Easter Sunday

HAPPY EASTER!

We had a lovely Easter Sunday.  Here we are Sunday morning in our shiney living room!  We started the day off by attending a baptism at the Ryan's home.  Then on to Morning Meeting.  We enjoyed having some of our friends over for dinner, Mike 'n' Linda and Jerene & Mara.  It was a very nice time - we had ham and spaghetti!  Then on to Gospel Meeting in Lewiston.  It was really a lovely day.

We took some time to take a couple of pictures of us 'yayhoos'.  I can't believe Keaton is actually smiling nicely and not making faces at the camera here.  Poor Preston got a terrible sunburn on his face Saturday while working at the WSU track meet.

The only down-side of Easter was that we lost another chicken.  Now we have only three.  I've seen the culprit: a coyote.  He was walking around the chicken coop the other morning.  So the rest of the chickens are on quarrantine until we can figure out what to do.

It's so nice that Tom finally snapped a 'good' picture of me in something other than my fat pajamas.  The boys always look extra nice in their Sunday best.

Although we did get a snap of Tom in his pajamas on Easter!

The BIG Reveal!!!

YAY!  WE'RE DONE!!!!

Here's a night-time shot that we took last night after finally finishing this project.  LOVE the shiney floors!  I know some of these pictures are too big for my format, but I like the big pictures better for showing the final product.

We still have to move the piano in... and refinish a couple of the doors.  But first, I think we'll take a little break for a couple of days.

I love the lights we chose.  I also love how the old wood looks all cleaned up and finished.  That's 113-year-old doors and trim!  The crown molding is new, though.  But it matches pretty well.

A daytime peek.

Time to go out and enjoy the sunshine!

Ready to be bored.

(Monday)

Boy, it seems that when it rains in pours... literally and figuratively.  We've had a lot of rain (and snow) this spring.  On Monday we actually got about an inch of snow on the ground.  Blech!  We've also been very busy.  When we started our remodel project, it seemed like we had lots of time to get it done in a week or two.  We're now going on two months and we're still not finished.  Too many other things have cropped up and we haven't had that much time to really spend on it.

As far as the remodel goes... the sheetrock, panels and lower trims are up and painted/stained.  I have gotten one coat of varethane on the panelling, but it still needs another coat.  We also still have the picture molding to put up around the top of the room.  It still needs to be stained and varethaned before we can get it up.  Then the lights have to be assembled.  We bought outdoor lights - that look really cool - but they have a photocell on them.  Tom will have to by-pass the photocell for them to work.  That will take some time, as we are installing six of them.  Then maybe we can start moving our furniture back!

Tom was chosen last month to be a temporary supervisor at work.  It is a temporary position because they don't want to hire a new one until they know what the budget will be.  So they have rotated some of the leads into the position.  Tom's rotation is a three-month stint. He will be doing it until July.  It is a whole new ballgame for him.  He's used to being out and about, working on things.  Right now he's either at meetings all the time or sitting at a desk processing work orders and e-mails.  There is a certain amount of stress that he's unaccustomed to, but he's learning a lot.  It will be a good experience for him.

I've been putting in a few extra hours subbing at work and running kids to doctor appointments, etc.  The older boys have had lots of doctor appointments as we have tried to start them on Acutane for acne.  We've tried everything else over the years, and nothing is working.  So, we finally decided to try the Acutane.  Preston broke out in a big rash up and down his arms and chest.  Then Keaton did the same, but not as bad as Preston.  Preston had to go off of it for about a month.  Keaton's dose was lowered.  Now we're trying to get Preston back on it.  What a lot of frustration!  Preston is ready to just live with the acne, but will give the medicine one more try.

To top everything off, the diswasher broke.  I don't know what it is with us and appliances... or else the applicances are made to break.  A new dishwasher is definitely not in the budget, so it will be washing by hand for a while.  Like I said, when it rains it pours!

(Monday's accumulation)

???Communism???

Now, before you start thinking we're a bunch of Commies around here - here's the scoop...

Imagine my surprise when my co-worker at school announces that she just read in an e-mail that my son, Keaton, has been entered in a poetry contest.  To which I replied, "Keaton?  I didn't even know he wrote poetry.  Wow!  How exciting!"

So that evening, I ask him about this honor that has been bestowed upon him - his poem being one of four picked to be entered out of twelve applicants.  He sheepishly says, "Oh, yeah.  I didn't think it would really be chosen."  Then I ask, "Well, what's your poem about?"  He says, "Communism."  I say, "WHAT???"

So he goes on to explain to me that they had recently been learning about Communism in one of his classes.  Then he went to his English class, and his teacher wanted everyone to write a 'Concrete Poem'.  So Keaton, being a great antagonizer to his English teacher, decided to write about Communism as a bit of a lark.  It is meant to be satire.  (This all took place last year).

So this year, when the poetry contest came up, he decided to pull it out of his archives (an overstuffed, stained and half-shredded binder) and enter it in the contest as a joke.  Well, his poem got picked.  Winners in the contest were going to get a certain amount of cash - so he thought 'okay, cool!'  Each finalist had to read his or her poem in front of a panel of nice ladies at the Community Baptist Church.  Oops!  He hadn't considered that.

After all was said and done, Keaton orally dispatched his poem before the said ladies (he was sure to make them aware that this was a satire before reading it to them).  He said they had a sense of humor, and even laughed a bit.  He came in 4th (out of 4), with an honorable mention - and they gave him a book of poems in lieu of a cash prize.  Not too bad, despite my worries that now the whole community will think we are supporters of the Communist party.

So without further adieu, here is Keaton's Poem for you to judge for yourself...

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

I don't even have to work as hard as my neighbor.

And I get paid just as much with less work.

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

I chill in my country with Stalin at my side.

I laugh at the Americans cause we made it to space first.

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

I have no choice in my country, but who cares.

If I'm in trouble, so is everyone else, hooray.

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

I laugh at my neighbor as he tries to make a point.

When he should already know there is no use.

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

Our country's symbol is better than yours.

We have a hammer and a sythe - you just have a bird.

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

We sent our missles over to Cuba and gave you guys a fright.

While we sit back safe from your missles.

Oh Communism, what would I do without you.

Oh (blank) you just made it to the moon!

Oh Communism, why have you failed me?

Oh Communism, why have you failed me?

Oh Communism, why have you failed me?...

(I did clean up some spelling and punctuation for him in my version)

Oh Keaton!

Preston's 19th Birthday

Yesterday my baby turned 19.  I can't believe how fast time has gone.  It seems like just yesterday he and Keaton were toddling around our house in Boise.  Now Preston is grown, being an exceptional student in college and starting to make his own way in life.  One of the great things about Preston is that he loves his family and includes us in so much of what he does.  Another is that he's always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who asks.  We've enjoyed 'keeping' him around here instead of having him slip off into the world.  Preston, you can be my little boy for a bit longer - I don't mind.

I have to give a big thanks to our friends Scott and Mandy Thompson.  They took these pictures for us.  We had a potluck after morning meeting, and that's where we celebrated Preston's birthday with cake.  We forgot to bring our camera so it was nice that they had theirs with them.

We gave Preston a new wallet (just what he wanted!), a WSU shirt and a rock pick-hammer for his geological explorations.  Keaton gave him a bag of Kit-Kat candies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRESTONIAN!

Henny~Penny

I am sitting here cracking up watching Winston play with Tom's bobble-heads.  He's got a bobble-cow talking to Darth Vader.  One's saying "We need to fix the house" (wonder where he got that?) and the other is saying "We need to PARTY!" (I really don't know where he got that one.)  It's hilarious watching kids play.

Today when Winston got home from school he said he was going out to the chicken coop to pick out a new favorite chicken.  I told him that was a great idea.  So when he came back, I asked him what he was going to name his new chicken-friend.  He said "Penny, because she's copper colored, like a penny."  That boy is always thinking.  He did great at school today, despite his disappointment yesterday.

Good news on the home improvement front:  I think we've come to an agreement on color for the trim.  It's still got a bit of red in it, but it's much better than our first version.  Tom was able to sand off the offending color and we put on the new one.  I think we can live with it.

Another One Bites the Dust...

We have a sad little boy again.  Something came and took Henny this afternoon.  Keaton trailed it and thinks it's a coyote, but he didn't actually see what it was.  It took her quite a ways down the trail before Keaton couldn't find anymore feathers.  Winston found out when he got home from school.  Henny was his favorite chicken.  It's partly my fault.  I let them out for a bit, then had to go back to the school for about an hour to sub for someone.  I figured they would be okay for just an hour.  Now we're down to four chickens.

In better news, I thought I'd post some pictures from Winston's Spring Break.  Since we were busy working on the house, he pretty much had free rein with little supervision.  A little boy's paradise!  Here are some things we took the time to notice that he was up to...

...Like playing in the ditch...

...And putting on fashion shows... 

This was the outfit that he wanted to wear the entire Spring Break.  He didn't really get to, but he did continue the vest thing with a couple of his ensambles.

This is what he came downstairs wearing when we told him to get dressed for Sunday Morning Meeting.  He wasn't too happy to find out that it wasn't the vogue for churchwear.

...And made signs for big brothers who like to tease.  This one was posted on his bedroom door. 

We Love our Winston!

Pictures of our distress...

I promised pictures, so here's pictures...

Here are the mostly-finished door frames.  It took us three long days of stripping the paint off of them, then sanding them with heavy grit, then another sanding of fine grit sandpaper.  Once that was done we were able to stain them with the cherry wood stain.  They took in the stain beautifully, and will be lovely when they are all finished.  They just need a couple of coats of varethane.  I love how they turned out.  If you ever have antique wooden doorframes, my suggestion is DON'T PAINT THEM!  It's a royal pain to get that stuff off of them.  (Please ignore the dust on my new shiney floor.  Remodels are a dusty business!)  We plan to continue refinishing the trim going up the stairs and into the hall - but not until this mess is done. 

Tom and I spent a day stripping and sanding paint off of ONE door.  It was insane trying to get the paint out of all the nooks and crannies.  There are still little bits on it where it's been indented and beat up a bit.  I told him that was the style for old wooden doors.  I don't think he was buying that theory.  The other thing that made it so hard to get this done was the farmers decided to have their fields crop-dusted the same day.  So we'd be sanding away and a crop-duster plane would fly right over the top of us, dropping fertilizer or pesticides on us with the over spray.  I think the pilot must have been enjoying the spectacle of Tom and I running for the door to get in the house every time he flew over.  That's been our luck so far with this project.  Always something to set us back.

This was a YAHOO-EEE!!! moment... the first piece of sheetrock goes up.  At this point we were both thinking, "Yay!  We're finally moving forward"  Little did we know...

To the eye, in most light, the door frames look a deep cherry wood red.  When we painted it on the paneling and trim, it was brown.  So I tried adding some red mahogony and redwood stain.  When it was out in the direct sunlight, it looked like a perfect match.  Once we got it inside... in the daylight it was okay (sort of), but when it got dark and we had the light on it looked pretty bad.  I think we should have stuck with the 'brownish' color.  We may have to redo that corner - which is quite a distressing and disgusting thought for both of us - a day and some really nice wood wasted.

This is after Tom got it all finished.  It is where the pellet stove will go.  If you look to the lower right, there's a piece of paneling with stain on both ends.  The top is the original cherry wood.  The bottom is the darkened cherry wood.  I think that's what we should have gone with... and what we will probably have to re-do that corner in.  So sad because Tom did an awesome job on building the trim and mantle in the corner.  We may try to just sand it all - and if the red comes off, try to restain with the dark cherry wood.  I haven't decided what color to paint the walls after we tape, mud and texture.  I think I am leaning towards a light almond color.

You might be asking yourself "Whoa, what's this?  This wasn't in the remodel budget!"  Well, when you spend all week working on the house, making filthy dusty clothes, not taking the time to get the laundry done... then Sunday morning you go to start a load and find that your washing machine (that was only a year old - mind you) has thrown some bearings... you start to panic.  I have to admit, we bought the Maytag last year off of a 'Ding and Dent' showroom floor, and were informed that it had been returned by it's previous owner.  I guess that's what you get when you try to save some money.  Either that, or we are really tough on washing machines!  So here's the new Wirlpool set.  We didn't really need a new dryer, but it was a good deal so we took it. Tom took the time to build the nice 'pedestal' for them, which the dog food fits nicely under.  I sure hope we can get a few years out of these guys.

Well, that's my life story for the week and I'm sticking to it!

Going Bananas!

Just monkeying around!

I... AM... EXHAUSTED!

This remodel is really getting the better of Tom and I.  It seems like we used to kick these projects out quick and easy.  This one is taking FOREVER!  And we are both aching, sore and grumpy.  We've worked really hard the past couple of days, and feel like we've made very little progress.  We do have sheetrock up in one corner of the living room.  We also got all the door trim stripped, sanded and stained.  (They do look awesome!)  We found that the old wood from the door trims soaked up the cherry wood stain like crazy.  So when we stained the new trim, it turned out a different color.  That's when I had to enter my secret laboratory and mix up a concoction from three different stains to try to match it.  What a pain, and what a mess.  We're not entirely happy with the results... we're hoping it will grow on us.  I will post pictures as soon as I can get them loaded on my laptop.  Hopefully soon.

So glad tomorrow is Sunday and we can take a break from all of this.  It would be nice to have my living room and den back... and bedroom back.  It's looking like it will be at least another two weeks before that happens.  That's our progress update.

Todays Grouchy Rabbit quote: 

Money can't buy happiness,

but it can buy bubble wrap.

The boys and Dan McLeod going for a ride on Winston's bus!

Quote of the Day...

I ran across a site called 'Grouchy Rabbit' and found that some of their quotes are quite hilarious.  (Some are a bit out there, too), but I thought it would be fun to post a quote from them every once in a while.  So today's quote for my blog is...

Walking through a spider web temporarily turns you into a ninja.

There you have it.

FLOORS ARE DONE!!!!

...AND THEY'RE SO SHINEY!!!

Living Room... we went with a light cherry wood stain.  So far it's taken them three days to dry.  We are finally able to walk on them - but just a little bit.

And the den.

Now I get to do a lot of dusting in there!

On to the door frames (stripping, sanding, staining and varethan-ing).  Then we can sheet rock and panel.  We're going for an 'Early Craftsman' style that was popular around the turn of the century.  Our inspiration - Frank Lloyd Wright (Before his modern phase).  But it will definitely be a 'Tom & Tracy original'.  We'll see how it all turns out!