Month: August 2014 (Page 1 of 2)

Remember that we are still in the middle of moving in, so things aren’t very neat. There is no picture at all of the rooms that are impossibly messy, like the bedroom, the fitness room and the waiting room!

First, a couple of the kitchen/dining room without the stove and fridge:

Looking the other way into the living area (sorry, lots in the way here).

The wash n’ wear room, minus any laundry appliances:

The shower is very cool with the dimming light in it, but that doesn’t show well in a picture:

The music room:

In the corner of the fitness room, ala Krista:

The office – a work in progress, too.

…moved the living room and dining room! First we had to clean all the tools out of the big room – they are now all in the bedroom. But, other than boxes in piles, the main living area is set up. We have the love seat and glider rocker and the entertainment center and the dvd hutch in the living room area. The book case that we were going to put there sort of disintegrated when we were moving it. We managed to salvage half of it, which we put in the office. But the space where we were going to put it now needs built-in bookshelves. Oh, well. Not a big project and not essential before we move in.

The dining room area has the high dining room table and chairs, the hutch and a really cool small antique desk. Everything looks SO NICE in there. I’m really excited about how it is coming together. Pictures once we get things more cleaned up.

Then, after all that was done, I painted the ceiling and primed the walls in what is now called the “wash and wear room.” I’ll put the final coat on that tomorrow and then we can hang the cabinet that goes in there and move in the washer. (We don’t currently have a dryer, but we are getting my mom’s, so we’ll only be without one for a couple weeks. That will give us some extra time to get the exhaust hole put through the brick wall!) We can also put up the clothes rods and start hanging clothes in there. We won’t be replacing the carpet in the bedroom, because the piece we are taking out of 123 is too small. So we are going to wait until we replace the living room carpet at 123  and take the brown carpet from there for our bedroom. It is in pretty good shape – it just tends to snag easily, so isn’t the best for a rental.

So, we get closer and closer to finished!!

We got the piano and organ moved this a.m. with the help of a couple of fine young men (Isaiah Jensen and Roger Mulderink, the son of the people who are moving in here). Ever since we started moving the piano, there has always been one bolt that seemed to go in really hard, as though it was in crooked or something. This was the move that it decided to jam completely. We tried a lot of things, but ended up having to cut it off with a reciprocating saw. Not something you want to see anywhere near your piano! But without it, we were not going to get the leg off and without the leg off, we weren’t going anywhere. We put the piano back together with just one bolt on that leg and it is fine, actually. We just have to remember to give that leg a little extra support if we ever want to move it around in the room. But sitting still, one bolt is plenty in just that one leg.

The organ went in without a hitch.  The black bookcase gave us headaches as we tried to cut it down to size to fit the low ceilings, but once it is in, it completely hides the door behind it, just like I’d imagined it would!

We also moved the chest freezer, since it moves particularly easily with the piano dolly. Now I am off to return the piano dolly to the rental place.

I just read Krista’s post and have to agree that I’m getting pretty excited about our family get-together. But I’m also excited about almost having the new place finished and moving next week and, of course, getting a new dog (if they ever get the home visit done…). And then there is the excitement about starting my new business the day after I get home.

Actually I almost have more excitement in my life than I can tolerate! But the excitement about the family get-together is the only one that doesn’t have accompanying nervousness, so that is the best excitement. Only one week.

Last night I painted the first coat on the bedroom and today I put on the final coat. Dad put in the door frame and put in the door between the bedroom and the super closet. We were using an old door, without a frame, so it was a little harder than if we’d just bought a door, but it was free. I got the first coat painted on that, as well, last night and finished it today. We also found some trim left over from some tear down that we will be able to use on that door, so we won’t need to buy trim. And Dad put on another coat of mud. Today I also loaded everything out of the basement and put it in the garage. It was A LOT of cans of paint and other stuff. Took me 41 minutes to carry it all up the stairs and another 30 minutes to carry it to the garage. Whew! That was my exercise for the day.

Scott Jensen called today and offered himself and his son to help move the piano and organ Saturday. We were a little worried that no one had offered to help yet. It is a bit much for just the two of us!

And I made the final schedule of what gets moved what day, so that everything is moved by Friday morning before we head over to Shakopee. The piano room will be moved Saturday, the living room and dining room Sunday, the bathroom  and some of the kitchen and bedroom Thursday, and the furniture from those rooms on Friday morning. When we see you all we will be finished! And exhausted!

Some gladiolas from my garden in the country.

Aren’t gladiolas gorgeous!! My favorite.

We had hoped to have all the mudding and taping done by tonight and we have. The city inspector signed off on the electrical today, so we could put in the last of the sheet rock, then we got it all taped and mudded this evening. What a relief. That means we should be done with the dust by Friday, so we can move the pianos on Saturday. Then the fun starts, when we can move furniture over and put things in cabinets. Paint first, though.

I also spent many hours cleaning out tools and supplies so we are more or less down to what we will need for finishing up. And we can find what we need again, which is a nice change from rummaging through the heap to find the needed tool!

We got the kitchen cabinets in place, but the sink is not yet cut in. But I can see now how my kitchen will look and it is wonderful. There will be lots more kitchen room than I have now, which I’m excited about! The other spaces, dining room and living room, will be smaller, but big enough for the limited furniture we need.

We also did a lot of mudding in the laundry room  yesterday. We didn’t quite get everything done we wanted, but Dad has two half days off this week, so we should have everything done in time to move the pianos on Saturday. We need to save a little time next week for some work that needs to be done here before the new people can move in. Plus on Wednesday we are driving over to Rhinelander to see a college roommate that is up from Ohio for the week. I’m kind of nervous about that since I haven’t seen her and her husband since our kids were little!

We’ve been looking quite a while for a companion for Sherlock and I may have found one. Here is a link:

https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/29935909/

She sounds perfect and I think she is so adorable! She isn’t taken yet, and the gal in charge of the rescue thinks she would work well for our situation. I’m not sure what we do next. I’ve submitted my “adoption application” so they will be checking references and arranging a home visit.

I’m excited!!

We just finished packing everything up. When all was said and done, the only large thing we have to get rid of is the smaller desk. We decided to use the dresser that didn’t sell and we are just going to keep the fridge for future use in one of the rentals. I boxed up a few things to keep and try to sell on ebay and a few books to donate to the senior center. There are about 5 more boxes of things to go to the second-hand store. But we really sold a lot of stuff! We ended with $206 after I bought my snacks and my bakery things from the Amish. Not bad for two days.

Now back to work on the house. Less than two weeks left, and we move the piano and organ a week from today, so we have to be finished with the sheet rock mudding and sanding by then!

It was busy this morning, but the afternoon got pretty slow. I got rid of a lot of small stuff and made over $125 today, but there is still some big stuff that I’d like to see go, because I don’t want to have to figure out where to store it. Tomorrow is just the morning, then I can get on with life. This sitting around all day is for the birds (even if I did make over $100 doing it!)