catch up

Hello students!  Good Monday Morning/Afternoon/Evening to you all.  I have missed you all and hope you are ready to learn new and amazing things once again.  

Here you see the large wet hole that will be our basement.  The machines finished their work one week ago today and the rains started later that night.  It rained off and on all week, with a finale of ice and snow over the weekend.  Jim did a little trench digging to get some of the water drained off and today after some sun and wind, there was surprisingly little water left standing.  There is rain in the forecast for tonight, but if it doesnt happen, the basement team is ready to start putting in the concrete forms.

Today we met with the guy who will be doing the framing and we both feel good about him. Jim has talked with him several times, but today was the first time I got to meet him , and I feel good about him.  I got the sense that he knows what he is doing, is straightforward and honest and will do a good job.  His name is Preston.  I love that name and am sure that anyone named Preston  will do a good job.  

Last night, I dreamed that I had a big brown dog that I kept in the basement and his name was Brewster.  I would sneak him out from time to time and take him for rides in my car.  He would sit way back in the back and I would call him, and he would come up and stick his head between the front seats so I could pet him as we drove along.  Don't ask me what that has to do with house building, because I surely don't know.  Let's just say that taking a week off from blogging was very tiring, and I am glad to be back with all of you.  If a stray dog should happen to come by and adopt himself to us, I will name him Brewster.  If I write a blog asking you what was the name of that dog I dreamed about,you can comment and remind me, or submit your suggestions.  I think I am just remembering the Christmas Cat and Old Blue Eyes who never stuck around for me to love them.  I will probably get a stray coyote next...

Speaking of comments, I do not like this feeling of talking to a brick wall, so do not be blog stalkers!  If you are reading this, at least have the courage to say Hey!   I don't even care if you tell me this is a dumb old blog, just say so!

Students, Open your books to Chapter 9.

Monday Monday....cant take that day...Monday Monday  blahblahblah....you know the song, the one by the Mama's and the Papa's back in the 70's....come on, how did that go?oh heck, dang, darn, blast, shucks, fooey, pooey, ok, I need me some coffee but I had to make sure I could still post after this long week of meaningless blithering and gluing and stewing and fluffing. The Spring Fling is over. All is well with the world. The planets are realigned and the black hole in the universe has been plugged up for another year. Time marches on. Somebody help me get that song out of my head!!! 

A Day of rest

How do you define rest?

In some of our lives, it is just a day where you do a different kind of work.

Or you lay on the couch all day and watching hours and hours of basketball until your eyes bug out of your head,

or you sit out on the deck feeling the warm breeze, watching the neighbors ride their horses,

or you get caught up on the latest mystery from the library,

or you eat a big slice of apple pie with ice cream in the middle of the afternoon just because you can.

or you stare at blueprints,

or you make kiwi, blueberry, penguin,monster pizzas out of play dough.

Or all of the above.

Life is good.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The good Lord...

Dirt, dirt, dirt everywhere!  Layers of dirt, piles of dirt and big holes where the dirt used to be.

The big machines dug out where the garage will lay, took out the bad dirt and brought in the good dirt, pounded the heck out of the good dirt and began digging the basement area.  They will be working on that for a couple more days, digging down to the bad dirt, removing it, replacing it with clay and then pounding the clay to give a good solid base to build on. 

 I used to hate clay because it is not a gardener's friend.  I used all kinds of tricks to turn clay into something else.  Today I have a newfound appreciation for clay.  See that black streak?  That is coal.  There is also shale in there. 

Fascinating, isn't it??

Here is a picture of Jim pounding at the clay with a hammer.

Here is Jim showing us how deep the hole is.  

Here are the big guys resting after a hard day's work.  

Today, while all the digging was going on, Jim would measure and check levels , and whatever else guys do. He had just gone back to his truck to do something else, when the spot he had been standing on caved in to the bottom of the big hole.  5 minutes more at that spot and he would have been down there covered up with some real heavy smelly bad dirt.

  Jim's mom would always refer to God as "the good Lord".

Well, "the good Lord" was looking out for her boy today!

Never a dull moment around here folks!

big machines

St. Paddy's day  was the day we started digging the basement.  I say "we" meaning the big machines that are everywhere.  They also knocked down a couple of trees that had to go. It smells like cedar everywhere you walk!  I will never tire of that perfume!  We are holding out for a couple of trees  that will be really close to the house and may have to come down before it's all over.  The weather was over the top beautiful.  The digging will go on for the rest of the week, since they have to over-dig and pound and all that extra stuff.  Hopefully the basement will get poured next week, weather permitting.  Here's what the day looked like.  

Gotta love these bad boys!   

The Ides of March

I don't know what that means but it sounded official and it is definitely official. March that is.

The Words of March are:  spring break.  spring.  spring cleaning.  OK-this post should be titled Spring.  In honor of Spring Break 2009, I am taking a break from "house talk" and giving you a glimpse of our little road trip across Kansas.  Does it get any better than this?  I think not.  Try to wrap your mind around this gladness....  Kansas City.  Topeka.  Manhattan. Aggieville.  Paxico.

Waumego.  Emporia.  Here are some shots of Road Trip madness, not to be confused with March Madness, which so far has been pretty darn disappointing.  We were not disappointed as we marched across the Flint Hills soaking up the warm breezes and sunshine and the Marchness.

Can I say March any more times? I'm working on it.  

hello earthlings.  I quit.  I am leaving.  no more typing.  no more uploading. no more staring at lines and numbers. no more pouring my heart out on this blank screen, trying to get the pictures to match the words. I'm outa here. I'm going to see some real people with real names with comments. I need voices.  I need hugs.  I need to see my darling grandaughters.  I need Blee.  I need a flea market.  I need beer and a cigar. Bet That will get some comments!  

 

anyway, I'm gettin outa dodge. topkea-manhattan-emporia  here I come.  wagons ho.  try to get along without me for a few days.  when I return I will have more intriguing things to say to the world, with pictures to match.  wait for it....

it's a blustery day.

Yesterday we measured, strung pieces of string, drove stakes, moved the stakes, measured and moved the stakes. This was so much fun I cannot describe it.  Then for fun we chopped down some vines, dead trees and hauled a couple of trailer loads to the burn pile.

  While the guys were intensely studying the plan and measuring, I snuck off to this place.  And this place.

Today I was no good to anyone.  No body parts that did not hurt.  No new thoughts. No drive. No work.  I even screwed up a crock pot dinner. Who does that?  Now the wind is howling outside and it is 30 degrees colder than it was this morning.  But guess what I found in the guest room?

This.  And this.   I think I will go in there , curl up under that quilt and read. Tomorrow is a new day.  There is nothing as beautiful as a fresh new geranium against the gray of March.

Tired but happy...

Sometimes you feel like you are wading in mud with concrete shoes on and sometimes you don't.

That should be in a quote book somewhere right?  This is not one of those days.  We had such a productive dash to the city and back!  Jim was able to study  the heat and air system on "our" house and study windows (again).  I found the red dining room I was searching for. I cannot begin to tell you how happy that made me...just ask Jim.   How does the color "Fireweed" strike you?  It strikes me down with giddiness!

 But the best part was pure happenstance..if you believe in that sort of thing.  We went back to our dream- exterior house, armed with the paint color book, hoping to learn the name of the color they used.  We rang the doorbell..no answer. Just as we were turning to leave, a car pulled into the driveway.   The couple were friends of the house owners, and the guy just happened to be a PSU alum, all friendly and chatting.   When the house owner came to the door  she was happy to share the name of the paint color, even went to the basement to get us a tiny little chip of it...then she said, heck, go on down there and look at the paint cans if you want.  She actually remembered the paint names, the stone name, the stain name.  Her hubby came up from watching the KU game and told us exactly where they got the stone.  Now THAT'S friendly!  I just wanted to hug them and bring them gifts!  Instead, I  floated to the car and offered up a prayer of thanks.  This was big folks. Real big.  The paint-stone-cedar stain combo on this house is what kept drawing us back there again and again. It is so big.

Almost as big as discovering HOME GOODS.  I had heard of this magical place in my blogging excursions and was curiouser and curiouser to find one and bask in the magic.  It was worth all the waiting and wondering.  It is TJMaxx on steroids.  I blew my new year's resolution in there. Don't ask.  Just believe me when I say I will be going there again and again.  I am in LUV.

We even squeezed in a stroll through the Devil Store.  It sapped all our strength, as usual and we had to run to Taco Bell for a Pepsi/taco infusion before we could get our focus back.  Good thing there is no hurry in that department, we have furniture.  It's  a house we don't have.

I have no pictures of this venture.  Just the ones in my head.  Drat and shame on me for not having my camera in my hands when Jim climbed up on the kitchen counter to study the cool beams they had up on the ceiling.  And oh my goodness you would have loved the sight of Jim sitting in the corner bathtub to see if he could really fit in one of those.  I was too busy standing guard at the door to take pictures anyway.  Just use your imagination on that one!  

Ah it was such a good day.  As we were walking back to the truck we could hear Spring Frogs singing to us in the distance.  We saw some daffodils blooming.  I discovered "Fireweed".

Does it get any better than that???

This one's for Adam

Students, it has been a long day of  poring over books of windows and doors, copying sizes, erasing, redrawing, measuring, erasing and redrawing... Let's just say I have a new appreciation for people who can stand to do this on a daily basis.  

I think I need a little color break.  I want the job where they sit around a table and think of the names for all the lovely colors.  Doesn't that sound like fun?   Until you get to Gray.

  The guys in Gray 101 need some help.  They need Intervention.  They need a woman. 

 Listen to these winners:  Useful Gray.  Worldly Gray.  Agreeable Gray. 

 This one's saucy....AttitudGray.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz   

What about Anonymous.   Who???

Wait! This one has potential...Sensuous Gray.  That one has pink in it. 

 I guess these are better than Mouldy Gray, right?  

 Maybe I shouldn't apply for this job after all.  It's starting to make blueprint alterations sound like a party!

Seriously.  

numbers and lines

Welcome to my world.  This is what the back of my eyelids looks like. I am surprised I didn't dream about this last night. Or this.  Or this.

But today is a new day. Today I will be studying the window catalogue.  Film at 11:00.

Remember me in your prayers!

Home Show

I swore once I would never attend another Home Show.  Here we are at the 2009 Home Show.

The highlight of the day was learning all about the coveted Central Vac System.  I will have to sacrifice something to have this, but I WILL have this.   Here is Jim admiring the sleek design, the ease, the power of this machine.  I am sitting over in the corner resting my tired feet and dreaming of the day I will dance and sing while operating this bad boy.  I will wear a skirt and pearls just like June Cleaver and nary a hair will be out of place.  I will  have fresh lipstick on and you will smell pie baking in the oven as I flit from room to room with my bag of hose behind me, seeking out every dust mite and filthy mold spore. In the meantime, enjoy this picture with me and indulge a little dreaming.  And remember, never say never!

I know that you all have been eagerly awaiting more pictures of this truck and it's crew working away at extracting earth from the building site.  Jim hopes to talk to the engineer tomorrow and hear his report on the stability of the  ground  way down under there.  See that big bare space right between me and the truck, where that giant dirt ball is sitting?  That's where the house will sit.  My job is to roll the dirt ball away. Back to that later.

Right now we are overly fascinated with how they jack the front of the truck up to keep it level while they are pounding away at that drill that is going 35 feet down to the center of the earth, or China or somewhere.  Here is the earth extractor with his earth sample collection tray.

Fascinating!  These small tubes of earth have become very important.  

Meanwhile we are poring over all of our notes, scribbles, drawings, photos, and think we have found our plan.  This plan is a combo of several different houses that we like and will be our own version when it is all done.  We hope to have all of our ideas ready to take to the architect this week so they can put it into a blueprint that the guys can build from.  This is harder than you might think.  I sure have learned a lot and have gained a new respect for Jim the Builder!    That guy can do it all!  

Joplin Home Show....film at 11:00!