Day Eighty-one - Bedroom Walls

Yesterday was day 81 and Nic worked in the loft bedroom. I know these photos may not be too exciting to you but they excite me. By county code any attic space enclosed by a wall greater than three feet tall has to have an access door. So since our walls are five feet tall they have to have a door into the attic. The attic space also has to be sheet rocked. I think I may miss rubbing up against pink fiberglass insulation in the attic.

This is the west wall of our bedroom. The small opening on the left is the attic access. Nic offset it to the side so we could place our bed in the center of the wall. To help you visualize the space better, out of camera range to the left will be the french doors out onto our small deck that will overlook the driveway and the barn and vineyard. To the right will be a railing and the living room below.

This is the east wall of our bedroom. The bathroom (actually more of a powder room) will be in the corner to the far left of the photo. Again the opening is access into the attic area. On the far left of this photo, behind the stud wall, is the staircase coming up from the living room.

When we first bought the property we cleaned up several old "farm" junk piles and hauled away tons of scrap metal. We found this cute little corner sink in one of the junk piles. I have the phone number of a guy who reglazes old bathroom fixtures. I hope we can have this sink redone at a reasonable cost so we can use it in the loft bathroom. It is about 14 inches on each side.

Day Eighty - Grapes; Bedroom Door; and Vineyard Visitors

I started my day by harvesting my Edelweiss grapes. I got at least 1.5 gallon of berries which isn't too bad for vines that shouldn't have produced any grapes this year. They are very sweet and already had a faint alcohol taste. I had to fight the wasp and bees for them. Currently they are starting the fermentation process on the back porch and it smells divine. They will make a Riesling style wine.

Nic got most of the rest of the roof shingled. All he lacks is the roof over the south porch. Hopefully Jeff will be able to get that porch poured this week so Nic can get that roof built and shingled. Nic started working on framing the door out of our bedroom onto the upper deck. (Which isn't there, yet, as it will be over the south porch.) We also talked about where we wanted the bedroom walls and the bathroom. We settled on 5' walls. It was fun watching Tony and Nic figure out how much "head" room there would be if the back of the toilet was up against a five foot wall. They they discussed how much "head" room a guy needs. I "sat" that discussion out, since it didn't really concern me.

I'm in the market for a headboard and now I know, it can't be over five foot tall. Our bedroom on Hoover Avenue had sloped ceilings and a wall much shorter than 5 feet. We had to turn our bed around and put the foot against the wall and the head out toward the middle of the room.

After Tony got off work he went up to help Nic. I'm not sure what he did besides pick up trash and hold down this pile of lumber. Somebody's got to do it. I mean is there anything worse than run away lumber? (Nice legs, Sweetie!)

We had our regular, nightly visitors in the vineyard. This poor guy just with through his annual molt and doesn't have any tail feathers.

The peacocks (there are four of them) belong to the neighbor from whom we purchased the farm. They like the vineyard because it is a smorgasbord of bugs. Apparently, after they molt, they also become less amorous. At least they have gotten a lot quieter.

Days Seventy-two through Seventy-nine - Shingles and Chimney

Nic with occasional help from Tony has been shingling the roof. He does nice work, doesn't he? I am pleased with my shingle color selection.

Nic also constructed the chimney. I know it is larger than it looks from the ground but I am a little concerned about Santa Clause getting stuck.

To quote Tony, "That's hard work for an old, fat man." To quote Rylee, "Grandpa, you're not fat."

Day Seventy one - Roof, Roof

Last Saturday morning Chris, the crane guy, came to lift the trusses into place. Nic, Derrick, and Jeff were up top. Tony, the house designer, and Bryan were on the ground.

I took lots of pictures because Tony, the home owner, had to work and I didn't want him to totally miss out. It was his 57th birthday.

I had this kid in a 4-H class several yeas ago. He sure makes his job look easy. In less than two hours he had all of the trusses in place.

Being an equal opportunity family we put Hilary to work, too.

This is how the house looked this evening. The main roof; both dormers; and 3/4 of the porch roof are covered with sheeting ready for the shingles. The back porch floor/cellar roof still needs to be poured, then the roof over it can be built.

Tony and Nic will be on the roof on Saturday laying shingles. I think the very first major home improvement project Tony ever included Nic in was putting a new roof on the Hoover Avenue house. Nic was 10 or 11. That was when we discovered that Lenny the cat could climb a ladder. Such good memories; such a bonding experience. So if any of you loyal followers want to join them on Saturday we can guarantee great memories. Jake? Bryce?

Days Forty nine through Seventy - I'm Back!!

Forgive me, followers, for I have sinned, it has been three weeks and two days since my last blog entry. I'm not sure that not blogging is a sin but trust me, I have sinned in many other ways like slothfulness; pridefulness; gluttony, well you get the idea. We won't dwell on that any longer.

So does this remind anyone else of a church ceiling?

It was interesting to see who noticed or at least commented on my absence. Susie and Maggie were probably the first. Then Tony, our house designer. Even in a meeting this past Tuesday with Lee, our youth pastor, I got a gentle nudge. You would think a nudge from a "man of the cloth" would get me right on it. (Lee, when was the last time someone called you "a man of the cloth"? I'm guessing, never.) But, NO! It took an email from my sister June to get me back on the Blog. See it's that birth order thing. The oldest sister still has power over the youngest. I mean if you called the number on my cell phone for "Bossie Sister" who would answer? June, of course. So when I got this (And still no pictures on wastenot farm blog! :() in an email from June what else could I do but post a new blog entry. I do not want to be responsible for June posting frowny faces on the internet.

So let's see, what have we done since Tuesday, July 21? Well I moped around (no, I didn't ride a mo-ped, that would be mopeded around) several days feeling sorry for myself, missing my daughters a whole lot. We celebrated Tony's birthday with a hot dog and s'more roast in Jake's fire pit. (Thanks for building it, Jake. Sorry we didn't get to use it at your wedding. It had dried out nicely by August 8th.) Hilary and I picked about 70 gallons of green beans, well maybe not quite that many, but I froze 7 gallons and that is a lot of frozen green beans. (I could probably go pick another 3 gallons right now but instead I think I'll bore you a little while longer.) Tony and I both had appointments with Dr Hill, our eye doctor. We went to Columbia to get the document cabinet I bought way back over Memorial Day weekend. I picked out shingles, siding, soffits, decking, rock, etc. I comparison shopped for things like doors, lights, ceiling fans, etc. I played about 150 games of KenKen (that one probably isn't an exaggeration.) And I spent some quality time with my granddaughters. I taught Rylee how to play Sudoku and I tried to teach Andie how to play KenKen but she just doesn't seem to grasp it, yet. Oh, and I discovered Craigs List. Oh my gosh, it is a good thing I have no money.