A few diversions and more house progress

Sorry for the tipped picture but I couldn't resist our little Adeline with the scowl on her face after being scolded for playing with the lights. We had a wonderful visit with Anna and Stratton and the light princess a week ago. It was so good to have them here. Poor Stratton was enlisted in house work but he was such a big help. Bill said he was such a good worker and his help was so appreciated as we were getting ready to get the floors refinished.

It wasn't all work. We played some too. Anna & Stratton went with us on the Kassow Kruze. A bunch of us took a drive up to Amacalola Falls. We had about 15 cars and it was a beautiful day. It was a bit chilly in the morning but warmed up nicely and we had a nice lunch at the top of the park and enjoyed the wild birds of prey live exhibit and lecture that we have been lucky to see on a few occasions. See an older post for pictures of the birds. I just love seeing the live owls, and falcons and this time even a vulture. I just didn't take any pictures of them this time.

Stratton got a nice picture of several of the cars on the open road. It was a very nice day.

Here we had just finished laying the hardwoods in the the master bedroom. It was a lot of hard work as anyone who has laid hardwoods knows but we were pretty happy with the results. The wood is over concrete so a technique was used where you have a pad underneath with a sticky surface. You peel it back and stick the tongue and groove over it. A bit hard to get it nice and tight but we managed. I don't think Bill was that keen on the method but the results were ok. It's guarenteed for 50 years or more so I guess WE won't have to worry about it if it goes haywire. Of course Bill will be turning over in his grave!

This is the master bathroom. Some of this was stuck on, some nailed down, and some glued, don't ask. But it too turned out quite well.

The dining area.

Here you can see where the new wood was woven into the old wood ready to be refinished. When you see the next blog prepared to be amazed! Well, until our next progress report, thanks everyone for all you support, encouragement and allowing us to share our excitement as we continue along. Love to everyone.

Amazing progress

Well, it has been a while. We have been as busy as beavers working working working but it is finally coming together and we are so pleased. Many late nights and exhausted Nagel's but the wow factor is starting to appear. Here is the chandelier in our master bedroom. I just love it!

This is your first glimpse of the finished floor. It is truely amazing. It turned out exactly like I had imagined it. This is the master bedroom. We still have to add the crown molding, the base molding and the closet trim and doors. Plenty to keep us busy I'm afraid, but at least it puts a smile on our faces when we walk in.

Sorry for the sideways pictures but while I can rotate them in Picassa, I can't seem to rotate them for the blog. You will just have to deal with it. You are still in the master bedroom.

Another sideways view only this is my little office with the cute little fan. The fan in the other bedroom is the same as is the wall color called Vanilla something. I really like it.

Here is the kitchen. You can now appreciate the fan and the light fixture as well as the yummy floor. We don't get the cabinets until Dec 23rd. I can't even imagine how fun it will be to get them all in. We probably won't get them installed until right after the New Year.

And the grand finale is a view of the living room. The ceiling, floor, fan, and basket light fixture that will be over the coming bar have all exceeded our expectations. Isn't the basket fixture fun? It is the perfect fixture for the spot. Wait til you see it in person.

Another shot of our wonderful little house.

Here's a close up of the floor. It looks a bit lighter here then it really is because of the flash I guess. But you can really see the beautiful grain in the wood. This section you are looking at is half old wood and half new wood. I dare you to know which is which. It is all just beautiful! Bill and I have a permanent smile. He loves it as much as I do.

A quick Charlotte visit

I took a quick trip to Charlotte last week to see one of my little families. Had so much fun with everyone, got some things done for Anna, had some yummy treats at a French Bistro, and just chatted away as usual. I was there from Friday til Monday, just a perfect little get-away.

Little Adeline is well, little. This is a small diaper box she enjoyed sitting in. She insisted on grabbing a bunch of treasures for the ride as Stratton pushed her around a bit. It was the perfect size. Nothing like a good box to make a kid happy.

They were all so engrossed in the story I am not sure they knew I took the picture. Adeline just loves to have stories read to her and sits for a very long time as Mom and Dad read away.

 I love this little picture. I had brought Anna some #10 cans of wheat for her bread making and had set them by the kitchen. Turns out they were the perfect size for Adeline to plant herself and enjoy a goldfish picnic.

 Yes, Anna was making bread. Actually she ended up making about 6 loaves and we got to gobble one of them up. It was a delicious French artisan bread. Very easy to make, at least watching her do it. I tried it tonight at home and it didn't rise one bit. I think I need new yeast ( a big surprise to Anna and Sarah I am sure). So that's it. Til next time. Love to all our fans out there in cyber world.

More Looking up

Yeah! The ceilings are all done. Bill did an amazing job and they look beautiful. You can now tell what color the room is too. It all looks so yummy and inviting. There is wonderful natural light in this little house. That makes me happy! This picture is taken from the kitchen side of the fireplace. Your sissors trusses are now completely covered Steve but we know they are in there!

This one is taken from the farthest corner of the living area looking into the kitchen. You can see the duct work for the range hood. Now onto the window sills and trim. Bill already has all the sills cut out. Nice wide ones that you can set something on. We are now focusing on getting the kitchen cabinets ordered.

Looking up

Just had to post this latest picture of our ceiling progress. It looks so wonderful; exactly like I had imagined. This is a pretty good picture and I think you can even see the wall color now. Bill and our friend Earl made great progress last weekend so we are on the home stretch with the ceilings. Now can you just imagine how wonderful it will look when the fireplace is stoned? Can't wait!

Wonders never cease

I actually continued work on my chair redo's. I finally laid out the fabric and cut it all out. Now for the hard part, the dreaded SEWWWWWING. And yes, owing to the fact that I couldn't get my mothers voice out of my head, I spent a very long time making sure it all matched. She's ruined me!! Haha

The picture is a bit dark as it was getting late when I took it. This is our new shed. If you double click the photo (Mom) you can see it full size and it looks a lot lighter. It was a screaming deal. Normally a shed like this goes for around $2400 and Bill found this used great shape shed and had it delivered already built for $1200. To bad he doesn't work for the government, other countries would be owing US money.  Anyway, I was impressed with how nice it is. It has two windows and an adorable cuppola with a weathervane on top. And it already has a couple shelf units built into it. Yeah! At last something under budget!

At last we started putting the wood on the ceilings. It looks awesome! It is not hard to do but a little time consuming (isn't everything?) but it is going to be beautiful when it is done. Exactly like I was hoping for. It will probably take all of October, oh well. Maybe Valentines Day move in?

Break and Bake

Marietta Square had a car show and flea market or antique days this Saturday. Bill decided to take his car. It turned out to be a beautiful day. In fact it was bit chilly in the morning and I wore jeans and a sweat shirt. There must have a been a millon people there. I think half of the million stopped to see Bill's car and a quarter of a million had to talk to him. I took this photo, you can barely see the car, to illustrate how many folks were swarming around it all day long. I could have taken the same photo a hundred times and would look just like this.

We were parked to my right.  This is looking down toward the Strand theatre and I took it pretty early in the day. There ended up being about 50 cars there but none cuter then Bill's, and that's a quote from every female that came over to see it.

Again, you can barely see the car. It is to the left of the old Ford.

The Bake part of the title is that I ended up with a pretty good sunburn, ugh! But it was a nice break though. We stayed til about 2 pm then went back to the house and painted, painted, painted.  Til next time. Keep those cards and letters coming.

House updates

Well I finally picked out the granite for the bathrooms. The pictures aren't very good but you'll just have to come and see them in person. This one is for the master bath. It is a beautiful shade of green with white and some turquoise quartz running through it. It wasn't what I was originally looking for but when I saw how beautiful it was I changed my thinking.

This amazing piece is for the hall bath. I looks like marble but it is really granite. This is like a piece of artwork to me I love it so much. Now I just have to pick out a good sink to put in it. I am really excited about this.

The sheet rock is finished. What an amazing difference it makes. I thought it would make the house look small inside but it didn't. Having the wall board up gives the illusion of great progress.

Once the wall board was up it was time to work on white washing the pine boards for the ceiling. There were 50 10 footers and 32 16 footers to do this to. I started last Monday on the 10 footers. It is quite a labor intensive job. The actual painting of them pales in comparison to having to move the boards a million times. I was worn out after Monday. Glad I had to work on Tues and Wed for a rest.

I had to shoot them out the window, set them on the horses apply the oil based paint then wipe it off rather quickly, then move them to a spot to dry for awhile, then shoot them back in the window to finish drying in the house. I had to move my work spot too as it got too sunny and the paint was drying too fast. Yesh!  I did 19 of the 16 footers on Friday night then finished the last 13 of them on Saturday afternoon. They look awesome and I know I will be happy I did it once we get them on the ceiling. We hope to start that this week.

Meanwhile back at the ranch Bill started painting the interior. We figured it would be really quick to paint now before the ceiling and trim was up. No cutting in saves a ton of time. We picked out all the colors we needed, got all the paint. (Very over budget on the paint), and Bill got on a roll (pun intended). He got the whole living rm/dining rm and kitchen done. Nearly all the back hallway and the pantry, and even got the ceilings painted in the two spare rooms, back hall and pantry. We made a lot of progress this past week. We definitely needed our Sunday nap today.

You can't really tell the color here but it is beautiful to us! It is just looking so good. You can see some of my ceiling boards on the floor.

The week the girls were here Bill rented a little bulldozer. When I say little, I mean little. It looked like a tonka toy. He was in his glory clearing out the upper 40. He got a bad case of poison ivy too. A couple shots in the arse cured him though. I think I will use that technique the next time he irritates me :)

You should see the pile of rocks now. It is about 6 feet high and 10 feet wide. There was a ton of metal that a former owner had piled up to make a wall in the back. The good news it that Bill took it to the scrap place and got $144 bucks for it all. Helped pay for the tonka toy.

We dragged everyone over to see Grandpa play on his toy. Didn't stay long though, the mesquitos were feasting on us.

Chillin Children

When the girls and kids came for a visit before labor day we had a great visit. The kids all played wonderfully. We had Jackson & Maddox overnight on Friday and Saturday so we had a giant sleepover. Too bad we missed out on Chase and Landon. Sarah and Anna overlapped for a few days then Sarah left 1st. On Saturday we had hoped to take the kids to the pool but since it was 3 vs just Anna and I we didn't think that would be a good idea as we didn't have the kids water wings. So we decided to get the hose out and let them play til their hearts content. They had  a ball with the buckets, squirt guns and hose. Anna got into the fun too.

Here's Adeline taking a break from bucket filling.

I am not sure I enjoyed her sitting by me as I was a sitting duck for unwanted water action.

The boys had fun dumping water on each other.

Before Sarah left Will and Adeline were chillin in the window seat. I guess Adeline was showing Will the ropes. I guess I get to clean my windows. Oh well, it's a small price to pay.

Getting senile

Sorry, I guess I posted a few of these pictures before. The ones of the Aquarium. Guess I just like the aquarium. Actually, I just wanted to make my sister famous!  You just get to look at them twice I guess.

Summer fun

Lynn and her friend Ann came to visit us and we had a great day visiting the aquarium and the Coke museam. No trouble sleeping after that day but it was a great time.

The giant whale shark is always a big hit. It's just amazing how huge it is.

Then there's the giant grouper that is just as amazing.

While we were in Buffalo to visit Carol and Charlie we helped them stack wood for the coming winter. This is about 8 or 9 cords of wood. Not even half of what they still had left to do. Yikes! We made quick work of it though and it was nice to be able to help out.

The wood was up behind this barn. The guys would load it up on the pick up truck then drive it down to the garage for us to stack. It was a really nice day at least.

Here's Charlie coming down from the barn. I think we wore him out.

You can rarely see Carol without a camera. That's the garage we stacked the wood in. She did the cooking which is always a good deal. She is one of the best cooks I know and after a bit of work you love digging into whatever she has fixed.

Carol and Charlies son Rick was also in town to help with the wood and visit his parents. Rick was dying to go into Buffalo to scope out their old haunts. Definitely a place to lock your doors and not make eye contact. This was Bill's old Lutheran Church he used to attend as a kid. It looked like it was still in use and still had the same name - Resurrection Lutheran Church - but I would be hard pressed to want to stick around there much.

This is the house that Bill grew up in. Also now a very sketchy neighborhood. The road still had cobblestones. All the houses around were sadly in terrible shape. I can't imagine the neighborhood ever being recovered. It would take more money to redo then it would to tear it all down and start over. Very sad. He said they all used to walk everywhere, to church, school, shopping. They used to run the streets and have a ball with his cousins and family. At least the house was still standing.  I guess the brown siding at the top of the roof peak is the original siding.

Public school #62 where Bill went to elementary school. All boarded up now but still there. I wonder what they will do with it?

Seneca vocational highschool where Bill went to high school. It looks like they are doing a lot of construction on it so I am thinking it is still in use for something if not a high school.

There are two houses in this picture one of which is where Bill and I lived when he got out of the service and started school at Buffalo State. We couldn't remember which one it was. I am leaning towards the one on the right as the house number 586 rang a bell. I will have to look that up somewhere and find out. Anyway, we lived on the second floor and the owners, Mr & Mrs. Stoberl let us use the attic where Bill set up his trains. Oh, the good old days!

We all went for a fish fry on Thursday evening. Bill Carol, Charlie, Rick and Me. It was the best fish I ever had. And it was very cheap too which made it taste even better.

I just had to take a picture of this. It is sideways but I thought it was so cool. It was of a tree with no leaves. At the wedding we went to everyone made a colored thumb print and placed it on the tree and wrote your name by it. A fun way to see all who came to your wedding and made for a nice wall hanging afterwards. I thought it was a great idea.

The wedding was for the daughter of Valerie Taylor, life long friends. It was at Keuka Lake State Park. The day brought some rain but it cleared up beautifully.  Gram, Mike and Donna on the back deck of the pavillion.

Me and Bill on the same deck.

Nyn & Nel trying to escape the loud music and enjoy the lake view.

On the way home we came across this field of sunflowers. I just had to stop and get a picture. They were all so happy looking.

On Tuesday, Mike took a half day off and took Bill and I fishing on Irondequoit Bay. It was a beautiful day made even better by some good fishing. Here is a nice 1 and a half pounder that I caught. It was a great fish and was so fun to catch. I ended up catching 6 fish which is a rcord for me and most of them were pretty nice sized this being the largest. I had to post this picture first because......

..... Mike caught Moby Dick a bit later in the morning and would have made mine look like a minnow. I have never seen such a big bass in person before. It was a 5 pounder and was HUGE!  As you can see Mike was smiling ear to ear and his eyes were about ready to pop out of his head. Even after he let the beast go, after dropping it 3 times, he said his heart was still pumping like crazy. It's a wonder he didn't have a heart attack. It sure was fun to see him catch it. He had a great day catching about 10 fish. Another one was about 2 1/2 pounds also dwarfing my nice catch.  Can't feel too bad though as Bill got skunked. Had to be the best day I ever fished in my whole life. It was hard to have to pull up our rods and get back home for Mike to go back to work. I imagine he had a great half day none the less.