Speaking of Forsythia...

While walking Kaylee and Ziggy yesterday between bouts of gardening and wall erecting, we wandered down Luna ridge, named by Hal as Luna is buried there. We paid our respects at her grave, with Rocket's daffodils blooming above her. 

Farther on I saw the 5 forsythia we planted one summer when we were still living in Virginia. They were in full bloom. I was totally surprised, as it was so long ago I had forgotten about them. They're in clay, untended, unfertilized, it's no wonder they're still small but it pleased me to see.

20 plus year old forsythia

A Little Gardening

My raspberry plants came a couple days ago and I needed to get them in the ground so yesterday I used my little battery powered tiller (which worked much better since the ground was not as mucky as the first time) and my long handled claw to make 10 holes for them, 5 per row. 

I then tilled up another row, put in 3 stakes, (need to get another), and planted 2 varieties of snow pea. Oregon sugar pod II and an heirloom, Golden sweet. Both of these and the raspberry plants came from Pinetree Gardens.

In the photo it's hard to see anything other than some disturbed soil. In the foreground you can see 2 rocks which show the end of the snow peas. I still have more Oregon sugar pod to plant but it was spitting rain so I quit and went to help Hal put up the closet wall. In total about 124 pea seeds were planted. I bought a fabric netting to hang on those posts to hold the peas as they climb.

As it rained a lot last night, I won't be tilling in the near future, but the remainder of the bed will be for things I can't plant till the end of May anyway. It may look like spring, but we still have frosts.

Yesterday I also planted some pansies (viola) in my purple pots outside the farmhouse. At least they can withstand frosts (30 for a low expected this coming Friday) and it's nice to have some pretty colors to look at.

And while I was waiting for Hal to call me to help with those walls, I started weeding the perennial flower bed I planted last year. It's a mess and will take me hours to clean it up. It does look like some things have survived and are are already growing. The dianthus and ninebark and forsythias are sprouting. The garden looks like crap and the snow compressed it so much it has exposed a lot of gravel. I will need to get some mulch when I am done.

Kaylee is bored with weeding

Master Bedroom Closet

So Hal built the front closet wall for the master bedroom. I helped him stand it up, it was very heavy due to the header. The plan is for a 10 foot double track with four sliding doors. Has will be building 5 foot doorways for the other bedrooms' closets, 2 will also have sliders, but the guest room will have bifold because we bought them early before we knew what we wanted. 

These are the doors for the guest room, they are Kimberly Bay. I will need to stain, paint or varnish them.

The Final Wall

Ok, there are still a few short walls to put up, all involving closets, but as of yesterday, ALL the major walls in the house are UP!! The last one to go up was the TV/Media room, aka 4th bedroom wall. Hal decided he wanted the door into it in the center of the wall whereas I had it 2 feet to the right. If it was going to be used as a bedroom I think it would be a little weird opening onto the dining table, but as the plan is to use that room as a TV room, IOW the den, it's no big deal. Future owners, after we are gone, can decide to move it if they want.

Building the TV room wall

TV Room Wall

Here is the wall built the day before, the one on the left leading into the small bedroom hallway. The wall includes a small closet for the entry door that practically no one will use.

bedroom hall wall

I also started adding furring strips to the ceiling in the TV room.

5 more furring strips

More Walls, More Furring Strips

So in the last 11 days Hal built a few more walls and I put up a few more furring strips. As of today I have the first 2 rows of furring strips done and Hal only has one more interior wall to build, not counting the short closet walls and doorways. We'll just keep plugging along.

There are more furring strips than this now

multiple walls

Finished Walls in Black

Preparing the Ceiling for Drywall

It's still a few months before drywall but today I started adding furring strips, 8 foot long 1"x3" spruce boards to the ceiling joists that the drywall will be screwed into. They are spaced 16" apart and there will be a lot of them. Figuring out how to hold them overhead and then holding the screw gun overhead wasn't fun. After a lot of aggravation, we clamped another board perpendicular to previous ones so the ones I was putting up were held on the far end. I just don't have the hand strength to hold the board up with one hand and also use the screw gun. I need both hands on the screw gun to push up hard enough to get the screws all the way in. I put 2 screws, #6 x 2" drywall screws into every joist. It took all afternoon to put up 9 furring strips. Now that I have a system, I hope it will go faster. 

In the meantime Hal was putting up 2x4s around the exterior perimeter at the ceiling for the drywall along the walls to be attached to. He'll be putting them along the floors when he's done.

The Subfloor is Done!

We put in 2.5 boards last Friday and today we finished by putting in the last 9. It is done, finally, and we can go on to other things. Hal even put up the wall between the guest bath and guest bedroom last Friday and pulled the red and blue pex plumbing lines into the wall today. On to the electrical wiring next!

If I wasn't so tired, I'd probably be more excited.