Well, as far as my house goes, things have been moving along again. They hit a bit of a standstill around Thanksgiving, and Christmas season as always was busy, but we have been making progress in the last 2 months since I have posted! Let's see....
1. The wall for the shower, and the shower itself are in (minus any plumbing fixtures)
2. My brother trimmed out 2 walls for me this week, the bathroom and one in the living room (which is wonderful, because while I know I could do it, it wouldn't look remotely as nice as it does!)
3. I finished the walls up in the loft (minus the polyurathane) and put in shelves for clothes, a small rug, and a brand new bed that Jim and I picked out! I have 2 beds in storage, and Jim has one next door....but his we would need to hire a crane to get out of his house, and mine have been in storage awhile (one is two small) and with his allergies we decided a new bed would just be best.
4. We got a new refrigerator! A present from Jim's mom for Christmas, we went and picked one out at Lowes that uses pretty low energy- not much more than the little one in Jim's house- so now we can keep leftovers, have a full gallon of milk and much more! It has also been nice to have a place to put pictures and notes. It is now displaying a very nice drawing made by Jim's 3 year old niece as well, with lots of colors! It does make it feel a bit more like home!
5. We got a new cookstove installed! With propane ignite, it has 4 burners and an oven....and we have been cooking away!
6. While we had our water pipes freeze up for awhile, Jim was able to thaw them out and we now have running water again. We are still working on the hot water, but to have water coming out of the faucet has been a wonderful thing! Just last night we took out our kitchen sink temporarily though because now we just got....
7. Kitchen cabinets!!! We went to Menards yesterday (leaving about 11:00 am) to go pick out cabinets for our kitchen. Around 8:00 we returned, with a different truck and freezing cold! Just after picking out our cabinets (oak-unfinshed ones-for literally half the price of finished ones) we went to take the truck around back to load them up (Jim's shiny new but used red one he bought and put a plow on)...but the power steering went out. So....we couldn't drive it anywhere, leaving us at Menards with a bunch of new cabinets. His mom came and picked us up and drove us to Jim's shop where we woke up the Isuzu flatbed from his long winter nap. He was very reluctant to wake up, but we eventually got him going, unstuck from the loading dock which was full of hardened snow, the bed cleared off in Menards parking lot, and loaded with cabinets. Jim pays to have snow removed from his shop, as there is no place to put it, and Menards has a HUGE parking lot with a big snowpile already. We figured, with the amount of time and money we spend there, they wouldn't mind helping out their esteemed customers. Before taking off again I went and bought some foot warmers, and we wrapped Arlo up in a towel....the Isuzu does not have what I would consider heat, so it was a cold trip home! From Menards, it is about a 45 minute trip, and it was barely above 0 at this time...and we were already starting out cold. We stopped at Kwik Trip and got some hot cocoa and a snack, and away we went. We made it home fine, and didn't even get the Isuzu stuck in the driveway (as I anticipated). The chunk of ice half blocking Jim's view never melted, and in fact his view got worse along the way, but we were home! We went inside to warm up for awhile before unloading the cabinets....the house was about 50 degrees with our new.....
8. Propane heater (with a vent to outside)! We still needed it warmer though, so we started up the pellet stove, and even took the little electric heater from Jim's house and crawled up to the loft where it is quite a bit warmer. After awhile the chill started to leave us and I fell FAST asleep. Apparently Jim tried to wake me up, but I have no recollection of this. I tend to sleep pretty hard sometimes. I woke up when I heard the door shutting though, and got up to help move cabinets. I'm not sure if Jim was irritated with me for falling asleep or the cold, but he was pretty grumpy. We got everything unloaded though and then we started putting a few cabinets in place. Our whole kitchen living room area is still pretty full of cabinets, but, they will be nice! We finally got to bed about midnight, slept about 8 hours and then Jim was off to work, and I started working on the cabinets. My mom also came over today and we got most of them polyurathaned. There are just a couple that need one more coat....and I guess there is one we left behind in Jim's truck I will still need to do.
The propane heater has been wonderful though, keeping our house at a much more constant temperature....and making it so we don't come home to a 35 degree house! We also figured it made a lot more sense than using propane to run the generator to get electricity so that we can run the pellet stove! We have been pretty disappointed with the amount of electricity our pellet stove requires....which doesn't work well for an off grid house in the winter!
9...Let's see, we also got a kitchen table from my uncle Jim's auction. Arlo's bed sits underneath it, and we even have 2 chairs for it now! I also like it for sentimental reasons, as it was always the "puzzle table" that Evelyne and Jim had in their kitchen at the "new house"- right when you first came in. The always had huge puzzles that they were putting together. I have a puzzle sitting upstairs I would like to put on it. Jim just asked the other day when I would have time to use it.....my response was "well, never, but it is a nice thought." I will get around to it eventually when my house is a bit more settled I think!
10. Ah, I almost forgot! We got a new shed!!! It is an 8x12 shed that is sitting next to Jim's house now, after a lot of drama getting it there! But, all our tools now hang out there, giving us a real house to live in! I no longer have the air compressor sitting right next to the couch, and I actually have a few small drawers of clothes in my house rather than the chest of electrical and plumbing parts! It has really helped me feel like I am in a house rather than a construction site! It also has a workbench in it and a few shelves that have rapidly been filling up with odds and ends building supplies and wood.
11. I have purchased the wood I am going to use in my bathroom- 4 inch tongue and groove cedar, which we are going to put half way up the walls....the drywall on top (which is already in and just needs a little more mudding) is going to be painted grayish blue.
So....we have a lot yet to do, obviously, but things are really starting to move along! Our house is really starting to feel like a home!
Arlo, is now 50 pounds and just over 5 months old. He is still adorable and he has been a lot of fun! I can now let him outside to wander around on his own (as we have a pretty big yard). He really hasn't wandered off very far, though he is starting to check out the ditch more, looking for sticks, and I did notice today that he had wandered into the neighbors field getting closer to the turkey flock that likes to frequent here. Some days I have noticed as many as 30 turkeys hanging out in the field next to us! I also see a lot of turkey prints on my land, and I think there may be a family of pheasants living next to our driveway (on the neighbor's land). At night I often hear an owl that seems to be living in the pines nearby...I love to hear it hooting! I have been feeding the birds lately off a dead pine limb about 15 feet from my living room window, and I have been seeing cardinals, blue jays, red headed woodpeckers, nuthatches, lots of chickadees and juncos. I really do like my land and living out of town!!
Arlo seems to be completely potty trained now, and has even spent a few days at home this week alone, all day, being out of his kennel (which we took out of the house for space reasons). Jim took a last minute trip to Utah for work this week, so "poooor" Arlo had to stay home =) He really is quite spoiled. He wasn't even alone much, as my brother and Dad came by to help me with some things during the day and let him out and played with him. This dog spends less time alone than any dog I know. At home, he is the most MELLOW and sweet creature imaginable! You can pile things on him, dress him up, and poke him, and he doesn't even care. He pretty much lets you do whatever you want to him. Bring over new people and especially other dogs though and he gets VERY excited! With other dogs he will run and play until he is dead tired....so some people think he is a hyper pup. Ha ha! Jim and I know better. He is also a big cuddler, which is exactly what I wanted. Another thing that he gets all excited about is when he hears the harmonica. Jim will play for him and get him all riled up sometimes- Arlo dances around and barks when he hears it.....great entertainment. I really couldn't have asked for a better puppy....he hasn't even chewed anything really expensive!...he's chewed a few things, but not much at all for a lab. I thought for sure, with how he went after our shoes as a puppy, we would lose at least one pair.
School is half way over for the year already! Hard to believe! I feel especially busy at school because I haven't really been able to come home and work on any school stuff....I am too side-tracked by other things that need to get done, or else I am exhausted. But, I have seen a lot of progress in my kids, and I am just starting a unit on the arctic right now! So, starting tomorrow we will be looking doing all kinds of fun things with snow, arctic animals and even crabbing through the ice! Getting things ready, and looking through pictures on Friday made me a bit homesick. I found a book about a boy who lives in Kotzebue (not far from where I lived in Shishmaref), and all the pictures made me think about all the things I had experienced up there and made me really miss it! I absolutley LOVED Alaska! I do really want to go back and visit soon....
Well, not much else that is new here....that is my life right now- WORK, build, dog, boyfriend, family and for the most part just not having enough hours in the day. But, I am going to go lay down and read now for awhile (for a book forum I am taking for credit) but still, more reading than I have done in quite awhile. I miss just relaxing in the evenings....so that is my one and only New Years resolution-to take more time to relax and do things that I enjoy.....even if they don't get me towards any goal. I was talking to my mom today and she said I am always one that gets my work done first before I relax and have fun. But, I think she and everyone else is right....there will ALWAYS be more work. Sometimes you need to relax anyways. As long as I get things done that I really need to, I'm going to try and stop feeling guilty about taking a couple hours to myself...and I am going to try and do it at times when I am not so exhausted so that I actually have some energy to do things that I really like to do- like hiking, skiing, reading, etc. Otherwise I just lay around watching a movie or something....mostly just falling asleep!! But, I am glad I worked my butt off this last year, because I wouldn't be where I am if I hadn't. I love that I own my own house- and one that I built myself, with the help of my family and friends! Thanks to all that have helped me!! Now this year I can work on getting a garden, taking down barbed wire, building bird houses, doing the "pretty" stuff to my house like the wood ceiling....replanting grass, figuring out my driveway, figuring out a few drainage problems in my yard using the tractor, starting a real compost pile, filling in trenches....yep, my mind is already working against my new years resolution! Ha ha!
1 comment:
Woohooo! Thanks for the update. Been missing you today. Was grumpy last night because I am beginning to hate the cold more and more. And I was really cold last night. Until I got too hot. And then too cold again. And then too hot.
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