House Project Photos

So here are the pictures I couldn't upload yesterday:

A project from "a long time ago" - like last month?  

I tiled a simple back-splash around all the kitchen counters.  

Since the photo was taken, they've all been grouted and sealed.

(And the counters are full of all forts of things again.)

 Doesn't that rocking chair look so nice next to the newly finished banister.

In the background is the snow.

The black rectangle above the fireplace was just installed to fill the hole - 

we made our own fireplace cabinet by removing the doors from an existing cabinet and installing the insert.  Looks pretty fancy!  And more snow in the reflection in the doors.

Thomas was vacillating on the pattern for the landing.  

I think this one looks pretty neat!

 Our little study under the stairs - I plan to get the printer set up under there, too.

"My" room - a craft/guest room - will take some time setting up, but the cabinets in the corner used to sit in my grandparents living room with the TV on top and The game of Life, Battleship, and cribbage boards inside.  Now they have yarn and fabric and photos and other such things inside.

On the other wall I made a little desk by joining two shelves, which I am sure will fill up quickly with knickknacks. 

Tom's fancy trim/cope of the doors in the basement - little projects that just give it a finished look.

SNOW and other news...

Well - the first (of hopefully many more) snow day!  I walked to the fire hall, but no port for my picture card.  Ah shucks!  We have been hard at work wrapping up projects, tackling new ones, and still persevering on others.

Imagine a picture of a beautiful landing....herringbone pattern of pine and looking beautiful!  We have just the bottom two steps to tackle now.

Wow - look at that desk tucked under the stairs!  Thomas has set up his computer under the stairs and is enjoying his video games once again after a year-long hiatus.

The basement is all trimmed out!  We were both home on Veterans Day and tackled a whole lot of the last bits of trim.  We still need to hit around the doors, but it looks so good. 

...including all the trim up in "my" room - the craft/guest room downstairs.  With the trim up, we emptied it of all the boxes from the office/closet in the trailer and did a thorough floor cleaning before moving furniture back in.  Now the tedium of unpacking boxes and choosing where they go - not my favorite task admittedly.

And Thomas was hard at work welding the last of the banister.  It is beautiful and compliments the shelves.  With the rocking chair in front of it, it looks like a beautiful spot to cozy up with a book.  While he installed that, I worked on a trim piece we created to fit above our electric fire place upstairs - just to give it a more finished look. 

So much accomplished, and so nice to put our feet up and enjoy the wood stove downstairs in the chilly weather we've been having.  I did get the kitchen cupboard doors prepped for painting, but the weather just hasn't cooperated yet.  More projects abound, but we'll chip away at them as we can. 

AND THE GREAT NEWS: the trailer sold rather quickly to someone nearby, so hopefully our view to the north will be changing in the next few months!  In the mud we have now, I wouldn't want to move that thing, but in time...

Trailer for Sale (not rent)

...Rooms to let, fifty cents...

I have that song stuck in my head because (drum roll, please) we have a trailer for sale!

Here are the pictures/Craigslist ad!

It seems like a long time coming - only took one year after moving into our home to get everything moved out of the trailer and thoroughly clean it!  My goal was October 15th, and I made it with only a few minutes for a washcloth bath before changing and getting to the Fire Dept. for training meeting.  Feels good!

After he took the pictures, I think Tom felt a hint of nostalgia for all the memories in our first home.  It was a great starter home for the two of us as we began our married life together and our life in New Mexico.  Many, many memories! So if you know anyone who may be interested, feel free to share the link above with anyone!

Stubborn Wood!

We've had a loads of fun getting wood this fall.  After a couple weekends hiatus, these are pictures from September.  Our last trip all together seemed to go pretty quickly - on the loading end.  Felling the trees seemed to be a little iffy - snags and stubborn wood seemed to bind Tom's saw every time and then leave the severed tree standing instead of on its side for limbing. 

Case in point - the last tree of the day: after lunch we had one truck left to fill.  Thomas decided to go for the tree in middle of this picture.  It is already cut and leaning - you can faintly see the little wedge of light at the base where it is leaning.  We ladies stood on the other side of the trailer with great concern for the tree falling on it instead of in the direction it was intended.

After severing the tree from its trunk, Thomas started up a little higher in an effort to topple the tree.

Having made the cut,  the tree buckled and bucked out the cut section, but remained standing.

He is a muscle man, but even he couldn't push this big guy over.  He cut another section out, and while it gave a little more movement - namely hooking its branches on the nearby tree and swiveling towards us over by the trailer - it continued to stay upright

Meanwhile, Pop extended the winch on the UTV as far is it would go, but it wasn't long enough to give the UTV safe clearance from a tree falling in its direction.  As Andres wound it back up slowly, the rope was retrieved and tied around the tree.  Tom and Daniel played tug-o-war with the tree; Daniel tried taking a flying leap; and finally, the UTV was brought around to pull the tree to its demise.  Once blocked it more than filled the last truck, and we called it a day.  Can't wait for what's in store this weekend!

an "I Can Laugh About It Now" story

Last Friday I drove to work, settled down at my desk and did work things, greeted my co-worker when she arrived, and looked when I heard her ask a little later, "Do you hear a cat crying?"  Why, no, I did not, but I did stand up by her desk, then outside, and then exclaimed, "It's coming from my car!!!"

My guess was that a kitten hitchhiked in under the hood, so I needed a place to put the kitten once I opened the hood and caught it.  I looked and looked, and eventually, I taped a large box back together that I found in the garage.  Upon popping the hood, despite my assumption, I was startled to see a kitten sitting on the engine block.  Before I could grab it, it dashed back down into the tubes and wires and out of sight. 

My coworker was equally startled to see the tiny kitten under the hood, and we guessed at what to do to coax it out.  "Here, kitty-kitty" is not the language we speak around our cats - mostly we meow at them.  That wasn't working.  I found a container of powdered coffee creamer, so mixed with water in a little bowl, it sat behind my tire.  It failed at an instantaneous reunion.  I had to get back to work.

In an e-mail I was reminded that St. Anthony helps find lost things, and he was a Franciscan, founded by the patron saint of animals.  I offered a prayer to St. Anthony to "find that kitten" - not entirely lost, but maybe.  An hour later I left for our new free lunch Friday program, and loathe to do so, I drove not knowing whether the cat had escaped unseen (my desk doesn't overlook my car) or whether it was shuddering at the heat and sounds of the engine.  Back at the office that afternoon, I popped the hood one more time and meowed for the kitten - no noise, no crying, no scuffing of paws.  No idea whether it was in there or not!

Back to work for the afternoon, and finally the hour arrived for me to return home.  Every bump (and there are a lot of them) on the highway home was jarring, and I kept an eye on the rear-view mirror for a kitten tumbling across the road, though the vision never materialized.  I pulled up to the house and took a deep breath.  I walked around to get my bag and things from the car.  Lucky and Curly, the two mamas, came over and were meowing quietly.  I encouraged them to meow a little louder in case the lost kitten somehow survived inside the workings under the hood, though I don't think they understood.

As I opened the door, I heard a howling cry of hope for rescue coming from the car.  I ran to the driver side to pop the hood, and there lodged behind the passenger headlight was a badly shaken up kitten.  It couldn't get away in that tight space, so finally I was able to yank it out by the scruff.  It darted off so fast, with neither mama following it, that I never figured out if it was Cracker or Twinkie - who look a lot a like, was born of one mama and nursed by the other.  I let out a "Praise the Lord!" and felt an amazing relief wash over me.

Sunday evening we sat out while the cats and kittens fed and then played with them.  Both Cracker and Twinkie were there and unharmed.  I am inclined to think it was Twinkie, but whichever it was, that one is still pretty tense to be held and petted.  Those darn cats - I don't even like cats.......

Favorite Time of Year

I keep hearing references to this being the favorite time of year for my family here - wood getting season!  We had a great first trip up into the mountains to cut firewood last Saturday, though I'll admit that I started the day in a bad mood - we were ready forty minutes before the rest of the crew arrived, and all I could think about was forty more minutes of sleep.

I love the smell of the pine!  And one actually fell into a cedar, and ooh baby - the smell of the cedar!  It is just so much fun to spend the day in the woods.  My brand new leather gloves were coated in pitch, as well as my overalls, my arms, and the ends of braids (not a mistake I made on Sunday with a long shirt and my braids tucked into my hat).

We ached and groused about the aches, but that's expected.  We were looking forward to camping, which didn't pan out, so after the second day, Thomas and I invited everyone over for a campfire.  We had the fixin's for s'mores, so after unloading the truck, Thomas prepared a pile of wood from the burn pile, and I filled the wheel barrow with several loads of rocks to make a fire pit.  I hosed down the chairs, hopeful that the clouds would go away, so the sun could dry the chairs and the fresh mud I made.

We had a lot of fun watching the stars, airplanes, satellites, and even a few shooting stars.  The campfire was mesmerizing...

...but don't be fooled by this soon to be four year-old.  She was more interested in hanging out inside, when the rest of us wanted to be outside.  I giggled coming out of the bathroom to the soft voice calling, "Are you in here?  Girl-Tori?  Girl-Tori - where are you?"

Going Down in Style!

We are not quite finished with the stairs, but let's dwell on what we have accomplished!  At the end of August, we pulled up the old stairs - the "treads", I believe is the proper term.  We had already prepared and cut, planed and poly-ed the new ones.  Thomas cut the ply for the risers while I painted the wall down to the steps.  Thomas installed the elbows we would use for mounting the treads, and then the real fun began.

 

Truly,  this was the easy part.  Getting our system in place took a little work, as I was gluing vertical tiles on the plywood to be mounted behind the tread.  Thomas accurately diagnosed the problem and fixed lunch.  Things proceeded much better after that.

I really like the nice smooth finish and the natural look of the wood.  The color is pretty, too.   We haven't tackled the landing and bottom steps yet...in time.  But at least we could pull up most of the plastic!  And the basement feels like a wonderful den for tv watching and puzzling.  The concrete floor stain is visible in the picture below - turned out great.

The picture above is taken from the closet - which has also been textured and painted.  Once I get some shelves up, it will fill up quick.  And I got the walls in my craft room textured and painted last week, too.  I did the same pattern as our bathroom walls - vertical stripes using a natural straw broom.  The texture reminds me of my engagement ring - rain / bark - very natural feeling.  The wall color is a 50/50 mix of some blue and green on hand.  Before it becomes a craft room, though, it will be storage for everything we still have in the trailer - the office and books, etc.

Hooray for all the progress!  Still to come - pics of the tile that I finally installed around the counters in the kitchen.  Next week it should be ready to grout!

Going through changes...

Just life changes - not menopause!!!

July was a rough month.  In part I have been struggling with some things at work, and I finally felt compelled to do something about it.  So I half-quit.  I had two jobs and gave up one.  So I am still working half-time at the church and enjoying it, but I also am half time working on the house and trailer and other projects to come.  Eventually I will get my substitute teaching application in for the schools, though I am not ready to start subbing yet.  It is a big change and means I am home two full days in the middle of the week - working on the house.

But first - we started the month of August in Portland for my 20th high school reunion.  Lots of fun - no pictures - but good times!  We also spent a good amount of time with the nephews and niece, though I failed to come home with lots of pictures.

This gem is Isaac - and he has grown up so much, right into a giggler!  I really enjoyed all the smiles and laughing, not so much soaking my shorts in baby spit-up.  

Tom and I ate some delicious seafood and hopped through a couple brewpubs.  He went to the Flugtag event with Marty, and I picked blackberries with my sister.  We got to see the Dieringer kiddos, too.  Just lots of go-go-go-go fun - the norm for our trips to see my family!

Then Tom was out of town for a week, and right off the bat, I had an opportunity to see a bunch of my "oldest" friends in Denver.  The plan for working less and two less days of driving was not to trade it in for trips to Denver every week, but it was a pretty wonderful opportunity, and I was home alone anyway.

Anna Belle and I got to have lunch (and coffee)

 Dee took a picture of Dorothy, Rudy, Betty, Fred, Nancy, David, and I on the occasion of Rudy's birthday.  And then I got a little extra hang out time with Betty, since I stayed at her place.

It was sure a treat to see everyone.  And by fluke of great timing for a text, I got to see my friend Deb as I drove out of Denver to get back to finish up my last few hours of work for the week.

I'm not sure if it's really settling into a pattern yet, but I got lots of texturing and painting in the house done, and the trailer is getting boxed up for the move into the basement when it is finished!

July 2015

July was one heck of a month!  It has been two months since I posted, and July is to blame. 

The weekend before July began, we had a flood - in the Cimarron Canyon, not at home.  But while Tom and I were working on the house, he got called away to serve as incident commander in the canyon - where the highway department was liberating the highway from the river bed and from the canyon walls - lots of water, lots of big rocks, and lots of mud.  Andres and I took a firetruck out and helped for about eight hours.  We got to see a bear, but I wasn't fast enough to catch a picture.

I worked with some kids on a float for the church, which was lots of fun.  Thomas rode the firetruck with the ladies and gent below.  And we ended the evening with some fun, food, and fireworks with the family!  Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday feverish and achy and was bedridden for a few days.

The following weekend I had already arranged for someone else to do music, so we could getaway!  We went to Albuquerque Friday evening and had a nice dinner out.  Saturday we went to the Museum of Nuclear Science - very neat!  Sunday we went to the Botanic Gardens - very cool (actually - it got a little warm), the butterfly pavilion, and the "aquarium" which was included with the admission.  We did hit Costco and pick out our basement floor colors at Home Depot, but it was all about good food and time together.

 These two turkeys were both griping at me.  

Even though Tom was the one in little Tom's face, I was the one causing him to bristle!

 The aquarium was pretty little, but it looks like they hope to expand.  

They do have an awesome tank of jellyfish - my favorite to watch!

The trip to Albuquerque was also a celebration of seven years together.  It was fun remembering that fateful evening we met on the porch.  The following week I prepped and prepped to get the basement cleared out; Friday we had everything moved out and cleaned up.  Saturday morning we taped up a barrier on the wood walls and stained away!  The concrete floor looks amazing, but before it had chance to dry, we broke away back down to Albuquerque and bought two couches.  Two in the afternoon and Tom says, "You really liked that couch, and the only reason we didn't get it was because we were in the car, right?"  So we hit the road and made it to Costco right before closing and made it back around midnight.

The next week was hectic for me at work, as the audit I had been preparing for finally arrived.  It was mostly painless, and we're in good shape.  That was great news.  And then the last weekend brought water day...the annual work day, lunch, and meeting.  Back at the tank, Tom wouldn't let anyone else in to clean, but I kept busy swatting bugs away.

Sunday we got together to celebrate Pop's and my birthdays.  It was a great way to wind down a busy month.

Wood or Silver

Last Friday Tom and I celebrated five years of wedded bliss.  We spent the beginning of the month remembering where we were five years ago - driving to Bend, checking out Crater Lake, buying salmon on the docks of the Columbia, playing golf, BBQing with friends, and then finally - saying "I do!"

Five years ago we were just settling into Miami, building a mud porch, stashing boxes away that still haven't been unpacked.  It is a great feeling to have moved again - into the house, though there are still so many things on the to do list.  Five years really flies by!

My brothers inform me that the five year anniversary "gift" is wood or, more modernly, silverware.  We got a canoe - which is neither, but technically the oars are wood.  My older brother asked is we'd named it, which we haven't, but Tom rejected the idea of "Cinco" as it sound a lot like sink-o, which is never what you want a boat to do.  We enjoyed a great paddle around the lake, stalking the frogs, watching the dragonflies, and splashing (each other and our nieces also on the water).

Here's to many more....

Miami Sound Machine

We've got a whole other kind of live music here - and it isn't the band Miami Sound Machine.

This may end up being the wettest year on record - at least in the five years I've been here.  The rain is nearly daily, though the storms dropping an inch of rain or more are only once every couple of weeks.  We haven't been able to get the upper pond low enough to  finish it, and we're about to start our sixth water run of the season!!  People are actually passing up on their water runs because they don't want any more water or don't have room in their ponds.  Meanwhile, the lake is still too high!  How bizarre!  All the storms have made for some beautiful skies...the cloud formations have been amazing, not to mention the colorful sunsets.

Planting anything is a roll of the dice, as the ground has just been so saturated.  We did get a handful of perennials planed in the circle drive - where I'm grateful for the rain, so I don't have to water by hand.  We also planted some berries and an apple tree - hopefully they take well and aren't overly wet.  And then all the seeds that ever fell and weeds that ever spread by root have taken over everything!

just a sampling out the back window - lots of sunflowers

The sound machine reference is to the kind you purchase to lull young children to sleep.  The toads and frogs and crickets and other noisy bugs have turned up the volume - or rather the volume of toads and frogs and crickets and other noisy bugs has multiplied, consequently growing louder.  The pond is full of tadpoles at various stages, and I might have accidentally watered the apple tree with a few.  The mosquitoes are most plentiful, so I'm sure the spider and bird and frog population will explode - at least I hope something starts eating them so they'll stop eating me!

 sun setting on the fields and fields of green

A Shocking Night!

Friday the 15th we awoke to quite a shock!  Around 12:30 am we were struck by lightning.  Though it was some time before we knew where we were hit, the damage had already been done.  Outside our bedroom window (not more than eight feet from where we lay our heads), the TV antenna, affixed to a long pole, was struck by lightning.  The impact of lightning and thunder with no seconds between them will cause a person to sit up in bed with a bit of heart-thudding.

I was warm in bed and quite asleep when it happened, so my reflex was to pull the covers back up and listen for Tom's movements and updates.  He jumped up with a flashlight and started looking for smoke, smoldering anything, black streaks.  He circled the house, not seeing anything in the dark, and then started inspecting inside.  Our bathroom fan popped out of the ceiling, and the force of energy erupted the push buttons from the bathroom fan timer out of the wall:

The GFI in the both bathrooms was dead, along with CFL bulbs over the dining table.  The front security light switch was fried:

I continued to listen to Tom pad around, switching things on and off.  He joked about never being so relieved to hear the ice maker kick on in the night.  Admittedly, the smell was unnerving, for which I did get out of bed just to check it out.  Eventually it went away.  After Tom came back to bed, he "punnily" said he was too charged up and was going to watch TV.  I never heard it come on, and he was back to bed soon enough to say that the old TV and digital converter box and DVD player had all been fried.  The VCR was still okay.  I can only presume it was because the charge went through the coaxial cable and lost its fizzle by the time it reached the VCR. 

We made it to Santa Fe and back with our replacements after church on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the TV screen was discovered cracked upon turning it on, but Tom has even taken care of that.  We have survived the strike and will soon have a new whole-home surge protector.  The antenna is probably going to be moved and mounted differently, too, rather than serving as a lightning rod.  Oh - and no surprise that when thunder struck this afternoon, I jumped in my seat and nearly pissed myself!  How fun!

MAY!

It was good to get home on the first of May - and then buckle down to all the work that needed tending to - in the office and at home.  In my absence Thomas hung most all the blinds on the windows - a real plus at night. We got to work on hanging the shower rod and head over the clawfoot tub and cleaning up my poor edging job around the guest room windows.  This was all in anticipation of my parents arrival last week.  My mom hasn't been out since we put the decking down for the floor (three years ago!), and this would be their first stay in the new house!

We've been getting lots of water - rain as well as two water runs in April.  Our third is slated for this Friday, and in anticipation of it, I got the great idea to dig an upper pond.  This meant clearing out a couple dead trees and digging up a new pond closer to the property line where the well is.  My dad certainly doesn't need an excuse to play on the tractor.

The weather was pretty crummy Friday and Saturday, but they were able to get the stumps out and move some dirt.  The rest was accomplished Sunday when we finally had some sunny weather.

Monday the clouds returned and that night we got three inches of rain!!  The pictures of the rain gauge are proof - and it was a swampy mess to get to it Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning we awoke to a call from the neighbor saying that his pond was overflowing and would be filling our new pond.  When I went out to take pictures, the flume, which we just cleaned out, was up to 10" and the pond was already overflowing!

What a muddy mess!  I know several little boys back in Oregon who would have loved to slosh around and play in the dirt Tuesday.  Gratefully, Mom and Abba made their way south and got some golf in before the weather turned so wet.  Thanks God for the moisture!

A busy month!

My last update was actually posted from San Diego!  I had the privilege of helping a friend with her 10 month old during an out of town conference.  I enjoyed the sunny (and the overcast and rainy) weather, mucho gelato, and, best of all, time catching up.  The baby and I went for multiple walks a day - my girlfriend and I had fish tacos at least every other day - and I read a few books during nap time.

The baby and I checked out the USS Midway - an aircraft carrier turned into a museum.  It was pretty neat!

Following San Diego, I spent several days hanging out with my niece and nephews, getting to meet my newest nephew only a month old!  There were special meals out, trips to different parks, and some good ol' rough-housing.  Before I left, everyone got together for a gorgeous evening - eating and playing.

Those two weeks were a great deal of fun, but I'll admit coming home a little pooped.  All my traveling seemed to begin earlier in the morning than sunrise, but after an early flight and a long drive home, I was sure delighted to see my Thomas!