Yes, winter is here!

It's been a good three weeks since I've been able to get to Fairfield and I really wasn't sure exactly how much snow is at the house. I was guessing between 2 and 3 feet.


The above photo was taken mid November. Quite a change from then to now. As you can see below the snow is piling up. One of the last pictures I took tonight before leaving is the view out of the upstairs window looking towards the fields and mountain. Still a lot of room to make tracks with the snowmobiles. Glad to see some of the neighbors have started already.

Today I made a quick run up to the house to find someone to clear the driveway and maybe keep it clear until we come up with a better plan. This was the view that greeted me when I pulled up. Looks good to me. Lots of snow.

The front and back decks had a nice drift built up so I got out the shovel and went to work. Both deck roofs had large drifts as well. So now it is nice to have those windows above the deck roofs for easy access. I tied a rope around my waist and stepped out onto the roof and with only a couple of slips I was able to get both front and back roofs cleaned off.

As luck would have it one of the neighbors knew where to find a fellow in town that does snow removal and he has the setup, 4x4 John Deere with loader on the front and a snow blower on the back. So I looked him up and he came over and knocked it out in about 20 minutes. Gotta love large equipment.

Next up is getting the electric oven/range up and plugged in. John found one for free on Craig's list, so maybe next weekend I can get someone with muscles to help me with it. We have a couch, table and chairs as well sitting in the sled trailer. Just need to get some more painting done. I did paint some more of the subfloor before I left so that if snow gets tracked in and melts it won't make a total mess of things. Going to have to live with painted floors until we can afford to get the real thing.
See you next week.

sp

12.6.08

time for a breather! steve went up saturday and sanded out some lines in the texture, did some cleaning, painted floors & finally found a wall color he can live with in the living room.

electric still not finished- hopefully before christmas.

steve's on call next weekend, then we'll be out of town, so it will be 3 weeks before we get back to fairfield, also before we post again-

happy holidays!

11.30.08

up bright & early on saturday- we left home around 7, home depot stop, in fairfield by 10. then a 2 hr hike, then back to the house to work.

the dogs, of course, have no work to do- they just romp....
and guard things.....like steve painting the back door. blue, for metal which is the right feng shui thing for that area of the house.
this was my project saturday- another coat of paint on the upstairs guest bathroom. i really like the dark brown. we may actually have a working shower at some point.

took a break for some sunset photos.....

steve painted the ceiling in the master and i cut in the edges. we also painted around where the ceiling fixtures will be so that when we get the electrical finished we can have light switch overhead lights instead of carrying work light from room to room......

to the imi for dinner & college football. soup & salad for me, grilled ham & swiss & soup for steve.

still working our way through the menu....

steve is still trying to find the right color for the downstairs...

today, i cleaned up the upstairs- the fine white dust glues my eyelids together, gives steve headaches & sticks to everything. since john finished the texturing last week, it made sense to finally clean up.

the arrows point to globs of texture that fall to the floor.

here's a detail shot.

so the first order of business is to take a flat blade shovel & pry up the globs. then sweep to pick up as much dust as possible. then the shop vac- with the tiny, good suction end. it takes a while.... but, as you can see, we have a lot less dust.

same for the master bedroom. (you can see that we have the same curtains in all windows now- when i went back for more $5 curtains last weekend it just worked out that way. which is good b/c i bet we live with these for a while).

the one thing steve really wanted to get done was to hang the real doors & get the construction doors back. you will notice that we still have the construction door here. that's because the pre hung doors didn't match up as far as where the hinges are slotted in. nothing is ever easy. waiting to see what the answer is for this little hiccup.

and here's the nicely painted back door just waiting to be put up.....

after steve realized he couldn't hang the doors, he started cleaning the downstairs. the colors on the wall are the rejected trial colors. the floor is painted so that we can bring in a couch & maybe table & chairs..... slowly but surely things are getting done..... i think the brown painted floors will be just dandy for a while with some throw rugs...

we have 2 more weekends to work before heading to mexico....... hopefully will find a color for the downstairs, get ceiling painted, some lights up, doors hung & maybe a shower- then again, of some of that happens after the trip that's ok too-

til next weekend-

11.23.08

first up- the happy running dog shot-
next, the scenic shots- this is saturday afternoon around 4.

skiff of snow saturday evening, and the inversion set in. socked in all day sunday.....

now to the house.... steve & john got to fairfield in the morning and went to work finishing up the texturing.

steve also started painting the front door, so we can get rid of the construction doors..... the red is a very nice color. i think echo and halle approve.

we have hot water!!! makes it much easier to wash out paintbrushes & rollers, and hopefully we'll have a shower in a week or two.

got the dandy $5 curtains up in the master. just in time for cold weather. in fact, i went back & picked up more for the rest of the windows. not pretty, but they work and the price is right.

halle is supervising steve mixing up more mud for the walls.

we have a door on the bathroom! doesn't keep anyone out (halle doesn't get it), but it does provide a measure of privacy..... sort of reminding me of college- using curtains for doors, second hand furniture- kind of fun.

this is the color of the upstairs bathroom- i got the primer on yesterday and the paint today. will need another coat to be sure all is covered- tough with such a dark color. it will look good with white cabinets and towels, etc...

the light color is a possible master bedroom color. we have a darker blue for the master bath, the dark blue on the left is the primer for that. i wanted to see if we need dark primer under the master color or if we can just use white (cheaper). guess we'll see next week.....bathroom is mesmerize, the master bedroom maybe magic spell.... trying to get close to the color of the mountains- we're going for an idaho in winter colored house.... still looking for the dried grass color for the downstairs walls.

kathleen came up last night to join us for dinner at the imi- chile & salad bar for steve, john & i and chef's salad for kathleen.... a bottle of red wine (carmela cab merlot- pretty tasty) and a brownie sunday for dessert- yum!

anyway- here they are texturing the stairs.

gus came along too and is taking over halle's supervisory duties.

the man toilet isn't such a fab plan with dogs in the house, alas..... note the handy dandy bathroom cabinet- jake & tina picked up for $35 at an auction, decided they didn't like it so steve bought it from them. it'll work great for us.

that's it for me- more painting to come next week.......

work continues

First thing to look at is the snow on the mountains. Looks good at the top, 9-10 thousand feet up that is.

So let's see, what did I get done this weekend? I hauled up some subfloor for the bathrooms. Laid that in the downstairs bathroom, after pulling the toilet and sink out. We're trying something a little different with the peel and stick tiles. Should work. Also laid subfloor in the upstairs bath on the east end. The weather was very nice, no rain, just sunshine so I was able to do all my layouts and cutting outside. Less dust in the house. Have enough of that already inside. Seems like the time really flies by when it is just me working. 5 oclock came around quickly. I took a break to get something to eat and watch the end of the BSU vs. U of I game. By the time I got there it was into the 4th quarter and BSU was thumping them, as usual. Finished eating and went right back to work installing the flooring in the downstairs bath. By the time I got the sink and toilet back in place it was after ten.

As you can see the seat is up on the toilet. That is because it is a MAN toilet. Yes that means that the seat always gets put back up like you found it. A simple concept actually and once each person gets it committed to memory there are no problems with falling in when it is being used in the middle of the night. Simple enough don't you think? Best part about this toilet is that it can be purchased at any place toilets are sold!

Sunday was a bit of a sleep in day. Didn't get started until 8:30 or so. Worked on taking the trash box apart outside and making it into a wood box. It's a little rough, but will work for what I have in mind. Worked to get the back steps settled and leveled up with a slight slope away from the house, much better than it was. Other than working on odds and ends of cleaning up and getting the bathroom floor upstairs finished prepping for the next round of tile to lay, didn't seem to really make a big dent in the long list of things to do. Happy to finally get the trash box torn down and things straightened up a bit more outside. Not many photos this week as I tend to get in project mode and don't think of it until I'm driving home. The photographer didn't come up this week, so that makes a diff as well.

So next week is texturing fun for John and I as we're going to make a big push to knock out the rest of the house with the wall texturing. Hoping that the plumber shows up and gets the water heater in. I have the breaker waiting to put in as soon as he does. Wow we could have hot water, that'd be a treat. Could even actually shower if we get a curtain up and the controls on.

Stay tuned.

november 9

we'll start with the frolic and scenic pics......
decent visibility here-

then it started raining........ cool and damp

sunset saturday night ........ just before another yummy dinner at iron mt inn (french dip for me, chicked fried steak for john, grilled boneless pork for steve)

here's the pile of texturing stuff that ended up being mainly moldy and going back to home depot. really nice- 15 out of 20 boxes were totally unusable. out of date since february. of course, we had lots to do anyway, but it was not a fun discovery- steve packed them all into his truck, into the house & then hauled them all back.

the only bright side was that they took back the primer that they messed up too (it's really hard to return custom paint). i got deep red primer from someone at the paint counter who knew what she was talking about. when steve asked for red primer he got bubblegum pink and "that's the reddest i can make it". very disappointing home depot weekend....

here's part of the ceiling process. sore tired arms? why yes.....

John was following behind Steve knocking down the stamping and giving it what will be the real look so to speak.
jake came up & helped saturday too- worked on the jeep, did some texturing under the stairs and some other helpful stuff.

finishing primering the walls.....

the right color of red primer... (this is my project)

the utility room is painted- ceiling, floor and walls...... just a little tidying up along the edges.
we have indoor plumbing! woo hoo! and a pedestal sink in the corner (note the custom pedestals for each leg). the utility sink is temporary. we're going to put a 1/2 shower on the back porch for hosing down dogs & cleaning whatever else needs to be cleaned. in a while.
this is the finished paint color- i really like it. really like the indoor plumbing too!
we realized that we need to add subfloor before tiling, so the commode has a bit of a shim. will do subfloor next weekend. it will be nice and smooth for the tile.

picked up colors to try for the master bed & bath- going for the blue/gray mt color- we'll see how it works. the room is really nice- the windows are great.

it's coming along.....