FEBRUARY MUSINGS...

IT'S STILL WINTER!!! If you live anywhere in the Dakotas, you know that's true.
We are now shoveling the snow off the porch--UP--not down from the porch or straight across! That's new for our years here in Astoria. And Justin's trips to work this week have been interesting. Monday morning he waited two hours, for daylight and for the plows to have a chance to get out there before he did. Good thing... the plow had made one pass on Hwy. 28, so he drove most of that on the wrong side of the road. Tuesday he took the pickup because it was still blowing hard at bedtime Monday night. It was the right choice--only a track from the Astoria corner to Toronto.

On the warmer side of things, the insulation and heater in the attic have made our upstairs cozier than before. Speaking of the attic, Carrie and I have mudded everything once and are on the second go-around. I kind of like mudding. It's not so different from spreading other things--like frosting. And I've probably frosted thousands of cookies in my lifetime. Of course, I could never do it for money. I'm way too slow.

Soon Carrie and I will try to frame and hang the three doors to the storage areas. We are experiencing all kinds of new ventures! We dream of the day when we can actually start painting, and see our vision become reality. We'll get there!

THE WORK CONTINUES...

Carrie's been working at mudding this week. Justin came home with supplies Monday and she went right at it after supper. She has almost used up the first pail of mud he brought home. Duane, the edges of the chimney came out really nice with the special metal-edged tape.

Today I went upstairs with Carrie and she and I worked most of the day doing sheetrock. Now the main walls are finished; just the gables left there. We almost totally finished the sheetrock on the stairway too. I rather ENJOY doing this job. I know it's amazing, but it kind of reminds me of quilting--working with pieces that have to fit together just right. Except here you can do some "fudging", fill it in and cover up the mistakes with mud.

But the best part of all is that I WAS ABLE TO USE THE DRILL AND ACTUALLY PUT SCREWS IN THE SHEETROCK MYSELF!! It was empowering!! I didn't think I had the strength, but I surprised myself. So Carrie and I felt like we had a very productive day. We will most likely go at it again tomorrow.

Weather is hanging with very high humidity and is supposed to do that for several days. So it's a good time to be working inside and really accomplishing something.

TWO DAYS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

Sorry I didn't get to the computer on Saturday to do an update. About the time I was ready to do so, Justin came downstairs and needed a helper for him with his sheetrock work. And that's where I spent the rest of the day, except for meal prep and dish washing breaks.

Duane had planned to leave Saturday, but with the bad weather and roads in Oklahoma, he stayed one more day. The timing turned out to be perfect. He built the guest bedroom wall out to accommodate the door we had purchased and got the door to the attic hung. It was quite a big job. It's now in place with the hardware on.
Duane also got the heater hung in the attic and it works perfectly. He and Justin tried it with the thermostat. While Duane was doing his work, Carrie began mudding the sheetrock. Justin and I poked along fitting angled sheetrock pieces (like a jigsaw puzzle) on the wall and some of the slanted ceiling. Now about all that is left for sheetrock work is the two gables. I think Carrie and I can piddle at that this coming week.

For now our plans are to take Monday off, be in town Tuesday and probably not do anything in the attic until Wednesday morning. We have all pushed pretty hard during this time and need to regroup. We trust Duane has a safe trip all the way home. He left today (Sunday) at 7:00 a.m. after his morning coffee and a good breakfast. What a special time we had together as family--working hard, laughing a lot!, sharing stories and reminiscing from our childhood days on the farm. This has been a time we will treasure forever! And Duane and Linda's selfless gift to us will bless the grandkids and our neighbor girls. We believe they will be blest by our Lord Jesus for their loving giving! We love them for it!

And a great big "thank you" to you who have followed the blog and to those who have prayed for us during this intense two weeks. We know we have received benefits through your prayers!

A LIGHT ROOM!

It's amazing what a difference the color of the walls and ceiling make in a room!
After the insulation was in, the dormers looked so much bigger. Yesterday the first sheetrock was put in the 7' square ceiling area and around the ugly chimney. THAT sure looks better! As more sheetrock went in during the day, the room kept looking lighter and lighter (a very good thing). What a lesson in the difference between dark wood walls and light ones.

Justin did more work with insulation (it's almost 100% finished now). (Justin had taken Thursday and Friday off from work, too, so more could be done in Duane's last days here.) The other two slowly worked on sheetrock. Hopefully it will go a bit quicker for them today. The area is small and every bit of sheetrock that is put in is angles and corners with cutouts. I sent Carrie up with butcher paper today to see if that would help to push into the corners, get the dimension, and get the sheetrock cut for placement. We'll see...

While the "builders 3" worked, I cooked and baked to keep them fueled up. The day seems to fly by, and when it's bedtime, I'm almost as tired as they are.

When Duane brought a piece of sheetrock into the guest bedroom yesterday, he must have bumped the portable clothes rack I had there for his clothes. It went crashing to the floor. Carrie and Justin wondered what the racket was downstairs. Whereas in the past, Duane has been known as "the Torch", "the Demolition Man", he now has a new name--"the Destroyer!". Anyway, we have good laughs teasing him about his varied roles! So I have been saved the decision of "what do I do with that clothes rack after this project is done?! Truthfully, I will probably get another small one, because Mom will need somewhere to hang her clothes when she comes for her visits.

Until tomorrow...

THE NEW ROOM TAKES SHAPE!

Every day the attic looks more like a room. Tremendous progress was made on Wednesday. The styrofoam vent chutes were put in place by Duane & Carrie in about an hour. They made quick work of them, using the stapler to attach them to the walls and ceiling. Justin came down by mid-morning and said it was time for him to go to Brookings with his pickup to leave his load of tear-out junk at the Brookings dump. Then it was on to Lowe's to pick up insulation and sheetrock. It was blowing hard from the northwest, so he had a slow trip home.

Most of the insulation was put in yesterday, with Duane & Justin working until 7:30 p.m., when they finally called it quits and had supper. Carrie and Annette were at church doing children's ministry. When we got home, we brought two of "our girls" with us and took them up to the attic to see the progress. They loved it!!
So I had them tell Duane what they thought of it when they came downstairs. It was good for him to hear their descriptions of "cool, awesome, love it"! This project is being done for them, as well as the grandchildren (not to mention us who live here. We're going to love the storage space, and I suspect we will enjoy making use of the coziness of this "new" room too, for other activities.}

Today the sheetrocking is going on full-bore. They did the ceiling first, then around the chimney. More final insulation is being put in too. While the 3 workers were doing that, I was downstairs cooking. I got inspired and decided to make rolls for the afternoon lunch. I hadn't done that in years! I had some yeast that had an expiration date of 02/90, so I wasn't sure of the outcome. (I prayed over the batch of rolls.) But they came out looking great! I made a big pan of rolls and a pan of tea ring, so the crew's afternoon lunchtime of hot cocoa and fresh rolls should be a hit.

Justin is wondering about all the goodies that are coming out of the kitchen these days. But I'll have to remind him that I am not getting anything else done of import either. When I do extra projects like sewing, something goes by the wayside. And those three big batches of cookies I made last week--there is probably a third of those left. The cupcakes from Monday are all gone.

With the insulation in, very little heat is needed in the attic in the middle of the day when the sun is out. Our high temps are in the single digits, so we can see it will be an easy place to heat.

More later...

A DAY OF GREAT PROGRESS!

Tuesday dawned sunny! What a treat to pull up the blinds in the kitchen and see that the sun was soon going to shine over the horizon. It was my day to go to Brookings and wash clothes, grocery shop, and buy the latest items needed for the "carpenters." So while I was gone, the three of them accomplished a lot.

Duane worked at wiring all day and got the majority of it done. It seems like we will have more outlets in the attic than we have in the rest of the house. Not quite, but it seems that way. Then there will be two track lights and one light in each gable. The east wall storage area has three lights and the north has one. There is a light in the stairway, and there will be an electric heat panel just below the ceiling on the north wall. So all of those areas, besides the outlet he gave us on the east wall of the guest bedroom made for a lot of work. He also replaced another outlet in the guest bedroom that was all cracked up and hardly worked. Those improvements will be wonderful!

Justin and Carrie finished the stud work and the furring strips. So today they will be putting up the air chute vents (styrofoam sheets that fit between the studs and go in before the insulation). It's interesting to see Carrie up there with her "work clothes" on, safety glasses on her face, using a saw on the studs or whatever. She especially likes the drill. They have made good use of the cordless tools we bought before this project started: a skill saw, a reciprocating saw, a drill and jigsaw. The only one they haven't used yet is the jigsaw.

Weather is very cold this morning, but I guess the attic wasn't quite as frigid as yesterday morning, because the wind is not so ferocious. Duane is getting reacquainted with North country winters!

Duane and Carrie have quite a time with each other--lots of teasing going back and forth. I told them after Duane leaves, they'll have to talk on the phone every so often because they'll be missing sparring with each other!

AND THERE WAS LIGHT!! AND THERE WAS POWER!!

This was a day of accomplishment and great victory!! Duane got the electricity hooked up to the attic by about mid-morning! This changed everything. Our weather had turned to a vicious cold northwest wind which caused the temp in the attic to plunge (as well as the guest bedroom where Duane is sleeping). He was able to plug in a heater and take the chill off, so work in the attic was possible.

Our weather was basically a blizzard today with poor visibility even in town here.
Justin had planned to work only a half-day, getting off at 10:00 a.m., so he was home before noon. Then two of our young friends from town (who didn't have school due to the blizzard conditions) came to the house. (They knocked and knocked--I thought it was the pounding in the attic.) I invited Jasmine and Kayla to join us for dinner since I had made plenty of meat loaf, baked potatoes and fresh green beans. We had fresh strawberries and ice cream for dessert, so it was a feast.

So Justin worked with Duane and Carrie all afternoon in the attic. They're almost done with the furring strips on the rafters and did more stud work also. Duane has almost finished all of the wiring. I will have outlets and switches everywhere. (You have to understand what that will mean to someone who had to be careful where I plugged in the hair dryer. Throwing a breaker was not a strange occurence at our house.) The wiring in the attic will be first-rate, and I am EXTREMELY excited about that!!

The girls stayed for much of the afternoon. While Kayla took a nap on the couch, Jasmine helped me in the kitchen. She made a double batch of cupcakes while I washed dishes. Jasmine is 13, and she loves to learn to do things in the kitchen. She likes all of my gadgets and got to use my mixer and Carrie's hand mixer. She also did the frosting. By then Kayla was awake and the two of them had quite a time decorating the cupcakes with sprinkles, etc. You can probably picture the cleanup I had to do on the table and floor when they were done. But they had fun!! (Their baking was heartily appreciated by the attic crew when they came downstairs for an afternoon treat of hot cocoa and fresh cupcakes!)

Duane, Justin & I made a trip to Menards in Watertown yesterday afternoon to get more supplies. I'm so thankful we did, because we would not have wanted to do it this afternoon. Justin was VERY HAPPY to get home in the late morning. Visibility was more than interesting close to Astoria. Justin has also taken the next two days off, so there should be a lot of progress to report.

We anticipate another great day of accomplishment tomorrow.