Kitchen Day 2: Floors & Doors

Austin's first task this morning was pulling up the sheet vinyl and underlayment.  Thankfully, it wasn't glued down, so it came up pretty easy.  Underneath is what we believe are two layers of vinyl tile.  The first was a bright red.  The second was a yellow tile with gray and white streaks.  Lovely!

While Austin was busy doing that, I finished cleaning/organizing the basement.  This entailed finding new homes for all the toys moved out of the toy room upstairs and setting up an eating area downstairs.  It will work just fine.  I also studied some of the old stuff we had found underneath the cabinets the night before.  Some of the papers included a Waverly Community Chest pledge form from the 1950's (it was like the United Way), a Christmas Seals bookmark with information about tuberculosis, a card from a downtown business and a feed ration/dairy herd record from January 1961.

I later showed this to my dad because I thought he'd get a kick out of it.  He was most interested in the cow names, since he has to come up with lots of them for his own herd.  He also pointed out the difference in production.  At today's prices, the first 40 lbs. of milk a cow gives is used to cover the feed cost alone.  My dad & uncle's cows each give 80-120 lbs./day.  Their threshold is 55 lbs.  Any cow that gives less than that goes to market.  According to the record from 50 years ago, only two out of the 36 cows listed would have made the cut!

The other really cool thing we found was an old quarter.  I remember quoting Larry the Cucumber from The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything , "Look, I found a quarter!"  It looked different than anything I'd seen before.  A quick Google search revealed it was a 1925 Standing Liberty quarter.  The silver melt value at today's spot price is about $3.50.  Even in poor condition, it's worth at least $8 to collectors.  The quarter is definitely worn.  I'm planning to bring it to a coin shop just to see what I can get for it--even if it's only a round of ice cream cones. :o)

In the afternoon, Austin took out the double windows and installed the new back entry door.  It's a good thing it was such nice weather to have a huge hole in the side of the house!  At about 5:30pm he asked if I would help him dry-fit the door and then hold it while he prepped the rest.  Two hours and four attempts later we got the door in nice and tight. ;o)

Love it!!

Our 4th of July celebration consisted of a late drive-thru McDonald's supper on the deck. While Austin finished cleaning up for the day, I drove and parked along Hwy 3 to see the Shell Rock fireworks. However, it was a disappointing 12 minute long show that took 30+ minutes to get home because of traffic. I also decided that going to watch fireworks by yourself is kind of like going to a movie by yourself. :op