front of us only 40 minutes from home everything went great. I still see the big brown eyes looking at me just before I squeezed my own eyes shut and heard the thump. If she wouldn't have decided to hesitate on her trip to the other side we might have just missed her. Dean was able to come so close to stopping that the air bags didn't go off and both headlights were still working.
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Stuffed With Turkey

Hardware and counters left to do

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Hardware and counters left to do

Cabinets and Window Well

Pictures will tell the tale. Day one of three days of cabinet installation.

The window well is in and tomorrow's dirt work day. I had my own mini meltdown (hopefully I disguised it well enough that nobody at work noticed) when the cabinet guy called me soon after I got to work to tell me the wires for the undercounter cabinets are approximately 1 inch too low. I neglected to tell the electricians I would be putting in a 3/4" maple floor underneath the cabinets. I never imagined
3/4" would make much of a difference but I know now. It's not the worst thing that could have happened. They moved the wire up and it's where it should be now. It just means I'll be putting on some drywall patches before I tile the backsplash. The worst part was that every time my phone rang for the rest of the day my heart lurched and I worried I would be hearing about a screw up that wouldn't have an easy fix. Of course tomorrow I'll worry all day that my phone will ring and if it does, my heart will lurch again. But I am the queen of worry so it would be completely out of character for me to feel calm now. The burning of worry calories is what keeps me slim.

Dean's gone to get us a pizza since we still can't really get to the fridge or find a place to cook. More tomorrow.

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Cabinets and Window Well

Box Heaven

First of all, let me thank my lovely daughter, Leslie, for making my blog look beautiful. Nice, isn't it?

Secondly, we are buried in boxes of kitchen cabinets of all shape and sizes. There will be no cooking tonight even though Dean came home loaded with groceries intent on cooking a meal.

Three out of four windows have been trimmed as well as the patio door. The fourth window will be finished tomorrow. It was a bit windy today so the installation of the window well was postponed until tomorrow. Here's a small experience to give you a bit of an idea of the type of wind we had today.

I was sitting at a stoplight on my way to work when a cowboy hat rolled down the street in front of me at break neck speed. I wondered who it belonged to as I as turned onto the street and continued to work. As I approached the next light I noticed a man off the side of the road struggling with something very large and black. His arms were stretched above his head, the black thing was blowing left and right and up and down. By the time I sat through the light and continued on I realized he'd parked his pickup and had been struggling with the plastic bed liner which apparently had been blown from is truck. By then he was standing in the middle of it on the side of the road. He was barely able to keep it on the ground. I have no idea how he was going to get it into his pickup. Maybe he didn't. Maybe the bed liner lifted off and followed the cowboy hat down the street.

When I checked a weather site this afternoon I saw there were gusts in some parts of Casper between 75 - 100 mph. The prevailing wind speeds for most of the day were in the 40 mph range, until it finally quit and brought cold weather and a few flakes of snow. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for window well installation.

While the cabinets were being unloaded a black lab came into the house (since every door was open) and I thought Dean had come home early. I stood out of the way of the busy box haulers talking to the dog, telling it to sit, asking it where its Dad was, when I realized it wasn't even our dog. It was Tippo, from next door. He'd broken through the fence again and made himself at home in my house. Nothing like not being able to tell your dog from the neighbor's. Not only that, I had to admit it in front of two box haulers and the window guy. I managed to get Tippo home and propped up the broken-out fence planks with some of Dean's rocks. Apparently I didn't prop well enough because Tippo was out again when Dean really did come home so now Dean's out there screwing in the planks since nails I put in over the weekend didn't seem to work. I guess that's a sign that the rotting planks should be replaced. Oh, boy, another project.

In the meantime, I'm feeling overwhelmed with cabinets, workmen, and wind and I'm ready to hunker down for the night.





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Box Heaven

Day One of Crunch Week

Today the house was filled with busy, busy windowguys. It was the perfect day to have holes in your house. The sun was shining, the wind was NOT blowing (I know, it's hard to believe) and it was in the 60's. The slide show will show you today's progress. I felt so bad I didn't have any home baked goods for these hardworking guys that we drove to 1st Street Bakers (closed), and the mall for Mrs. Fields cookies (apparently went out of business---not there). I think tomorrow, since "windowguys" will be here again finishing up, I'll just have to hit the bakery at Safeway before work and bring home some big, fat, greasy doughnuts. I hope they'll be able to force those down.

I left a message for "dirtguy" saying the basement window was being installed as I spoke. He called me back and said he can do the dirt work on Thursday and did we want him to install the window well or were the "windowguys" doing it. I thought we'd already worked this out two weeks ago and he was doing it. He, however, does not want to install the cover because if it leaks he doesn't want to be held responsible. Since "headwindowguy" happened to be there when I took the call I asked him "do you want your "windowguys" to install the windowwell" and he said, "sure" and he didn't seem to have a problem with the cover. So "windowguys" will install the window well large enough to live in as well as the cover (apparently they're not worried about it leaking) and "dirtguy" comes Thursday to backfill the well and do the foundation dirt work we discussed with him way back in June.

Dean and I also went to the tile store and brought home his baby blue irridescent tile sample. It's funny how the soapstone and the same textured tile look bluish against a blue glass tile and greenish against the green mosaic tiles.

"Tilechick" and "groutbabe": this option involves sprinkling a few 4x4 baby blue glass tiles in a random pattern mixed in with 4x4 textured tiles so we'd have some sparkle. I'm guessng this may involve more cutting but I'm not sure yet because I'm not positive I'll have a full 18" between counter and cabinet due to the height of the soapstone and 3/4" maple floors but I will measure when everything's in. Are you screaming "why did we EVER say we'd help?" yet???


Tomorrow "windowguys" are back and cabinets and appliances are delivered between 3 and 5 p.m. That means moving the same furniture we moved to make room for "windowguys" again to make room for cabinets.◦

Day One of Crunch Week

More Choices

Instead of burning off calories at the gym the past few days I spent my after work time searching carpet/flooring stores, Home Depot and Sutherlands for the perfect backsplash tile. At the first flooring business I went to I was helped by a salesman who looked like he was ten years old and sounded like his head was filled with snot which I can only assume is what he was trying to keep up in his head every time he sniffed. He was very friendly, and tried very hard to help me. While I'm sure he knew more about tile than I did, and probably felt miserable from his cold, I couldn't get past thinking he looked like he should be in grade school and the constant sniffing made me want to run for disinfectant. Strike one.

At the next flooring store I visited I was helped by a woman who responded with my request for suggestions by asking me what I liked. Duh..........if I knew what I wanted or liked I wouldn't have to look or ask for help. I'd just buy it. Strike two.

There is no hope for help at Home Depot or Sutherlands. You'd better know what you want when you walk into those stores or be able to figure it out for yourself. I was unable to do either and no tile I saw there jumped up and said "buy me, buy me." Strike three.

By Thursday I was depressed and beginning to wish I'd jut decided to do a 4" soapstone backsplash and paint the wall. As a last resort I looked up tile in the yellow pages and decided to try one more place. This business is in a rundown part of town and when I pulled up I wasn't even sure I wanted to get out of the car and walk in. It looked like a dive and only had a small sign on the outside. Until the moment I actually turned the knob and the door opened I'd wondered if it was even still in business. Who would have thought it would have the most awesome tile ever and two wonderful women who were full of helpful suggestions and eager to help. Friday I drug Dean to the store with me and we left loaded with tile samples and lots of possibilities. It renewed my faith in customer service. Below is a photo of what we've come up with so far. There are some bright baby blue glass tiles that Dean has his eye on so tomorrow we will return the samples we've decided against and grab that one for some more thought. Once the cabinets and countertops are in we'll be able to make a final decision but for now it's good to know there are choices we like and we have come up with somewhat of a plan.


So for the benefit of TileChick and GroutBabe who will be helping me with this project, here's our preliminary plan. Using 6" solid tiles we will mix in a selection of 6" glass mosaic tiles. We're thinking the frosted choice of the green (or maybe those baby blues with a blue solid tile) shown in the photo. Of course exact tiles and colors could still change but for now the mixing of solid and mosaic glass tiles is our tentative plan. The photo doesn't really show the colors well and definitely doesn't show off the soapstone but we found a piece of cherry to put above anyway. Does that sound like it's something we can do together?


Today we move furniture and take down pictures in preparation of window replacement tomorrow. Windowguys will probably be here most of the day between replacing and framing three windows upstairs and the cement wall window downstairs. Since it's a federal holiday we'll be around and I won't have to spend my vacation time meeting them. Still.....I think I'd prefer my holiday without worker bees running around the house.◦

More Choices

Stinky

The kitchen floor is completely down, the first layer of finish is on and the house stinks. The good thing is it's warm enough outside to open up all the doors and windows and air things out a little.

Here's the progress to date in pictures: floor, outside wall, and where the water went.



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Stinky

Oops

It turns out I whined and worried for nothing. There is no water in the house and everything seems to have gone well. From what I could see in the dark, the hole outside looks like a muddy mess but that's okay. As long as it's not a mess in the basement bedroom I'm okay with muddy messes outside. Dean did remove the window frame and we could peer in with a flashlight to see only a bit of dampness down below, not 2 gallons of water. Phew!

Tonight as I was washing the tupperware I'd used for my lunch today I thought to myself, "tomorrow I'm going to remember to wash my lunch dishes at work and that will be one less mess to deal with at home." That thought goes through my brain every time I wash my lunch tupperware. You'd think after somewhere between four and five weeks of washing dishes in a tub in the laundry room sink I would remember that washing out my lunch tupperware at work would save me time and work at home. But no. It hasn't happened yet. As I was washing the dishes I looked over and saw Lily sitting right by the place her food normally would have been. She has been temporarily moved, along with her cat box, food and water, to our bedroom while the wood floor is being installed. She sat there looking at the spot where her food should be, and then up at me. Then back to the missing food, and back at me. She's not very old. Even in cat years she's younger than me so it made me feel better to know she's not figuring things out very quickly either. Of course, she's only had a day to adjust and I've had a month but still ...

Here's a photo of the wood floor so far.
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Oops

No matter how many questions you ask

Okay, even after I specifically asked "man in charge of wallcutting"----- "what do I need to do to prepare for the wall cutting?" and he said, "is the basement finished?" and I said "yes" he said it would be good to pull back the carpet 2 or 3 feet from the wall because there will be 1 or 2 gallons of water that will spray through when they cut which they'll vacuum up. He even said if I didn't do that they would but I didn't trust them to get the carpet pulled away without messing it up so we did it yesterday.

This morning "actual I will cut the wall guy" tells me it would have been better if we would have cut away the drywall where the window will be because "we don't do that." Stupid me. I thought they'd cut right through the cement and drywall. So "if it's built right, the water will just run down and we'll vacuum it up. However, if not, it'll just sit there soaking into insulation and drywall." Right now, as I type, cement is being cut and water is being sprayed into my drywall, either running down the wall, through the insulation, draining out the bottom or soaking nicely into insulation and drywall--a developing hotbed of mold. Guess what we'll be doing after work? Dean'll go home at noon and see if he thinks it can wait that long or if we'll need to take the afternoon off to open it up sooner. Geez. You think you have all your bases covered....◦

No matter how many questions you ask

Some people mean what they say

Way back near the end of June we arranged with a "dirtguy" to add some dirt to our foundation, compact an area that may be collecting water, dig a hole and cut out a hole in our basement wall for an egress window. At that time he said, "I'm really busy. It could be September before I get to it and if I don't get to it before September 15 I hunt from September 15 to October 15." I waited patiently until October 15. But then decided I'd waited long enough. After several phone calls he arrived in our yard on Thursday and dug a hole for the window. Someone else will be cutting the hole for the window on Monday. Someone else will be installing the window the week after. At the same time someone else will be arriving bright and early Monday to install my maple floor in the kitchen. Events leading up to this week of activity went something like this:

Wednesday afternoon way back on June 13th-------

**I thought it smelled musty in Dean's "art" room so I went down to the crawl space to investigate and discovered a large wet spot in the dirt.

**With trepidation I told Dean, who also went down to investigate and came to the conclusion our foundation was collapsing due to a leak somewhere in the sprinklers or water coming into the house from a break in the water main.

**At 6:30 p.m. I made a frantic phone call to the plumber. "We are leaving tomorrow morning because our daughter is having a baby on Friday. Please, please, PLEASE call me early so I can arrange a time to meet you when we get home so you can look at the crawl space. Pleeeeeeze."

Thursday morning June 14th

**plumber calls bright and early, comes over and determines that no, our foundation isn't collapsing and no, it isn't a leak from the water main or the sprinklers. Maybe it's a collection of water that was created when the sprinklers leaked the year before. Our house won't fall in but we should have someone do some dirt work around the foundation.

Friday, June 15th Pierce is born. We spend time with the kiddies in Delta and then come home after a little more than a week.

The last week in June:

**"dirtguy" comes over, says he can do the dirt work around the foundation, and compact the ground. We say, as long as you're here, would you be able to dig a hole for an egress window too?

**"dirtguy"/of course. I can even cut the hole and install a window well but "you'll have to find somebody to make a cover. I don't do that. And oh, by the way, I'm really busy so it'll probably be September before I can get over here.

**Me/okay. We can wait til September. In July I order a honkin' window well with its own special cover. It is so large it has little steps in it. I don't have time to find somebody to make a cover and who the heck would I call anyway? And as long as we're putting a new window the in the basement I figured I'd order three replacement windows for the ones upstairs that don't close unless you go outside and push them shut.

**Now we wait. In the meantime every now and then I touch base with "windowguy". "Nope, haven't heard from the "dirtguy" yet. He must be hunting. "

October 16th to the present

**First of several phone calls to "dirt guy". Portions went like this:

**Me/Do you know when you can dig the hole?

**DirtGuy/My "big project" isn't going well. I'm behind. It'll be a while.

**Me/I found someone else who can cut the wall. He can come Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Can you dig a hole by then and do the dirt work later?

**DirtGuy/No way. I'm having back surgery. I'll call you on Friday.

**DirtGuy/My surgery went well. I think I can dig the hole Wednesday or Thursday.

**Me to WallGuy/He thinks he can do it Wednesday or Thursday do you know when you can cut the wall?

**WallGuy/Tell me when there's a hole. Time is money.

**Me to WindowGuy/I'm sorry I can't get anybody nailed down. The hole might be dug next Wednesday or Thursday but I still don't know about the hole cutting. I'll call you when we're ready to have the windows installed.

**Me to WoodFloorPlace/If they cut a hole the week the floors are put in when is the polyurethane being laid so I make sure nobody's around?

**WoodFloorPlace/The floor guy's on jury duty. He might be behind.

Finally........ the hole was dug. This Monday "wallguy" comes to cut the hole. That same Monday "woodfloorguy" comes to begin the floor installation. The next Monday, November 12th "windowguy" installs the egress window as well as the 3 upstairs. That same day the cabinets are delivered. Two days later they're installed. The week after the counters are installed.

So............things are happenin' again. In the meantime today I spent some quality time removing the remainder of the linoleum paper from the kitchen floor. Stupid me, I asked "woodfloorguy" if what we'd removed was good enough. Dean got up early and bought me my own special paint scraper to use on the floor. He was so proud of it and handed it to me with a big smile on his face like it was a dozen roses. That lasted until I determined that I really did want to be able to use my shoulders after today so I got out the sander and things went much more quickly after that.

Dean has enjoyed spending his Saturday outside repairing the sprinkler line around the honkin' hole we had cut. Even though we'd had the sprinkler line moved out from the house earlier in the summer in preparation of the hole to be dug, it wasn't quite enough since I purchased a window well large enough to live in.

All that's left is cleaning up masses of dust from today's sanding, pulling the carpet away from the bedroom wall in preparation for the hole cutting, covering the carpet with tarps, placing plastic up on the doorways to cut down on dust from the floor sanding, fighting over the heating pad, meeting all the "guys" at their appointed times, nailing down "dirtguy" for a date for the rest of the foundation dirt work, and small other projects we've yet to remember. Stay tuned.

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Some people mean what they say

Whiling away the waiting days

Last weekend I posted snow photos. Today it was shorts and t-shirts weather. Ahhhh...Wyoming....it's never boring.

While we've been waiting patiently for the next stage of the kitchen remodeling (one short week to go) we have kept ourselves busy. Dean has managed to cut up, take apart, or bend into shapes and sizes that will fit into the garbage can virtually all the remaining bits and pieces of the kitchen. Who would have thought a whole kitchen could be removed by using your weekly garbage pickup? There has to be a post-retirement career in that. As you see below I can actually park in the garage again---that is until the second week in November when that stall will be filled with kitchen cabinets waiting for installation.

My project during this kitchen lull has been to sew dolls for Emerson and Myra for Christmas. I actually used a sewing machine---yes, one with a real motor--and managed to complete these two lovely misses with only having to rip out and redo two small mistakes. I didn't even pick up any part of the doll or the clothing and wing it against the wall or toward the floor at any time during the whole process. I think I may have developed some patience over the last half-century. Maybe sewing machines aren't so bad after all.....for some things anyway.

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Whiling away the waiting days

Oh, man....it's not even Halloween yet

As we wait patiently for two more weeks until our floor is installed we "enjoy" a Wyoming autumn.

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Oh, man....it's not even Halloween yet

Oh, my aching back

One of the items on my list for this weekend included painting the kitchen ceiling. Instead of the normal Wyoming blue skies and bright sun, it was cold and cloudy. Anybody with a brain would have postponed the painting until a sunny day. Maybe even anybody with only half a brain. Especially considering the fact that the ceiling lights are not yet functioning so the only light in the kitchen is from a make-do pole light Dean devised. I, however, determined to cross off everything from my weekend list, soldiered on and painted the ceiling--two coats no less. I don't love painting walls and ceilings. I don't even like painting walls and ceilings. I'm not especially good at painting walls and ceilings. I'm a messy painter. When I finish my hands are covered in paint, my hair has blobs of paint in it, my contacts have been known to have specs of paint on them, the bottoms of my shoes have paint on them, and my clothes have paint on them. I suspect my painting technique isn't ergonomically correct either. I used a roller extension which was nice. I could stand on the floor instead of crawling up and down a ladder. But as I was holding the pole over my head, looking up at the ceiling while slowly bending backward to reach even further on the ceiling, I thought to myself, "this probably isn't a good thing to be doing." Later that night as my muscles spoke to me in no uncertain terms every time I tried to move I was pretty sure I'd been right. Maybe I should have listened to myself. Oh, wait. That would probably require a brain which I had chosen not to use.



The thrills of painting the ceiling were almost usurped by listening to the Wyoming Cowboys pretend to play football. The highlight of the game was the 1 hour 40 minutes of patter the radio guys had to fill when the game was suspended due to lightening strikes. The final score for the Pokes on their homecoming day was 3-24. Not to be outdone, however, the Huskers final homecoming score was 14-45. Lest you worry I've become a Pokes fan, I only watch/listen to the game in order to report scores to my lovely Wyoming Cowboy supporter, Abby. She reciprocates by updating me with Husker scores. There was no joy in Mudville yesterday.



This morning Dean replaced the final pieces of particle board in the floor and I spent quality time scraping off more of the paper left behind from the linoleum. That was more fun than I can even describe. Fortunately, after I almost sliced my hand with the putty knife, I pulled my brain out of the storage compartment I'd placed it yesterday and put my work gloves on. My back didn't enjoy the scraping of paper any more than it enjoyed painting the ceiling. It's talking to me again.



Before the scraping and wood replacement began today I discovered that two of the ceiling lights actually are connected and work if a lightbulb is screwed into them. That was helpful and brightened the room. It brightened it so much I discovered I need to put another coat of paint on the ceiling. Oh, boy, I can hardly wait for next weekend.◦

Oh, my aching back

Muffins, Squash, Plums and Contractors

My drywaller was here taping, mudding, sanding and texturing at least a portion of the first three days of the week. Monday I traded some squash (his) for plums (ours). I think he's finished. The portions of the ceiling he was working on have been textured. It looks finished to me. But a big fancy-looking sponge is still lying on the floor which implies he will be returning.

Tuesday my plumber came, ate some apple muffins and saved our butts. When he went down in the crawl space to turn off the water he discovered a disaster waiting to happen. It seems a joint in the pipes where the water turn-off valve for the sprinklers is had never been soldered. And the bucket that just happened to be sitting there (and has been since we've lived here) had filled up in the two days since we'd had the sprinklers winterized. So along with all the other kitchen plumbing he fixed that for us. The gas line is installed for the new stove, he prepared the pipes where the sink will go, and moved the water line for the ice maker. And it's pretty darn cool--not the copper pipe sticking out of the floor we had before.

It's looking like we'll just be waiting around until November 5 for the new floor to be put in. Gosh, whatever will we do with our time? I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to my workout schedule at the gym. Every week I tell myself "this week I'll get back on my routine" and every week something happens to prevent me. I actually made it three times this week and tonight I even spent some quality time on the dreaded elliptical. Good thing, because the box of caramel/pecan candies we'd bought from a kid selling them for his school fundraiser was calling my name tonight. I answered the call, ripped the plastic off the box and ate one. Okay, I ate three of them, but I didn't have that doughnut at work yesterday...

Dean continues to whittle down the kitchen debris into nifty little piles which will gradually find their way to the garbage can. If he keeps at it I won't even need to borrow a pickup to haul it all away. Of course while it looks like he's getting rid of all this junk, there's a strong possibility he's just squirreling it away for a future "art project". I try not to think about that.



More updates later. I need to heat up the ol' hot plate and cook something for dinner or I'll polish off the rest of those caramel/pecan candies and that would be oh, so bad.◦

Muffins, Squash, Plums and Contractors

Stretching Those Retirement Dollars

It's the weekend so no busy worker bees at our house until tomorrow. Thus, no kitchen news or photos to share. That means I'll have to bore you with other news.

We have volunteered to usher at the Wyoming Symphony concerts this year and last night was the first concert of the season and our first night of ushering. Dean's preparation for the concert included a trip to WalMart to purchase black pants and shirt (the expected ushering uniform for these concerts) and a quick glance at the seating chart. My preparation included studying the seating chart several times and writing the break-out of the sections on my hand hopefully to prevent not only appearing to, but actually being lost.

We were assigned the balcony, along with a veteran couple to "keep an eye on us." As it turned out, it was a cold and rainy night and the house (note I've already picked up the theatre/concert jargon) was far from packed. Thirty-five years of marriage paid off as we drew upon our many years of cooperation to put that teamwork into play...."okay, I did the last group, now it's your turn." After only 20-30 minutes of pretty enjoyable "work" we sat back with the rest of the audience and enjoyed the concert. What better way to stretch those retirment dollars when that future need will arise. Here's a website to the symphony in case anybody's interested.

http://www.wyomingsymphony.org/

And, since I have no kitchen photos, I took a photo of Lily enjoying her evening drink.

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Stretching Those Retirement Dollars

Plums

It's Friday and for the first time all week when I walked in the door there were no workmen. The drywaller had come and gone and I was only met with drywall dust, bits of mud and a half-empty tupperware of apple-cinnamon muffins. My theory of working with contractors is if you feed them treats they will treat you well and do a good job for you. I fed my electricians oatmeal-raisin cookies and pulled the muffins out of the freezer for the drywallers. I hope there's still something in the freezer for the plumber. However, as much as I enjoy visiting with them and love the fact that they're here working, there's nothing like coming home to your own house with nobody in it but the dog and cat to greet you.

Since I have no exciting kitchen pictures to share I figured I might as well show off our plum tree. I think we planted that tree about five years ago. The first year we got one plum. If I remember right the next year we got three plums. The next two or three years it froze just as it was blossoming---until this year. This year it's the motherload. More plums than we know what to do with. I've made one loaf of plum bread and I see plum muffins in the future. That could be interesting. We may even drag out the ol' dehydrator and give that a try.
Anybody have any plum recipes they'd like to share??













It's Columbus Day weekend so we have three days to catch up on all the things we haven't had time to do:

Put to bed the garden that wasn't
Mow the lawn (please let it be the last time)
Pick, freeze and dry more plums
Try to remove as much dust as possible from all over the house
Give the dog a bath since she's probably just as dusty as the rest of the house
Go out for a belated birthday dinner for me and actually relax for one night. Woo Hoo! And yes, I am now one year closer to "older than dirt" :-)◦

Plums

Really? Now?

Things are progressing at lightening speed here in kitchen remodeling land. So far every contractor I had previously spoken to has shortened their predicted lead time by as much as three weeks. Everybody, that is, except the floor people. When the electrician came to look at the kitchen 10 days ago he told me it would probably be three weeks after he gave me his bid before he could come out. Last Wednesday I received the bid, mailed the deposit on Thursday, called Friday morning to tell them they should have my deposit and to please put me on their schedule. We didn't feel any pressure to have the kitchen completely gutted last weekend because I knew it would be at least two to three weeks before there would be any electrical work. That's why we spent Sunday reorganizing instead of gutting. Well, that and our muscles hurt so bad we could barely move.

Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. my phone rings at work. It's the electrician. I'm thinking, cool, I should get on the schedule in plenty of time to be finished before the end of the month. But what he says is, "I hear you called Friday and wanted to be put on the schedule. Can we come out this morning?" I'm speechless. "uh, uh, well, uh, um, really? now?" ... I'm thinking, holy cow! the kitchen's not completely gutted but I can't tell him not to come out. So I explained what was left to do, two very nice electricians came out and began working. That meant Monday night Dean and I were up until almost midnight on Monday pulling out the ovens, the center island and cooktop, the sinks, and anything else leftover. Honestly it went so smoothly I still can't believe it. No plumbing disasters, strained backs, broken bones, cuts, and not even any arguing. I think it helped that I let Dean be the boss and I was in charge of cleanup, and added muscle when needed.

So now the electrical work is completed until it's time to finish up after the cabinets are in and backsplash is tiled. In the meantime my drywall guy called and came out yesterday to look at what needed to be repaired and textured. When I called to set up the initial appt. he told me he was book for about three weeks. Guess who's coming tomorrow to begin drywall work?

The only glitch in this whole process so far (knock on wood) is the plumbing and that's only because we didn't get a piece of the floor replaced last night. Otherwise he would have been out this morning putting in the gas line for the stove. I should explain that we would have had the board in except it wasn't until it was all measured, cut and the area trimmed and ready that Dean discovered Sutherlands had grabbed the wrong thickeness of board when they cut a smaller piece for us and by then it was past store hours. I could hear that bad, bad word all the way in the basement when the thickness problem was discovered.

The wood floor guys told me they were booked for eight weeks but they juggled things around and I'm on the schedule in only six short weeks. So instead of six weeks of worrying about and/or trying to get the electrical, plumbing and drywall work done before floor time, it looks like we'll be sitting around twiddling our thumbs for six weeks. I'm not complaining though. I wouldn't mind sitting down and twiddling my thumbs for a while.

Here's the lastest visual representation of our life.

And my temporary kitchen.

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Really? Now?

I am the general

Well, let's just get right down to it. I've been talking about remodeling our kitchen for a very long time--years in fact. Just ask my girls. I'm pretty sure they didn't believe it would really happen. I'm postive Dean hoped it would never happen. And it kind of almost didn't happen. Full of new enthusiasm, resolution and determination after the first of the year I decided this was the year the kitchen remodel would happen. And if it was going to happen, by God it was going to happen right. So I hired a kitchen designer hoping to come up with that perfect plan. There were several meetings with her, discussions about what our dream kitchen was, selections of cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances, etc., etc., until we finally sat down with her in April only to discover that the "perfect" kitchen plan was going to cost us in excess of $75,000.00. Whoa Nellie!! That put the brakes on the whole project. Fortunately there was plenty to keep us busy between Leslie giving birth to baby Pierce, visits with grandchildren, and Dean discovering the deck was pretty much rotted. Replacing the whole back deck pretty much took our minds off of not being able to remodel the kitchen and ate up our whole summer.



Oh, and our water heater broke so I already have practice washing dishes with water heated on the stove. This time I'll just be using a different sink but I'll have hot water. The deck is now completed----for this year. Dean's really excited that next year he can build new new rails and steps. NOT!

Since we were always outside working on the deck, most of the summer dinners consisted of cold sandwiches, salads, cereal, toast, etc. and cleaning the house just didn't happen. If there was time to cook or clean we were either too hot or too tired to do it. In September, after the last screw was drilled in and the water-proofing was completed the silence of the power tools and the thought of unfilled hours was more than I could take so I said, "let's remodel the kitchen!". After all, we're used to cold sandwiches for dinner, drawing pictures in the dust on the furniture is entertaining, and what would we do with all that time now that we don't have a deck to work on. Dean said, "yippee!"

Here's what the kitchen looked like before we began.

We are an army of two. We are the kitchen designers. I am the general and Dean is my private. We have a plan that does not involve vaulted ceilings, new doors, new windows and moving sinks. I plan, I worry, I coordinate, I schedule. Nobody makes lists better than I do. And there is no greater pleasure than crossing something off your list. Dean is excellent at dismantling and removing all kitchen parts and pieces. He has an amazing ability to work out the puzzle of how some of these bits and pieces need to be moved. I say, "oh, no, this has to be removed by ___ because I've arranged for ____to ____. How will we ever do that?" and he quietly goes about the business of doing it. And I get to cross it off my list. Amazing how different skills work together.

So here's where we are so far. After we picked ourselves up off the floor in May when we saw the initial kitchen remodel costs, we had a new patio door put in. We opened up the doorway between the living room and dining room by ourselves and rewired some light switches. Now it is September.

Here's how this past weekend went:

Friday Dean began the removal of the soffits. Don't believe the internet websites that tell you it's a simple project. Those soffits were built to stay for years. Okay, they did stay for 30 years but taking them out is not a question of just removing a few screws and poof, down they come.

Saturday, once the soffits were removed, we tackled the cabinets and linoleum.



We finally ended ended the day by removing the overhead lights.


Sunday, since every muscle in our bodies ached we opted to spend the day organizing the chaos of all the kitchen stuff that no longer had a home.



You may wonder what happens to all the old linoleum, cabinets, and general kitchen garbage when the owners of said garbage do not own a truck and dumpsters are booked for the next eight weeks. Once again, even though he is a lowly private, Dean puts his wits to use and manages to dispose of an amazing amount through creative measures. Get out the saw, chop it up, fill the garbage can and watch the pile shrink through weekly garbage pickups!

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I am the general