Post 34- April Showers....

The shower is (finally) done.  I remembered how much fun tile isn't, it seems I do every time I lay tile.  Anyway, without further ado, here's a lot of pictures!  (ooooooh.....)

Underground Electric lines.....

Both my gals....

...and the peep show.

This is a funny story, and adorable.  Josh found a baby bird out of it's nest and brought it in the house and kept it in a box last night.  I had him show me where he found it, and after feeding the loud little fellow a hearty breakfast of mushed up soupy cat food through a syringe, took him out to go see if we could find his mama.  I walked him out in a cloth, set it down and it started to cheep plaintively.  About 45 seconds later, a very worried looking mama bird came running out sideways from a bush about 10 feet away and the reaction was priceless.  I REALLY wish I'd gotten the reunion on film, it was the most adorable thing I've ever seen with the baby bouncing along after mama and going "CHEEP! CHEEP! CHEEP!" excitedly.  I did go back and get my camera and got them frolicking, just after the reunion, along the railroad tracks.  Here's the video of that, at least:

Post 33- Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?


Like this!
(Pix)

This is the S side

Here's the SE side...

Inside planters behind the benches are prettied up too...

And, the left overs we put in the ground too off to the side...

Raised bed planters now lining the front of the S and SE walls, I think they turned out pretty good :)

Cheers!

Post 32- PROGRESS! (getting close)

Well, it's about that time again!  I've been somewhat remiss on posts recently, so taking the opportunity now to update :).

Mom and Dad came up and stayed with us for a few days and we had a great time.  I was very pleased that Ma was well enough to travel, it was just 3 months ago that she was at death's door.  I think they were pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the bed is.  While Dad, Josh, and I worked, Mom and Heather helped out, cleaned up, and kept us fed.  We got quite a bit done, and I'm now down to 1 project before I can sheetrock the walls entirely (and that's only a tiny area in the bathroom, everywhere else is ready).

I think Heather's starting to be able to visualize how it's going to look finished now, and is getting pretty excited too.  We don't have THAT much left to do to finish it up honestly, but since we're building as we get the finances our primary limitation isn't time, but money.  After the house is done though, I expect that won't be a problem.

Without further ado, since you're probably skipping over the wordy bits anyway, here's lots of pictures!

First, a bit of a rewind into the super snow storm we had up here: it really was amazingly pretty.

I've got video that's pretty funny too, of all of us surf-sledding on a "Boogie Board" and making snow angels.  I've got lots more snow pix if you're interested, but it's one of those things that it was probably more exciting to be there than to see pix.

Josh's Ladder is built, and his room is actually mostly done (this is an older pic).  It's looking great, the computer desk and shelves are built in, it's all sheetrocked up, and the ladder works great.  I'll update some of the pix to josh's room here in a couple days.

Kitchen de la Awesome:

 We got a very nice stove from a friend at work, and we love it.  That space on the left of the stove there is the exact size needed for a full size refrigerator, but I think I like my small one now (see below).  What I'm planning on doing at the end of the counter there is a cupboard/pantry type thing with a door, I'll either go super fancy finished oak or rustic wood, we'll see.

You can see the shelves a bit better here.

 You can see the countertop a bit better here->
and below.  Note the extremely nice oak on the face.

The stairs were a "little shaky", due to settling and such, so we strengthened those up considerably, bracing every other step or so and tying it to the wall on 3 sides.  This was a MUCH better solution to the issue than I'd originally planned.  Much, much better, and we added a little stub wall there too, to create 2 unique spaces (in addition to supporting the stairs better).  Ignore the drywall scraps on the right.

BELOW: one of the projects I needed to do was alter my benches slightly, that left angle side needed to come out so we could put in a wood burning stove (it will set about where the IR heater on the far left is).  I expect to finish up the benches this week, lifty seats, facing, and all.

We sheetrocked the right side of the upstairs for privacy, left the other side open for the view.

At the top of the stairs, I added a little table/shelf that looks great, primarily because that was a wasted space of nothing, and now it's supporting The Shatner (as should we all).

 William Shatner: going green since the mid 60s.

And now, the Piece de Resistance, or Piece de Caca depending on your perspective I suppose: with our awesome new white stove, we didn't like the look of the black refrigerator RIGHT next to it.  Sooooo...
Heather's been bugging me for months to hang up this chalkboard we got at IKEA.  We tend to write each other a lot of notes and stick them to the fridge.  I started thinking about it...the chalkboard happened to be almost exactly the right size as the refrigerator door, so here is the final result:

It's got a little bill holder at the bottom of it too.  Looks good, eh? :)  (it's installed remarkably well, if I do say so myself).


Anyway, that's it for now, hope that you've enjoyed reading and that you're enjoying life.  See you next time!
Jj

Post 31-Why the Swiss are after me...

First, and most importantly, Mom is doing a lot better, she's definitely going to live now, but for a while it was a little scary.  She's home recuperating nicely (if slower than she'd like) and I thank all the outstanding family and friends who all came out and helped during our most trying time of need.

Electrical and Insulation inspections are done, a bit ago but I'm just now getting around to posting.  The house is much warmer with the insulation in.  I had some electricians come out that were just great, the electrical codes and standards have changed dramatically since my (admittedly low level) electrical skills were used on a jobsite and there's no way I could have gotten through the inspection without their help.

I've got about 3 projects I want to do before I close up the walls, but we're about at that point.  I made a kind of "Murphy Bed" (significantly more on that below) as one project, but I also want to do a bit of (re) plumbing in one area, modify one side of a bench to accommodate a wood burning stove instead, and also tighten up my stairs a bit before I rock it in.  I have it on good authority that the kitchen is about to be renovated significantly as well, more on that later.  I like the Murphy bed design, and am trying to convince the boy to let me convert his suspended bed into a Murphy model like ours but he is liking it where it's at it seems like.

So, without further ado, here's a bunch of pictures:

Here are 3 pictures of what was probably the prettiest sunrise I've seen, at different levels of zoom and within a few minutes of each other.

Ok, so you're probably wanting to see my awesome "Murphy" type bed that inspired the odd posting title.  Ok, if you look closely in the below picture, you can see my "hinge" setup, which I though was rather clever.  The  "hinge" parts are made from common materials you can pick up at lowes for about $35-ish.  Cost of the bed frame will vary by material and grade of wood you use.  I got a little fancier than I needed to on a couple bits because it's a stain grade finish, and I spent just at @ $200 for the bed frame, the support frames, the hinge assembly, the bench, and the rolling chest/bench thingy.  You could probably do it for significantly less if you wanted to a paint grade finish, or more if you wanted to use a lot of fancy oak or something.  I intentionally used  lighter woods so it wouldn't weigh as much lifting and reclining it.  Here's how it went together in the various stages....

(Above: Note the bar at the bottom, and if you look closely you can see the inner bar sticking out on left.)

(Below: note the big long hinge on the back side and the wheels)

The rolling chest quintuples as a chest, portable bench, bed support, table, and half of the "Big giant comfy couch"/reading nook.  If you're an OCD space efficiency nut, re-read that and let it sink in.  IKEA is probably sending envoys to the Swiss right now to inform them of this design.  Just saying.

Note that the sides of the chest are still "open".  I'm going to match them with the benches when I put the fronts on the storage portion of them, so I haven't closed it in yet.  That bit will be paint grade, not stain grade.  There will be drawers that slide under the fixed bench/bed support at the head of the bed.

Below: Configuration for eating, or laying back with feet propped up watching tv.

(drawers will slide under the bench on the right)

The portable bench option, for entertaining...

and, seen below, down to sleep on, both bench and chest turn into supports.  If you look closely, you can see a canvas strap on the side of the bed there.  There are 2 of them, and a 1x4 at the head of the bed to form a lip to support the mattress and keep it from shifting when the bed is flipped up.  Neat, huh?! :) That's our <$200 murphy bed.  If you're seriously interested in doing one, I'll be happy to give you specifics and a quick blueprint sketched on whatever's nearby.  

I'll put up pictures of the "Big giant comfy couch"/reading nook later, and paste them here with some form of witty dialogue. 

NONE SHALL PASS!

 Ok, granted: It's a bit more Harry Potter-y than Gandalf-y, but still, we all thought the icicle was pretty cool.  Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

More to come soon-ish.

Post 30: Grandpa, Mom, the Holidays, and such.

I know it's been a while since I posted any updates on the blog, but it's been an event-filled couple months.  I hope everyone reading this has had a wonderful thanksgiving and Christmas, ours was a little rough this year.

Here's what has been going on:

• Grandpa (James "Jim" Mattison) passed away on 11/11/13.  That was my last living grandparent.
• Heather had a weird week that she looked like the Elephant Girl due to horrible facial swelling (she got better after a week, but they still don't know what caused it)
• Mom had major surgery on 12/11, had a mild heart attack after the surgery, and is still in the hospital for complications.

So, between all that and the holidays, not too much has gotten done on the house so I don't have many house updates to show you.  PLEASE keep my mom in your prayers, she's still not better yet.

I did manage to get a few pictures during the down time, so I'll share a couple of those with you now, in no particular order:

Here's mom, feeling a little better that day.  There have been complications with the surgery, and if there's not an improvement within the next couple days they're probably going to do surgery again to fix.  This obviously concerns us because she didn't do so good after the last surgery.  Please keep her in your prayers.

I don't remember if I've put this up, but lots of people have asked (and continue to ask) about the "hole in the floor".  Currently, until we're ready to finalize, this is what I've done...

Awe inspiring sunset.

Wild Turkey in the front yard

First Snow

The Elephant Girl.  Many hilarious domestic violence jokes followed, but we still don't know the cause (she is all better now!).

First broccolli I've ever grown...

Deer out the bedroom window on mountain

Lots of deer in front yard