Walls are Starting to Look Like Walls!!

With Kelly working full-time things are going to take a lot longer to get done around here.  We did get the hallway shiplap started and so far we are loving it.

I paint about 12-16 boards at a time after Kel has cut the edges and then on his days off we hang whatever I have painted.

We still need to countersink the nails, putty them over and touch up the paint.

What do you think?

A week from today the new electrician comes by to see if he will even take over the electrical from the work of the other guy and we will also find out how much more it is going to cost to get the job done.  This new electrician is so busy that even though he is going to come look next week, if he decides to take the job he can't even start until sometime in August!!  Yikes!!

In the meantime I am working on learning how to be a longarm quilter!!

Another "Woman's Perogative" Going on Here . . .

Well, we were going to work on the guest bathroom during Kelly's days off this week but we decided that since our "ship lap" boards had arrived we would work on them instead.

Here are the boards ~

Man, are they purdy!!

Here are the boards after Kelly cut them to turn them into "ship lap" and I have primed them.

Here they are painted but it's hard to see the color.

Here is the color it is supposed to be.  The best match is the counter base in the lower right corner. but not quite that dark.

We are going to start putting the ship lap up in the hallway so that we have a real wall for the bathroom.  Here is the bathroom wall right now ~

Ha! Ha!  A bed sheet and a wall of insulation!!

Time to Start Working on the Mud Room . . .

that will hold the washer and dryer, a deep utility sink, a laundry-folding table (with storage under it) and the hotwater heater!  Kelly is at work today but has Monday and Tuesday off so we thought we would work on the Guest bathroom plumbing and that will include running lines to the hotwater heater and everything else in the mud room too.

So, I decided to start ripping out the nasty walls so we would have nice new walls to attach the plumbing to ~

These walls face the west side of the house and we have been told that here at the coast, the west side always gets the worst of the weather.

Plus we were told by neighbors that the guy who sold the house to us put up those wide boards at the bottom to cover up the rot!!  LOL!!

As you can see there is a lot of rot at the bottom and along side the door.  I decided that the entire sheet of T-11 siding had to go.

This is what I found under the one sheet plus ants galore ~

And this is what is going to be under the other side ~

I was hoping it was going to be exterior ship lap but it is neither and they are both different.  What is wrong with people?  Some of the framing is also rotted out so these two walls are going to need a major overhaul.  Really felt good to get outside and pound a hammer and crowbar!!

With the Gorgeous Weather . . .

anything being done around the house is being done outside.  Kelly spent a day last week, and I do mean a big part of the day, out at the burn pile and he got a lot of the crappy wood that has been pulled from projects all burned down.

And then I have been working out in the back 40 weedeating down the forest and cutting tree limbs from the big tree that was all the way down to the ground.

Ha! Ha!  I thought I was going to find some kind of dead body under this black tarp!!  Yikes!!

Also, we worked on the canal that runs along the street side of the property.  This is what it looked like before the weedeater got a hold of it ~

And this is what it looks like now!!

There is still lots to do and the grass continues to grow so fast that it needs the regular mowing job a couple of times a week.  But we are supposed to have lots of sunny days ahead and so if I get a bit done each day we may see the end of it.

Kelly got his dream job at at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort  ~

and even though he really only wanted part-time, this time of year he is going to be working 40 hours plus a week, so we are thinking not too much is going to happen at the house.  Plus, we still need to figure out the electrician situation, so we'll see!!

Five Weeks Have Come and Gone . . .

and Kelly is back from his 5 weeks in Paris and Italy.

He had a wonderful time and the entire time he was gone I did practically nothing around the house as far as big projects go.

I did empty lots of boxes and took 4 trips up to the Hospice Thrift Store with lots of donations.  I tried to clear out the great room area as much as possible so we don't live like total hoarders but there is still a long way to go.

Here are before pictures to remind you what it did look like ~

It was absolutely driving me crazy, so even though we have a lonnnnnng way to go here is what we have now ~

We can walk straight through without tripping over something or running into something else!!  But we are in much smaller quarters than where we moved from so a lot of things just have to go.  Kelly has already started getting things ready for a yard sale the middle of June and I think that will help!!

Also, the yard is looking better.  With this gorgeous weather we are having, it is fun to be outside and get some work done.  Only thing about all the sunshine is that the grass literally grows 2 inches a day so it has to be mowed about every 4-5 days.

FINALLY, the biggest thing I did was fire the electrician!!  Here it is 5-1/2 months from the day he started and we are still a million miles away from being done.  And here is the funny thing - I had decided a week ago Sunday that I had had it but wanted to wait until Kelly got home to see if he was on board with it.  So then the next day after that Sunday, I found out he was in jail for 30 days on some environmental mess he has on his property that he just refuses to fix.  This is the second time he has spent in jail over the matter!!  Heavenly Father works in wonderful, mysterious ways!!

I'm at a Quilt Show this weekend but on Monday we are going to start cutting and painting the shiplap and get a few walls up!!  Hoo!  Hoo!!

While I Was at the Quilt Show Last Week . . .

in Blackfoot and visiting some special friends in Logan before coming back home, Kelly rented a big trencher and trenched the 18" deep trench we need for the underground electrical from the house to the well house, Kelly's barn, the Studio and the lamp post out near the road.

When he was about half way into the job the trencher hit a water line and Kelly said said the geyser that came out of the ground made him cringe!!

Well, that was last Saturday and he wasn't sure what to do.  So, we decided to wait until I got home Tuesday afternoon (Kelly having no water all that time) and when I got home Tuesday night, I was just too tired to deal with it and we were leaving the next day to go to Portland to drop Kelly off at the airport for his 5 weeks in Paris and Italy.

I got home late yesterday afternoon and I was exhausted.  I went to bed early, slept 12 hours and got up this morning to tackle the problem.

As I got down on my knees to dig out where we knew the break in the line was, I easily found the break and cut out the bad spot with a tiny hacksaw.

Then I went down to the hardware shop to see what I could get to fix it.  We decided on a spacer kinda thing that I would put into both sides of the pipe and clamp both sides down.

Then I turned on the pump and NOTHING!!  Except the pump stopped working!!  Yikes and so did my heart!!

Then I left to go play bridge and all afternoon instead of thinking about the cards, my mind was trying to figure out what could be the problem.  I decided that maybe the trencher had perforated other places along the line.

Yup!!  I got back home, checked out the line that was showing, but still submerged, and happy days -

Lots more holes.  So, I was able to pull it out and hoped that if I just capped the end that was closest to the well, it would solve the problem!!

Why, yes it did!!  When I started up the pump, it stayed on, the toilet filled up and I have cold water once again in my kitchen sink!!  All the buckets can now go back out into the yard to collect the rain water that we put in our Berkey filter!!

I just love happy endings!!  Now what project should I start on tomorrow morning?  Hmmmmm, maybe I'll work on getting the new toilet pipes in the Guest bathroom in and the hole for the toilet cut out!!

We Set a Goal . . .

and we achieved it!!  It was costing us $95.00 a month to store all of Kelly's stuff and the remainder of my things that had not gotten into the Studio yet.  So, the first part of March we said, let's make sure we have the back storage unit complete by the end of the month so we don't have to fork out another $95.00 for the storage unit!!

Ta! Da!  Kelly and Elder Woolley and Monte got it all done (except to pain the door and get some trim up) in time for us to unload the storage unit and get it all sept out on March 31st!!

Kelly has some projects he wants to do including trenching the ground for the electrical wires to go into from the well house and the studio and the lamppost out at the corner of the property while I am away vendoring at a quilt show/retreat in Blackfoot, Idaho this week.  And then when I get home next Tuesday, I will get up the next morning and take Kelly up to Portland to get on the pane and start his 5 week trip to Paris and Italy!!

I am hoping to have the electrical far enough along to get the inspection done and then I can start insulating and putting up walls!!  Hoo!  Hoo!!