House Front

I was recently going to show my house to a friend, and pulled up my blog. But I found out I didn't have any pictures from this summer. Here is the house front project. 

Dad helped move LOTS of dirt, 

so I could have a front flower garden.

Christmas Wrapping

Christmas wrapping at my house means more than just wrapping gifts!

This window turned out the best so far. My kitchen window is so bad, I'm even going to let you see it.

New Wood

Josh and I went to Menards and bought a piece of oak to go above my kitchen window. It is beautiful and will be even more so once he finishes it. 

clamped in and ready to cut

BTW this is an old picture but shows the empty spot well

It will go between the upper cabinets. I will keep you updated on the progress.

Master Bedroom Repair

There was a huge gapping hole in our bedroom. When we started to hear the wind blow through the wall, we decided it was time to finish the repair.

adding insulation

my hero!

new mud

Attic

This weekend’s project was the attic. 

attic entrance

We have to put in these things Josh calls baffolds (I don’t even know how to spell it!) Anyway, they go between the trusses and down to the soffit. The idea is to give the air a breathing channel up above the insulation. Right now it is hard to imagine because of the lack of insulation. But anyway, that’s another project coming soon.

Josh crawled on his back and shimmed around the edge of our house putting these things in. I stayed out in the open and was his go-fer. By the end of Saturday we were so done with being in the attic.

We still have to fix this hodge podge of duct work, then Josh says he is ready to blow in insulation.  

It's Gone

Do you remember that ugly barn we had?

http://blueberrybetsy.blogspot.com/2015/03/did-i-tell-you.html

Thanks to the guys who helped on our roofing job, the shed got torn down and disposed of!

Pie Day

Fridays are pie-days at Mom's kitchen. 

Every other Friday I have the day off and help Mom make pies. 

We usually make about six or eight of them together. 

If you want one Naomi sells them at her stand. 

Brian will also do special delivery if you work at Dow Corning :)

Chim-chim-i-ney

rough state

washing it

primed and cutting in new color

solid brown

final project

Josh’s Mom scrubbed our fireplace, primed it, painted it and even traced mortar color on all the little lines. Wow. Her patience was exemplary and I am so THANKFUL she did this tedious task for us.

Crawlspace Correction

 For those of you who thought that picture was us in the crawlspace, that was us in the kitchen getting ready to go in the crawlspace. 

entry way...ie hole in the kitchen floor

That's Josh standing on the ground of the crawlspace his knees are at the kitchen floor level

These pictures still don’t do it justice, because I’m not willing to take my camera down in the dreadful space. But at least maybe you will have a better idea. It really is about one foot tall. In order to get under the main center beam I have to go to the “big” dugout spot and literally pull myself through on my flat belly and the larger circumference area of my back side still rubs the board! Anyway, my wonderful husband and I spent several more hours down there on Monday night, so that we could turn the heat on.

Roofing

At the start of this week our roof looked like this.

On Monday it looked like this.

Today it looks like this!

Our church helped us put a new roof on our house this week. 

The guys from our families, friends and church all worked together the last few days and turned our roof from dilapidated to fantastic.

Crawl Space

Josh did not want me to take this picture. Thus the happy face.

Working in our crawlspace is NOT fun or romantic at all. But is has to be done. We doned some coveralls and conquered the ductwork on the North end of the house. After that we had this lovely meal. We still have not found the time, or worked up the courage to conquer the South end.

Next Quilt

Here is the quilt top I've actually made for our king size bed. I still need to put it together, but I have the top done.

Double Wedding Ring

At last I finished the double wedding ring pattern I started months ago. I had thought about making a quilt top for our bed, but once I started, I realized it would take me about thirty years to make an entire king size quilt top. 

Now that it is complete, I get to look at my three-piece “quilt top” on my cedar chest everyday. Which is almost as nice as looking at it on my bed.

Five Months Ago

I married this cute guy!

1.2.3.

Saturday Josh worked on tearing down our junkiest shed. 

ONE

TWO

THREE

Our insurance company has been nagging us to do something about this eye sore. It was structurally challenged, had a full two-foot gap across the ridge, the entire north end was open to the elements and the “attic” was so short Josh couldn’t even stand up under it.* So we decided it would be wiser to tear it down then to try to fix it. Our insurance company should be happy when they come out for their next inspection.

*Josh’s note. And there was three mice too.

Great Smokey Mountains

One of the best things we did on our honeymoon was visit the Great Smokey Mountains. It was the first time both of us remembered seeing real mountains. We took a ride up a lift and got "stuck" because of a storm. But it made for some super cool pictures.

Josh had a great time taking pictures as this cloud come up out of the valley and rolled over this hill.

Sibs

I used to look at Grandma Cook's sibling picture and try to figure out the Great Aunts' and Uncles' names. I remember learning the boys by how much/little hair they had. I only knew the girls because I could remember meeting them. 

I wonder how our grandkids will tell us apart in fifty years?

Girls

Judith and the kids are here for a summer visit. Kaelyn and Janessa came over to my house for an afternoon play date. The ohhhs and ahhs over the doll house were fabulous.

My favorite quote of the day was regarding the bathroom. One of the girls asked to use it, but when she saw it (its still in a rough state) she turned around and said very sweetly, "I guess I'll just hold it."

Ben and Stacey

My friend Ben is getting married today! I'm so happy for him and Stacey. It has been fun to see their relationship and I look forward to seeing what God has in store for them. 

Here is the gift I embroidered for them.

pillowcases with purple (her favorite color)

Shis-ka-bobs

One of our best wedding gifts was a charcoal grill. Josh has been learning all kinds of new techniques. A recent dinner was these shis-ka-bobs. He just spread some Terriaki sauce on them while he grilled, and they were FANTASTIC!

And the dish was from Aunt Gera