Month: November 2011 (Page 1 of 2)

we have carpet in the upstairs of 126. You guys won’t even recognize the upstairs now that it looks like an “inhabitable” dwelling! Still needs trim.

We are down to only one more room to totally re-do. That is the piano room. So last night, after moving all the tools from that room to the newly floored room, we started dismantling that room. We took one layer off the ceiling, but it looks like there is plaster and lathe under it, so we left that for another day. We removed the old sheet rock and found two other window openings, so now I have to decide if I want to go back to the two tall skinny windows or stay with the one in the middle. I’ll probably stay with what is there.

Then we started taking the floor off. There is a layer of particle board over a framework that raises it about an inch or more off the old floor, which is tile. After we had part of the first removed, I just wanted to see what it would take to remove the next layer. Then Dad said, “It looks like that is a piece patched in there.” We thought it might be the trap door to a secret hiding place or something, so we couldn’t quit until we got that all off.

No secret hiding place. Another set of stairs to the basement, that have been sealed off from the basement. The basement would have been a lot more spacious with the stairs there. Anyway, there was no treasure – just a lot of cobwebs and standing water in the bottom that Dad wants to get rid of. But he did say we can throw all the old sheetrock down there instead of paying to take it to the dump! And we have to figure out how to frame over the top before we put the new floor over it.

The excitement never ends!

Today was the day that we did something that was conducive to before and after pictures. We raised the floor in the family room and put in the new, larger door. (So we can actually get the refrigerator in the house!)

I know the after picture is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea. Here are some more shots as the day unfolded:

And a couple pictures showing the work that is done on the dining room and bedroom

These are from Friday. I forgot to finish my post. So I did most of the decorating on Friday, because Dad had to work for part of the day. Gary came in the afternoon and orange-peeled the dining room and hallway and then painted the primer on them.

The ribbons on the tree are NOT pink. For some reason my camera can’t capture a real red color. So, trust me, the tree is done in red and crystal and gold. No pink to be seen.

So far today I have:

• scraped the paint off the outside of the windows at 117 (the slopped paint from when I painted them several months ago)
• painted the rest of the gold in the bedroom at 117
• painted the glossy white on the windows of the bedroom and dining room at 117
• made a big lunch of omelettes, breakfast sausages and muffins
• made cranberry sauce
• made two pumpkin pies that are currently baking.
• Washed a ton of dishes from all that baking and cooking
• Painted the second coat of white in 117 bedroom
• burned the pile of trash lumber in the backyard of 117
• cooked 3 sweet potatoes to perfection in the regular oven the old fashioned way
• made a huge to-do list of projects I need to get done around 126

Time to get back to work. rest for the evening!

Only one more day in the work week, then four days off! Not that my job is bad, but it is fun to not have to go anywhere. Especially since I have to go somewhere every Sunday, too, so one day a week of being free in the morning really isn’t enough. We don’t have anything special planned. No special meal. No special activities. And we are happy with that decision. We are really into the house projects (both are making progress at the same time), and want to continue to work in all our free time. And four days in a row should net us some really significant progress.

I wish there was a way to show in pictures the progress, but there isn’t, because you can’t really appreciate taping and mudding in pictures and wiring doesn’t look all that exciting. But, trust me, it is coming together. The big thing will be to get a toilet in 117 again, especially since it is a dark and cold walk home to the bathroom now, and I always have to make at least one trip after supper. 

This is the really big clothes drying rack I got at an auction this fall. Pretty impressive, huh?

This is the “before” picture for my squash soup. It doesn’t look that impressive when it is done, just creamy and golden. It is delicious – squash, apples, onions, and vegetable stock! And good for you.

Another picture of Sherlock. How do I keep from getting glowing eyes?

And finally (I hope he doesn’t mind) a goofy picture of Luke in an awesome hat.  They sent a whole slew of them to my frame, so all day I can look at pictures of him in a great variety of crocheted hats.

First of all, let me remind you all to pray for Nathan and his big exam tomorrow. He has been studying a long time and I’m sure he wants to do well.

We have made good progress on the house this week. We were over there every night except last night when I had choir and Dad had some other stuff to do. And we’ll be hard at it this weekend, too. It is starting to seem possible that we will eventually get done. It is very nice to have a working furnace, too. I dread seeing how much it is costing us to heat that drafty place, but at least we don’t have to freeze as we work like we did over in Ladysmith!

I went to an interesting class on sweet potatoes today. We have one on some food every month at work and I usually don’t go, but I wanted to work a little late today, and the nutrition intern was presenting and her preceptor wanted to know how she did, so I sat in. Anyway, it was great. We sampled sweet potato biscuits and sweet potato fries and a sweet potato treat made with a marshmallow and graham crackers that I didn’t care for. And we got a lot of cool recipes to try. Did you know that a sweet potato has over twice your RDA of vitamin A? And that you can substitute them for some of the flour in bread recipes – they did that during the wars when flour was in short supply.

We don’t have anything planned for Thanksgiving except working for two full days on the houses. We are probably going to fix something on the grill rather than make a turkey dinner for just the two of us.

I want to post more pictures of Glensheen because I think they are just beautiful. Nothing exciting to report today. Just an ordinary Monday. Except that New Auburn community choir is canceled because of the Packer-Viking game tonight. Go ******! (fill in your own team!)

So there were some of my favorite pictures that we took at the Glensheen mansion after the test today. For those of you not from around here, Glensheen is in Duluth, MN, which is just across the bay from Superior, WI, which is where I took the test (at UW Superior). The weather was quite nice for being so far north. You couldn’t take pictures inside, hence all the outdoor pictures. But, take my word, it is a beautiful house. It cost almost a million dollars, not counting the furnishings, to build way back in 1904. I think he said it would cost 20 million to build it today. Something enormous, anyway. And the furnishings are pretty much as impressive. It was fun to see how the other half lives — or lived, actually.

Is it only Wednesday? This week is going really slow. You would think I would want it to go slow, what with the test coming up on Saturday, but I just want to get it over with so I can stop studying. Ahhhhggh! Then I was really hoping for a little snow and we didn’t get any. And I’m on pins and needles about Nathan’s job and we have to wait until tomorrow night to hear anything. So, yeah, slow….. week…..