The Studio Moves South

To prepare for Suzan's long recovery, this past weekend began the big change of moving the studio down to the first floor. HUGE thanks to John and Brandon for taking the time to come over and muscle against the awkward pieces and treatcherous open staircase. Victoria and Aaron came over to give the crazy-heavy white wall units that were in the den a new home. And thanks to Scott for picking up the sleeper sofa and delivering it to Wade and Anna. Yesterday, Kenny put together the 2 new wall units from Ikea and Suzan painted the walls artichoke heart and espresso – fun! Tonight, was the "stuff" move-in. Summary: The den became the new studio. The old studio will become the guest bedroom/craft room. The old den went away (sorry Kenny!!) but we hope it will return again some day when we can grow the studio to its own building or addition.
Here's a photo of Ken anchoring the units. 3 more days until surgery... YIKES!

We Have Shingles

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Atlee put in some long hours to shingle our roof. This of course was started after he replaced ALL of the Ice and Water sheets on the upper roof after the crazy wind on Tuesday ripped it all off. He did a wonderful job! We really appreciate his excellent craftsmanship, great attitude and for fitting us into his busy schedule.

The Roof Angels Came!

On friday, after 2 previous attempts were dashed by rain, the roof underwent the anticipated SHINGLE-RIP-OFF under sunny (but chilly) skies. Pastor Larry and the team he rallied came out to the house and donated their time and gusto to help Ken with the roof project. They tore off the old shingles and paper and sent them down on a home made shoot (which Hayden has now claimed for a bike ramp). Then they covered the whole roof with Ice and Water Sheild to prep it for Atlee, who will be shingling later this week. THANK YOU so much to Larry, Brian, Rob and Scott. Your thoughtfulness in helping a brother and sacrificing your precious time is a HUGE blessing to our family! And thanks Scott for coming out the next day and putting in more time to finish out the prep work with Ken. The only bummer was that something happened to the camera's media card and the nice shot of the happy team got corrupt and was unretrievable. And they even struck a pose!

Wow. Weather.

It has been so long since we have had a good rain. After the happy cheering subsided, we hydroplaned home this evening to see if the living room had been converted to a swimming pool. Hayden (who was getting ready for bed) scaled the scaffolding in his briefs, and dubbed himself in an almost eight-year old booming voice, "UNDIE MAN!!!!". He reached the top, did a brief scan for water and declared it dry. Suzan followed up with a flashlight and did a double-check to find that although it sounded bad (wind and rain on the plastic), it was, in fact, dry. So..... let it rain!!!!!

Roof : Closing out a productive week

Today Ken and Fred completed the sheathing, drip-edge, sofit vent installation, ice+weather shield and the cedar fascia board. The windows have been ordered and should come in late next week. A call was put in to the fashion police headquarters to report Ken's scary, high socks but the moment they found out about his other wardrobe malfunction (major undie-revealing rip in the back of his pants) they took pity and did not file a report. Seriously, they have done an amazing job and have accomplished so much this week.
PS: It has also been documented that we have the coolest indoor jungle gym in the county. Do not send safety emails. They're only kids once.

Roof Project : Excellent Progress

Charles joined the team with his framing experience today and worked with Ken and Fred in the [hot] October sun to make significant progress on the roof dormer. It's getting easier to visualize things now. Thanks for your friendship, sharing your valuable time and bringing your willing spirit Charles!!

Framing Begins

So much was accomplished today, including the beginning stages of the dormer and new window framing. Awesome job guys!!

Roof Peak Rip-Out

Well friends, what we have here is a COMMITMENT!
Ken and Fred were busy beavers this morning. And they revealed good new. Turns out, the structural limitations we thought we had were in fact, not limitations at all. The horizontal beam and cross braces were just for the skylight framing, so only ONE mid support will be needed. The main beams are mammoth (thanks to the Canadian specs). All of this will help simplify things, making it easier to work with and giving us the simplistic architecture we really wanted. What a blessing! It will be swell to not have a leaky roof any more.

Team Roof-Raff

Tonight, Scott graciously donated his time, sense of balance and a bit of elbow grease to team up with Ken to rip off the roofing materials in preparation for tomorrow's framing. They were promptly dubbed "Rooff-Raff". Now we have a custom moon roof. OH.... my poor living room!!!!

Planning : Next Steps

Fred came out this evening and walked through the plan of attack for the roof peak rebuild. All systems are GO and some prep work will commence tomorrow evening before Fred comes out to start on the framing on Wednesday.

This + That Afternoon

This afternoon we worked on a myriad of projects:
Boulder moving, trailier delivery (thanks fred!), lumber pile moving, refinishing the living room ceiling beam and dry wall and electric work on the mystery wall hole.

Living Room : Final Coat

Tonight we finished up the last coat of paint on the new ceiling planks. It looks super... can't wait to get the trim up and get the living room back for a momentary laps of time before the upper ceiling/roof construction begins.

Living Room : More Painting

2/3 done with the final coat. After a late start, we petered out and called it a night at nine.

Living Room Ceiling first coat

We painted the ceiling planks today but soon realized that the promised "oh this stuff is premium- you'll only need one coat" did not stand at all. It will most definitely need a second coat tomorrow. As you can see, Morgen + Hayden were enjoying the scaffolding. After playing pirate for a while, they switched gears and had "scaffold-school". In this photo, Morgen is teaching Hayden about the different layers of the earth and earthquakes. Hope it helps her on her test tuesday!

Living Room Ceiling Update

More work was done on the ceiling this past week. On Friday morning, Shawn and Chase finished the plank installation and did an awesome job. AND they left things nice and tidy! Today Ken and Suzan filled the nail holes and seams and sanded them to prep for painting. The trim strips were painted as well, so now we are ready for tomorrow afternoon's' roll-a-thon. A big thanks to Jim Butler for letting the Knotts borrow his scaffolding!! Here is a photo of Chase's handiwork and another of Hayden capitalizing on the work Shawn and Chase had done.

Ceiling planks + a big, mystery hole in the wall

Ken took a vaca day and worked with Shawn to finish the prep work and began cutting and installing the ceiling planks today. In addition, the long-standing plan for the foyer/living room divider wall started to emerge today. Ken cut a large "window" hole in it. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" you might be asking.... You'll just have to stay tuned and find out!

Living Room Board Painting

Today, while Ken and Morgen were away on a camping trip, Hayden and Suzan painted the tongue and groove edges of the new 16' long ceiling planks. Hayden counted 59 of them- ugh. Hauling them in and outside with just the two of us was quite a feat, but hayden never complained once. Unbelievable for a 7 year old! Then after a long day of painting and hauling wood, our little chef decided to make a special dessert for us all by himself. He chopped up all the apples and made a yummy saute that we put over ice cream. YUMMO!

Living Room Ceiling Demolition

The demolition of the living room ceiling is well underway. The water damage was mainly in the drywall, with minimal damage to the insulation. The great news is that the structure is still sound and the radiant ceiling panels all tested out well. Shawn and Ken will start on the replacement ceiling next week.

A Neat Find

On Sunday on our way back from dropping Morgen off at camp, we saw a crazy collection of mexican oil can sculptures and other soldered art. so of course we stopped and checked it out. we found a neat tree sculpture and had some anniversary gift money that we had set aside to purchase "art" but hadn't found the right thing. it wouldn't fit in the subaru, so we were glad when the fellow gave us some mexican bed quilts and blankets (even though they were pretty foul, and wet! - uck) to wrap it up with and tied it up on the car. for now, it has found a home on the back deck. fun!

Blooms – Just in Time

This week we put in a few water plants in the pond- among them, these lilies. We were excited to see that they bloomed just in time for this evenings baptisms! How cool is that?!

New CRITERS move in

This morning Suzan found a box turtle in the upper field by the fire ring and put it by the pond, hoping it would stay long enough for the kids to see it when they got home from breakfast out with Dad. When they came home, they brought a turtle of their own with them that they found by the road! Morgen announced that they named him Moses, so the other turtle (who was now swimming around in the pond) was appropriately named Aaron. Then Ken pulled some fish he bought at the pet store out of a bag and added them to the mix. Such fun! We'll see who sticks around, gets eaten or travels onward. Stay tuned.

Give it up for WELL MADE tools!

Tonight Suzan went into bush-wack mode and wrangled the overgrown briars and limbs that are trying to take over the path in the upper field. The old trusty Fiskar loppers accompanied her on the quest. Ken always says that having the right tool can make or break a task. Amen to that – these things cut a 1.5" limb like butter and made Suzan feel mightier than she really is.

fun with ROCKS

Over the past week, between the efforts of Ken, Scott and Suzan, some boulders were trailered from Fred's homestead to ours. about half of them have been laborously placed around the pond area in different groupings. We hope to add grasses and irises to visually anchor them. Looking forward to a few days of rain. The pond is very low! But it did not hold back an impromptu family swim.... even with a huge frog population [and all the chlorine whimps out there say, "EWWWWWE!!!"].

Welcome Back Amphibians

This evening, while Suzan did some trimming and raking of old dried fall stuff and Ken planted a bunch of Aus Tree clippings up on the front edge of the property, the kids reintroduced themselves to our old bullfrog friends that have come out of hibernation. Mojo, Banjo and Beulla have returned and a boatload of imigrants (and/or offspring) have joined them. Hayden caught them and then turned them over to Morgen, who addressed their spring wardrobe needs.

Polar Bear Cub Club

Today is Uncle Sam's big day. To help us take our minds off of the joy of hacking away at our earnings and sticking them in an envelope with a few vouchers, we were faced with another interesting project. A mid april spring storm brought in inches of rain, a bit of snow and wicked winds. Our little hero, Morgen, woke us up at 5:30 a.m. to advise that the electricity was off. A quick check in the basement led to the discovery that the sump pump battery backup was a gonner. Ken forged the weather and pulled the battery out of the Trooper and saved the basement in the nick of time! Suzan didn't have wheels today, but the basement was dry.

This crazy spring weather reminded us that only two weeks ago, it was warm enough to inspire the kids to don bathing suits and be the first ones in 2007 to jump into the pond. it was FREEZING. Momma didn't raise no wimps.

Hip-Hip Horray for VacuFlo!

Thanks to the 2 certificates we purchased at the school auction, the heat was on to FINALLY put out a shout to the central vacuum guy. As suspected, he found a giant clog between the den and the basement. The culprit was a large piece of grout, a little stick and a flower hair clip. These naughty items set up a “trap” in the line, causing a dust/hairball jam over a foot long behind it. Lovely. All fixed! He also replaced all of the caps/seals for maximum suction. Let the quiet, dust-free vacuuming begin!

No worries – still here

Good news for the patient among you! A large void in postings does not mean that the projects on Meadow Lane have come to a halt. We just landed in a non-posting valley of sorts. We have chipped away at, and improved upon several things over the last few months. The project that received plenty of attention was the planning and building of the basement workshop. Ken is doing an awesome job- good use of space and thoughtful details.

While working away down there, Ken noticed that our water pressure tank was on its way to retirement (scary bubble-blisters). It was fastidiously replaced, including all new soldered pipes and a “shelf” for better future emergency draining, which also doubles at maximizing space for the large shop dust collection system beneath it. The kids took “The Great Water Turn-Off” seriously and came up with some creative ideas to remind us not to flush or use any faucets.