There is clean laundry again!

And now there are two loads in the basket waiting to be folded!

Thursday night I got home ready to work on the house only to find a large bag of roasted chiles waiting to be peeled.  A happy belly all year long is the result of buying chile at the end of the summer and filling freezer with little ziploc bags of ready to eat goodness.  However, we nearly missed out because we couldn't really bring home chiles to freeze without a freezer.

Last week we got the floor waxed and then sort of polished - enough to move in the freezer anyway.  So having brought home the chile, Thomas got things ready to move in the freezer.  We got it in and running and then peeled the night away!

He had already put in his 40 hours for the week, so Friday he hung drywall in the mudroom, as well as a lot of other work.  Next up - the cabinets, shelving, or other layout for the mudroom walls!  I had come up with a plan, was encouraged to revise it using the leftover kitchen cabinets, was also told we would just get more at Habitat, and then had sour grapes when none of these plans were accepted.  Ah well...after a good night's rest and some time to mull over the options (primary parameter being that it needed to be completed the next morning, which meant materials in hand), Thomas and I devised an acceptable plan for both of us.

Saturday we cleaned up and hung the cabinets right off the bat.  This was to Tom's liking, so he wouldn't have to texture the area behind them.  While he textured the spot behind the washing machine, I mixed paint - using some of the yellow from the house, I added some of my craft paint to warm it up a little - more complimentary with the floor.  I was able to paint the wall behind the washer and dryer, so he could install them on Sunday while I was at youth group.  Plus, this morning I was able to paint the north and west walls before work, which he textured Sunday, too.

There's still the ceiling and east wall to paint, but it is looking good!  And it sure is nice to have clean socks and undies!

high tide!

Cimarron made the news with its flooding Sunday, but things are drying out here.  As much as we need the rain, floods like this often leave the water downstream and the destruction behind.  And as I suspected, a number of folks slept right through it.  Reports range from 5 to 10 inches in five hours - that's a lot of rain!

Here are the pictures I took Tuesday on my way to work of the olona on the south side of the highway.  It feeds water into Miami Lake through a large culvert under the highway. 

The actual culvert is further down the road by the bushes, but this picture shows both the debris caught in the barb wire fence, as well as how high the road is compared to the ground on the south side.  The water actually comes from the far end of the picture, so the debris shows how far the water shot past the culvert.

Closer to the culvert, you can see the valley a little better to the west.

This picture looking east shows all the debris left behind.  It was dark when we found ourselves in the water, but using the odometer, I would guess it was around 500 yards, and Tom thought it was two feet deep at its deepest - that is just a lot of water barreling down the little path!  From all accounts it sounds like it was running over the highway for at least an hour.  And the lake is looking pretty full!

It'll all change in a week!

Progress and change come quick...sometimes.

 The closet I worked on Saturday - the cedar planking along the bottom makes it smell so nice.  And now it is ready for clothes and all sorts of other storage bins.

My floor!  I take a little pride in the pattern, though Pop told me it wasn't random enough.  I told him that's why it is a "pattern".  These were tiles we picked up with the ones for the bathroom - cheap and easy to install.  But I admit that it took longer than Tom thought it would.  I guess I am just slow and messy, which makes me even more slow, which makes me want to hurry, which makes me messier....ah the vicious circle!
(from this angle where a cupboard will be, the chest freezer will be to my left along the north wall, and the shop sink, dryer, and washer will be across the far/south wall)

Tom conceded to my request for gray grout, which meant exchanging the white for it when he was near a Home Depot.  He finished this over the weekend, which looks really good with the floor, too.  It's ready for bathing, though we still need to pick out a shower curtain.

Already since these pictures, the mudroom floor has been waxed a couple times and is ready for buffing.  Tom got the flashing screwed down, and the seams are sprayfoamed.  We've got a few sheets of drywall to throw up and texture and paint, and then there's the plumbing to install.  By next Sunday it will hopefully be full of appliances once again!

A Few Screws Loose

I must admit that on September 8th, I accidentally hit one of the resident kittens.  She is not from Felix's lineage, the original cat that arrived in the fall of 2011 and is the only remaining cat at our place.  In light of the life span of our kittens, it shouldn't be surprising that Dulce, who showed up with her brother Kevin in August from out of the blue, would land under my tires.  I panicked, of course.  I saw her flop to the edge of the garden, and then I pulled the car back around, ran inside, and called Tom to apologize.  It was my first day of RE classes, an eleven hour day for me, and I was beside myself.

It doesn't help that the day before on our way to church, I confessed to Tom about killing all these spiders at the hall when I set up for our classes, plus the flies that found a garbage can full of food left at the hall, and the crazy birds that sit in the road and fly up into my grill driving to work.  I told him it reminded me of that rhyme about an old lady who swallowed a spider - she swallowed a spider to catch it - and a bird to catch that.  I cracked a poorly timed joke that the cats better watch out because the cat was swallowed next to catch the bird.  Yes - poor timing to crack a joke like that 24 hours before hitting Dulce.

The cat lived.  Tom couldn't find any protruding bones when he got home, and Kevin was protecting her.  She gets around just fine now, putting weight on it sometimes and other times going "tripod".  Tom thinks she'll be okay - as was mentioned above, her life expectancy isn't that great anyway with hungry owls and hawks in the neighborhood, or whatever else it is that gets our kittens.  And just when I think things are going to be okay, I have to wonder now if she isn't brain-damaged, too.  The mud porch is gone, which was a place of great shade and protection.  The kittens found a break in the skirt of the trailer and are now hanging out under it.  For some reason Dulce has no problem getting in, but forgets how to get back out.  She scratches and whines under the steps at the front door for help to get out, so Tom or I have to walk down to the break in the skirting and meow for her, so she can get out.  Ridiculous!

Rolling with the Punches

It's said that the only true constant is change...maybe so...my plans don't always last for too long.

I didn't get out to the house to work this morning, but that's okay.  I know it's Monday, a paid-job work day, but school is back in session, along with my late Mondays.  So I figured I would get a coat of wax down on the mudroom floor in the morning, so when Tom gets home tonight, he could apply a second layer.  At least that was the plan at six last night when we called it quits for the weekend.  I also planned to take pictures to add to a post, but that was the "original" plan.  

We had an overly productive weekend - a trip to Albuquerque for work on Friday meant that we resupplied at Costco, got a bunch of things for the house - including a new lawn mower for Tom, and picked up a pump for Pop.  We cruised in just shy of ten at night, unloaded, and crashed.  Saturday we got busy: Tom worked on waxing the guest bath floor, mowed the weeds, started grouting the tub tile, and I installed our "closet system". After lunch Tom kept up with his projects and I started laying linoleum tile in the mud porch.  Work, work, work until almost seven - all the whole tile pieces were glued down, and my hands, legs, and feet stuck to everything.  Sunday, Tom cut tile for me for the edges in the mud porch, Pop brought the tractor over to help Tom attach the mud porch to the house, I finished the floor and some major clean-up, and Tom finished grouting the tile - plus he got the fixtures installed for the bathroom!  Boy are we getting CLOSE!!!!

So last night we were winding down - bellies full of pizza and peaches'n'ice cream. Both showered and ready for bed, we were less than an hour or two from deep sleep.  Then Tom's work phone rang, and the night melted into a wet mess.  We delivered sandbags to Cimarron, where a heavy storm in the hills and town were causing flooding.  After dropping off a bundle of bags, we headed to Raton for more.  In the rain it seemed all our movements were blurred and slow, but by the grace of God, we made it there and back and eventually home without incident.  Right away we hit major water across the highway just west of Miami Lake, and I hope I can take pictures tomorrow of the barbed wire fence full of debris where the water flooded over.  Around Cimarron there are more signs of water in places it usually isn't.  The community really came together and helped each other, though I wondered how many people in town slept through it and didn't even know what was happening out in the dark, wet night. 

So after getting home at 3:20 am - plans changed.  I didn't get the floor waxed.  So what?  The yard was too muddy to go out and take pictures, so those will just have to wait.  Big deal!  It's felt like five o'clock all day...and now it finally is.  Hopefully my plans to go home in a couple hours and go to bed early won't change!

Two Full Weekends!

Conveniently, I excused myself from a work-related training on September 6th because "we're pouring concrete that day".  Plans for the pour were revised from day to day, but despite the rain of the week and despite the mud, we did pour concrete.  Thomas and I prepped for the footer/stem wall for the mud porch to sit on.  Plans changed more times than I can remember, but ultimately we dug down and laid a row of ICF blocks.  After leveling it and laying all the rebar, Thomas wheeled out the concrete mixer, and we poured and poured and poured.  The local hardware store delivered the concrete sacks - by the trailer instead of a) on the pallet where they'd be covered in case of rain or even b) by house where we would be using it.  Needless to say, mixing and pouring 37 bags was tiring enough to then add loading them up from the trailer, too.  The hero of the day has to be Pop's cement wheelbarrow, as our's had a flat tire after three bags.  Goodness knows my arms would have been dangling to my ankles if I did it by bucket!

Oh yeah, and also that day, I textured our closet - getting closer...

Sunday I had the good fortune to have company.  After church I helped Tom get the next row of ICF up and braced, but while Fr. Tom and I visited after lunch, Pop and Tom poured a few more bags of cement for the pillars.  My back and shoulders were grateful!

So this week we prepared to move the mudroom.  Like the plans for pouring cement, the plans and theory for moving and reconstructing the mudroom have been numerous.  Ultimately, this is what happened:

I finished my last load of laundry on Wednesday, and that evening the freezer, washer, and dryer were moved out to the shed.  Everything else was put downstairs in the cellar.

We demo-ed the interior wall, so as to ensure that we were not attached to the trailer in any way.  (The mudroom was never actually attached directly.)  We also disconnected the electricity and the plumbing.

 The shelf I built for wine glasses, etc was removed from the window hole and replaced with the original window (look straight though to see the other half of the window still mounted on the outside of the mudroom.

After Thomas and I unscrewed the flashing that covered the gap between the trailer and mudroom, we jacked it up with farm jacks and slid heavy black pipe under it in three places.  Using a long chain and Pop's tractor, our tractor operator slid it away from the trailer.

The trailer and jacks were used to block it off the ground, so that Thomas could attach an axle to the bottom of the mudroom.

And away we roll.  The tractor wheeled the mudroom in a large arc across the property and right up to the house!  And Pop appreciates that the feat was done without cracking any of the walls!

Using the jacks again, pallets were stacked under either side, and heavy metal pipe was laid across the concrete pillars, and the tractor just slid it into place!  All between breakfast and dinner, with a nice lunch break in the middle - thanks, Mom!

We will replace the roof with matching propanel, though we won't change the roof pitch.  Tom and Pop got the wiring done on Sunday before Sofia's third birthday party.  I've got the floor practically prepped for laying linoleum tile.  We will need to attach it to the house and weatherize it, and then hang sheet rock on that interior wall.  Oh yeah, and we need a new window where the other one came out.  Pretty wild how easy they made it look!

Labor Day

To celebrate Labor Day, per tradition, we went up with the family to chop a load of firewood for the coming winter.  No pictures, as I forgot my camera this year.  We had a great day, though a smidge longer with an extra truck to load.  Thomas sold the F-150 to his sister this summer, and Andres is now driving it.  We filled the little Ranger, plus the little red trailer.  We skipped out on the Sunday wood run, since I was singing, but it's often the only day we get to sleep in, too! 

On Monday, I proceeded to get SUNBURNED!  Put away your summer whites at Labor Day, but leave out the sunscreen!  We worked on finishing up the siding on the west side of the house.  Starting in the morning we got so much done, and it was shaded.  After lunch though, the sun was oppressive.  At least I had a hat on!

And if wood getting wasn't enough, we enjoyed more family time with a bonfire at Daniel and Julie's - smores and all - on Saturday and then a bbq on Monday at Mom and Pop's.  Labor Day rocks!