Yes, we have been busy

We have been blessed with some great visitors lately, including those who live close by.  It is always a joy to have company.  But in the meantime, we have been busy with more final touches to the house.  Today I replaced the weatherstripping on a couple of the doors and installed base board in mom's office.  For some reason there has never been base board in that room.  It really looks nice.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll post a photo, as well as a photo of another floor I installed - this time for some friends.  In the meantime, here are a couple of photos showing that we are moving along . . . we have cleaned out and abandoned our storage shed. It was nice to have it, but I am glad to be rid of the expense.

The storage unit at the beginning of the month.

The storage unit as it looks today.

Ecclesiastes 7:8

Time for another update.  The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy around here, but we have lots to show for it.  Here are some photos documenting the hard work of many folks, to whom we are deeply indebted.  There is no top of the list, but we'll begin with Don & Jana, who came to visit us and brought a load of wood with them.  We had a lot of fun last weekend with them, and they lead the way with their work.  In addition, James and Peter O. were here joining in the festivities.  We never could have gotten it all done in 3 days if we hadn't had all that wonderful - and fun - help.  I did the kitchen plumbing on Thursday, and the electrician came a couple of days and got most all of that work done.  So we feel like we are finally not living in a construction zone (although, granted, it still looks that way out back, and in a few selected spots).  But the carpet is on its way this Thursday, so Friday we'll go over and start moving back selected items of furniture.  What a joy it is to be coming to the end of a great project (see subject line).

 All the floors are hickory.  The floor in this office is 3/4" solid wood with a walnut finish.

It was nailed down by Don & Peter O. and I owe them big time.  It is beautiful

I wanted a wood floor so I could wheel around between my desks.

One can never have too many desks y'know.

 The Hallway.  AKA the Christmas Day line up place.   New AKA = Grandpa's Bowling Alley.

This is a 5" plank hickory with a natural finish.  Unlike the office, this is an engineered floor.

That means that it is stapled down in the tongue & groove, but only with 18 gauge staples, not nails.

James and I put this down, and it went pretty smoothly actually - we only miscut one board, and I did that before James came on Monday, so you can see how essential he was to the successful execution of the project.  Although smaller in area, this took quite a while to complete as there was more prep work involved, and a lot more cutting.  And the cutting had to be precision, as opposed to the other floor we worked on (see below).

 One view of the dining room.  In the foreground is the 5" plank that is in the entry way.

Don came up with the ingenious idea of putting a border of darker boards around the entry way to set it off and to allow for an interface with the 3" strip flooring in the dining room.

 Another shot of the entry way, showing the interface with the hallway and the dining room.

I really love the contrast between the two styles, and especially the variation in color hues in the entry way.  The boards were hand picked by the only two on the job with any taste:

mom & Jana.

 Looking back at the front door from the dining room so that you can see the entire entry way.

Don came up with this idea and installed it with help from Peter O., Jana and mom.  But Don did most of the work, which involved a whole bunch of high accuracy cutting.  He is incredible.

Carpet will be installed this Thursday - 

we cannot wait to get some of our furniture back from the storage place.

 The SE corner of the kitchen, where we expanded into where the old passage way was.

The cooktop is new, and is gas.  You can see on the right the same double ovens we had before, but in a brand new home.  Also note the cannister lighting, the island, and the beautiful wood floor.

 Here is a good shot of the flooring in the kitchen.  This is the north wall, with the same refrigerator and dishwasher as we had before.  But the dishwasher is now on the other side of the sink, and the fridge is in the corner next to where it used to be, with the back to the north wall.

And right there in the middle of the photo is my pride and joy - the sink.

 Last Thursday I spent all day under the sink and various other places on this wall as I installed all of the plumbing.  All my years of fighting the plumbing in this house paid off.  I put in new everything, valves, drain pipes, etc., plus hooked up the dishwasher and the ice maker, and installed a new garbage disposal, and of course our way-cool faucet.  The hardest part was having to carefully rework the threading on the outfall pipe going into the wall so that I could hook up the new piping.  The sink came free with the counter tops, so they installed it.  It is really deep, which I love, and it is mounted under the counter so you just wipe stuff off of the counter right into the sink - no little lip in the way.

I amazed even myself by how few trips to the hardware store this part of the project took.

In this photo you can see that we put the same flooring in the family room, kitchen, and into the dining room.  It is engineered flooring that went down really easy and nicely - once James & I figured out some secrets.  It was pretty frustrating at first.  It is a "floating floor" that is neither glued down nor nailed/stapled.  It just snaps together.  Quite amazing acutally.  I would install another one of these in a heartbeat, now that I know some of the secrets.  James was the brains of this part of the job, reminding me of measurements and making sure that I didn't cut off the wrong end of the board. 

You may also notice in this photo the missing microwave.  Since we have a functioning microwave, the installation of the new one continues to be a low priority.  But when installed it will have an exhaust fan shooting up to existing ductwork and out the roof.  Installation will be a bit more tricky due to the need to drill some holes in the cabinetry - which my experience with the hose for the ice maker in the fridge tells me is going to require some skill and patience.  I also have to get some parts to connect the exhaust fan to the existing ductwork.

Our "cavernous chicken", which we love!

(No, the old stools are not staying, that one somehow wandered back in.  They are on the way out.)

One Room Coming Right Along

As you can see, there is still some finish work to do, but here is a pretty good idea of the new look for the bathroom.  We still have to put up the tile, install a couple of new outlets, and put on the finish trim, but it is really shaping up.

This project is pretty much all the work of the angel of the house.  But on this particular project Peter came by to see if he could help just at the right time.  And help he did!  After a few practice runs on scraps of sheetrock he did a fantastic job with the texturing machine.  He got it everywhere (but that's the idea).

George MacDonald

I have read quite a few books this year, but the ones I like the best were written by 19th century author George MacDonald.  Born in 1824 in Scotland, his published works include many books on theology, and collections of his poetry.  He was quoted quite freely by both C.S. Lewis and Neal A. Maxwell, two other of my favorite authors.  But the books I like the most are his works of fiction.  Those who know me best are no doubt wondering what happened to me as my taste in fiction is pretty much restricted to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.  So far this year I have read five of MacDonald's books, in the order I read them:

1. Phantasties

2. The Light Princess

3. Far Above Rubies

4. There And Back

5. The Princess and the Goblin

I also began to read Lilith, but gave it up after just a few pages.

As you will no doubt recall, the reading of Phantasties was one of the key elements in C.S. Lewis' return to his Christian faith.  That, in fact, was what drew me to MacDonald in the first place - my respect for Lewis and love of his writings, particularly The Great Divorce, in which MacDonald makes an appearance.

I must say, however, that of all the books written by MacDonald I have read so far, Phantasties was my least favorite.  It did not resonate with me, and I often considered it tedious and difficult to follow.  My favorite to date is There And Back, which has an interesting story line and is packed with his theological ideas, which I enjoy.  My next favorite is The Princess and the Goblin, which I just finished.  This is one of those books that you begin reading for the story line, and pretty soon begin thinking, "Hey, I think he is trying to teach me something." There are some great lessons hidden in the story line.  The Light Princess is just a fun little short story.

I have also partially read some of his other books, including Hope of the Gospel and Unspoken Sermons, both of which I found interesting.

So there you have a little of what I have been doing to relax when time affords it.  I recommend you download some of his books (I have quite a collection, all downloaded for free) and try him out.  If you don't like one, try another, and let me know what you think.  As for me, I am off to begin another.

And Finally . . . . . The Cabinets!

I hope you all went back to the first post I published this morning - 7 posts ago - and followed them through in order.  This is the last one.  Last Friday they installed the cabinets and they are just as wonderful as we hoped and planned they would be.  The color is perfect and all the space will be a great blessing.  And there is so much flat space to work on with the island.  It is, as we intended, massive.  It is hard to imagine just how big the kitchen is just by looking at photos, but give your imagination a whirl.  Then come see us sometime after the end of September to see the finished product after the flooring is in.

 The view from the family room, SW to NE.

 The north wall from the west, showing room for the dish washer, sink and much storage.

 Same view from the east, showing the fridge, and all the storage.

 Nice little fold out "pockets" in front of the sink to hide cleaning pads, etc.

 To the right of the sink there are divided drawers that pull out all the way, as well as a nice bread board.

 The east and south walls from the west.

 A little closer shot.

 As seen from the fridge.  This is where the double ovens will go, surrounded by lots of storage space.

 And this is where the gas cooktop will go, with a venting microwave above it.

 And some counter space to the right, between the cooktop and the ovens.

 And here is our favorite pull out spice drawer, with - did I mention - lots of storage space.

 Deep drawers under the cooktop to keep the big pans. And notice that they also pull all the way out.

 A lazy susan with two shelves in the corner.

 The north side of the island.

 On the sink side of the island - pull out, hiding - trash containers.

 The south side of the island, by the ovens.  Notice that pesky yellow electrical cord.  We spent so much time trying to measure it just right and it still ended up out from under the island.

Under the island on the SW corner - and example of the slide out shelving so you don't have to dig back behind everything on your hands and knees.

And that's it for now folks.  As time permits we will post more when we have progress to report on the flooring, the paint, the fireplace, and the carpet.  Stay tuned.