The Green Picnic for St Patrick's day..80 degrees in MI

No very often does it hit 80 degrees on March 17 in Michigan..in fact until this day it had not been recorded that it ever got that warm.  We declared a Green Picnic day since it was St Patricks day and it was warm enough that everything has started turning green.  We had green juice - asparagus, pickles on our burgers, quacamole' and kiwi.  and Key Lime pie for dessert...oh there may have been a few green M&M's thrown in for good measure.   The playground behind us was a huge hit!

Judah even brought his Green blanket

Grandpa wore his new green shirt...and got grill grease on it!

(Judah is also practicing with obscene gestures)

Noah and Broden practicing being tree huggers....sort of on the green theme

Yeah peace out man!

You guys just hang out here....we will come back in the morning!

The zip rail

What a great day to hang out with family at the park!

Finally Floored!

Whooo hooo!  here it is folks - the kitchen is finally coming together.  The floor and counter tops and sink were installed Monday Tuesday and Wednesday!

The new look without the backsplash and trim.

New deeper sink - SS is gone!

Great help - Cory and Devin were available to help move the stove - frig - and sink in following the flooring.

These guys are good workers and need a job - contact me if you need good help and muscle!

Still Floored

When we removed the carpet - several of the green and white tiles literally came up with it - barely stuck down to the floor - so we decided to leave the tiles until we knew when the new flooring would be installed - as it would only take a few minutes to pick up the tiles.

Well how wrong we were - almost all the rest of them were "well stuck" and had to be scraped off with the hammer and putty knife.  (No a flat shovel would not work - we tried that)

So six hours later we were ready for a new floor!

The black floor!

Kinda sticky too! - dont go there with white socks Nancy!

Hope the flooring guys dont cancel!

The Snowball Effect

The snowball effect on this old house is that when you decide to do a big project...the destruction just keeps rolling,   This was the day we uncovered the sun room floor -pulling the carpet.  It feels like we have been pulling carpet - vinyl and staples from the floor for about a month...oh yeah.  We have been!

Of course the new flooring will go all the way down the basement stairs so we had to pull the final blue shag off the steps.  It revealed that the paneled wall was "firred out" and that the stairs ran underneath it.  The paneling was cut to form to the carpet and left impossible trim options so it came off the wall too.  (Ah more pink and brown brick - how lovely)

It then dawns upon me that these once wall papered walls still have the glue on them.. Do I really want all the water and TSP solution on new vinyl... uh NO - so these get washed.

At this point I am looking for a volunteer to wash the walls but apparently she thinks pointing the camera is a better job for her.   (She actually was pulling staples and nails out of the sunroom floor - we really do make a great team)

And You might as well paint those walls now - so I did - but did not take pictures yet!

This is my hobby distraction from home repair.  A couple of the Angel fish have paired up and have begun laying eggs.  Of course Clown loaches like fish eggs for breakfast - So I purchase a use aquarium and set it up for Angel breeding - we will see how they do. 

Well I am floored!

You may have wondered what we have been up to lately in this old house!

We have been working on the kitchen and it is time to get a bid on new flooring - but what where we up against.  Here is it - 8 Layers of floor!

counting up from the bottom we have

green and white tile

underlayment

vinyl

another layer of vinyl

another layer of underlayment

another layer of vinyl

and when you get to the dining area

carpet pad

and the top carpet!

and I did not count the leftover rubber backing from the former carpet that was stuck to the underlayment in the dining area

This is the leftover rubberback from some original carpet.  The white stains are the "pool traffic pattern" from the slider to the hallway.   It explains why the carpet stains would not disappear - they were coming up from the bottom...well maybe.

Both layers of underlayment were stapled down - so we spent many hours pulling staples - about ten per square of tile.  Nancy was a great help making sure the junk and dust was all taken out.

Pulling the staples and nails

This green and white tile is original to the house about 1953-54.  We could have kept it for the color - but there were lots of holes from all the staples - and most tiles are ready to come up.  We will keep them there until the new flooring is ready to be put down.

This shows the before picture of the cupboards - they are yet to be painted.

Allright!  Nancy came home from running errands - Time for some OG

This shows some of the painted cupboards!

Okay - now back to pulling staples.

One fun thing we found on a corner tile was a muddy dog print.  He must have been in there just prior to laying the floor!

Just a little clowning around

It was Time to rearrange the aquarium!  a thorough gravel cleaning and major water change.  I rearranged the contents a little bit - not much, and it has made a huge difference for the clown loaches.  They have been active all day and into the evening - where before they were under the rocks before dark.  They have even been doing the "loach happy dance"  something I have only see them do occasionally.  There are four in the tank - and they are hard to photograph - but tonight they were hanging out together...must be the full moon.  Of course nothing gets by the Gold Sevrum...he thinks he is a loach!

Playing over and under

A loach on the rocks...cool!



Birthday and Anniversary Party

January 2 was Harv and Megs 64th Anniversary and Megs 85th Birthday

We met together to host a party for this very special occasion.

We missed some family members that were not feeling up to par or could not be there due to the driving distance..like they were out of state or something...but the party must go on!

Noah and Broden jammed some awesome tunes on the double organ - there are two keyboards, just right for brothers to share (sort of) - and then a spare one for even more sound!  It even had an accelerator pedal that make it louder!....often!

The honored couple with dessert - Coconut cream pie and apple pie from Russes

We really did have a fine sandwich bar before this - but I did not take any pictures of it...I was eating!

Broden decided to take Great Grandma for a little spin. 

 He begins his training as a CNA just like Grandma Nancy

Keep your feet up...I'm hitting second gear!

Clayton  brought some toys for the kids to play with if they could not find enough to do in a nursing home. 

 This is a tail tag game - so the kids were "chasing tail" in the nursing home chapel!

.....Not unlike some of the residents I suppose

Nancy brought the paper and crayons for the kids to make Birthday Cards

What great grand kids...What great Grandparents!

Pie Panic! - Hurry up!

Ah ...The ladies