Yikes

Life has gotten a little more interesting since I last updated you. I know I left you hanging on the progress of our initial trip, but we did visit for a week and a half in FLORIDA. Where it is always perfectly lovely. We did a short visit to Panama City Beach to check out our accommodations for next November's IRONMAN. Then we made it home just a few days before Christmas to spend the day with our family minus 4.

Now we are preparing for the ' BIG MOVE'. Bill had some business to attend to, so while he has been away my friends and family and I have been going through all of my stuff. I say my stuff because Bill has already disposed of his unnecessary baggage. We have spent the last 4 weeks sorting, wrapping, and packing lots of treasures I just don't want to give up just yet.
I have given gifts to children (our children), and friends. And I have even sent a little tiny visitor on a long trip back where she came from.
The second weekend in March we had a huge two day sale, almost all of my furniture went then. I actually could have sold several pieces several times. Then last weekend after sorting, bagging and tagging lots of my jewelry, most of which I haven't worn in years, and sorting and hanging, folding and tagging clothes, purses, shoes we had another sale. Both sales were very successful and most of the stuff is gone.
The rest has been bagged and boxed for the Disabled American Veterans to pick up in a few days.
It's a little startling to see your entire life time reduced to a few hundred dollars. Some times, several times actually I found it difficult, once or twice, to see through the tears in my eyes as some treasured thing went out the door with a stranger.
It's good to remember that these are just things and while the things provoke a memory they do not posses the memories that are locked safely away in my heart.
And soon it will be time to move on to the next phase in our life and make some new and different memories. We will have lots of new experiences and visit great wonders and places. I hope to see many of my long time friends as we travel this wonderful country.
I can't wait to go exploring.

New Furniture

I have friends, and they gave me furniture. I am so happy with the new sofa, chair and ottoman that we got yesterday. It is so pretty, warms up the room and I love it.

Did you ever get something that you really like a ton, but realize you would have walked right past it in a store and never picked it out for yourself? Well I don't think I would have chosen this, but I am really loving it, and it's so comfortable.

This photo makes the chair look very faded, but it isn't. It's the light coming in the window.

It looks so perfect up against my red wall. I love my red wall.

This pillow shows the actual colors and pattern to the furniture. It fills up the room, but  isn't overwhelming. I love the wood trim on the front and the detail of the brass brads. Now I have to get some new lamps.

Thank you, K & T. I love you!

Update:

 I know, words just can't tell how happy I am with my new kitchen. I know it doesn't look finished, it's not. But that said, I am happy just the same. It has been a long time coming and now that it is all new and functioning, I am very please. We still have a lot to do, but much of this can be done while we wait to get the money to complete the cabinets. We chose to install the bases and counter top so we could have the functioning room. I don't mind at all waiting for the uppers, because I know it will look great when it's finally done.

 Love the faucet, it sprays and the nozzle pulls out, very cool.  The composit granite sink it wonderful.

There doesn't seem to be a good place for the trash can?/?

 Pretty counter top, chosen by my husband, I agreed to it, sight unseen. He and Aron did a great job of choosing it. I was a bit shocked at first, we had agreed on black, but I really love it.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our friend and pastor Aron. He is a wonderful craftsman, and a great friend. This job could never have been completed without many hours of work from him. Thanks too to his lovely family and wife Bekah. They shared him with us for a lot of hours. Thank you all so much.

We also thank our friend Ron, he did a lot of work too. Ron spent a lot of time in a freezing cold attic and helped us get everything figured out just right. Thank you Ron.

I especially thank my husband who gave a lot of time, and sacrificed many hours of shooting and gun stuff with his friend Larry to make this kitchen possible. He is a rare treasure.
Our son, and his family helped early on and the black appliances came from them. It wasn't my idea, but now I really like the black and white.

Ummmmmm one thing, does this mean I have to start cooking again?

what's new

Well I woke up this morning and was told to get dressed and let's go get some breakfast. That's because I didn't have any breakfasty stuff in the house. I had barely enough milk for my coffee, not even half/ half. Then we went to run a couple of errands. Next stop Loews. Hmmmmmmmmm,

I know this isn't a good picture, but this is what the kitchen looked like this morning. It's make-shift. Two cabinets from someone else's make over, and a sink on 2x 4s. It works, and I'm not complaining.

But we went to Loews today and this is what we brought home.

 We bought an 18" base unit with 4 drawers. A sink base, and a 36" base cabinet, for pots and pans. One more little 12" base for the anchor on the other end of the stove.

We even bought the kitchen sink, and faucet and drain kit. Did you know that a sink does not include a drain when you buy it. That is considered an 'extra'. I never knew that.

Well, we have all the base units, now to get them put in, then measure again for the counter tops, and then the drawer/ door pulls, and cabinet inserts. You know the pull out shelves, so you don't have to stand on your head to get stuff out.
Funny,  when we opened the box the instructions said #1 Install wall units first. :)). We didn't get any wall units, we're doing it backwards, I know, but it seems more functional to us. We'll worry about the wall cabinets another day.

Oh, we have to wait for some help with the plumbing, just a minor detail.


                                                                          

Kitchen Update

Some times working this blog stuff is very confusing. I had so much trouble with post the photos from the birthday party I almost just quite the whole mess. Hopefully today's post will go better. I think I know what I did wrong the last time.

Sunday night after church I heard a friend of ours say they were going to our daughter's house on Monday to get the piano that has been stored in her basement for a long time. That is where my antique jelly cupboard has been also. Here was a crew of several strong teen aged boys, one sensible and extremely careful adult to supervise and a truck. Hey, could they just grab my cupboard too, and bring it over to my house?

They said yes!!!

We got this great hand built cupboard out of an 1800's farm house we rented in Pennsylvania several years ago. The owner sold the place and told us we could take anything we wanted. There were two of these cupboards in the basement. The one that I have here is the smaller of the two.
After being unused in Dawn's basement for 6 1/2 years it smelled kind of musty, so I decided to paint it. I started on the inside.

It definitely brightened it up. Since I still don't have kitchen cabinets, I am using one half to store food and the other side for dishes. I think it will work out very well. The doors have a 'dry brush' finish on them which I am trying out to see if I like it.
Now I did have a little help with the painting.

Tucker kept barking at the door on the cupboard, and sticking his nose underneath the shelf paper. He was whining and crying and barking, until I found a tennis ball bone under the jelly cupboard. He was completely happy after I got it out for him.

I am completely happy now that I have somewhere to put all my stuff and have it out of the way. I am going to get my dishes out tomorrow. I won't get them all, but just enough to feel at home again. I'm done with cute plastic summer dishes.

                                                

At Last

I can hear the music,,,,,,,,,, At last,,,,, my love has come along, my lonely days are over..... But it's not about my love. It's about my living room. Yes. I have my living room back, and I am beyond thrilled. Now I have not rearranged the furniture yet, but, I am still very happy that there are no kitchen appliances anywhere. No shelving unit (etagere for the ladies) holding pantry items, and most of all NO REFRIGERATOR. Now if you have never had a 'fridge in the living room, it can be handy. I'm not gonna lie, but seriously, it cramps my style.
                              The Kitchen Floor is done.

Well, almost, can you believe it, we were short three tiles. And there were no stores near us that have any. So we are waiting for the new shipment to arrive so we can buy one box. That will give us some replacement pieces in case of, well, you know, stuff happens.
Isn't it pretty, though? I love the slate gray color, and with the black appliances it is really pretty.

             And they are where they are supposed to be.

The table is in the dining room. (ooh see the new air conditioner)

Refrigerator and food are out of the living room as only makes sense.

The microwave and coffee are resting comfortably in the kitchen.

We still have a lot of work to do, the ceiling needs to be repaired and painted. The collars, which I have, have to go on the canned lights. We need to paint the walls. I am putting a country red in the kitchen, the wall at the end of the kitchen has been textured, just a little. I think it will look good painted red. Of course we need cabinets, and I need to get my antique jelly cupboard brought over from our daughter's basement. I expect to 'pickle' it. Just a touch of white so it will match those elusive cabinets. I have chosen white bead board. I know it will look great with the black and red.

The dining area is going to be painted in (Sherwin Williams) Koi Pond. I think it will blend well with the red and be very relaxing.

                                                                                     

Well, that's all for now. I hope this was worth the wait. ..................

And in my heart there's a song

                                           

Another one bites the dust.

Welllllllllll, now today was a big day, big day at the old homestead. Probably enough here for two posts. But we shall see.

Our old pal AC finally gave it up. I mean we pulled the plug, set the sail, gave her the old send off. It wasn't easy to do, but you know. Sometimes you just have to face the music. I think that's all the cliches for now.
Last night was hot. I could not go to sleep, it was 79 in here when I went to bed and at 3:30, that's AM it was not much cooler. I had to get up at 6:30 AM, but that's another part of the story.
So after much thinking, praying, and just bashing our heads we decided that the only thing to do was pull the plug on the old antique.
This afternoon we did some further research on line, and decided that shopping around would only give us a headache and not save us any real money, so we went to Sears. We priced a couple of window A/C units, then we went to Lowe's and checked the prices on the same two units. We looked at a 10,000 BTU for the bedroom and a 12,000 BTU for the dining room. They were the same price at both stores, but with the military/ veteran discount they give us at Lowe's we saved about $60. Not bad.
We bought them, and brought them home and put them in. is this what they mean by wedded bliss?  They have lowered the temp in the house by 5 degrees so far. It doesn't sound like much, but going from 81 to 77 feels like a LOT. As I sit here I feel a bit of a chill, but I'm not complaining, well not yet.

So it's Thursday, time for Family Fun Night at our church.

We cook hot dogs, brats, and hamburgers.

Then we sit around and eat and chat, and watch the kids play games.

Kids playing Frisbee, volley ball, and other stuff.


Well, it was hot, but it was fun. I think this was the hottest night we've had and I think it was our largest turn out. Funny.

Have fun

Quilt Day

Well we did have a quilt day last Friday, July 2. I finished the back of my little table topper quilt and I must say, I am quite proud of the result. There is still quite a lot of work left to do. Next I place the batting in the middle, then I baste around the places I will quilt. I haven't basted since high school, and I hated it then.

This is the top of the quilt. I have some cute little snowflake buttons that I will add when it's all done.

This is the back.

After I learn how to 'quilt' I will do that, and then we have to put on the binding. It may be done by Christmas,,, some year. I have actually started another Christmas one, but this one is sort of a cheater. I will explain that term at a later date.

This has been a very enjoyable project, so far. I started out piecing by hand. That is sewing each little square by hand. I quickly discovered that hand piecing would take longer than I have time left on this earth. I would like to accomplish several quilts and well, I just don't see hand piecing in my future.
I switched over to my handy sewing machine. Whew, what a difference. I did the front in about two days, and the back in only a few hours. It would have been a chore the 'old fashioned' way.

Hope you enjoy looking at my little project.

                                                                      

More Laundry

                           Max and Tucker waiting for Dawn to come home from work and take her little teeny baby home.

Good morning, it's Tuesday. I sometime just find it hard to find things to write. Or I just have so much, but it isn't appropriate for this forum.

Well, I think we can call the Laundry Room, DA DONE!!! I included more pictures for that certain someone who constantly inspires me to learn more things.

This is Tucker barking at and he actually tried to bite the box with the ceiling fan. The tall box is the shelf kit. It seriously had everything we needed for shelving this room. There was even stuff left over.

 As you can see the door has been trimmed, and the switch plate covers have been installed.

I did most of the switch plates myself, they're not hard. Anything that involved sawing, cutting or making straight, well that's Bill.

The shelves are up, the pretty sewing boxes placed. The table is sitting where the counter top and my sewing machine will be.

We bought the blinds at the RE Sale shop. This is run by Habitat for Humanity. They have tons of stuff for remodeling and building homes. Everything from nails to doors, and paint.

They had brand new in the box Kitchen aid microwave ovens for $200. Yesterday they had new Whirlpool dryers for $250.00. It's crazy what you find there, but you have to get there early.

We found these blinds, but didn't notice the length. who would want a 45"x 46" blind? Any way, it keeps the intense sun out for now. I'll worry about that tomorrow.

We bought the finished base board at Lowe's. You just put it on, no painting required.

 

This is the whole for the ceiling fan. We have it, it's still in the box. Hopefully it will go in soon.

I installed the shelves above the washer myself, well I did have a little help, OK,  a lot of help. But seriously those Rubbermaid shelf kits are so easy. I love my new laundry room.

It's so funny now that the dryer is right up against the wall, it takes about half the time to dry the clothes, and now that it isn't down in the dungeon, I actually take the clothes out of the dryer,,,,, the same day. And since it is right off the space that will eventually be my kitchen, it's so convenient. It's bright, and pretty and I just love going in there and looking at it.

Now I have some laundry to do.