Shop (-vac) Till You Drop!

It's been a while since I have posted much about the house.  Yes, we're still working on it.  Yes, there is still a lot to do.  Yes, I'm still having fun.  This month we have been having fun with floors.  Admittedly, the fun has been broken up with hard labor and adhesive.

I think it's already been said that we found our flooring for the majority of the main floor - a ceramic tile.  It wasn't what we were shopping for on the fifth in Santa Fe, but we came home with 2500 pounds of tile and at least ten pounds of relief for having finally decided on something.  The debate between wood, tile, a combination...really, how many times can we say, "I don't know; what do you want?"

They are 18"x18" and vary from tile to tile - some greenish tints, grays, etc.

 

That same weekend we loaded and unloaded 2500 pounds of tile, we also started on the bathroom floors.  It seems like years ago that we picked up odds and ends of commercial linoleum tile.  We'd accrued some light blue, a gray/brown, and turquoise.  Turns out that a box of turquoise had some gold in it, too - yes!  I can't remember if I planned it that way, as I had eyed that color also.  We picked those up for about ten cents apiece at the ReStores, figuring we'd use them in the bathrooms and mud room.  I had all these ideas of patterns in my head, which Tom was ready to toss out the window way back when for the labor of cutting the tiles.  We discovered they cut well on the table saw, and my designs came to be...

 

The guest bathroom - clawfoot tub on the far end; toilet, sink, and linen closet on the right side.

Tom quartered the large tiles, and we set it at an angle for our bathroom.

We ran out of adhesive after finishing the guest bathroom and almost half of ours.  Tonight I nearly finished ours before it was time for pizza and Master Chef at 8pm.  Admittedly, there may have been enough adhesive if I hadn't gotten it all over my arms, knees (terrible place to get it when you are kneeling on OSB - hurt to get off the floor a couple times), and anywhere else you think it shouldn't have been. 

A couple weekends ago we made a trip to Denver for kitchen cabinets, and at the ReStore up there, we found the wood flooring we will use for our bedrooms - success!  Next we will get in our backer board for under the ceramic tile, and then floors are just a work in progress with materials on hand and decisions made.  (Of course, there is still the basement, which we are again leaning towards staining/sealing and leaving concrete.)

On the cabinets front, Tom was spared the arduous morning at Ikea (I 'd already done all the leg work on the design, so it wouldn't have been horrible).  There's a saying about things well-planned being tossed out the window.  We did nearly that.  At the ReStore we loaded up the cart with flooring and then wandered further into the store.  We found a huge set of solid wood door cabinets (used, of course), which included enough of the right pieces to fill the kitchen and then some.  After looking through the layout we already had worked up and much measuring, we loaded up the cabinets and flooring - filling the sixteen foot trailer and the bed of the truck - and drove away with a lot of extra pennies in our pockets.  What a score!  They'll need a little fixing up, but with the money we saved, there is plenty to replace some hardware and even to strip and stain them to the color we were wanting (which wasn't available in a solid wood door at Ikea). 

So July was busy with more than just flooring.  We took doors off cabinets and hauled them downstairs.  We arranged the boxes and figured out our kitchen configuration.  We installed some more electrical line for ceiling lights, etc.  Our insulation, drywall, and ceiling planks arrived and are ready for installation.  And last but not least, we celebrated my birthday with Pop with a festive family gathering.  The celebrating was fun - maybe a little too much fun. 

Aren't I cute with two different shoes, both on the wrong feet?

That's me - so glad to be!

I asked Tom for a Shop-Vac.  I wouldn't care if I never swept up a pile of dust and dirt and grit before the house is finished.  I was so excited with my new present that I vacuumed upstairs and downstairs and upstairs some more and downstairs some more.  I even got a big, big spider.  It is thrilling to see the floor underneath all that dust and not breath in more than I get in the dust pan.

A Special Day

A day like to day brings a flood of nostalgia behind my eyes.  I remember . . .

• water balloons cresting the roof line, as I hang out in the backyard with girlfriends unaware my uncle and little brother had climbed up from the other side
• swimming in the pool on warm summer days with cousins while our dads barbecued and our moms fussed over the rest of the spread; the red checked tablecloths on the picnic tables in my grandparents' backyard; homemade banana split cake from the neighbor with lots of candles;  sitting next to my grandpa, my birthday boy, to blow them all out together
• getting a slip'n'slide from family friends in California on our family road trip down the Pacific Coast with my Cabbage Patch kid in tow
• a new outfit and dinner date with my parents without my siblings; I chose Chinese food
• lots of yummy cobblers and homemade ice cream
• puddle-jumping in the rain before a party with my girlfriends in Denver
• rained out barbecue at "jazz in the park"; dragging a soggy, hot grill back home
• my last birthday in Portland, also my last with Grandpa; received a special quilt from my fairy godmother
• my first birthday with Tom, which was also my first birthday without Grandpa
• my second birthday with Tom; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner overlooking Yellowstone and Philmont cheesecake with raspberry jam in the tent for dessert
• my first birthday in New Mexico; celebrating with Pop

I know birthdays aren't such a big deal for Tom, but they were always exceptional for me.  How could they not be when you shared a day so special with such a special guy?!?  It was and will always be a gift to me to have celebrated with Grandpa.  Today is not only his birthday, but it's also the feast day of Saints Ann and Joachim, Mary's parents; thus it is often called the feast day of grandparents.  What a lucky girl to have been gifted with such wonderful grandparents in my life!

The well-wishing has been generous this year, and I look forward to celebrating tonight with Pop, whose birthday is tomorrow, and the rest of our family.  And in my heart, I celebrate with Grandpa!  There might be an ice cream cone with my name on it a little later...

Looks like SPRING!!

Spring is the time we associate with verdant and new life: baby animals, budding plants, a greening and lushness of nature.  So maybe our seasons are a little goofy down here.

We've had a pretty great July.  My dad was given credit for bringing the rains at the end of June, and since then we have had a number of afternoon rainstorms and soaking rains.  Just last week it rained for four or five hours in the night time (since I couldn't sleep, I counted).  The result is that spring has sprung, and it is high time to get the mowers out on the highway.  It also means the weeds are growing faster than they can be pulled from the garden.

The baby animals have been around, though now a little more visible.  I've seen a few fawns running across the highway instead of running for cover, and even a baby antelope made a jerky dash for a fence line in front of me.  Last week on our way to mass, the buffalo were out in the pasture for all to ooh and aah over the tiny babies with their paler coats and miniature forms.

The pastures and far flung fields have greened up so much in these parts.  On recent drives north and south, it was comforting to see the grass has finally come in.  I am sure the ranchers are grateful.  We did make a trip to Denver over night last weekend for a load of house things, and it wasn't much past Trinidad that the green faded out.  How lucky and blessed we are for a better-late-than-never spring!

Crazy July

This month is flying by.  After Dad's visit and departure on the first of July, things cranked up at work.  A few long days getting ready for Vacation Bible School before a long Fourth of July holiday, and then an exhausting week of VBS.  I still feel like I am playing catch-up.



Thomas and I snuck off to Santa Fe for an overnighter on the fourth.  We came back slowly with 2500 pounds of tile in the truck.  It wasn't exactly what we went for, but it sure is good not to be shopping for it anymore.  It will cover the common areas of the main floor.  The fireworks on TV aren't the same, but we did see the kids play with sparklers the last night my dad was in town.

 sisters having fun

After unloading the tile, we cut the tile for our bathroom floor designs.  After laying out the pattern, we were both feeling pretty excited about them.  Then last weekend we glued them down.  It was a messy endeavour, and I was hosed off with WD-40 after nearly fixing myself to the corner of the bathroom floor.  Ooops!

Pop came over with Andres, and they got another 20 feet of pipe laid in.  I'm still a little suspicious about who peed in the pipe, as there was a little liquid in the first 20 feet when I pulled the cap off.  Gratefully the cap made it back on, as we have had some awesome rain storms the past week.

the trench became a trough - more than once

a puddle - a real live puddle!  I almost forgot what they were

Finally, I am not a cat person.  But I might be a kitten person.  Truly, baby animals are really, really cute.  We have six kittens running around the place.  The three older ones really started to get social towards the beginning of the month, and their three younger cousins have recently emerged, too.  They crack me up with their pouncing on each other and tumbling around.  They love climbing the trees and chasing the washer Tom tied to the end of a stick.  Great entertainment!  I don't like it when they hide under my car in the morning, but sometimes they try to show off as I take off in the mornings.

Smokey may have stretched herself a little thin in this maneuver.  I was leaving for work, but had the camera on the seat and captured some kitten acrobatics.

June Visitor

My dad came out to pitch in on the house (and to hang out with his compadre) at the end of June.  It was a terrific time for me to take a couple days and hang out...oh, and work, too.  I was a little nervous about smoky conditions with all the fires, but it was beautiful...

the Tooth of Time in silhouette

a full moon

Oh right, back to the work.  We had a couple low key days under foreman Pop.  I can't pretend to be in charge with these guys.  We worked in the basement because of the heat, putting up the walls for Tom's workshop.  The guys measured and cut, and I hammered away.  It wasn't until after most of the walls were up that I figured out the nail gun wasn't working because the pressure was too low.  The second day went faster.

Tom's room

the mechanical room 

The weekend before Dad arrived, we got power in the house.  This was a great accomplishment, and it makes working in the basement so much better...let there be light!  Dad and I had the fun of switching out some screws for nails in our joist brackets, and the light definitely made it go smoother and with less sore thumbs.

Saturday morning Tom was on the scene.  Dad and I finished up the nailing while Pop got the tractor set up for trenching our septic line and Tom messed with the electrical stuff.  Our line into the construction trailer shorted out, and though we don't need much power to it, we still want to keep the beverage fridge cold.  Then Tom worked on nailing strips for the siding on the west gable end; I attached some strapping on the inside of the east gable end; and our dads trenched.

trenching the septic - what teamwork!

Abba and I in front of our septic line trench.  They laid 20 feet of pipe.

All work and no play makes Jack a cranky boy - no that's not how that rhyme goes.  We had lots of great meals, including an anniversary dinner up in Angel Fire.  It was a nice treat, and the drive was beautiful.  Sunday we took the day off - church taking up a good portion of the morning.  We also grilled out with the rest of the family.

We'd had some dry weather - the White's Peak Fire being a testament of that.  Concurrent with Dad's stay in Miami, we had a number of rain storms.  A big rain storm on Saturday actually sent mudslides across Hwy 21 about ten miles west from us.  Sunday the rain sent mudslides across Hwy 21 further on down.  We got some good soaking rains, and Father saw fit to thank my dad in front of the congregation.  It was pretty funny, as Dad didn't understand everything Father said, only that he was still looking at him as he talked.  The rains on Sunday also brought a 4+ hour power outage.  Tom & Dad woke up from their naps to find the lights out.  The dark sky meant we pulled out our oil lamps and made do.  When we got to Mom & Pop's for the BBQ, we had no problem grilling dogs, but we ate our beans cold.  The funny part was even getting the cans of beans open, since Mom's opened is electric.  It was a lot of fun, and the power did come back on for clean up.

Abba, Pop, and Tom enjoying stogies and sipping on something strong

What a great visit!