And Out Goes 2022

 With a whimper in our case. Hal and I and our friend John all came down with covid one after another starting Monday with John. Then me on Tuesday night and Hal by Wednesday evening. And then, sometime after 1 am Friday, I suffered a charlie horse in my sleep, whether from lack of salt, water, food, who knows, I had barely eaten in 48 hours. I got up to try and stretch my leg out, these are extremely painful, but I managed, got my left foot flat on the floor. Then, for some reason, I decided to head to the bathroom as I was already awake anyway. Sitting down and risking the recurrence of the muscle spasm made a lot more sense in hindsight. 

At the bathroom entrance I have a vague memory of severe pain, but next thing I know I am on the floor, Carl is asking me if I'm okay, I couldn't answer, at some point I started howling, I apparently passed out, and my head hit the edge of the granite countertop. I crawled back to bed; had Hal get me ice. A couple hours later I was getting lightheaded and nauseous just lying there, told Hal he needed to call 911 and get me to the hospital. I attempted to head back to the bathroom, and this time managed to control my fall back onto the floor. I was totally unable to even sit up by that point, 4 EMTs had to slide a sheet under me to lift me onto the gurney. They also put me into a neck brace. 

Okay, to shorten this up a bit, I got an IV at the hospital with anti-nausea medication. the help was tremendous. Had a CAT scan, blood test, everything looked good, they figured a combination of covid and dehydration, Lucky me, got a huge bump on my forehead, it's now draining into my eye. And I was home by 730 am and Hal and I went to bed. He had to wait in the parking lot and I was sent home because of covid. And I got a pack of the new covid pills that are essentially still under testing, The side effects aren't pretty but, oh well.

So, Happy New Year. Could be a lot worse.

Merry Christmas

 Our first Christmas in our new home. It's not done yet, but we had fun today.

Took this photo a couple nights ago, before the blizzard that gave us only 4 inches of snow, (mostly we got rain and ice on this side of the state) but you get the idea. 

The 2 Livingroom WIndows are Done!

 Hal finished the first window last week, and after I stained and varnished the remaining pieces yesterday, he installed them today in the right-hand window. It looks great, I'm very glad we decided to use all stained pieces for the great room unlike the white framing we are doing in the bedrooms and bathrooms. We aren't panning on doing anymore trim work this year, our annual guests will be here in a few days.

That little plant stand to the right I purchased downstate at Fabulous Finds on Monday. I bought a lot of interesting things there. I got a nice deal on a large painting that I hung in the guest room today. $32.49 plus tax. I good deal, I think. Might need something on either side, not sure what though.

A got a few more pieces of wall art, some of them sculptural metal. I placed the one that has shelves in the left corner of the living room and another next to the fireplace. I want to move the one on the right a couple inches to the right.

A few other pieces I still haven't hung. One of these days....

Christmas Trees

 As the house is not yet finished, I opted to forego a real tree indoors for my nifty little artificial tree I bought at Kmart for 79 bucks many years ago. I never have figured out where exactly to put it in the Palace, I even tried to place it on the floor plan many times, but nothing seemed to work. So as the front door is still nailed shut because there are no steps to the outside, I just put the tree in front of it this year. This is it unfinished, but it certainly does not have enough room for all the ornaments I have in the box. Looks pretty nice to me.

And though it isn't the best-looking tree of biggest one, the big ones in the old windbreak are much too big, I decided to decorate this little transplanted tree. I moved it from the area the power company was clearing. They took out some nice trees which we planted before there were any power lines there. It's not very healthy looking, a but yellow, the drought didn't help. I hope it survives the winter.

This is how it looked a couple days ago. Kaylee is wondering where her goody is for waiting patiently while I took the photo.

I decided that the beads didn't show up very well from a distance so today I added garland. It looks a lot better, but I do wish the poor tree was a healthier green color.

Thanksgiving at the Palace

 I figured I ought to get this post in before December! Hal, his older brother and our 2 friends had a great time together. I cooked the usual turkey, (15.83 lbs) that was much too big. I really should drop to no larger than 12 lbs next year. Bread stuffing of course, mashed russet potatoes and gravy, green beans, NOT in that horrid casserole, asparagus, croissants and a nice wine or two. Dessert was pumpkin pie and Amish baked mixed berry and apple pie.

I even got my china out for our first major holiday at the Palace.

The men seemed to be enjoying the food.

I seem to have a terrible time making a good looking crust but the taste was yummy.

Wall Decor

 As building is on hiatus till Hal heals from his hernia surgery 3 weeks ago, I've been trying to figure out how to decorate our home on a budget. I had a few paintings and framed photos, still haven't found where all of them are, but between those and a few prints I bought on sale from Big Lots last week, I've done a little here and there though mostly in the great room.

This first one I put by the front door which can't be seen but is just on the other side of the entry closet. I saw this print a few times at the store and realized I kept thinking about it so I must really like it, and I do. The end table underneath will not stay there but until I figure out where to put it, it will stay here. The front door is inoperable for the time being anyway as there are no stairs outside yet.

This little bird print is between the still untrimmed living room windows. But, hey, at least those windows are stained!

This is a portrait of my mom, I hate to admit that it was never hung in the 20 years we lived in our last home, but now she proudly hangs near the dining table, easily seen from the living room. Looks like it was painted in 1950, 2 years after my parents married.

And this is the "wall of sound", at least that's what I called it in our last home. My original intention was to put the tall cabinets in the TV room, but I have since decided they look fine here though at some point I hope to stain them darker to get rid of the orange tint that oak seems to become after many years. The old-world print is Hal's and we thought it looked good above the TV, and I hung my photo of the Mackinac bridge on the left.

This bird print I put in our main bathroom, just something nice to look at whilst mucking about in the bath.

I did buy a 4th print which will go in the guest room, but it hasn't been hung yet as I'm not sure which wall to put it on. It's the little one in the line-up below. I still have stuff in boxes I haven't unpacked yet.

I've Abandoned my Blog Again! AKA an Update

 A month has passed since my last post, so here I am, finally with some sort of half-hearted update.

It's getting cold outside; we still don't have central heat. The HVAC guy came about a month ago with a part he built to place under the furnace that the hot air trunk runs from, he added some plumbing, said he needed parts and hoped to be back in a couple days, well, that certainly hasn't happened. He has not bothered to contact us and Hal hasn't bothered to try and contact him, I think Hal is too peeved. He is at the point of saying screw the warranty requirement to have it professionally installed and do it himself, I am sure he is quite capable of it. Unfortunately, Hal just had surgery to repair the inguinal hernia he got last summer dealing with the cows at the farm 2 days ago and won't be in any shape to do much of anything for at least a month.

I did buy a neat little convection style heater from Amazon though which he installed over the weekend in our master/prime bathroom. It is thin, about 2-foot square, hangs on the wall under the window and it is putting out enough heat to not only keep the bathroom comfy but keeping the chill out of our bedroom as well. It's made by a company called ENVI. As it it convection it has no fan and is very, very quiet.

Last Thursday, or was it Friday, I finished staining and polyurethaning the last window, even while it was pouring rain outside and having to cover the screen with newspaper to keep the window frame dry. And yes, 7 of them still need side jambs and trim but with the spray foam also around the edges they are done enough to get us through the winter. There should be a lot less air leakage. 

We also got our replacement range hood for the one that arrived crushed, it took about 5-6 weeks to get here, and Hal managed to get it installed for me while I was out with his sister, possibly doing something for his family estate, hard to remember, (there was a large estate sale over 3 weekends in September), He was able to crawl in the attic, over the spray foam insulation using cardboard and 2 x 6's to keep from crushing it and got a hole through the side of the house over the garage roof to vent it. After 22 years not having a range hood, I still forget to use it, but it is sure nice to have. Perhaps the smoke alarms will sound off less often when I'm cooking....

I still have to peel off the white covering

I've also been working outside in my one lonely flower bed, digging out the weeds that took over a lot of it, mostly plantain and wild carrots and clover, so that I can plant a whole bunch of daffodils and crocus. They ought to make things nice and cheery next spring. I also took a panorama shot the other day out the back yard, it's severely warped as I sort of went past 180 degrees, but it still shows my nice view. 

And because house building is on hiatus till Hal heals, I've been able to do some cleanup and re-arranging in the house. Behold my teapot display. Till a couple days ago this cabinet has been a catchall for everything from china, vases, placemats, etc, until I could figure out where to put them, or what to get rid of. I hope to do more of this and gardening in the next couple of weeks.

The Mostly Finished Patio

 As you can see, Hal got the patio smoothed out and the gravel added. We already had a big pile of gravel over by the barn which was nice. Then he dumped a few dozen bucket loads of topsoil around it which I smoothed out as best I could with an iron rake. Then I added grass seed which started sprouting a couple days ago, eventually I'll take a photo of that when it fills in. It's not the best landscaping job in the world but hopefully it will get us through winter and mud season next spring without it washing away.

We've also had a couple fires on it. It's nice not sitting in the driveway anymore.

An Impromptu Patio

 Last week Hal and I got fed up waiting for the HVAC guy, have become tired of doing less important things like window and door trims. and tired of wondering how to fix the muddy mess of our yard without money to hire the guy with the dozer so we decided to build a patio off the back of the house. 

We originally had planned a concrete one halfway to the pond, but again, without the landscaping fixed, and having no money to hire the guy who did our garage floor either, Hal decided to move a whole lot of clay into the back yard from one of the many piles scattered about and started building one himself.

A giant pile of clay

He bought five 16-foot-long pressure treated 4x 6 boards, drilled holes through the ends and middles to pound metal pipe into the ground for stability. One board he cut in half and placed either side of the steps as a landing pad, three others he placed to create a 16 x 16-foot pad a little lower (because the ground slopes, of course). The final one won't be set until everything is level and square. (Including the piping this cost $575!!)

 

Pounding in a pipe

I've been digging out the weeds and grass up at the top today so he can add gravel.  Ziggy isn't so much checking things out as just hanging with me.

He also set out a sprinkler to help compact the clay.

Gravel added, more grass to remove

I'm looking forward to having a firepit on this, rather than in our driveway!

Bathroom Window Casings

 At the end of July we built, stained/polyurethaned the bathroom window casings and as well as put up the white trim. First photo is the main bathroom that connects to our bedroom.

This is the guest bathroom. I still have to fill nail holes, but that can wait till I'm bored.

Some of the other bathroom things I've done is adding 2 robe hooks to the back of the main bath door. That is Hal's walk-in closet to the right.

And since there wasn't a tall enough space under the window for a traditional towel bar, I put 2 rings behind the door in the guest bath.

The baseboard trim is all done in the guest bath as well. Main bath is still awaiting it.

Backyard Stairs and Light

 Over the 4th of July weekend Hal decided to build temporary stairs to the back door. Both the back and front doors were nailed shut for safety, The only way into the house was through the garage. He may call them temporary, but they are solid, just not actually attached to the house.

the frame

moving the frame into place

attaching the treads

Ziggy already decided laying beneath it is his thing. He crawled under within an hour of them being finished. Kaylee prefers laying on the top step like the queen she is.

And here is the photo with the light. I finally found an almost square white J-block to put behind the lamp. Been looking on and off for months. Finally, Home Depot had one that worked. Hal added the crushed gravel to level out the ground. Someday, we might be able to get the yard graded properly.

The Guest Bathtub Is Ready to Use

Hal and I finally got around to installing the tub surround in the guest bath.  This is the box of Flexstone in color Frost.

After dry fitting and trimming a little here and there we glued up the walls and secured them for 24 hours by\y leaning lumber against the walls. We did one wall a day.

Plumbing wall

The back wall is the first to go up.

Once the walls are up, I installed all the trim, it only took a couple hours, there wasn't a lot of trimming to do. I then installed the metal bracket for the corner shelf.

The shelf unit comes premade and is slipped over the bracket at a slight angle to drain water, glued and clamped in place. Ater a day I then calked all the corners.

Hal also installed the plumbing fixtures, the same Delta Lahara as the vanity, in champagne bronze. There is also a shower head, of course. I have since put up a matching curved shower rod by Moen and a curtain. It came out beautifully, I think.

Delta Lahara

A Little More Decorating

 In the last couple of weeks, I got Hal to help me hang a couple mirrors and move the bureau so I could plug in my new lights. I also, after much fiddling with its innards with my fingers int the gears behind the clock face, got our grandfather clock to start working again. It hasn't worked since our initial move from BC, possibly because it was laid flat for the move, and probably shifted something out of place. I had no qualms about blindly messing with it because there are no clock repair places within 100s of miles. I had gotten the time to work once, then messed with it again to try and get the chimes to work. That managed ro kill the whole thing. Then I switched the weights and blindly messed with the guts again and after a few tries over a couple days it started up again. I am keeping it wound, don't want to let it wind down and stop again. 

And on the weight issue, we thought the heavier weight should operate the time, but no, apparently the heavier one is to operate the chimes. Other than losing a bit of time each week, it works great. I'm not stopping the pendulum on purpose to adjust the speed.

This is the mirror Hal's sister picked up for me at a place near her called Fabulous Finds. We waited to see if the price would drop and it did, so I got it for a steal, around $50. It's metal. We think it looks great. just need a credenza beneath it. 

My mirror I bought at May Company in Palos Verdes, CA back in the early 1980's. With the Stiffel lamps it all looks perfect, too.

My New Refreigerator

 Towards the end of April, I was wandering through Home Depot's appliance section and a gal asked if I needed help. I said if she could find me a white French door refrigerator at least 25 cu ft then yeah. She said she would take a look. I figured it was a hopeless task because when I checked online at HD nothing was available unless I wanted to spend over $3000 on a GE Cafe or other fancy one. Then she said she found sixteen 27 cu ft regular GE refrigerators in a warehouse, and I could have one in 2 weeks. Yes, it was $300 more than the one I had ordered in January 2020, but it was bigger, and I liked the looks of it as they had a stainless steel one on the floor and I could check it out. So, I said heck yeah and bought it. I then called the other store where I had bought my other appliances and cancelled the refrigerator. 

It was delivered May 5th along with the hose for the ice maker. Hal had to run to the hardware store in Ossineke to buy the right connector and finished connecting the hose after the delivery guys left. 

It probably took me about an hour to peel off all the protective wrapping inside and outside and I was happy to find it hadn't any dents or scratches.

this is how it fits

naked fridge

We really like the ice maker though we never wanted one, they have a tendency to break. If it breaks during the warranty, we'll fix it after that, who knows? I threw out the first 18 cubes though I had run the black water through the internal water spigot from initializing the water filter, just in case. The delivery guy said they have anti mold stuff in the system as it had to be tested before it left the factory. Supposedly not harmful but, ewwww. 

first ice cubes

I still haven't transferred all the food from the old fridge in the mudroom but first things first! It feels really great to have the fridge at long last!

As it was Cinco de Mayo, we celebrated with homemade burritos. Very tasty. 

ground beef burritos