Breakfast Nook

 

The kitchen and the laundry room are the last two rooms to be drywalled.  They have become the storage area for all of the supplies. 

 

Drywall pieces for small areas.  

Tools not in use. 

Extra pieces plywood.  

The new toilet.

Extra ladders.

Copper pipe for plumbing.

 

Staging area is a better word.  We are staging for the next scene of the project.  What happens when you are ready to work in the kitchen?  Move everything to the laundry room.  What happens when you are ready to work in the laundry room?  

 

Running out of staging areas is a good sign. 

 

The kitchen has a side window. Our plan was to remove it to create more wall space and create a breakfast nook.  Yes, the kitchen will lose a little light, but we are replacing the back window with a door.  That will provide the light.



 

 

 

Also, let's face it, the view out the side window isn't the best.  It looks like an old apartment building, but it is a house.  It is a house that needs a little work.  Just a little. 

 

 

 
That silver thing at the bottom of the photo...that's some type of insulated duct work that has been laying in the side yard since we started this project.  They move it to mow.  But never put it in the shed or the garbage. 
 

 
Walt Kowalski cutting through the aluminum siding.  (The neighbor came out to mow his grass, but walked extra slow to his shed.  He stretched his neck around the corner to snoop to see what Walt Kowalski was doing.)
 

 

 

Just like that, the window is no more.  Walt Kowalski added a couple of additional 2x4s and caulked the outside.  Tonight we can insulate and start the drywall in the kitchen.  One of these days, between the rain drops, I will add a coat of paint. Siding will come, but not at the moment. 

  

 

Meanwhile...the painting crew arrived.  They didn't know they were the painting crew until they arrived. 

They painted the 3rd bedroom.  The mother-in-law suite.  The extra bedroom. Grandma's room.  The nephew's room.  What ever you want to call it.  Whatever the room turns into.

 
They did a great job.  I can see where I need to go back and touch up a few screw holes and seams. 

Eyeballs in the Fridge

There are eyeballs in my fridge.



They are chocolates from Halloween.  They made me laugh so I left them.  They are in the front of the hydrator looking at me.  Kinda like 'Do you really want to eat that?' 

Why (how) does the fridge get so dirty? How does all the cat hair get in the fridge?  Do the cats eat in there when I'm not around?  Does Oreo let Fudge stand on her back so he can open the fridge and that's why it's so messy?  Food is always in containers, yet there are crumbs everywhere.  (Same with the silverware drawer, but that's another story.)


I emptied the entire fridge. I emptied the shelves on the door too, just after the photo. One is the chocolate shelf.  Some of that had to be destroyed.  :)

 

Wiped everything out.  Scrubbed the pink sticky goo off of the sidewall. (What was that?) Combined the multiple containers. (I knew I had a container of olives in there!) I even took the handle off and cleaned it. 

 

With the amount of dirt on the handle, you would think I came directly from the garden, with dirty hands, and opened the fridge.

 

 

Here was the mess:

It covered all of the counters and the table.  I only threw away one thing.  I'm good about leftovers and getting them into the freezer if we aren't going to eat it.  But I also hate to waste food.  I did have 3 containers of broth for soup.  They went to the basement freezer.

I moved the fridge shelves to their summer position.  Summer position = room for a watermelon and tall space for the margarita mix bottle to stand up instead of lay down.

The freezer below is on the list for a clean out on the next rainy day.  Same with the magic beer fridge in the basement.

Yes, I still have my valentine tea towels up.  I like them.  I have summer ones.  Somewhere.

Lily of the Valley

Just after the rain, I took the trash out.  There was a wonderful scent in the air.  A scent of rain and a thick heady flower blooming. 

The Lily of the Valley is blooming.  It is heavenly. 

 

Knock knock

Who's there?
Doris.
Doris who?
Doris locked, that's why I'm knocking!

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Abbott!
Abbott who?
Abbott time you opened the door!


Opened the new front door. 

A cloudy, rainy, and humid Saturday, was the perfect day to replace the front door. 

 
Instead of two windows, there are now six windows in the door. 

 

The deadbolt now functions properly and the door closes quietly and securely. With proper siding, there will be no large spacer at the top, too. 

If we said it once, we said it a dozen times "Why did they do this?"

We also finished the drywall in the living room. 

 

 

 

 

Ok, almost finished.  I forgot about that small piece on the right.  I've got lots of seams and screws to work on this week.  

 

Fun and Games

Walt Kowalski reminds me that life is a chess match.

In chess, a queen sacrifice is a move giving up a queen in return for tactical or positional compensation.

Real sacrifices are those where the compensation is not immediate, but more positional in nature. The queen is the most powerful piece. Because of this, positional sacrifices of the queen virtually always entail some partial material compensation.

I was never a chess player.  How about Chutes and Ladders? 

I think I always got square #87 that took me right back down to #24. Darn cookie jar.  Some days just feel more like the chutes than the ladders. 

What about Candy Land? 

Both of these games are easy to play for a young child, no reading involved.

We played Candy Land so much that the cards were worn out.  Worn to the point that you knew which card was which before you turned them over. 

Grammy used to cheat, especially after the 3rd or 4th shuffle.  She would be near the end of the board and draw the candy hearts card, sending her back to the beginning of the board. Instead of drawing one card, she would pick up two cards.  Thus skipping the dreaded candy hearts - return to the beginning - card.

How about Uncle Wiggily?

Uncle Wiggily was also a draw a card and advance the board game.  There was a LOT of reading involved.  The directions on the cards were set in rhyme. 

How about Cootie?

Another of my favorite games was called Missing Match-Ups.  It was a Sesame Street based game similar to Memory.

I knew this one so well I had the game board memorized.

Hungry Hungry Hippos?  Simple.  Fun.  LOUD.

(Did you know that Hungry Hungry Hippos is now a metaphor for our consumption-obsessed and obese culture?  Really?!? *sigh* I suppose to be fair, nobody should win.  Everybody should get the same amount of marbles.)

Hi Ho Cherry-O?

Gran, my grandmother (not to be confused with Grammy, my mom) always played with us but secretly hated this game.  In our version, the trees were free standing and the cherries hooked on to the trees by their stems.  Of course, as kids, we didn't have dexterity or patience to do this and inevitably knocked over our trees sending the cherries everywhere. 

She always gave us a little medicine cup to hold our cherries. 

Kerplunk was another favorite.

Pap liked Sorry.

As we got older, the Game of Life and Rummy-O were the go-to games.

 

Rummy-O was a lead in to card games like Liverpool and Rummy.

It's no wonder we had game nights in college.  We advanced to Scattergories and Buzzwords.

I know I forgot dozens of games. (What is/was your favorite?)


The most important part to remember...

The only way to win the game is to keep playing.

More drywall????

Sick of pictures of drywall yet?  I get bored with it at times.  I still have a LONG way to go. But when I stand back and look how much we have accomplished, that helps.

I had a few problems on this seam.  Don't judge me by my missed screws. 
 

Seamstress

Walt Kowalski gave me a new title: seamstress

I like that. 

With the second new window installed, itchy insulation was next on the list.

 

Then came drywall and more itchy insulation in the ceiling.

 
Then it was my turn.  The seamstress.  

Seams and screws and seams and screws and seams and screws. 


Last night we spent what felt like and eternity at the home improvement store.  It was probably only a half hour that we waited, but it felt longer.  Everything feels longer when you are thirsty, hungry, and tired, which we were.  (Even worse if you have to pee.) We even had a snack before going to the store!

We needed something on the top shelf.  So did another gentleman.  This required assistance.  Lots of assistance. Several lane closures and a forklift.

When we finally got our supplies loaded on our cart, the other gentleman waiting was just beginning his load up. Walt Kowalski offered and helped him load up his boards. 

Frank.  He was a nice guy.  His name was on his work shirt.  He told us he was residing an old shed.  He would have struggled loading the boards onto his cart alone.  (Of course, after the employees got the boards down from the top shelf they instantly disappeared. Luckily, there was assistance outside to help Frank load his items into his truck.)

But before Frank loaded his own goods, he stopped over to our truck to help us load our things. 

J