Kids' Vacation

The kids really enjoyed their vacation in Hull.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and they got to do a lot of fun things thanks to Grandpa & Grandma Boote and Auntie Abbie & Uncle Wade.  Here the photos my mom and sister texted me over the last few days:

The first night the kids talked Grandpa & Grandma into having a campfire with S'mores because they remembered doing it last year.  They also had fun playing at "The Dinosaur Park" (a.k.a. Hubbling Park).  They are pictured with Sophie, the daughter of my second cousin, Cindy, who was in my graduating class in high school and who beats me regularly at Words With Friends.

Emily enjoying a picnic breakfast after sleeping in until 9:00am

One of the big things Emily had been looking forward to was golfing with Uncle Wade.  They had to go in shifts because there wasn't enough room on the cart for everyone (including Cousin Saylor).

Both kids loved driving the golf cart.  Abbie said they had a lot of work to do on Lincoln's golf game, but he was a waaaay better cart driver than Emily.



Another thing the kids were excited about was going swimming at the beautiful new aquatic center in Hull.  They went three times.  Emily got braver each time on the lily pads and slide.  Lincoln was content to be a shore dweller near the fountains and never got deeper than his thighs.

Emily found the 50 Card Games for Kids book we had growing up and had fun learning different versions of Solitaire, as well as playing "Trash".  Word has it that she & Uncle Wade are quite the pair.

Hull has a wooden park called "Kids' Kingdom" just like Waverly.  It had just been freshly painted and stained.

 

 

The kids accompanied my mom on her daily trip to the nursing home to visit my Grandpa Vander Kooi.  Lincoln enjoyed being the doorman.

Lincoln's highlight was probably all the time spent on the farm.  He visited the home farm a couple times and got in lots of Kubota time.  He talked a lot about the hay ride down the alley track, "my friend Kevin's tools" (Kevin is my dad's brother and partner) and the stinky stuff on the farm.

The kids also got to go see the fireworks in Sioux Center on the Fourth.  The official report was that Emily tolerated them with her hands over her ears.  Lincoln thought they were the best thing ever and laughed and laughed every time one went off.

A huge thank you to my parents, sister and brother-in-law for making this a memorable experience for Emily & Lincoln!

Kitchen Day 5: The kids return

I left early in the morning to head back to Hull to pick up the kids.  A good audio book made the 215 mile trip go fast.  I arrived in time for lunch at my parents' along with my sister, BIL and niece.  We visited for a while before loading up everything in the van and heading back to Waverly at 3:00pm.  It was a longer trip home with a couple stops, including supper.  The kids were excited to see the kitchen.  Lincoln's quote: "What happened to the kitchen?!?"  When I showed them the new set-up downstairs, Lincoln said, "This is amazing!"  Emily said, "It's like we're living in the basement."  Ummm, yep.

I didn't take any pictures of the actual kitchen project today.  I think Austin just finished up a lot of little things like siding, putting handles/locks on the doors, framing a new wall and cleaning stuff up.  I think it was a bit of a frustrating day, and the fatigue had really set in.  He had been working non-stop for 4 1/2 days.  We knew we were going to have to call a professional electrician in the morning to hopefully come in to figure out the wiring.  Austin has done a lot of electrical in the past, but this was just too much.  Our timeline seemed to be completely busted.  The general rule of thumb still holds true: After setting a budget and timeline, double the timeline and add 20-30% to the budget and you'll be pretty close.

Kitchen Day 4: Knock out

I actually did some work in the kitchen today.  My first task was to pound in all the staples that had been used to attach the underlayment for the old kitchen floor.  They were impossible to pull out of the soft tile, and it turns out we didn't have anything sharp enough to nip them off.  So, I went to the hardware store to buy myself my own heavy-duty hammer and spent the next 2 1/2 hours pounding them in or bending them over and then sweeping everything up.  I should have taken a picture of the little scooter I used to move around.  It was a homemade thing Austin constructed back in Denver to create mobile filing cabinets.

My second task was to knock out the rest of the plaster wall dividing the kitchen and dining area.  It is nasty stuff to deal with.  It is basically drywall with a 1/2" layer of hard, cement-like plaster smeared over and reinforced with chicken wire.  Plus there is tight-weave diamond mesh on all the corners.  It is heavy, dusty and difficult to deal with.  I spent two hours knocking chunks out with a hammer and snipping off enough wire mesh to clean up most of the debris.  I was certainly dressed for the occasion!  Plaster dust gets to me and makes my lungs ache. 

Meanwhile, Austin removed the original back entry door and filled in the hole. He also got most of the back porch area re-sided. The inside corner was very tricky.  It took well over an hour to figure out how to go around the re-located outlet to the left of the new door.

 

Kitchen Day 3: Another door and an opening

We had some good friends come to help out today.  Mike and Austin worked on putting in the new door to the deck.  We replaced the original 29" door with a rotting wood threshold in which neither the wood interior nor exterior storm door latched, let alone sealed, with a new 32" door moved over a foot.  Austin finished re-doing all the siding, too, which is a long, tedious process with a double layer of cedar planks.

 

After lunch, Kevin came and conquered the main part of the plaster wall between the kitchen/dining area to truly "open up" the kitchen.  Unfortunately, some unexpected wiring was discovered after it had been sliced through with a reciprocating saw (don't worry, the power was off).

And what was I doing during all this time?  I was deep-cleaning the bathrooms and kids' rooms, which included dusting blinds and ceiling fans, finishing the dreaded job of packing away outgrown, seasonal clothing and returning all the books to Emily's room, which is no small task.  (They were removed last weekend as a consequence to some obedience issues we were having.)  I also did six loads of laundry, all my quarter-end bookwork and caught up on some other long-neglected computer work.  Even if I'm not directly helping with the remodeling project, I am accomplishing a LOT and thoroughly enjoying my mommy vacation.  I am especially enjoying the silence and solitude.  Aside from the audio book I'm listening to, I'm pretty sure I have heard and spoken fewer words in a couple days than I normally would in a single morning.  This is very restful to me.

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

Kitchen D-day

I drove the kids to Hull on Tuesday afternoon to stay with my parents during the worst of the demolition.  I visited with family and headed back to Waverly the next morning.  When I got home I finished emptying the kitchen while Austin started ripping up carpet in the dining area.  We moved out all the appliances except the fridge.  Then the real fun began!

The most effect system was to have Austin do the dismantling/demo while I hauled the debris to the giant dumpster parked in the back driveway.  With them being solid, custom built cabinets, it was a little more work than just unscrewing them from the wall.  After a minor hiccup unhooking the garbage disposal and a failed shut-off valve requiring a capping of the entire water line, we had everything knocked out and cleaned up shortly before midnight.  Not a bad start!

 

The other project I worked on was organizing the temporary kitchen set-up downstairs.  I have everything I think we'll use labeled in boxes/totes and things I don't think we'll need packed away in closets.  It really helps to have a storage closet under the stairs with extra deep shelves to use as a pantry.  We also managed to get the island downstairs intact with the silverware drawer and all the plastic storage containers.  Even the fish has a new view in the basement!

I also have a large supply of random paper products to use while we don't have a dishwasher.  You know when you buy plates/cups/napkins for a special event and have a few leftover so you stick them in a box?  I had two crates of my own, plus I brought home four boxes of stuff from my mom's reverse garage sale back in May.  I've got beverage napkins leftover from our wedding, a variety of birthday themes and pretty much every holiday covered.

My other food storage place is the wall cabinets in the utility room.  These, too, are labeled on the outside to make it easier to find what you're looking for.  You don't realize how much food/storage you have in the kitchen until you have to move it.  I had been working on cutting down inventory for a while, but there's still a lot of stuff.

Dishes can be washed in the utility sink by the washer/dryer.  Hopefully the oven/stove can be temporarily hooked up sometime next week.  It's a whole new mindset when you're restricted to a microwave and a grill!  Overall, I'm happy with the set up. 

Bonus: Below is a picture of the new door on what will be the new walk-in pantry.

Kitchen move & samples

In preparation for "D-day," I have been slowly packing up little-used items in the kitchen.  Today was the big move out of the pantry.  It went faster with my voluntary slave labor. ;o)

Also, I took pictures the samples I have been stepping over and hauling around for literally two months before I finally (and gladly!) returned them all.  Here is a sneak peak:

Sugar snap peas

I planted sugar snap peas for the first time this year, and Lincoln helped me pick the first handful.  I was surprised when Lincoln willingly tried and ate an entire one raw, although he declined a second one.