Day Four.....

Well, we're into that part of the project where it seems it will never get done...Today was a short day because the mastic wasn't dry under the tile. So Mike can't grout until tomorrow. Instead, he got the walls paint-ready, put a nice shelf into the corner cabinet and repaired the wall in the bathroom where Bob had pulled the tile bar out of the wall. Bob was ok but the wall behind the towel bar wasn't. Tomorrow will be grouting and painting and then Mike will have some work to do offsite as he builds the new cabinetry. The balance on that JA Trust check is shrinking!!! In the meantime, our neighbors come home tomorrow so I'll get our stuff out of their frig this afternoon. I'd hoped to have the frig moved to its new spot without completely filling it up but that plan didn't work out. Just have to unload it when we move it...

The Kitchen Aid will fit in here...we checked

Bathroom Wall Repair

Day Three - All Tiled Up

Monday started off slowly because Mike got here late. He did the second coat on the walls and got all the tile done, which took a lot of work. There was one area where he had to shave off some of the hardie board to get the tile to sit flush with the existing floor. And he had to do a bunch of skinny cuts along the walls. But it's looking good. I got a pretty good match for the existing tile at Lowes.

Ready for grout and primer.

Seymours at Wild Waters

The kids and I spent 7 hours at a water park in Clovis. The boys win the prize for going on every slide available including nearly vertical ones, a huge funnel, and of course the normal twisting and turning ones. Ana and Kristin did their fair share of sliding but Kristin opted for more time in the wave pool and less sliding. You'd think I'd have more exciting pictures but it's tough to get pictures of people on the big slides. The picture of the kids in the water was at the end of the day. They were waiting for the waves to start in the wave pool. Good day had by all.

More Happy Campers

The Big Pot

John made two of these pots several yrs. ago for a youth group camping trip. They're approx. 3 ft. high and 2 ft. across. Sat. afternoon whoever wants to can help prepare a feast for 100 or so people. Some people come up to visit just for the day and have dinner with the group. Dinner is: whole red potatoes, whole carrots, whole walla walla sweet onions, whole ears of corn and polish sausages. It steams for several hrs. and is scrumptious!!
So, adding pics is a challenge for me... this is Hillary's Forester.
The girls slept in the back of it. Joanna decided to join us in the trailer the 2nd night. Hmmm... wonder why?? The flowers on the table are next to the spot that chunky Hillary broke in the table. She was standing on it to get onto John's shoulders to reach something and SNAP!!

Happy Campers

On Friday we packed up the trailer, loaded the back of the truck with firewood and headed off to Mt. Hood for our annual church camping trip. Hillary and Joanna followed in Hill's car. It was raining when we got there so everybody pretty much stayed in their tents and trailers. This was the 7th yr. of the trip and the very first time we've had rain. It was a quiet evening at Mt. Hood Village. Saturday saw no rain, however, it stayed chilly so we kept our fire going allllll day long and as a result we had lots of visitors. It was very relaxing. Some people went on hikes to Trillium Lake, some went fly fishing at the same lake. We chose to sit and talk and read and eat. Doesn't get much better than that.

Day Three and Making Progress

Misha completing her inspection at the end of the workday

Mike's made great progress, getting the hardie board down and the drywall up. Also cut out the partition where the corner cupboard was to make room for our wine cooler. It'll cut down the space in the corner but it'll still be accessible. I'm in the process of cleaning out cupboards on the back porch to make room for some of the larger pieces that were in that corner cupboard. Since we always expand to fill the space we have, it's really no problem to clear out and rearrange the cupboards.

End of Day Two

Floor and Framing rebuilt

Mike worked hard yesterday getting the framing and floor rebuilt. He also shored up some of the framing below the floor, too. Fortunately, this part of the kitchen is open pier and post below it so it's easy to get to. Unfortunately, as John knows, it's at least 16 feet off the ground so the underside work has to be done on a tall ladder. Today Mike's back for a few hours and he's got the corner cabinet cut back to make room for the undercounter wine refrigerator. Next will be retiling...