Getting The Boat House Ready, The Stone Yard, Floor Trim, Some Decorating & More

Hello everyone.  Mike and I have been busy trying to get the last of the decorator type things.  It has not been fun.  Oh well…at least we like the working on the house stuff:)  It can't all be fun and games, lol.


Our neighbor gave us some straps for the boat house.  The straps are used to lift the boat out of the water on a winch.  Mike needs to fix the ends and add the heavy duty hooks:

Maybe we can finally get the boat in the water:

Mike cleaned and greased the motor that will lift the boat.  Apparently this boat house was added and never used:

And the straps are on.  Now we need to get some life jackets and we can get the boat in the water:)

Now that we have the kitchen cabinets are installed it's time to look for a countertop.  There is a stone yard for us to visit.  If we don't find a slab here than I will go with the laminate that Nicole went with.  

Hmm…another thing learned today.  The stone yard is big but they are not the fabricator.  I did find a fabricator who is highly recommended and he sent us to the stone place.  Sadly Mike and I don't like the ways things are run at the stone place.  It looks like they have hundreds of slabs…well they don't.  Mike and I picked out a beautiful piece only to find it has been sold.  We found another one, it was sold.  Then a third one…yup…it was sold.  Ugh…they should move the slabs once they have been sold.  Their problem with that is they don't take a deposit on the held pieces of granite….seriously.  A couple of the pieces they were holding had been reserved for more than 30 days.  Mike offered to pay for it right then and there but they don't do that.  Grr!!!  If we had known that we could have picked one out months ago.  Oh well…we got a nice one just not out first 3 choices.

The fabricator came to make our templates:

All the pieces are done…now we have to wait for the install.  At least we are on the list:)

One mistake we did make was putting the electric for the dishwasher too high in the sink base.  It's an easy enough fix, we just wished we thought of that before Mike did such a nice job.  Mike is cutting it out so he can move it lower in the cabinet:

I ordered our cabinet knobs from the same woman I have been ordering them for years.  Mike and I like these birdcage knobs because they are not in your face and they don't look like the dreaded Christmas tree, lol.(That happens when you have too many silver knobs on too many cabinets and drawers)

And moving on.  Mike is measuring and working on floor trim while I start painting the dining room:

We are trying the the large floor trim for the first time.  I get to do my usual first coat of paint:

Mike installing the trim after it has been cut down:

After it was all installed, Mike caulked it all in and then I repainted the nail holes:

Next up…change out the light in the dining room.  Oh yeah….we had a heck of a time finding a light.  We wanted one that faced down and also not one that was too big.  What is with all the light bulbs in once fixture.  Oh and we also needed a chain light because the electrical is not centered in the room….imagine that, lol.

Mike goes fishing.  Kidding.  This is the best way for us to find out where the hook has to go for the swag in our chain.  Using the fishing pole and a weighted line we can determine where the center of the table meets the ceiling.

Mike getting ready to fix with the electrical:

This house is an electrical nightmare:

It's pulling together.  Now we need a picture and maybe some drapes to block the summer sun.

Now for my hand at something different.  Mike has been making fun of me, in a loving way, about me trying my hand at decorating.  I have always loved bedrooms with plum/purple and gray.  Since Mike wouldn't like it in our room, I decided to try it in the spare bedroom.  I found a comforter first and matched one of the plums in to a paint color.  I decided to only do one wall in the purple in case it was too much…I know I'm a chicken, lol. 

I painted the wall and thought…uh oh.  Surprisingly Mike said it wasn't bad.  Go figure, lol.

Next up the gray.  I did go a little lighter than the comforter on that color.

It is different but I really like it.  It is very neat and clean.  The room needs more stuff though because it is so big.

That's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed out update.  This Wednesday is our countertop day.  I am so excited to have a working kitchen again:).

Have a great week and I will post again next Monday.

Lisa:)

Chapter 41...More Closets And Ceiling Tile

Off Grid...Chapter 41 It was a good week in the Mike and Lisa world so here we go. Monday 12-15 Today we started our day by loading up the trailer and going to the dump. On our way home we were going to stop at the builder's supply but the skies looked like rain. We didn't want to take a chance with the sheetrock. We got home and Mike filled our water tank. After that we started to clean up the office, again! We are thankful for that room because it is our storage room right now but we have to start working in there. So we moved stuff around again. Mike started installing the floor trim in the office. We got the first part of the washer and dryer closet up. And Mike put up the ceiling light, temporarily. It's the last light in the house to go up. Woo hoo. Tuesday and Wednesday It's been really dreary out with no opportunity to pick up supplies. Mike and I really miss the sun. It makes working so much more enjoyable. I know, I know no excuses right. Ok so we didn't do much work. We did one thing. We started installing the perimeter track for the ceiling tile in the office.  We are jumping back and forth on our last 2 rooms. We just have the bathroom to complete and the office. Then we will be done on the inside of the house. Thursday 12-18 It's now or never. The skies aren't terrible so we hook up the trailer to the jeep, grab the tarps, and head for Lowe's. On our way it starts to drizzle- oh no! This is really bad. Mike thinks maybe it will pass over if we give it a little time. So we decide to go to Nissan to look at a used truck they advertised. We "still" need to get a small 4WD truck but the new ones are just so expensive. The one we went to see was a 2007 and it looked rough. The salesman said "the man used it to haul firewood". Yeah it looks more like he used it to cut the tress down in the woods I am amazed that the dealer didn't try to fix the truck a little before they tried to resell it. If it was all scraped up on the outside you know the engine was also beat on. Oh well. Off to Lowe's. The skies are still gray so we decide to get everything except for the sheetrock. We loaded up 3 louver doors, ceiling tile grid, and 2x4's onto the trailer. We wrapped it up with tarps, tied everything down and crossed our fingers all the way home. Finally we made it and everything stayed dry. Now we can get to work. We started putting the ceiling grid up in the office. The first ceiling tiles are going up in the office. As usual we put the full tiles up and the cut tiles will be done last. Because our tiles are recessed not only does Mike have to cut the tiles down he also has to cut out the recessed part. It's a very tedious job with a lot of up and down on the ladder. We also picked up some pipe insulation to wrap the water line that comes into the house. Here is Mike wrapping the pipe. I love this stuff, the pipe insulation. It's like a hollow piece of foam that comes in different sizes and has a slit down the middle. You open it at the split, wrap the pipe, pull off the plastic(which covers the sticky part) and squeeze it together. Now your pipes are protected. Friday 12-19 We can see a little bit of sun so we make a mad dash out the door to the local building supply to get the sheetrock. On our way it starts to drizzle. Oh no here we go again. We pull the jeep and trailer inside the building at the building supply. They have the most awesome set up for their business. It's a huge metal building with a big door in the back and a big door in the front that exits out onto the main road. You pull around back, into the building and park. You go inside to the office and showroom area and pay for your items. Go back out and give the guys your ticket, they load you up and off you go. You stay dry the whole time, it's great customer service, and very convenient. We got the sheetrock loaded and wrapped up. Off we go. Fifteen minutes later I am opening our gate at the top of the hill. We made it and the sheetrock is dry. Yeah. We are happy campers. We bring it all into the house and we start working on the bathroom again. First he screws the bottom plate into the floor and through the concrete. He is installing the first piece of sheet rock for our water heater closet. Almost done. Next he goes into the bathroom with the spackle bucket. He has to tape up all the corners and fill all the screw head holes. After that he starts working on the closet door. The door is up and working. We decided to take take the big cabinet out of the bathroom because it was just too much for the room. Saturday 12-20 This morning I went to the library and scored on 3 new books I was waiting for. On the way home I did the grocery shopping. While I was out Mike installed the rest of the perimeter track and more ceiling tile in the bathroom. Later on he cut and installed some of the side pieces of tile. Sunday 12-21 Today we kicked butt. Mike was determined to get the bathroom done. He is almost done with the ceiling tile. And the bathroom ceiling is done. Next he had to redo the floor trim where we took out the cabinet and also do the trim around the new closet. After that he sanded and put the second coat of spackle on the closet. Hopefully it will be ready for paint. After dinner we moved into the office and started working on the washer/dryer closet. First we put up more studs to hold the sheetrock. All the wood is up for the closet. And the first piece of sheetrock is up. It was getting late so we stopped there. That is our story for the last week. I hope you all enjoyed. Lisa

Chapter 40...How To Make A Lamp & Installing A Bathroom Fan/Vent/Light

Off Grid...Chapter 40 I may just have to do a story on gardening just so so some of you can learn from my mistakes and some of you can give me pointers. I call it the "Gardening Mishaps of Lisa". Ha, ha. Monday 12-8 Today we went to the mall to look at accessories for the house. At this rate you would think we would be done. We really forgot we had "nothing" for a house since we lived in the motorhome. We got rid of everything we owned before hitting the road almost 4 years ago. It's almost like going out on your own for the first time. We need everything. We found two pieces for the living room. First we found a Bear side table for me to use. And we found a cute statue that Mike is going to make into a lamp. We looked at a lot of bear lamps online and they were either really expensive, ugly, or just too small. I'm so glad Mike is creative. So this is how Mike made our lamp. First he had to cut a hole through the top of the bear and down to the bottom of the bear. Luckily it was hollow even though Mike was prepared in case it was solid. Now he is putting the rod in. This will hold the electric wire inside the bear. He put the wire through and we added a shade. The lamp is done. It's a little cutesy but it has grown on us and it's a good size. Tuesday 12-9 I spent the day making candy and cookies for our Holiday dinner with the kids and grandkids tomorrow. While I was busy in the kitchen Mike was busy trying to clean up our storage room again, you know our office. He also installed our fresh air vent for the fireplace on the inside of the house. Now he just has to connect it to the outside and we won't have to crack the doors open anymore. Wednesday 12-10 While I was working in the kitchen baking and cooking, Mike was working on more floor trim. Here he is installing floor trim in the bedroom. He finished the bedroom and then moved on to the bathroom. The trim still needs to be caulked and we also have to do some touch up paint. That's for another day. Then Mike started working on the vent for our bathroom fan.  This vent will take the air outside when he installs the fan. The vent is connected and ready for the fan. Nicole her husband, Robert, and their children A.J.(11) and Ella(4) came to the house about 5pm. We are having a combo get together for A.J.'s birthday and also Christmas. They are usually really busy for the Holidays so we thought it would be nice to do a calm and peaceful get together before the chaos begins. We had a wonderful time. Good company and I guess the food was good as there was no complaining. We gave A.J. and Ella a x-mas container for each of them filled with "dollar" bills. Usually we just give them a check and that is so boring for kids. Anyway, they opened up the containers and you had to see their faces. It was so cute how excited they got over the dollar bills. Ella had to come over and ask "Papa" to count it for her. We had birthday cake even though we were stuffed. It was a great night for all of us. Thursday 12-11 I have no idea what we did today lol. I didn't have any pictures from today so I guess we didn't do anything on the house. We must have been resting from all the fun and excitement last night. The weather has been rough on us with no wind and no sun. We had to use the generator twice this week to help charge our batteries. Lots of rain but no snow. Friday 12-12 Today we finally decided to start the bathroom ceiling. We are getting really low on material so we just have to use everything we can. First we started out by installing the perimeter track. We can't do the whole room because we still need to build the closet for the water heater. And. We started to install the ceiling tiles. We don't have many full tiles so our goal today is to get enough up do Mike can install our ceiling light and fan. The first ceiling tile and grids are up. Here is Mike installing and working on the box for the fan. He is connecting to the outside vent. Then he cut out the ceiling tile to fit around the box. After a lot of work Mike finished installing our light and fan combo. Woo Hoo. We have no more full tile to finish the bathroom. Saturday 12-13 Just another day of running to town and trying to find more stuff for the house. Too bad it wasn't nice enough for us to take the trailer. We really need supplies. Sunday 12-14 We have some 2x4's so we decided to start the closet for the water heater in the bathroom. First we measured the area for the closet, measured the 2x4's, and then Mike cuts the boards down. Next we lay out the 2x4's on the floor to make our rectangle for the closet wall. And we screw the boards together. We stand it up, bring it into the bathroom, and screw it in place. Next we add the cross boards for the sheet rock and also the header for the bi fold door. Now we have to get the sheet rock and the door to finish the job. We need a dry day to pick up the material. We had a nice week. If we had the rest of the material we could probably finish the inside of the house by the New Year. We were supposed to drag this out so the winter wasn't so long. Mike is already talking about the deck. Yeah we can't even get a nice enough day to finish the gate we started. Oh and we still have barbed wire to add to some of our fencing. We really wish it was nice out so we could get some of this done. We can't complain though because the weather was so good for so long while we were building the house. At least we got moved in before it got bad. Still things are good in the Mike and Lisa world. I hope you enjoyed. Lisa