Lights, Flooring, Cabinets and More!

Truth be told, I thought a Sunday Hike blog post would be fun today, but then I realized the pictures were on Ben’s phone, and now his computer, so I don’t have those photos … yet. I always debate the value of this blog, and whether I should even attempt to keep it up (I mean, I do so splendidly at it 😉 ). But, when I read something that was posted long ago, and I’m glad there was record of it.

We’ve been in our house for two months now. “What?!” Paige said yesterday, “It seems like our old house never existed!” I’m not sure I feel quite the same as Paige, but with all our work around this place, updating what happened in the past doesn’t excite me. Maybe it should, as it’s a reminder of how much got accomplished in the past few months!

So, here we go … last I left off, we were painting walls. We got to the point where we thought we could do a pretty good job painting in our sleep. 😉 LOL! (You’ll be able to see most of the paint colors in the following pictures.) Then our realtor convinced us to paint a couple rooms in our old house, and that almost put us over the painting edge.

Needless to say, seeing some of the finishing work happen around the new house was very exciting. Each step made it look more like a home.

Living Room lights.

What’s that white stuff? I guess it was still winter. 😉

Dad moving the doors to the correct rooms.

Mr. Drost became an expert in door knob installation, as well.

Toilets are good! and the first bathroom floor was in, too. 

Same bathroom. Different view.

All of our cabinets filled up the living/dining room. That was an exciting day!

It was also very exciting to see kitchen cabinets installed!

More tile started to go in. This is in our mudroom and looking into the entry hall. 

A bathroom vanity and flooring!

Window trim (above) and door trim (below).

We stained and varnished all the stair railing parts. Oh. Yes. We. Did. 

Railing and tile installed in the entryway (above) and basement (below).

The master bathtub was in the living room for a while. And I see more wood in the background that we had to varnish for a couple pocket door jams. (I notice this is the second picture with just Andrew and Paige. Morgan is probably outside with the cats.)

The space for the tub got tile.

And the shower, too.

And then it was all finished and pretty. (Minus the shower door.)

Shower accessories optional.

The bathroom vanity tops got put on. (This color was my favorite. Too dark for the kitchen, but I love it in our master bath!)

The basement kitchenette cabinets (used) were arranged and rearranged until we found a decent fit.

Then, some of the basement flooring went in.

(Every kid goes through the “I can’t take a normal photo” stage.)

Then, the hardwood in the dining room went in. We are grateful for friends who helped us out!

The girls might have preferred we kept it a dance floor.

Then the kitchen counters arrived! Who knew laminate could look so pretty?

Here we see a bit of the hardwood, a bit of the kitchen counters and a lot of the French doors in their finished form.

The carpet arrived in stages, to coordinate moving stuff around to make room for the carpet. We all felt a bit like Paige, below, when the first of it arrived.

Our final big painting project was the “brick” at the end of this hall and in our family room. (You’ll see these are out of order, as the stair railing is not installed in this picture, and some of the wall still needed paint.)  I should go back and reorder these, cause I see the boxes of basement flooring in this pic, but who really cares, right? 😉 We had to prime/seal the concrete with white, then paint the red, then re-paint the white “mortar” lines. It was a job. But, we like how it turned out. Better than just a plain color.

I think I’ll stop for now. This post has gotten rather long. I have now acquired the hike photos, so maybe that post will come soon. And maybe it won’t.

Walls!

Two posts, two days in a row? Don’t get used to this pace.

Once the “guts” of the house were in, the next steps are to insulate and put up the drywall!

We did some of the framing in the basement ourselves. And by “we” I don’t mean “me.” Although, I did become an expert at installing insulation. Itch. Itch.Once the insulation was in, we took some time to write on the wall studs, since they were about to be covered up. I might have written something about Ben washing dishes near the kitchen sink.

Window, wendoe. Take your pick.

More insulation upstairs.

And a, “this is your last chance to walk thru the walls” picture.The wall they were walking thru is below in the closet. It was sooooo exciting to see the drywall go up! It was weird to not be able to see all the way to the other side of the house, but it started to really feel like a home.It was hard to take pictures at night because there were only a few temporary lights in the smoke detector holes, so this is our guest bedroom.Paige is in the doorway to the master bedroom. I guess Ben will have to really duck to get in. 😉Here are some daylight pictures of the dining/living room. Below shows the sheetrock with the mud to cover joints and screw holes.Then it got texture and primer.The basement family room: Below is a radio. I had to take a photo to remind us of the moment we pulled up to the house on a Saturday morning. There was a crew of guys hanging sheetrock in the garage, and we could hear their Mexican music blaring while we were still in our car. It was just a moment to remember, because there will likely never be Mexican music blaring from our house again. More stuff upstairs, including the entryway.Morgan in the mudroom/laundry.

And then they started the paint supplies band. Or something like that.

 (The kids are wearing paint clothes. Just to clarify why Morgan’s pants would probably fit Paige. 😉 )

We started painting the house on Christmas Eve morning, cause we know how to rock the holidays. The entry hall and stairway got the first paint. “Functional Gray.”

We didn’t take a lot of pictures of the painting process, except when the kids helped paint their bedrooms. They had a “snow” day due to the frigid wind chill, so we braved the weather and got some painting in that day. The kids did a pretty good job helping! Dad joined us after work and we cranked out the first coat in each bedroom. The pics below show you the colors they picked out for their rooms. You might need sunglasses in Morgan’s space. 

Paige got some paint in her hair, and was quite concerned about it. The only way for her to see it out at the house was for me to take a picture and show it to her. Thank goodness for digital! 😉You will be able to see some of the other colors as I catch up on the rest of my posts. No promises for when that will be.

 

 

 

 

 

Electric and Plumbing and HVAC, Oh My!

Oh yeah, we have a blog! Our poor, neglected blog. Thanks for still reading this stuff! It’s time to get updated on the house. Andrew just saw some of the photos below and said, “I miss when our house was like that.” It is funny to look back and see the “guts” of the house that are now hidden from sight. I’m not sure I miss it, but the kids did have a lot of fun running around and in between the walls.

After the house got enclosed, the electrical, plumbing and HVAC (heating, venting and air conditioning) could all get started. We eventually took pictures of every wall so we can have some reference for where stuff is located in the future, but I’ll spare you all those pictures. (I should probably look through them soon and label them, or we will totally forget what they are anyway.) It is quite interesting to know what is behind your walls! So many things are needed to get it to all fit in and work right.

May I introduce you to our furnace:Then, the furnace started growing appendages, sprawling to the far ends of the house.Some runs go up and some go down, but most of the spaces between the floor joists got filled.Ben and a couple friends did all the cable and internet wiring. They spent many hours out there on evenings and weekends. We are thankful for knowledgeable friends who give of their time. It takes a village. The kids got in some reading time one night while Dad worked. It is a little chilly without heat. 😉Gas lines:Plumbing and electrical:Our septic system went in, too.A new game they invented called “Roley Poley,” where they kicked PVC pieces down the stairs.The bottom of the stairs were blocked off to keep the worker’s portable heater from heating the entire house.Electical boxes: (Are you bored yet?)Some areas get pretty crowded, such as the mudroom/laundry room: And the stuff in the attic space is crazy!And, yes, the vent pipes and drain pipes work well for telephone! I conclude this tour of our homes insides with our furnace, water heater and water lines. Although, they are not behind drywall, so you can come view them at your leisure. 

 

Windows and Doors!

On a very rainy day in October, when the roof was not completely shingled and water was pouring into the east side of our house, we found a bit of joy in checking out our first window. We had quite the time ordering said windows, so it was nice to see them all arrive and even nicer to see them start to get installed.

This window is next to our front door and overlooks the front porch. (If you look outside the window, you can see the river in the front yard.)

There is an identical window in the mudroom, so there were two windows!

Here is a view of some windows from the outside on a day that was not so rainy.

A few days later, there were lots and lots of windows! It was very exciting!

Dining/Living Room:

Master Bedroom:

A view from outside behind the house:

Hello!

Then, we got a door into the garage:

One window was still not in, so that was the easiest way into the house. 😉 We later found out that one window was not the right size, so they had to re-frame that window.

 

You might also notice our French doors!

And the view from inside:

And then a front door! We might have to dust it daily, but oh well!

And garage doors:

A door from the master bedroom to the eventual deck:

The view from the master bedroom door:

And the door from the garage into the house:

Here is the house! There is also now a stoop on the front to form our porch, but I apparently have not taken any pictures of that.

 

A Roof

Oh dear. We are quite behind on posts about the new house. I was waiting to post about the roof until it was completely completed. It took longer than we anticipated and life has been busy. So, here’s how the roof went on.

The first trusses went on the master bedroom and the front guest bedroom.Next up was some of trusses spanning the kitchen and master bedroom and the beginning of the garage. Then, the garage was finished.The huge trusses that span the depth of the house were next to go up.Below is the view from somewhere in the living room.Once the trusses are up, the various sections have to be joined together. The builders called it “stick building,” or something like that. It fixes the odd-looking pieces sticking up above the garage in the picture below by joining them to the garage trusses.The same process has to happen on the front bedroom roofline as well. The garage got sheeting, and then the two sections were joined together.The same process was repeated wherever the various “sections” joined each other.Half the roof was sheeted, and then the whole thing! There is a gap in the top for venting purposes.Next up was the black paper stuff. (The technical term, I’m sure.)The garage side looks kinda funny, but it gets better. 😉The house got all wrapped up like a present, and that was fun to see! It makes it look more like a house, and not just a bunch of wood. And, after a few more rain storms, the shingles were finally on! (You might notice a few windows, too, that got put in on a rainy day when only part of the roof was shingled. We’ll fill you in on the windows in another post.)It took a long time to be all covered on the top. If you look back at the first pictures, the corn in the background is still green. Ha! We are thankful we’ll have a nice roof over our heads.

Sunday Hike #11

Date: September 14, 2014

Location: Our Neighborhood

Distance: 1.3 miles

Critters Spotted: Geese, ducks and swans.

This “hike” was more of a walk. Paige had been requesting a “walk to the ducks,” which is what we have always called our walks to the cemetery at the end of our street. We have made many, many, many walks to the ducks over the years. It is something I will miss when we move from this neighborhood. I actually met one of our neighbors at the grocery store, years ago, when she said, “You must live on my street,” she said. “You always walk by with your baby during his fussy time!” Yep, that was us!

Now, that fussy kid was running ahead of us.

One kid was still being fussy. Shoe issues. It’s always shoe issues.

At the cemetery entrance.

“Can I take a picture of your bad attitude?” Otherwise known as the mean mom picture. Feel free to NOT ask her about these photos. 😉

Then, we reached the pond and the birds came begging for food.

“We don’t have anything for you,” I said. “You should thank us!”

“Why?” Andrew asked.

“Because they really shouldn’t eat people food,” I said.

“Oh!” he replied. “Kind of like us and sugar. It’s not good for us, but we love it anyway!”

“I love the duck with funny hair!” Morgan said. “His name is George Washington!” (See duck on the right below. His name is now George.)

Having a bit too much fun chasing George.

There were so many geese in the cemetery, in three separate large groups. It seems to early for the number of geese. We hope that is not a sign of winter coming soon. 😦

We walked home along a different street that has no sidewalks. Thankfully all the fussiness was gone. Walks have a way of doing that.

 

Sunday Bike #1

Date: September 7, 2014

Location: Route from our house to Maple Ridge Assisted Living, now known as Homestead.

Distance: About 6 miles roundtrip.

Critters Spotted: Elephants! (OK, they were elephant figurines at the home of our old neighbor. Paige said she misses them.)

We decided to skip our Sunday Hike and do a Sunday BIKE instead! It is nice we are now road-worthy, with enough biking experience for the kids to brave a big ride! We didn’t take many pictures, but we traveled via streets and our local bike trail. We stopped at the assisted living place to visit our old neighbor, Gladys. We miss having her as a neighbor, but she is doing so well at her new place, and we are happy she can be there. We will have to bike to see her again sometime!

Paige rode the tag-along behind Dad.

 

 

Main Level Walls

I guess it has been a while since I posted about the house progress. It’s good to look back and see what it was a few weeks ago. That makes the progress look bigger than when we see it day to day. I guess that’s kind of like how kids grow. You notice it more when you don’t see them for a while. 😉

Our last post ended with most of the floor on. Here it is all the way on:

We spent some time out there one Saturday evening picking up sticks, sweeping water out of the basement and goofing around. It’s a little muddy out there most of the time.

I don’t think Andrew expected the puddle to be that deep. That spot never dries. Maybe it should be our pond. We could stock it with fish. 😉

We decided it would be fun to have our first meal in our dining room. 🙂 Dad grilled and we had a nice meal! (Ok, there were two spills and kids complained about the food … or rather how they got sand in their food …  so it was a typical family meal. 😉 )

Another exciting development is electricity to the barn! See the lights?

Dad, Uncle Tim and a friend of ours helped wire the garage, so now we can better see all the junk in there. 😉

Then, the main floor walls started going up! (Kids looking out a bedroom window. Likely a guest bedroom, so come stay with us! It was originally designed to host two girls, but they have opted for rooms in the basement, so the guestroom is roomy!)

South wall for another bedroom/office and living room.

All of the exterior walls on the main level!

Ben checking the view to the East out of the master bedroom.

The gang looking out the front door with some headers added above the windows and doors.

We spent another Saturday afternoon out pulling weeds and cleaning up junk. It is more fun to do work at the new place than our current place. Funny how that is. 😉 Andrew told me I couldn’t put the photo below on Facebook, but he didn’t say anything about the blog. 😉

Sister was busy working by gathering sticks for the fire. We burned a lot of weeds, but there are still a lot more.

We also have a lot of pumpkins! (Although the big one in the front of this picture rotted. Bummer.)

Gotta love the glowing light of a fire and the glowing lights from the “barn.”

Next, the interior walls started going up. It’s a little hard to capture and explain in photos. Below is the kitchen, with the master bath and closet in the background.

Below is the guest bedroom, looking into the house.

Next is the doorways for the other bedroom/office to the right and the guest bathroom to the left.

Here is a view from the front door. Are you lost yet? 😉 The guest bathroom is to the right and the mudroom to the left. The dining room is straight ahead. The stairs to the basement will be along the bathroom wall. You can see where the floor is different.

Here is a view from the back of the kitchen, looking towards basement stairs/hallway. The dining room and living room are to the left.

Again from the kitchen, this time looking towards the back of the house. Some of the sheeting is starting to go up.

From the outside it looks very tall!

Eventually, there was more sheeting and the beginnings of the front porch floor were added. Andrew is standing on the porch. The storm shelter is under him. It will eventually be concrete. You can also see that more dirt is surrounding the house. Ben’s Dad and our new neighbor are helping with the dirt work.

There’s some wet floors. Have you heard we’ve had some rain? Like 5 inches in less than 24 hours. Fun times! But, the exciting thing about this picture is it is a garage … that can hold two cars … and is attached to the house! We won’t know what to do with ourselves! 🙂

Now the garage is all framed up and has sheeting, too.

Next will come the roof trusses. Maybe it will stop raining once the roof is up.

Sunday Hike #10

Date: August 31, 2014

Location: Northern Mahaska County and Southern Poweshiek County

Distance: Unknown

Critters Spotted: Frog, caterpillar, bugs.

We set out on this day to find a couple spots, and not so much for the hikes. We started our journey at Robertson’s Access, a small park/river access area on the North edge of Mahaska County. There is a small, primitive campground, and only one group was camping there. We felt a little like we were invading their space.

We had lunch at one of the campsites/picnic tables and enjoyed the tall trees around us.

 We wondered if Mr. Fuzzy, our pet caterpillar, would like a brother, but we opted to let the little green guy stay in his natural environment.The county website mentions a short trail along the river at this location, but we aren’t sure if we found it or not.

We found a path near our picnic site, but it ended fairly quickly in a marshy area. Dad thought it would be best if we turned around.

So, we got in the car and headed to our next destination in southern Poweshiek County … a bridge Dad remembers seeing as a kid. The bridge is no longer open, so we went down some old roads.

We discovered what a “Level 0” service road looks like, and we may have ignored the No Trespassing words. Oops.

The “road” might be gone, but the road signs are still there.

The bridge was not what we were expecting, as you could cross the bridge, but there wasn’t the structure Dad remembered.

After leaving the bridge, we discovered, with the help of Google, that the bridge was damaged due to flooding and fell into the river. It is now in storage (ha!) in Michigan, with the hopes of getting it restored. You can see a picture of it and read a ton of history at this site here.

So, all that trespassing for nothing! We still checked out the bridge and enjoyed the scenery.

We then ventured to another old bridge, in Mahaska County. It is still there!

We finished our tour by stopping at Great Grandpa Van Utrecht’s house. It was a fun day!

 

Sunday Hike #9

Date: August 17, 2014

Location: Lake Miami (Monroe County)

Distance: 2.44 miles

Critters Spotted: Turkeys, sweat bees, a bumble bee, elk, butterflies, toad and dragonflies. We did not spot, but had evidence of, either a wasp or hornet that stung Mom on each wrist.

We spotted our first critters just outside the park. A bunch of turkeys crossed the road in front of us.

We arrived at our destination and got our customary photo of the park sign.

“Do you think you could get a little closer to the sign, so I can get a better picture?” Mom asked.

Yep, that should do it.

We drove to an overlook and ate lunch in a picnic shelter nearby.

There were tons of sweat bees around at lunch. Andrew decided to make one a pet. He named is Gerald.

After lunch, we hit the playground.

Next, we went in search of more critters.

After the elk viewing, we drove over to the lake to start our hike. Paige was being silly.

We were surprised to find several ponds in the area.

Back by the lake, we could see across to the park sign in the background on the left and the picnic shelter where we ate lunch on the right (there is a concrete pad in the gap between the trees and our shelter was near there).

The trail was not maintained very well, so the girls were annoyed with the tall grass hitting their legs. It was also a warm and humid day, so there was some grumpiness that was detracting from the pretty views.
Everyone smile after climbing that hill!

We weren’t sure where the trail was going or how far it might go, so we decided to turn the grumpies around and head back the way we came. First, we hit a shortcut and got covered in little friends.

Dad was trying to be patient with us pokey ones.

Once we finished our hike, we were going to check out the dock by the lake. We had been there once before a year or two ago, and we had great memories of our time there. This year, the dock was a bust. The lake was lower and the dock barely touched the water. Mom was going to check it out when she got stung by the evil wasp or hornet, so we threw a couple rocks from the boat launch instead and then headed out.

We were attempting to reenact our previous trip. As we were headed to our next destination we made a pit stop when we saw a cool playground in Bussey.

This place has some fun slides!

On the way to the restroom (which were the nicest I’ve ever seen in a park), Paige got on the stage and said, “Take my picture!”

The park had some old-school equipment, too.

 

Morgan was disappointed one horse was missing.

Thankfully, her sister shared.

After our detour, we headed across the mile-long bridge at Lake Red Rock. We then headed to a lookout tower we have been to before. We forgot you need quarters to get into the tower, as they have a turnstile thing that only moves if you put two quarters into it. We only had one quarter. So, we left without taking any pictures.

Our final stop of the day was for ice cream at Jersey Freeze in Monroe. (A stop that was very close to not happening due to some poor choices made my people who shall remain nameless, but were sitting in the back seat. 😉 )

This concludes our Hike #9. Hike #10 will potentially take place Labor Day Weekend, as we skipped hiking Sunday, August 24, because it was very hot and we were invited to swim at Uncle  Tim & Aunt Amanda’s pool, which sounded like a much better way to burn energy on a hot day.