Hi friends! We’ve come full circle and made it back to Michigan last weekend. The last few weeks have been FULL of so many good times with family and friends. We have lots of stories to share with you, but we’ll spread them out over a few posts. I’m going to start with a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY post for my dad.
This amazing fella turned NINETY YEARS OLD on October 31, and my ENTIRE family traveled to Storm Lake Iowa to help him celebrate. We had a weekend filled with lots of Dad’s favorite things: oysters, prime rib, pickled herring, chocolate cake, music, card games, laughter, good conversation, and – most of all – cherished family time.
Two key events of the weekend: a parking lot drive-thru birthday party, where friends and neighbors could wish Dad a Happy Birthday from a Covid-cautious distance; and a special Reformation Sunday church service. (For any non-Lutherans reading this, October 31 is not only Halloween, but also Reformation Day — the day Martin Luther made his demands for change from the Catholic Church. It’s an important date on the Lutheran calendar!) For the Sunday service at my dad’s church, the Boettcher family became a 12-voice choir, plus we provided all the organ music and additional instrumental music. It was so fun for us to all sing and play music together!
Here’s a few more photos from our wonderful weekend together.
Assembling Halloween treat bags to hand out at the drive-thru party.
Uncle Milo and cousin Karl drove down from Wisconsin to be part of the festivities.
Church service prep required a bit of musical notation.
Choir rehearsal!
Prime rib dinner setting for 20, including farm table decor.
Hannah makes sure the birthday boy gets some treats.
Drive-thru birthday party!
Gorgeous nieces!
Pretty comfy set-up for the drive-thru.
We had these signs at the entrance so people would know they’re in the right place.
Hello from Iowa! Wow, we’ve been busy since our last blog post – two weeks has flown by! After leaving our nice Airbnb south of Houghton, we spent another night in Michigan (camping in the Porcupine Mountains), then to Bayfield, Wisconsin for one night and a peek at the Apostle Islands (definitely a place I’d like to spend more time in the future!), then to Grand Rapids, Minnesota to catch up with a friend. After that, we hightailed it south on I35 to the Des Moines area for a few days, and now we’re in my home town of Storm Lake for a couple of weeks with my dad. I’ll catch you up on the Storm Lake stuff in a future post – but here’s a few snaps of our last week on the road.
Our last stop in Michigan: the Porcupine Mountains. More beautiful colors, and a nice little hike up to a lookout tower.
The Presque Isle River meets Lake Superior – very scenic!
We decided to stay in Michigan one more night and set up camp early to enjoy the Presque Isle rustic campground.
Beautiful sunset …
…and delicious dinner of pork chops smoked on our little Smokey Joe!
Speaking of food … I couldn’t leave Michigan without having a pasty, so here’s my lunch the next day. *shrug* I get the point – lots of hearty calories wrapped up in a hand-held package – but it’s probably not something I’m going to rush out and get more of.
Apostle Islands boat cruise – in weather reminiscent of Sitka! Several lighthouses along the way …
….but the main attraction is the weather-beaten outer island, Devil’s Island.
Really incredible caves and rock formations.
You know you’re in Wisconsin when you come across an accordion museum!
Next stop: Grand Rapids, Minnesota! Turns out they ALSO have a brewery! Hooray!
Which rapids do you think are grand-er: Grand Rapids, Minnesota?
Or Grand Rapids, Michigan?
Haha, it’s a little unfair to compare … the rapids in MN have been dammed on both sides.
Fantastic to see the lovely Liza – a friend from Alaska Humanities Forum days.
We walked past a station that I’ve always considered a sister station to KCAW in Sitka — KAXE in Grand Rapids MN was founded by Rich McClear, who is also one of Raven Radio’s founders! Didn’t have time to go in and say hi, unfortunately. But we did listen to the station for awhile!
Next stop: Ankeny, IA! There’s a Rails to Trails right outside my friend’s house …
…which passes by a couple of BREWERIES!! We’re with my very dear high school friend Bridget and her awesome bike.
We spent two nights in Ankeny, where the guest room is Bridget’s amazing craft room.
I think I even dream more creatively being surrounded by all these supplies!
We spent a day in downtown Des Moines with another dear friend.
No … not these goofballs …
THIS goofball!
Scott and I also go way back to high school and have one of those friendships that feel like you can just pick up where you left off, no matter how much time has passed.
We had a very artful afternoon, in the Des Moines sculpture garden ..
…and also at the Des Moines Art Center, which has an incredible exhibition from Justin Favela. Inspired by Latinx culture, art history, and food, he assembled this on site, using layer upon layer of vibrant strips of paper … like piñatas, party decorations, and parade floats!
A featured item is a giant taco pizza – a quintessential Iowa concoction, and one of Scott’s favorites.
We were also captivated by this super-weird film, trying to figure out how they filmed this to look possible!
After our art-filled afternoon, we picked up another few miles of the bike trail, biking from Madrid to Woodward, and crossing the high trestle bridge at sunset.
So much fun!
The bridge crosses the Des Moines River.
The tiny town of Luther, Iowa, pop. 152, has somehow managed to establish a really popular BBQ joint. I’m pretty sure they served more than 152 people the night we were there!
Bridget and her family own a farm near Boone, which is about 50 miles NW of Des Moines.
We stayed there with them for two nights, and spent a beautiful fall afternoon exploring their forest.
Their property is adjacent to a railway – their kids have made many helpful signs on their trails, like this one: “Railroad Look Out” (now that I think about it, I’m not sure if that’s a warning or the lookout as a destination!)
Another high bridge for the train.
We hiked up to the top of that bridge!
The Boone Scenic Railway comes through here, so we sat on a hill and waited for it to come by.
Really fun to wave at all the passengers!
Bridget & Cory put us to work the next day on a little landscaping project.
We burned a lot of sticks …
…and moved a lot of dirt!
I love spending this time with Bridget and her sweet family!
Even though it’s been over 20 years since windmills started dotting the Iowa landscape, they still look so strange and amazing.
It’s nice to be in Iowa during harvest season – look at that big pile of corn!
Greetings from Pelkie, Michigan! This is night #7 of our first grand road trip, and we’ve been enjoying the heck out of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the “Yoopers” who live here. It’s such an interesting combination of industry (mostly former copper mining sites) and wilderness. There are amazing buildings everywhere – old industrial ruins, yes, but also grand cultural and religious buildings that were built during the mining hey-days of the 1800s. As for wilderness – well, we knew we were heading for a prime leaf-peeping zone, but apparently the UP is ranked second only to New Hampshire for its amazing fall colors! Plus the rugged shorelines, forests, and Great Lakes are all awesome wonders to behold.
People sure are crazy about rock hunting here (apparently there are Rockhounding Clubs and everything). Every night we’ve been near a lake shore, there have been head lamps and black lights roaming the shorelines until all hours, perhaps searching for the mysterious fluorescent “Yooperlite” (click the link if you want to know more). We haven’t caught the rock fever yet – we’re more into the dialect and phraseologies — just today we thanked a 20-something guy in a bike store for helping us find exactly what we needed and he said, “Well, bless my buttons, I’m happy to make your day.” Other highlights of the trip are included in the picture captions below.
I’d say our biggest challenge has been spotty cell & internet service (thanks, GCI!) … which wouldn’t be such a big deal if we’d actually done a little more research in advance. Haha, oh well – I guess people figured out how to travel before the internet, eh?
Also included in photos below: the arrival of our stuff from Sitka! Plus other adventures before we left West Michigan: we biked a nice portion of Rails to Trails, kayaked several miles of the Kalamazoo River, and tried out more breweries.
Next stops: our plan is to head to Wisconsin and check out the Apostle Islands, continuing on to Grand Rapids MN to catch up with a friend, then to Des Moines to see other friends, and onward to my hometown of Storm Lake for a couple of quality weeks with my dad. Then, in early Nov, a week or so in Minneapolis. Let us know if we might cross paths with you somewhere!
Wild turkeys! Near the lake house in Glenn.
Our stuff arrived from Sitka in a full-size trailer. It was too big to turn around on our street, so the driver dropped our stuff off at the community center and we had to schlep it 1.25 miles back to the house.
Luckily, we were borrowing my sister’s pickup for other purposes, but it still took us four trips, and the remainder of our things sat in the parking lot until we came back for another load.
Not more than 10 min after we left with the first load, the woman who runs the community center called Matthew (his number was on a box) and asked if he knew someone had just dumped a bunch of his stuff in the parking lot. She was worried someone was mad at him and threw all his stuff out! Gotta love the small town neighborliness.
Good thing it was a nice day so we could deal with everything outside!
Railtown Brewing Co in Grand Rapids: good beer and unique food, inc beef bulgogi and – yes – that IS a chicken sandwich with waffles as the bread.
Have bikes, will travel!
Rails-to-Trails from South Haven to Kalamazoo. We biked the first 10 miles (to Grand Junction) and back to South Haven on a beautiful afternoon.
Handy to have a bike mechanic along!
Guardian Brewing in Saugatuk is one of our favorites so far. Great beer cheese! But also a really interesting property history – they own a farmer’s barn (built in 1912) that became a community gathering space in 1948 and was a renowned playhouse off and on until 2016.
Another beautiful day in West Michigan! Let’s kayak the Kalamazoo River!
Turtles! Nearly impossible to see in this photo, but we saw them everywhere along the way … mostly diving into the river at the first sign of danger.
Kickin’ back. (And that’s his index finger – I think he might be channeling Jeff Budd.)
Floated right past this heron.
Nice little Friday afternoon.
Apparently you can buy meat from a VENDING MACHINE in Michigan. *mind blown*
We hit the road on Oct 4. First stop: camping in Interlochen, with dinner at The Filling Station brew pub in Traverse City. Very cool set-up in an old train depot …
… with fantastic wood-fired pizza!
Camp set-up at Interlochen, including the new, HUGE (to us) 6-person tent we found at REI’s “Garage sale” for $60. (REI members, check out the garage sale in their stores – people return things for the silliest reasons and then REI resells them!)
You can’t swing a cat without hitting a pumpkin patch around here.
The mighty Mackinac Bridge, straddling the combined waters of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
We camped at Lakeshore Campground, just a few miles west of the bridge, and shared a beautiful sunset with other campers.
En route to our next destination – the Cut River Bridge, a beautiful cantilevered bridge …
… that even has a door for T. Troll.
Still enjoying fresh veggies and delicious dinners by candlelight on the road.
Clever Matthew used a twist tie to secure our knife’s sheath.
We spent a day in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Gorgeous drive to get there.
And we did a 7-mile hike through the forest to get to the shore.
Amazing cliffs, sometimes compared to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.
So of course there are many cruises per day to bring you up close and personal.
This little guy was not at all skittish of us.
We got rained on a little bit in Grand Marais so we borrowed the visitor’s center parking lot to air things out a bit.
And then treated ourselves to a night in the big city of Marquette. We were lucky to get two seats at the bar of the historic Vierling Restaurant and could enjoy the original decor …
..authentic oak bar …
… and original owner’s renowned art collection.
Firewood is a necessity for any successful campground evening.
We spent two nights here, in McLain State Park, about 10 miles north of Houghton in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Prime location right on the shore of Lake Superior.
Beautiful sunsets here, also!
I told you firewood was important … and so is charcoal!
We took a lovely drive up the Keweenaw Peninsula to Copper Harbor.
This handy roadside sign is a guide to the snowfall history of the Peninsula. Average = 240 inches/year. Highest? 390 inches of snow in 1978-1979.
It rained on us again, but our tent keeps us dry and protected from all those pine needles!
We spent a few hours in Houghton – nice town about the size of Sitka, and apparently home to Ozzy in the summer.
We found an Airbnb for a decent price that has allowed us to dry everything out, do laundry, use reliable wifi, and even take a sauna!
Months ago, when we were envisioning what we’d be doing in late September, we imagined we’d be on the road by now – perhaps traveling through the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota en route to Colorado and then continuing on to points south, like New Orleans in mid-October. But a couple of things have kept us in Michigan all month: 1) the stuff we shipped from Alaska STILL has not arrived (but we’ve been told it should be delivered today! Yay!), and 2) turns out our car needs a little attention … when we called for an appointment two weeks ago the earliest we could get in was Sept 28.
However, we’re far from sad or disappointed. Michigan in September is AMAZING! We’ve been having a lovely time: the weather is perfect (mostly sunny with a handful of rain showers here and there, highs in the mid-70s to lower 80s!); tons of delicious locally-grown food (and beer!); friendly folks; excellent biking and water activities; and bonus time with my dear sister!
We’re thinking we’ll probably take off this weekend for a few weeks on the road, but since all our plans have been tossed back up in the air, we’re still undecided about where to go. So many possibilities, and now with a more limited time frame … how terribly exciting! We’ll keep you posted, and maybe see you along the road somewhere?
In the meantime, here’s a few snaps of our last couple of weeks, including a wacky road trip to check out vintage campers, our ongoing quest to visit local breweries, and hanging out with some local people and wildlife.
It all started when we saw an ad like this: cute vintage campers for sale!
Curiosity was piqued when we saw the campers are part of a big antique farm where Great Danes are raised. Whaaaa??? Road trip!
We drove 200 miles into the “thumb” of the Michigan “mitten” to the Great Dane Antique farm north of Lapeer….
…and this is the first thing we saw.
Of the 30+ campers on their lot, 3-4 of them were pretty cute. But mostly they looked like this:
Although we had made an appointment to meet the owners and see some of the campers, we wandered around their entire property for 45 minutes and never saw them. Two big Great Danes barked at us, but no people!
I think this one was priced at $3,500.
Oh well – although it was weird to not meet the owners, we weren’t really *surprised* that the campers were overpriced and in poor condition, and the craziness of this place made the road trip totally worthwhile!
Plus we got to enjoy EagleMonk Brewery’s beautiful backyard beer garden in Lansing on our way home.
80+ degrees and sunny?? Wiki wiki – to the beach!
Lovely day in downtown Grand Rapids, where we watched folks fishing in the rapids …
…. enjoyed more local beer from CityBuilt Brewery …
and had dinner and drinks at Max’s South Seas Hideaway!
There’s a creamery about 5 miles from where we’re staying — we biked over there one day to get some cheese and say hi to the goats.
We thanked them for their good work with some good scratches.
South Haven is just 10 miles south of us. Here’s where Lake Michigan meets the Black River, and the main boat harbor is just inside here. But check out that wave action! Seems like a crazy place for a harbor!
And lots of splashing over the piers. One wave caught me off guard and my feet & ankles were soaked!
Blustery beach wedding, with runaway flower girls!
There has also been some more garden preserving.
This time it was tomato jam and more bloody mary mix.
For the jam, tomatoes get cooked down in skillets with just a *smidgen* of sugar. (Ha!) So yummy!
Biking through the neighborhood one day, we saw over 15 deer in this yard!
Salt of the Earth is a farm-to-table restaurant in Fennville – we had an incredible dinner there. Everything was delicious, but this s’more was unbelievably good!
The What Not Inn is just a few miles up the road …
…and on Monday nights they have a jazz trio playing, with sort of an “open mic” atmosphere. Folks can come up, name a tune for the band, and grab the mic to sing along.
Amish country, near Bloomingdale …
…where we learned about the most amazing bulk foods store and bakery.
Even with all our wanderings, there’s been plenty of time to enjoy the porch by day …
…and by night. Feeling VERY lucky and grateful to be here.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been 12 days since we left Sitka, but at the same time it seems like weeks ago. We clearly needed some recovery time after all the craziness of last month – and we are deeply grateful for this haven in Michigan where we can rest and regroup. Turns out our bodies took a beating doing all that work last month – especially our hands and wrists – so the ability to heal has been wonderful. Sunshine, fresh produce, and full nights of sleep have been our daily vitamins. We’re having fun exploring the area, meeting the neighbors, and figuring out shelving/storage for all our stuff. We can drive for miles and miles (at 70+ MPH!!) and get to other towns! Plus we finally have a PO Box!
We had originally thought we’d set off on a 6-8 week road trip starting next weekend, but that’s a bit up in the air now … largely due to not knowing the ETA of the stuff we shipped from Sitka. Obviously we need to be here when it arrives, but also – all of our camping gear is in that shipment, so we’re a little limited in our abilities to explore far and wide until we have some of those things. But no big deal – we’re having a delightful time, the weather is perfect, and there are so many hikes/paddles/bike rides around here! We should know more later this week and be able to figure out when we’re heading out and in which direction …
…but in the meantime, here’s a few photos of what’s been going on.
In Hollland, we stumbled upon the weekly sailing regatta …
… and checked out Holland State Park, with its vast amounts of sand and sky.
Oh my, the sky!
I mean, I love Sitka, but this forecast comparison kind of says it all.
On Labor Day, Matthew smoked some country-style pork ribs … nom nom nom
There’s an awesome farm-to-table restaurant in Fennville with an amazing bar!
Speaking of drinks … we clearly have some work to do in visiting West Michigan breweries. There’s over 50 in our 40-mile radius!
Our closest brewery is Waypost – just a few miles up the road, with good beer and free-ranging chickens.
My sister’s sweet lake house gets some pretty nice sunset views.
Aside from resting up and exploring the area, our big project has been to help harvest my sister’s garden and preserve the produce.
The featured garden items are two dozen heirloom tomato plants, including these delicious San Marzanos.
We harvested 175 pounds of produce during our first weekend!
And this is the haul from Weekend Two — approx. 70 pounds.
Peppers are also a hot item (pun intended) .. like these pepperoncinis, which have now been pickled.
A stovetop in full production mode!
Peeled tomatoes …
…get cooked down with some onions (this is a before and after of the same pot – look how much they cooked down!) …
And then put through a food mill and mixed with spices to become bloody mary mix!
Colorful marinated peppers will definitely put a smile on your face!
Beautiful canned tomatoes!
We canned 47 quarts of stuff in the first weekend, and another 30 quarts this weekend. Next weekend we plan to do tomato jam and possibly experiment with a sweet & spicy sauce.
By noon on Sept 1, we had two houses reasonably ready for new tenants, all of our stuff was sold, shipped, or stored, and we were on a plane. But WOW was it a wild ride to get to that point.
The captions on the pictures below tell most of the story. But the pictures don’t include:
The crazy Facebook marketplace sale we did on Sunday. We needed to sell our car, couch, mattress, and bikes, but wanted to use them until the last possible minute. I put those items up for sale at 8:30 am on Sunday, and did nothing but monitor texts and messages for the next two hours! Our rust bucket Jeep Cherokee was a particularly hot item – there was actually a bidding war for it, and we ended up getting $75 more than we asked for!
Neither house met our high standards for being 100% clean and put together. The newly-remodeled house still had a few unfinished odds and ends – like, the curtains we purchased as closet doors didn’t get hung, the electrician needed to come back and finish a few small bits, and the bathroom mirror and towel racks didn’t get hung. And in our house, we didn’t have time to touch up the paint and I’m pretty sure we missed the upper kitchen cabinets in our cleaning frenzy (although I’m pleased to report that we did a good job with the most important places, e.g. toilet, tub, sinks, fridge, and stove!) . But we’re fortunate to have understanding new tenants (and the ability to reduce their rent a bit this month in appreciation for their flexibility).
The AMAZING help of our friends is somewhat captured in the photos, but not to the degree that demonstrates the depth of our appreciation for them. Everyone who loaned tools and pickup trucks, helped with projects, took away our garbage and recycling, brought us dinners and snacks — THANK YOU!! This truly would not have been accomplished without your help.
The lovely porch party we had on a beautiful Monday evening – it was so nice to see many of our Sitka friends, and have a little celebratory send-off.
Impossible to capture in photos is the complex mix of feelings we have as we reach the end of this insane effort and transition into a new chapter and adventures unknown. Tears were shed as we said “see ya later” to our friends and houses and sweet community of Sitka, but there’s also so much excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead. Oh, and we’re deliriously exhausted, also.
After two days of travel – including a perfect evening in Seattle with some dear friends, followed by a less-than-perfect snafu with baggage storage at SEATAC – we arrived in Michigan on Thursday night. We’re spending Friday very slowly and quietly taking care of a few bits of business and settling into my sister’s house on the lake. This weekend we plan to help her harvest her massive crop of tomatoes, raspberries, and peppers, and preserve vast quantities of produce.
Thanks for following along with our crazy journey this month. We’ll keep you posted on new adventures as they develop. Hugs and love all around!
Three cheers for Ron who made all the magic happen with remudding the walls, grouting the shower, and hanging crown molding and baseboards … plus giving advice on other tasks along the way. Also, every time he drove over the bridge he’d look to see if the lights were on or if we were just sitting on our porch and then send a “get to work!” text. Ha!
The walls and ceiling are painted “Mr. Kitty.” Yes, that’s the name of the paint.
Bit of a traffic jam on Friday morning! Daisy and Dana are the Very Good Dogs who came to work with Ron and waited in the van for head scratches.
On-demand hot water demands more electricity …
….so the electricians moved in …
…and we even got the City involved in boosting our service.
On Friday (8/27), Kayla painted crown molding …
…and baseboards …
…while Matthew started to lay flooring.
Beautiful day on Saturday for a couple trips to the dump! We cleaned up that pile of crap that had been sitting on our deck, including (most notably) the remains of the chimney we knocked out the purple house back in July. Total weight taken to the dump on Sat? 960 lbs!
New electrical panel going in, looking as strung out as we were feeling!
Bedroom #1 on Sunday morning (8/29): floor and trim finished, and now being used as primary staging area.
Sunday was a day of odd problem-solving. Need to glue the edge of a countertop? Create pressure against it with a clever vice grip set-up.
Need to reglue the cutting board holding rack and hold it in place til it dries? Wedge a paint stick between it and the drawer, and then grip that drawer closed!
Brant and Cindy to the rescue on so many problems! They spent half of Sunday in the bathroom, installing the toilet, gluing the linoleum, and figuring out IKEA assembly for the sink. They also hung curtain rods and doors!
Turns out Lazy Susans are pretty persnickity to re-install.
But boy oh boy are we having a knee-slapping good time!
Sunday afternoon: Flooring is getting laid in the final room.
By Sunday night (8/29), things were in pretty good shape, and we had a celebratory cocktail on our deck.
Monday was a whirlwind of final details and clean-up, but by 5 pm we managed to have the place in pretty good shape. A bunch of our friends came over for a “see-ya-later” party and to check out what we’ve been up to. I didn’t take any pictures of the party, but here’s a series of photos of the finished product (plus the plant collection of our new tenants!).
Electric panel door still needed an adjustment.
We left the closet as-is for historical reference.
(We didn’t get that rack put together until Tuesday morning, and of course it took WAY longer than we anticipated (thanks, IKEA!) so it added to the excitement and stress of our last day.)
Monday night (8/30), 9:30 pm: We’re feeling pretty good about how the remodeled house is looking, but here’s what our own house is looking like. At this point, we have only 38 hours until we board a plane! (Yes, I sold the couch on Sunday morning but it didn’t get picked up until Tuesday.)
On Tuesday, we started at 6 am to deal with the rest of our stuff. First, packing up all the stuff we are shipping:
We got our last load to the barge at 4:50 pm, 10 minutes before they close.
In the meantime, our new tenants next door start moving in. Because of his work, he has access to a flat bed with a crane. Very entertaining!
Next up: getting all the stuff we’re leaving behind into our storage area. One of the biggest challenges was hanging Matthew’s kayak!
Final items got into storage at 1:00 am.
1:30 am Wed morning (9/1): we’re down to what we’re taking with us on the plane, but there’s still a fair bit of cleaning to do. Plus, there was a whole pile of unwanted stuff on the table outside and a TON of recycling. Huge shout-out to Cleo, Scott, Grace, Charlie, Cindy, and Brant for helping us clear that out on Wednesday!
After 4.5 hours of sleep, we went back at 8:30 am on Wed to finish cleaning.
What a week! As of Wed night, the bathroom tile is ready for grout, we’ve primed everything that’s getting painted, and the first coat of paint is done on both bedrooms, the kitchen cabinets, and all the trim. Tomorrow the electrician is coming to replace the panel and fix various outlets, and we plan to finish all the painting. Plus hopefully do some outdoor clean-up and a trip to the dump.
The other night (on the one sunny day we’ve had all month!) we had some friends over for drinks . After taking a look around at our house projects, one of them said, “I thought you were planning to leave at the end of the month but it looks like your plans might have changed?” Ha! Nope, we’re still leaving! Only six days left! In addition to finishing up these house renovations, apparently we’re hosting an informal party on Saturday (!!!), and there’s still plenty of packing/shipping/cleaning to do in our main house. Ay yi yi – what kind of crazy circus is this anyway!?
But seriously, we’re having fun (mostly) and feeling excited in spite of being totally exhausted and occasionally overwhelmed. And we’re truly, deeply grateful to our friends who are feeding us, helping with the project, loaning tools, or just reading this and sending good vibes. THANK YOU!!
The neighbors absolutely LOVE what we’ve done with the place. By the way, behind all those blue tanks is Chris, the nice fella who drained our oil tank and replaced the filter.
After all the new wall mud, there had to be some sanding, and a heckuva lot of dust!
Not sure how well this picture captures it, but the difference between the old textured plaster and the new look is amazing.
On goes the primer!
Hooray for Cleo! She is an absolute champion painter this week!
Kitchen cupboard doors and drawers getting their first coat of paint.
Old beast of a water heater vs. sleek new on-demand heater.
Keith the plumber hooking up the new hot water heater.
Kayla spent the better part of 4 days in the bathroom, swearing at fiddly little tile spacers, and using this laser level thing to get those tiles in line.
So many hours in the tub!
Using tape to fight gravity for the bottom rows.
I don’t have a FINAL final photo, but this is close. Tiling wrapped up at noon on Wed; grouting will happen on Thurs.
Late on Tuesday night (Aug 17), after a week of going at it, we peeled the last of the old texture off the walls and ceiling. (Well … it’s not quite *all* gone: we decided not to deal with the ceilings or closet walls in the bedrooms. We just couldn’t take it anymore! Plus, we’ll have an easy reminder of what it all used to look like.) What an effort! But, no regrets. It’s going to look SO much better.
The biggest puzzle of the week has been about the hot water heater. We have a line on two on-demand heaters: one electric and one propane. At first we thought electric would be the obvious way to go. But we talked with an electrician and it seemed like we might have to upgrade AND move the whole electric panel for appropriate power and placement. So then we thought maybe propane would be the way to go … until we learned what the code requirements are for tank placement. The tank would have to be on the opposite side of the house, which is aesthetically terrible, but also requires a whole ton of plumbing. Then we entertained the notion of putting the old beast of a storage tank back in place and just leaving it as-is. But it takes up so much space in an already small house! We talked to the electrician again and it turns out we don’t need to *move* the panel, just upgrade it a bit. It’s still a hefty $$ estimate, but it seems like a good investment … not just for now, but also to support future upgrades (i.e., if we’re ever able to add in-floor heat!).
Anyone need a 47-gallon hot water tank? We have one up for grabs. 🙂
Up next: we’ll start to tile the bathroom and paint everything!
So many hours of looking at this stuff close up, of course one starts to invent games. This was the shape of Africa, until I scraped into Nigeria.
Many thanks to Grace and Cleo for coming to help apply paint remover! So thankful for amazing friends! (I missed getting a photo of Cleo, but I think she’ll be back to help with painting!)
Matthew did this ENTIRE ceiling! His shoulders are crying for mercy.
The aftermath.
We scooped all those remains into paper bags…
…and each bag weighs about 35 lbs. That means we pulled off over 600 lbs of this stuff!
Meanwhile, new subfloor in the bathroom …
…and backer board for the tile!
Here’s Ron, the professional contractor who miraculously found time to help us out a bit. He did the tile backer board, and now is applying new mud to the walls/ceiling.
At this point, the green house is about as naked as it’s gonna get, and we’re almost at the turning point to start putting it back together again. We’re 13 days in — 18 to go. Seems to be right on schedule, riiiiiiiiight??? We’re definitely tired and sore, but spirits are high and humor is intact.
It’s been four FULL days – mostly dedicated to our obsession with making these walls less ridiculous. I think we’ve mastered the technique now: we apply a thick layer of paint remover, then use a garden mister to keep it wet for awhile – even up to two days. The water seems to help us get through to the bottom layer of paint/mud and has made most of the scraping pretty easy. Just time-consuming! There have definitely been moments when we’ve wondered if we’d ever get past this stage and why we were so crazy to do it in the first place. But, seriously, that texturing was SO heinous – I just can’t in good conscience own something that looks so ridiculous. Plus, I think we’ve each come to a similar realization this week: Matthew’s quote is “These houses weren’t built to be special, but they ARE special.” And I’ve grown to think of myself as trustee of sorts – as though these houses have a storyline of their own, and we’re just here during this moment in their history to help them realize their potential.
Meanwhile this week, we also managed to remove the final layer of linoleum flooring, pulled out the hot water heater (we’re switching to an on-demand unit!), and got rid of most of our personal belongings that we’re not moving or storing.
Next week we’ll be getting some help with installing tile backer board in the bathroom and a professional mudding crew to get the walls/ceiling in shape for painting.
This last layer of linoleum was laid with some pretty strong glue!
Check out those awesome lazy Susans! Those are definitely going back into the cabinets.
Long staples were used to hold the multiple layers of flooring together. We must have pulled at least 50 of these suckers out!
We pulled together a little rummage sale in the bedroom.
Getting advice on fixing rot.
The paint remover appears pink, and is also removing purple paint from our brushes, leftover from the exterior paint job next door! The combo is like a confetti bubble gum ice cream.
Keeping things wet for easier removal.
Draining that beast of a hot water tank!
Well, well, well … more interesting carpet layers to remove.
