Out With the Old

Out with the old and in with the even older.

The previous owner had a hanging table in the kitchen. It was cute, but not easy to live with. The height was wrong even for bar stools and it wibble wobbled every time you got up and down from the table because it was not supported on the bottom.. At first we thought he must have had poker parties but the middle pole was in the way of dealing cards. Cool to look at; but it needs to go.

Bill is in the attic unscrewing the iron posts hanging down. They are covered with brass piping to look pretty. No idea how heavy these are going to be. Don't let them fall to the floor. There is a mark already where the previous owner obviously dropped  one when constructing this thing.












Mallory is protecting me from falling pipes.The girls were told to get out from under the table because we didn't know if it would fall and Mallory came over, wrapped her arms around me and said, "I protect you Neena,"  Brynlee thinks it's great fun having Neena on the floor with her.

Sutton is waiting to jump into action to give me whatever is needed hold this thing up.

  

  

One down, two more to go. The high chair has been brought in to work; pillows on top of its arms to make it high enough to hold the tabletop level. We have discovered this whole thing is super heavy.


So glad we have superman as our grandson. Wyatt does a man's work when it comes to anything needing muscles.

 

It was a puzzle to take the pipes off the table. You have the iron pipe that goes through the table top and then the brass pipes that fit over the iron. The table has to be kept perfectly level or the pipes won't slip through. You can't just pull the brass off, they are taller than the ceiling height when you have to pull them off the iron ones. We had to lay the table on its side and roll it to places that had no walls to have the length we needed to get everything off.

Oh look, we have more holes in the ceiling now. We will just stuff insulation into them until we have time to do a drywall patch. One more step to making this place dust free.

 We are saving the table set up and it will ultimately go out by the pool. It will be a cool pool/bar table.

These are the two sets of pipes. They are just over 8 feet long which is why we had to be creative to get them off the table.

Look at all this space. You see the high chair and bar stools piled with pillows to help keep everything up and level.





We have this old table and chairs that we will use for awhile. This table was bought more than 23 years ago. We've used it, friends, family, and the rock yard have used it. The new house will need a table that is too big for this space. This table has a leaf to add to it when needed and lots of chairs in my chair closet.

We will probably paint the table legs to up date it a bit. And put a table cloth over the top to hide the scratches. No more worry about grand kids falling off bar stools or pulling the table down getting up and down from the stools.
This high chair was used by our girls.

Busy Guy

Bill did a bit of work outside the house today. When he was finished; it was too early to sit down in front of the television. So he was looking around for a quick job to do, not enough time to get the mud out and start with that. What to do, what to do?

Great idea!

 He built a shelf to double up on storage space in the garage. Grandkid toys are accessible and now they have a place to put them away after playing. Before there was no designated area so they were everywhere. All the lawn things are up top so the chemicals are out of reach of little hands.

 Shelf is up in the table and chair closet so now there's room for the coolers and stuff. Doors will go on the front but that is way down the road. If we have an afternoon with some down time we will do them but no hurry. The blue tub is what the interior gutter will drip into if the roof ever leaks.

Notice the floor is swept. I don't think Bill has ever swept the garage floor before but he really cleaned things up. I was a stay at home Mom so I have always taken care of things like sweeping the garage floor. He worked long hours and was out of state a lot. When he was home it was all about him being able to spend time with the girls and me not cleaning.

He also hung the extension ladders on the other garage wall but I forgot to take a picture of them. Things are starting to shape up in the garage.

Trust Issues

We didn't have any roof leaks this weekend but; we may never fully trust our roof. So to make ourselves feel better and not worry every time a little rain falls we decided to do a bit of overkill in the garage.

The existing buildings roof comes down and the new roof is  over the top of it. So we put a gutter along the edge of the old roof just in case the place where the two roofs join up ever leaks again the rain will run down the gutter into a five gallon bucket in the garage. That is where the majority of leaks was coming from. The rest were from screws where the roofers didn't use the rubber washes or backed screws out and left the holes.

This is the only house I know of with interior guttering. We will sleep much better during storms with this added precaution. This was the old guttering and the screws are the ones that came out of it when it was taken down. So our peace of mind cost us nothing. Which makes it even better.

The Big Top

We gave up on the roofers ever getting our roof to not leak and took the job on ourselves. This weekend we had a huge rain with lots of wind from different directions. There were NO leaks. When the planes from Tinker Air Force Base fly over our house they will wonder why our roof looks the way it does but who cares it is water tight. There are three different colors on one part of the roof.

Because we no longer have roof leaks we get to put ceilings in. The Pantry and the Cleaning Closet both received their tops. This is a wondrous thing.

The Cleaning Closet's west wall won't get all of its sheet rock until  the new electrical for all the new construction has been run to the box. No reason to make things difficult on us. Nothing will be going on that wall anyway. Except for a rechargeable vacuum and it isn't purchased yet.

It's All an Illusion

Farmers Alamanc is saying we are in store for a cold wet winter which to us means we won't be doing much on the outside of the house. We have house wrap up but it isn't designed to stand up to UV rays and Oklahoma wind. So Bill has painted it to give it a bit of protection.

 From the driveway it looks like a normal house. Or at least normal at this stage of the game. From the street corner it really looks good.

Up close you can see it is just painted house wrap.

He's Such a Romantic

It is so cold out that we knew we would have no business so Bill stayed home and worked while I went to the rock yard and didn't work. When I got home there was a roaring fire and a glass of wine waiting for me.

The roaring fire was the kerosene heater set up in the back hallway.. This was Bill's way of us celebrating all the work we have done in the last two days.We sat on a five gallon bucket and a footstool, Bill has had longer than he has had me, he uses it when he needs to sit low to work. He makes me smile when he does things like this and I am lucky he does them all the time.

 Look at the beautiful barrel he made for the ceiling. He got so much accomplished yesterday it was amazing,







I actually cried a little when he sent me a picture earlier in the day to show me the barrel. Maybe we can get something completed now. Just waiting for a rain so we can test the roof one last time before the ceilings go in.

 I got really excited seeing this back wall. This is the Cleaning Closet and I didn't think he was going to work on this room at all. We won't put sheet rock up on the left wall until we have run all the electricity. Most of the new electricity will be run to this breaker box. But when we get the the other two walls done all the rent house cleaning stuff can get unpacked and put away.

Mud Glorious Mud

You use drywall mud to cover blemishes, screw heads and tape to make your walls nice and smooth. Then you are ready to apply your texture.

Normally, all you need to worry about is working quick enough so the mud left in the box doesn't dry out.

We not only had to worry about that but the box had to stay on a rug and a thick towel over top so it wouldn't freeze. The cold also slowed down the drying process once the mud went on the walls. 16 hours later and places where I had to fill in voids the mud was still soft.

 When you pull the mud out of the box it is stiff and not very workable. You use the spatula and work it like bread dough. Keep smashing and turning until it becomes wonderfully smooth and pliable.