December 27, 2008

We have been wanting a wood burning stove for quite a while now and the oppertunity has come up so we got one. Here it is installed and it keeps the house about 70 degrees without any other heat. By the way Merry Christmas, we spent some time with many ...texted some and for anyone who we may have missed I hope your christmas was great! Below you will see the lights we put on the house this year, and there are many other small improvments that have come up in the last few weeks also. As far as the wood burning stove we will now be starting on the living room and permanantly installing the stove with a stone hearth.... and painting, drywalling, and whatever else the room takes. Our bedroom is done now except for a bed, and hopefully we will be building that in the next few weeks.

December 26, 2008

We took a trip out to colorado and I have to thank Andrea and Susan for such a great time. The skiing was great and so was everything else we did. Skiing, moose hunting, hanging out, and a trip up the mountain in the dark to a warming hut. Thanks again guys, our trip was amazing and we cant wait to see you guys again!!

Monday December 8, 2008

Liz and I went out over the weekend to get a Christmas tree to celebrate the season and make the new house more festive. We also did a bunch of moving over the weekend and thank you to everyone who helped out!

Friday December 5, 2008

It was an exciting week at the house for Liz, she got herself a new water softener. We installed it this week as well as a whole house water filter and now the water is looking really clear. Blinds have been put up in the bedroom and the closet is ready to be painted.

Racoon Update - Bess

Wait, that is a funny looking racoon. I have boarded up all the holes in the garage and Bess here decided to chew a new one. In doing so she hit a stud (2x4) and this did not stop her, she chewed through it also. I guess the half of a subway sandwich was irresistible. Bess is actually a Opossum.

Monday December 1, 2008

We have fallen a bit behind with blog updates due to not being able to find our camera. I did find a second camera I had so until the camera reappears I have something to update the blog with. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We have been busy and I (Brandon) have much of December off of work due to needing to use vacation days before they expire. Our bedroom is close to being finished. The drywall is done in the room and is almost ready for paint in the closet. Lighting has been completed, the room has been painted, trim was put up around the windows and doors, and we laid carpet. In the kitchen we finished painting, completely took the oven apart and cleaned it, and have put the cabinets back up. Over the weekend Liz and I started to move in some of our stuff for the kitchen and plan to continue moving in during the week. The living room as you can see has been used as a work room and for now will continue to be as we work on other parts of the house. I will try and keep updates more frequent now that I have a way to take pictures.

Monday November 10, 2008

Not to much to show since the mudding in the room takes a while with nothing that is too exciting to look at. We did get a chance to rake most of the leaves over the weekend also. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have better pictures to share.



On Sunday we did no work on the house due to pulling out the boat, pontoon, and jetski. It was super cold with a few snow flakes here and there...maybe one of these years we will pull out the boats on a warmer day. We say this every year and it never happens.

Thursday November 6, 2008

In the last week we have been finishing up many of the outside projects we had while the weather has been nice. We burned the large pile of wood which was mostly the old floors over the weekend and Liz planted bulbs so we have flowers in the spring. I worked on the roof leak again which had gotten better but was not gone. I have tested it with the hose and I am pretty sure the roof is now leak free. On the inside we have continued with drywalling and have started to mud the bedroom. I have finished with all the electrical in that room and put in halogen lighting. Things will hopefully be finishing up in the bedroom over the weekend and we will be able to paint next week.

Racoon Update - Andy

So far the cage Eric has loaned me has been unsuccessful, but according to my dad this is because racoons do not care for left over honey mustard sauce from Portillos. So I baited the cage in the garage with a pork chop which sure enough had this guy waiting for me the next day. I am going to name racoons like hurricanes and start with the beginning of the alphabet and see how far I can get. So here is Andy.

Monday October 27, 2008

This week we have focused mainly on the bedroom we are trying to finish. The rest of the floors have been taken out and some of the floor joists needed to be replaced. Bringing the wall out led to framing the hallway differently also. We got a great buy on some exterior lights and bought 3 of them; 2 for the river side of the house and a matching one for the other side. With all the materials we have been buying fitting them either into the car or onto a trailer for transporting has been a challenge. We have begun insulating the bedrooma and drywalling those areas also. A new door has been hung at the bedroom enterance and we still need to get a door for the closet. Looks like we are onto electrical work so we can close up the walls in this room.

Wednesday October 22, 2008

A nice surprise today, the garbage man took everything. Celeste, here is the picture you requested. I am going to have to arrange a christmas bonus for him for his hard work. He also took the TV antenna which use to be on the roof.

Tuesday October 21, 2008

I know...I am behind on an update.

It has been a busy couple weeks at the house as you can see from the pictures. On the outside we have finished the painting, added a crawlspace vent, fixed the roof leak, and quite a few other small things. With the weather getting colder now we have focused more of our time on the inside. The subfloor is almost complete in the living room, the plumbing for the outside spiket has been moved and a frost free spiket was put on, all the cabinets and blinds have been cleaned. We have moved onto the riverside bedroom to make one room we can move into and removed all the drywall and subfloor. We did the same for the closet that is next to it in the hallway, which we will be attaching to the bedroom for a walk-in closet instead of a hallway closet. The bedroom wall is being moved out into the living room to make the room larger in size. The lower framing on the river side french doors had to be replaced due to moisture rotting the wood and the main support for all the living room floor had to be raised about 1 1/2" to level the floors in the living room. The crawlspace has been completely cleaned... many are thinking this was an easy job but so far this has been the worse. I removed about 15 contractor bags of "trash" including a racoon carcass. Good news is we started garbage service to get on top of all we are throwing out, we will see if he takes the LARGE mound of trash I put out for him though. I think about 40 bags of garbage is going to deserve this guy a christmas bonus this year if he takes it. Work is going to continue on the bedroom now, and I need one more nice day outside to finish trimming the outside windows and caulking. I have had an ad running on craigslist for a week now for a free boat lift to whoever wants to take it out... with alot of responses but the lift is still sitting in the water. Many people say they are coming out this week to get it, I will update you if this trash is taken. Eric loaned me his racoon trap for the garage which is on day 3 now, but I havent caught anything. I think we are all caught up and if there are any picture requests let me know.

Tuesday October 7, 2008

Work has continued this weekend to finish the outside painting and put matching siding on the last side of the house. Previously three sides of the house had cedar siding and one had vinyl siding. One side was yellow, one side was a toupe color, and the other two were white. We have been painting the whole house to match in a light greenish grey color and have been trying to get this done before the weather turns cold. We now have three sides matching in color and the cedar siding has been put up and primed. Now we are just hoping to have one more nice weekend that is warm enough to finish the painting.