What's Behind Door Number 3

Bill has a bad snoring problem. We have tried everything and nothing works to stop the snoring. Because of the snoring, several times a week I have trouble sleeping in the same bed as him. We thought the one bedroom apartment wouldn't be an issue since our couches are so comfortable to sleep on. Well, after a couple of months we have decided it's not good for our couches to be used as a bed so what to do, what to do?

The only choice was to build a sleeping room. We are many projects away from getting the extra bedroom built so we had to improvise. Wood frame, plastic sheeting and voila a bedroom.

It is a very comfy sleeping compartment. Has a bed table, bed lamp, area rug, alarm clock and its own heater. We will take turns sleeping out here when needed, I think the really cold nights will be Bill's turn. It is all part of the adventure! And the extra bedroom may move its self up on the ladder of projects.

Whoa That's Impressive

The retaining wall is finished!!! 

Just in time; the concrete work should start this afternoon.

Bill putting the almost final grade on the top of the wall. We will let the winter rains settle all the dirt and in the spring work it to the grade we want.

That is 200 tons of rock and about 30 hours of Bill's work. He was only able to work on it when the rock yard didn't need him so we aren't sure of the exact number of hours.

He did such an incredible job on this. I am so glad I am married to a man who has yet to find anything he cannot do. As Christel says, she wants him to be her partner in a Zombie Apocalypse.

It's a Set

 When I was packing the South Bend house we had no idea where we were going to end up or when we would be someplace permanent. Just knew we were moving to the rent house until we figured it out. Small kitchen so I only moved the essentials into that house.

Well now that we are on Buffalo Hill I am missing a lot of kitchen stuff. It is in the boxes marked kitchen miscellaneous. Most of it I can live without; except we had one problem. I had only packed two steak knives when we moved to the rent house. We have had several people over for dinner and had to share knives. Luckily everyone was agreeable and looked on it as part of the adventure.

 This weekend  Bill came running when he heard my squeal and was just as excited as I was when he saw a full set of knives. It is really amazing how the little things in life mean so much.

The Joys of Country Life

Bill and I enjoy target shooting and now that we live outside city limits we can set up our own shooting range. Do believe this is opening a whole new category for Christmas gifts this year. Just a cardboard box for now.

Bit I can envision a sniper range, pop up bad guys, the imagination runs wild.

First of Many Unexpected Surprises

When our South Bend house sold everything except the necessities went into storage. This included our refrigerator, no room for it in the world's smallest kitchen. We bought this fridge when we built the house twenty years ago. We had taken out the door insets and put in hammered copper Formica to match the stove hood, we also did that to the trash compactor and dishwasher. When the house went on the market we took all of that out and went back to the black appliances. So this fridge has gone through several transformations over they years and served us well.

I was quite excited to get my big fridge back when we moved. At the rent house I had to cut down on the number of salad dressings I kept in the fridge. Could only have one choice of juice available. Life was really hard!

One of the things we discovered in our new place was behind the fridge was a cut out that was neatly trimmed out with flashing just the size of dollar bills and is about 2 and a half feet tall. Looks like lots of money could have been hidden there and what an ingenious idea. Bill put a dollar bill there and is hoping it will grow and fill the space.

So first thing we did was plug old reliable into and wait for the cool air to fill the interior so I could fill it with all our goodies. Nothing but hot air, movers said just give it a while sometimes after sitting in storage they can take a bit to start cooling down. Next day still just hot air so off to buy a new refrigerator. We weren't expecting to do that until we had built out the new kitchen but you do what you gotta do.

 Oh My Goodness, new fridges are amazing!!!!! The previous weekend we had gone to Kansas to celebrate our great niece, Gwendolyn's, birthday and baptism and had talked with our niece Amanda and her sister in law about their french door fridges so at least I had some kind of idea on what to look for.

I love my new fridge but getting it in was a chore. This one bedroom apartment has a small front door and the fridge was bigger than it.

So we had to take the door off of the fridge. We are all college graduates, hold very good jobs that require a lot of brain power and deductive reasoning. But, how in the world does this door come off.

 The guys are hard at work looking all over the fridge for the best way to take the doors off. Today's fridges are do full of electronics there are wires running everywhere.

All the bins were removed, all shelving taken out and still no way for it to fit through the door. I was beginning to think the fridge would be staying outside the apartment. That would work, a little inconvenient but it wouldn't be for ever.

The guys were getting nowhere with this project and then Tiffany says, "Oh look here are instructions ." Yes, the manufacturer had very kindly put instructions on the back of the fridge on how to do this. Just like men and maps, just forge ahead and figure it out.

So I now have a fridge in the kitchen. But it wasn't as pretty as it was in the store. There was
 a sticker we couldn't get off the front of the door. At least the sticker said Made in America. Bill stopped in to the store and commented on the haziness and what should we be cleaning it with.

Du-u-uh take the plastic off people. It's really shiny then.

Love my new fridge, it holds lots and lots of salad dressings and juices, and has more drawers than is imaginable.

Billy Goats Gruff

Bill is working very hard and fast to get our retaining wall finished before the concrete work is done for the driveway and garage. Once that is poured it will be quite awhile before we can drive on the green concrete. Don't want to take the chance of causing cracks and the like. So he comes to work and drives the delivery trucks until we have made some money and then heads home and works the heavy equipment. I get home after dark and go out and try to see what he has accomplished.

Last night I came home to a couple of billy goats named Wyatt and Sutton climbing all over the wall. Bill is building it so the kids can climb it and the boys showed that his planning is working. Luckily the boys have no fear. When I stand at the top of the wall and look down my stomach lets me know that it is a very long way down to the ground.

Even Mallory and Brynnlee made it to the top

Rock Around the Clock

We have had 130 tons of red rock delivered so far for our retaining wall behind the garage. Ordered another 50 tons today. That may be all we need, maybe. This wall is huge!

 Ordering rocks this big you don't get many in a semi truck but it takes a lot of weight to hold back the amount of dirt and water we will have pushing against the retaining wall. Luckily they take up a lot of space in the wall.

It's a good thing we own a rock yard so we get the best price ever on our rock.