More Countertops

Kris Hunt from Moehl Millwork in Ankeny who we talked with when ordering our cabinets was up in our area today and stopped by to see our house. She's been really nice to work with.

The countertops for the craft room and laundry room came today. This room is coming together! I'll probably work mostly at the desk height area in front of the window, and the left side is counter height and will be better on the back for all of the paper cutting I do.

This is a close up of the craft room countertop. It's called Fallen Leaves. I like Fall - and leaves!

Greg & Bill will be here tonight to put the pewter knobs on all the cabinets. He tells us that the heating guy and plumbers will be here the end of the week. Keep your fingers crossed for us on that!

Too Quiet Except for the Wind

Not much to blog about today - no workers. Only Greg showed up for a few minutes to caulk around the basement windows before we have rain tonight. We had a leak last week with one since they're not done with them yet. I said we're trying to get away from the mold and wet basement in this house and don't need to get mold started between the walls of the new house. (especially since I'm allergic to it) We did have a couple of young guys come to replace some ridge shingles that had blown off but we told them not to take a chance getting up on the roof in this wind - besides more may blow off!

Bill and Tim couldn't haul the last 4 loads of corn out of the last bin today since it was so windy. 40+ mph gusts. At least it was sunny and around 50.

Family Visit

We went to church (it was packed) and then to the pancake meal to benefit the ambulance dept. here in our town. Lots of people there. It's a nice, sunny Sunday.

Our pantry cabinet has roll out trays in the bottom. Mine in Indiana didn't and it was hard to see what you had back in there.

Bill's sister, Karen, came down from Minn. yesterday to see the house and picked up Bill's Aunt Delrae on the way! They're standing in our entry area. There will be some hardwood flooring and an entry piece of furniture with mirror above. We have 2 tall burgundy walls - this entry wall and around the corner it's a kitchen wall. Our couch is that color and quite a bit of other stuff.

Getting Alot Done Today

Bill painting his room in the basement. I did some trimming for him. 2nd coat tomorrow. They put up "seconds" of this stuff (inner seal) in his room, the utility room and garage - so we have to paint it due to the blue stripes.





Ben putting together trim for a door in the basement.








Bill F. putting up door trim. They also got the crown molding up on the white cabinets and baseboard in the craft room.







The built in ironing board in the laundry room. There will be a small sink below the single cabinet and a rod to hang laundry from the wall to the left to the single cabinet. Greg wanted my drawings of the closets today so he can make sure he has what he needs to do them as far as shelving and rods.




Cabinets above the washer & dryer. The wall colors don't look right in some of the pictures. This is really a sage green.

Had several visitors today. Mitch & Erin & Ben, Tim, Bill's sister and Aunt Delrae. Nothing was done Thurs. and Fri. we only had 2 guys that finished the basement ceiling. The guys got a lot of trim done today. They'll be back Tues. night to do a few things like hardware on the cabinets. Mirrors will be delivered the end of next week. We mainly just need plumbers, heating & electricians back this next week, then flooring & paint touch up!

All the Little Stuff

This is our doorbell! We saw one like this in the drywall guy's house and liked that it's recessed.

This morning I called the appliance store to give them an idea when we'd need the appliances installed and also called Angie, the painter and the lumber store to have some paint mixed. I dropped off 2 sconces at the lumber store in West Bend for Angie's crew to marble. They go in the basement stairwell. Picked up 2 gal. of paint for Bill. He has a room in the basement he's going to paint. I picked up a parts order for Bill & Tim at International then headed to Algona Glass to choose and order mirrors for the bathrooms. While there I had lunch at Sum Hing and stopped in a nice Lang gift shop.

Bill and Tim got all of the grain bins but one emptied. Bill is working on his pickup today.

Last night the bathroom vanities were put in place and more door handles put on. We're hoping the plumbers & heating guys show up soon to get their part finished.

I sold another Big Shot last night! Sale-A-Bration ends soon (Mar. 31) so there are only a few more days to take advantage of the Big Shot Special! I need to be doing Stampin' Up! paperwork and making thank you and birthday cards!

Kitchen Countertop Installed

The countertop was installed today. They put this form down first.

We have another 18" section that's coming for the end of the peninsula. It will have 2 wastebaskets in it.





This is our favorite thing - molded sink - no edges to clean around!!! Even Bill's excited about it! Tonight he's working on putting on more of the door handles. Looks like we have visitors for a tour - Uncle Tim & Aunt Bette Jo.

Media Center

This is the Media Center I've mentioned a couple of times. Thanks to Glenn's suggestion, I called his friend Chuck who does computer work. Chuck puts in this box that all of your TV and telephone cables come in to. Then the whole house DSL filter is here - one for the whole house instead of a filter on every phone line all through the house (nice!) and the wireless router will be located on the wall with this box which is in the utility room. He has done whatever we need to do so that we have a better signal for our TV's too (used CAT6 wire for one thing). We're glad that Glenn suggested calling Chuck!

3 of the 4 black light fixtures are up outside.

An electrician was here today, Chuck finished up for now and Mark was hanging doors in the basement. Greg & Bill F. should be here tonight too.

Bill & Tim went to a farm operators meeting today at the fairgrounds in Spencer and they were stopping at Menard's after.

The Best Cookies

Yesterday after church and lunch, we worked on ceiling fans and took the plastic off the window screens. I was putting longer pull chains on and really screwed one up. Bill was not happy about having to fix that! I cut the short chrome chain off to put a long pewter chain on. The little piece went inside the fan!

Got a call today that our kitchen countertop will be here Wed, or Thurs. No workers today, but hoping Greg & Bill are here tonight working on doors & trim.

Here are the cookies that Lacey & I made last week that she thought were sooooo good - Grandma's recipe:

JACKPOT DROPS

1/2 c. butter (best to use real butter) 1/2 c. is one stick
1/2 c. Crisco
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2 1/4 c. flour  (**see below)
2 t. soda
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 c. quick oats
2 c. choc. chips

Cream sugars, butter & Crisco well. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat thoroughly. Sift flour, soda, baking powder and salt together. Add to sugar mixture. Blend in oats and choc. chips. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 for 10-12 min.
** might need 1/4-1/2 c. more flour if you want a thicker cookie

The Doors & Trim Look Good!

This is a guest room window - now with trim. You can see the train trestle outside if you click to see the pic bigger.







Closet.










Front office window. The walls in this room are a light tan.






Bill's installing the screened porch fan.
Had a blog comment/question: are some of our walls wallpapered or is it paint? All paint. Some is faux painting and they call what they did here marbling. We have that in the great room, basement and bathroom.

This is my basement craft room.









Yesterday I went with 3 friends to lunch at a tea room, Sister Sadie's, in Ft. Dodge. Very good food and it was decorated really pretty. Will go there again! Then Bill and I went to Algona so Aunt Delrae could cut his hair and we had pizza with her.

Temporary Grain Storage

This is a pile of corn outside the elevator. We can see it from our house but this was taken looking across the golf course (too bad it's not green!). They cover up the pile with a white tarp type thing for the winter. Then usually before they want it to, it gets ripped and blown off - and did this year and last. Guys have been hauling load after load by semi to Ft. Dodge - 45 min. one way. Last year we would see deer in the area. They would usually drink at the creek down by where Glenn & Amy used to live and then head up to this pile to have some corn.

Bill & Tim went to Planter School at the West Bend John Deere dealership last evening. They were fed brats, chips, pop & beer. I went to Pilates - and delivered a stamp order there.

Chuck worked on the media center (more about that later), the electrician was here part of the day and Greg & Bill F. finished the cabinets in the craft room last evening so they'll be ready for the countertop guys to measure when they bring the kitchen one next week.

I'm headed to the Ames area today mostly for returning a couple of things to our closest Lowes and looking for a few other things. I'll be on the road about 4 hours round trip. Not good when I don't even like shopping! Makes me think twice about buying things at the "faraway stores" in case something needs to be returned! It looks like it's going to be a nice day for a road trip though!

Making Cookies

I've been waiting for the day to see if Lacey would like baking at Great Aunt Cindy's house - and she did!!! She did such a good job! We made Jackpot Drops which is my Grandma R.'s school recipe for choc. chip oatmeal cookies. Grandma was the head of the Carmel High School cafeteria. For a couple of years I got to ride to school with her and sometimes home. After school she would take me to the room where the cookies the ladies had made were stored - in these huge round containers. She would give me 2-3 for an after school snack. Yum!

Here Lacey is adding vanilla, sifting, measuring and using the scoop to drop them on the cookie sheet.

You should've heard her comments when she ate the first one that was still warm. "Ohhhhh, this is soooooo good. Can you pleeeease help my mom and grandmas make these - they need help ...... You are a good cooker". I'll have to post the recipe sometime to "help" everyone! :)

Lacey's Visiting

I had to take a picture of Deanne in the cabinet working on the kitchen window! The painters got done today!! They'll be back to do touch up later.
Diane is taking CPR and EMT refresher classes tonight so Lacey's here. She thinks the space under the basement stairs will be a great place to play!









Future model - of some sort? :)

Bill and Tim hauled corn to the elevator again today and emptied one bin. I had a large workshop order come in, sorted and delivered it.

You can always click on these smaller pictures to make them bigger - then use your back arrow (top left) to get back to the blog. www.CindyKCreations.com

Every Little Bit Helps

Last night Bill finished up the little stuff on the ceiling fans, like putting on the blades, after Rob got the main part of the fans up. I was his assistant handing him things and also picked up trash. We're having lots of cardboard boxes being emptied with the cabinets. I'm a recycler - Bill's not - so some of it I'm recycling and some is being burned.

Greg and Bill came after their day job of running the lumber store and started putting in vanities. (this is Bill's bathroom) They'll be working on vanities, doors, trim & closets for a while in the evenings.

The ladies painting think they'll get done tomorrow.

It's another warm & sunny day!

Countertop Measuring

This side worked out just right. The heat duct had been cut to go in the bottom of the small cabinet you see by itself. It was in just the right spot! They're going to look great with the crown molding and some stuff sitting on top!

We're missing a couple of sections on this side - one above on the right side and one below on the end of the peninsula.




Custom Countertop came out today to do their template for the countertop. It's the solid surface type - no seams or cracks to caulk.

Window staining and electrical work was going on.

It was a sunny, 65 degree day. Bill hauled corn. I talked to the workers, phone calls with our cabinet lady and countertop lady and worked on Stampin' Up! downline business. I have 170 demonstrators in my group from all over the country that I support. Also talked to Mom. We mostly e mail but not today!

Cabinet Installation & Stampin' Up! Workshop

Greg, Ben & Bill got here at 7:45 to install the kitchen cabinets. I guess we have a deadline of Wed. to be able to get the counter top people out to measure the lower cabinets and get our top made or it'll be a 10 day delay before they can get here. So these guys will probably be done today! (my picture is kind of blurry) There will be crown molding on the top and over counter and above the cabinets lighting. Looking forward to that. There will also be a switch below that will turn on anything plugged in above the cabinets - like Christmas decorations.
It's 44 so far and sunny today.

This was my niece, Diane's, workshop on 3/1. I think she had about 11 ladies. Here they're busily making their birthday card after my demo of scrapbooking and card making techniques.

I'm offering a great deal on the purchase of our Big Shot until the end of the month. With the purchase of the Starter kit for $195.95 plus S & H + tax, you'll receive product value of $330.40. E mail me for more details!

There is a virus going around here that kept 49 kids from the grade school alone home on Fri. so I decided to stay home from church today to hopefully avoid the germs! We don't need to be sick right now!

Cabinets are In the House

This is the light fixture above our table. Mom says per HGTV, we're right in style. I told the electrician to install all of our lights with the glass down - I didn't want any cup type lights that would hold flies!! Even though this house shouldn't have many flies - you never know!

This shows some of our kitchen cabinets. The French door type refrig. will be to the right of the tall pantry cabinet. The stove to the right of the next section.



A set of closet doors. Sneak peek at the guest room wall color!

We had another plastic covered screen blow out and get bent today so the decision was made to put all the hardware back on the windows that were out to be stained and put them all back in. The painting ladies will have to take the hardware back off, take the windows back out, etc. Mon.

We Have Light!

Entry light fixture. We're doing antique pewter door handles & hardware which is a newer finish. It was hard to get everything in that so some things are brushed nickel which is close.




We got this idea from someone else. These are sconces that will be over our night stands - with their own light switch below. Saves having a lamp on the night stands. Sneak peek at the master bedroom wall colors.


Basement dropped ceiling & lighting for stamp classes.







Kitchen window stained.

Tonight we tried to get some of the dust off the floors before cabinets are brought in tomorrow. This is probably the last time we'll see Bill mopping! Bill had the idea to sprinkle the floor with my watering can, mop and then suck up the dirty water with the shop vac. Worked pretty well.

Moving Day

Well, not *that* moving day unfortunately! Bill just moved some equipment around. The planter has been checked over and is ready to go so it needed to be put away. For the non-farmers, here's kind of a typical moving session. Bill moved an auger (with a tractor) from Tim's to the machine shed, got the 2 semis & combine out of the shed and called me. I picked him up there and took him back to Tim's to get the planter. He pulled it to the machine shed and got it backed in (picture). Then he put the semis & combine back in. Everything just fits so so in that building! He drove the tractor back to his mom's and then I took him to get his truck which was at the bin site. Mom advised me to always take something to read when I'm involved in these things for the wait time - which I do! I can drive between the places lots faster than he can go with the equipment.

This is Diane & Lacey's dog Boden. He's hyper. Todd has a German short hair hunting dog named Riley.

Lots going on at the house today. Chris, the electrician, brought all of the light fixtures and they got some put up, guys were working on the dropped ceiling in the basement and the painters started staining windows.

Quick Update

Have had a couple of busy days - yesterday our phone rang all day and I had a large Stampin' Up! workshop to close out and enter plus received some other orders during the day. (Sale-A-Bration is still going on until 3/31) The painters were here. Once they came over and said "come quick, you have water running from upstairs to the basement floor". I grabbed a coat and ran outside and promptly fell on my right hand due to ice on the wood we're using to walk on over the mud. My hand is much better today. The water was a shower drain that wasn't installed all the way. The painters were cleaning the showers & tub for us so they could do a good job caulking and painting around them. Another time they came over and said "come look at your bedroom walls before we put on the last coat". They looked great. As of the end of the day yesterday they had all of the colors on.

Bill put in the screens we had covered with plastic so they could start staining our windows when ready (probably tomorrow, Thurs.). The wind was so bad here last night that the screens started blowing out - and away! Two were ruined. Bill chased them down and took the rest out and we got them inside. It was not the best day.

Today I was gone most of the day with Diane and Lacey north to Emmetsburg and Spencer for Lacey's dr. appointment and shopping - at the store that has anything you could need or want for St. Patrick's Day and/or the Irish (it's a BIG deal in Emmetsburg), Menard's, Walmart, Matt Furniture Store, the mall & Fairway (grocery). We also had lunch at one of my favorite places, Sum Hing.

Our electrician was here putting in outlets in the basement and will be here tomorrow installing light fixtures Bill says. Exciting! Chuck is coming tomorrow to get the wires into the Media Center which is going to be in the basement utility room and is a neat thing. Will have to explain more about it tomorrow.

Tonight I went to my first P.E.O. meeting and was installed as a member. Nice ceremony and nice group of women.

Basement Painting is Done

Angie and crew faux painted in the basement today. They call this "marbling". They did get the basement finished and got the first coat of color on the Great Room. Mark may be here tomorrow to start the dropped ceiling in the basement.
These 2 pics are of the large room in the basement. It's going to have 3 tables set up all the time for stamp classes - big group meals or meetings? The blue room at the far end is my craft room and there's a half bath you can barely see the doorway of. The blue room is going to have white cabinets & trim.
This is looking the other way in the basement. You can see the stairway going up. Both of these finished rooms will have the "builders' beige" carpet from our current house - that's only 2 years old.