Just the simple life

Sunrise/Sunset Update:

Sun comes up around 10:10 am and goes down around 3:30pm. This will change soon as shortest day of the year approaches Dec 21st. The shortened days haven't bothered us much- we just keep doing what we do best- work.

Star Update:

Oh my Goodness!!! The stars look like you could jut pick them out of the sky. They are so bright and close. We have not seen the Northern Lights yet- just can't seem to stay up late enough. Sometimes the moon is out, the stars are out and the sun is almost up- all at the same time!!!

Weather Update:

As we were traveling North we made a bet on how cold it would be at Clear AFB which is just south of Fairbanks. My bet- negative 13'- Mike's bet was negative 20'. Mike was the winner with a winning temperature of -22' (YES that's a negative 22). His prize: Making me whiz outside (no bathrooms around in that part of the country) BUT that did not happen. I waited until the next gas station!! I wasn't going to literally freeze my behind off. This was a 37' difference from Trapper Creek. It was only 15' at home.

Garage Update:

We are really glad we put heated floors into the garage. It is so nice to get into the truck and it is warm. As Mike says "You would freeze your ornaments off" if we didn't have a heated garage. We also don't have to worry about icy stairs (their inside) or sidewalks. The trucks melt off and the water evaporates.

Wildlife Update:

We've had moose in the yard- I kept seeing tracks right across the drive. After coffee yesterday morning- we discovered moose (2) eating tree branches just across the pond. They could hear us and as we watched them from the windows- they acted like they could see us. Later they bedded down and slept just yards from the house. You can see the two black spots in the above picture- Right in the center - that's our moose.

We have been busy with work and the house has taken a back seat for a bit. BUT we are getting alot of small projects completed on the weekends. Mike has the closet doors on one guest bedroom, the trim out is getting done in bits and pieces as we have time. We have taken our old boat cleats and created a coat rack in our entry and the office has been cleaned up. The office no longer looks like a pile of projects but rather a real office. My furniture has been installed and now I feel like it is really an office.

We had Thanksgiving at our house- guests included Terry, Tyler and Levi (Arlene was in Wisconsin), Ron, Kelli, Louis and Zach (Arlene's Brother's family) and neighbors- Pat and Mary Walsh. Quite a house full and lots of food!!!

NEWS!!! The cat has been kicked out of our bedroom. For some reason she has taken to meowing and pawing at us in the middle of the night- consistently. I was tired of being tired and the cat hair was getting a bit much. Now she is off the bed and kicked out of the bedroom all the time!!! Nightly she roams the house howling and yee-owling and paws at the door but at least I don't have a 20 lb cat attacking me in the night. She has calmed down a bit. She has gotten better about all the ruckus but almost every night at 3am you can bet she is in the stairway howling.

Cookin' going on!!!

The kitchen is now finished except for the hood pipe. In the last week, the final appliances were installed- stove top, sink (now classified as an appliance to us) and dishwasher. The countertop has been laid- ceramic tile and grouted. For once I was able to put my skills to use and grout the tiles, seal them and clean up the area.

Mike installed the stove top and is shown below with his stove top, pot filler and hood (which still has to be hooked up. The stove top came with all kinds of accessories such as a wok stand and griddle.

The sink was installed after the tile countertop was finished. Of course "PLUMBING" is a dirty word to Mike. It is always a struggle and does not come naturally like all the other things he does. BUT he got it completed without much pain- only one big scrape on his bare head.

Picture of completed area- all moved in.

View of countertop and sink area- back splash to be installed soon.

Mike said that there were requests for better pictures of the living room floor. Well- here it is....the furniture accentuates the colors in the floors and vice versa. It is one of those floors that changes with every color that you put with it.

Now the days are getting shorter. We have about 18 inches of snow on the ground and each day it gets deeper. Today we walked the neighborhood and it was a real workout walking through the deep fluffy snow. The snow is so dry- you cannot make it stick together.

We are the only people moving on our road and then only by foot.

Snow on the rooftop!!

WOW! Cool! I can't believe all the work you've done!

After three weeks- Finally I am home.
Mike picked me up from the airport on Thursday. We stayed in Anchorage as we had alot of Friday shopping to do- Groceries, furniture and details. Consequently I was picking out furniture and countertop blindly as I had not seen the finished floors, trim or cabinets.

Friday night we get home after a long day of picking out stuff, getting groceries and all of those things to make a house run smoothly. We arrive at 10 pm and have to unload all of the food- it is too cold to let it sit in the truck overnight- it would freeze our fruit and juices. So still I have not been inside the house- it is my job to get into the truck box and hand out all of the Costco boxes to Mike. After about 30 minutes, we are finished with that chore and I finally get to see the house.

I could not believe how finished it had become in the three weeks I was gone. The stone floors has been laid, doors are hung, trim is on, cabinets are complete and waiting for a countertop. Appliances have been installed as much as they can be without a countertop (stove and sink are next). Bathrooms are complete.

The Freezer (left) and refrigerator (right) are full of meat and food. The Hood (to the right of the refrigerator) still has a pipe to be installed.

The bedroom with alot of light!

Our towel warmer is installed! What a needed tool in this part of the country! Our towels are always warm and dry. It is also a great way to dry off mittens, sweaters and hats.

My "door" bell (from the Pickard farm) is installed under the deck and ready for ringing. I just need to attach a rope so it can be used as a door bell.

Mike and the Lily cat have found their respective places on the couch and loveseat. Both have enjoyed the new TV. We have been busy unpacking the kitchen stuff, doing laundry and getting caught up.

The snow is about 12" deep, fluffy and barely wet. It is weird to see it stacked up on top of everything. Where ever it stops is where it stays- we have no wind so it just gets taller and taller- inch by inch. .

Today the decks were scooped off in anticipation of more snow. It is warmer here than in Anchorage but we have all the snow. The sunrise is about 8:30 am and sunset is around 4:30 pm. While we have daylight- it is a very low level of light.

Trimming it out

So much for keeping this up to date.....I have been traveling and Mike has been working his tail off. While I 've been gone- the kitchen cabinets came in, thirteen doors arrived and the furniture is ready. Of course Mike had to go pick up everything himself, get it off the trailer and up the stairs. We had picked up all of the appliances before I left for Boston and they are all in the garage.

I don't have any updated pictures but so far Mike has laid all of the stone flooring and trimmed out the windows and doors. What a job! He is really glad to be done with that part of the interior work as it was all sore knees and rough hands work.

Mike has been busy this week getting the base cabinets attached to the walls, upper cabinet hung and lining it all up. By the time I get home- the kitchen will be ready for countertops.....I'm feeling a bit guilty with all the work he is doing without me around. But with me gone.....I am not around to complicate decisions and projects. He can do his own thing and get alot done when I'm not around!

We are moved!!!

The painting is done and it looks great! All corners are touched up and finished. One final nap before we started on the clean up the rest of the flooring. Lily and I got a few quick winks on a sunny afternoon.

We moved last weekend October 6/7th! The laundry room, bathroom and bedroom are 90% complete. Just the baseboard trim has to be finished. Mike has been busy getting the kitchen and great room floor tiles laid. This is quite a large job. With the help of Arlene mixing mud and cleaning up- he has made some fast progress. Since I have been traveling- I can't be there to assist until the weekends. We have hung all the closet shelves but all the doors are on order, so it will be awhile before the closets have doors.

The office and safes have been moved into place. Thank goodness for neighbors with forklifts! That tool made it easier to move the big stuff.

The office is moved and organized with a view outside.

Golden coins

Arlene told me that I would know when fall arrived. She said the wind would blow for half a day and then the trees would turn. Sure enough that day came and went...the wind blew and I waited. As you can see the leaves have turned and the ground looks like it is littered with round golden coins. Funny- the things you forget- it has been so long since I had heard the leaves falling. It is so quiet- you can hear them fall to the ground. Since we rarely have wind- the leaves do not have to compete with the howl of the wind (unlike Iowa and South Dakota). They just float through the air to the ground- slowly- almost like snow flakes. I guess the leaves are just letting me get used to the motion of things falling from the sky (snow is in my future).

Fuel has been delivered, the boiler is keeping the house warm and we are happy. Now we also have propane to fuel the grill and the future kitchen cooktop. Kitchen cabinets and appliances will arrive in early November so we will be camping out at the house with microwave and grill.

Mike and I have been extremely busy. No sleep and long days have kept us from this blog. We are trying to get into the house in the next two weeks. We have made alot of progress considering we are not electricians, painters or general contractors. I know we have really driven Casey crazy with our phone calls that go like this: "Casey- which wires do we hook up to what post and OUCH! that shocked me! No I don't have any red wires- I just have blue, white and black."....and that's how it goes with us....lots of phone calls and instruction over the phone on how to wire up 3 way switches and fan kits. Thank goodness Casey is more patient than his father- I'd hang up on Mike as ouchy as he can get. But regardless Mike has been busy getting all of the switches and plugs operational and now has them all working.

Once the sheetrocking work was complete- Mike sprayed all of the interior with primer, then paint. That was quite a job considering he had to be on a ladder to spray the ceiling. He'd come home all white from head to toe with eyelashes tipped in paint.

On the weekends- have been busy trimming (painting) out all of the walls, installing light fixtures and working at my real job during the week. I don't know whose idea it was to have the ceiling one color, the walls another and then for "interest" another color in the house! So we have white ceilings, tan walls and "focus" walls (green or burgundy). That equals alot of trimming out on the ladder since all of the walls are at least 10-14 feet high. The house looks great and will look even better once the windows are trimmed out and the floor installed. So below you are looking at the master bath, bedroom and kitchen lights.

I love ladders and they love me!

Master Bath

Master Bedroom

Kitchen Ceiling

Now that the painting is mostly completed- Mike has started to lay the stone floors. The radiant heat in the floors will heat the stone which in turn will keep us warm. So far the laundry room is completed, the bath and master bedroom are next to be laid. It is quite a process....Mike lays hardiboard floor underlayment, staples it into place, mixes mortar, tapes the seams in the area to be worked (only 9 sq feet at a time) and then lays the Slate tile. The Tile has such colors- it is really interesting and will work great with our paint colors and wood windows. Below you see the laundry room.

TODAY the the office is FINALLY sheetrocked and ready for paint. We had a different guy do this small job for us....just let me say....live and learn. Mike and I expect people to work like we do- no jabber breaks, no smoke breaks- just work until the work is done. At $25/ hour we figure we got about $10 worth of work per hour out of the guy. Expensive lesson learned- enough said.

Potatoes and carrots- While growing up in Iowa- we did not grow potatoes and carrots - I had never worked with them. So out of Arlene's garden, I pulled and dug until my hands were cold and I had mud up to my elbows. But what nice produce... the potatoes are sweet and baseball sized and the carrots are unlike any I have ever had.

MILESTONE: Mike has been anxious to take off the factory plastic that has been on our windows. Of course this couldn't be done until all the painting was completed. Finally he was able to tear it off and see outside. The real view to our seasonal pond and fall colors. He even got on the ladder to tear off the vault window plastic.

BIGGEST MOMENT: I guess the biggest moment this past week was when the neighbors told us that our "outdoor" lights light up the road. Wow- we had not really thought about that- as we leave before dark and don't return until the next morning. The lights are automatic so they turn on at dark. Sure enough those lights really shine....now it looks like somebody is home..... Soon....Yes we will be home soon.

Today was Electrifying!!!

Yes!!! Finally we have real electricity and power! After much hassle and many phone calls- I finally got someone to move off dead center and get the job done. The power line had been in the ground since August 24th but for some reason MEA could not get it together AGAIN! The story line went like this- I called MEA... the receptionist referred me to "Bob". Bob says "that's not my job" you need to call "Don". I call Don who says "that's not my job", you need to call "Kevin". I call Kevin who tells me the guy I have to speak to- "Sterling" is on vacation until next week. So the next week I call "Sterling" who says "that's not my job"- you need to call "BOB"!!!. So I call BOB and ask him if he knows what his job is.....he was out that afternoon to get the inspection completed that had been holding up our power for over two weeks. Boy was I mad.....these people at MEA are something else. You should see the call log I have been keeping. If it wasn't for the fact that they are the monopoly- I would go elesewhere to get power.

So the picture below are of real electricity and the boiler got fired up today. The house was 60 degrees and just four hours later the floors were warm. The house was 70 degrees.

Sometimes I really don't get the big picture and when it dawns on me.....well then it is really something. Since the telephone company put in the telephone pedestal- there has been a nice tall yellow stick. I thought this was so they could see it when the grass got tall. It occurred to me as it was raining cats and dogs that all of this rain was going to make some great snow when it got cold. THEN I GOT IT>>>>the yellow stick was to show where the pedestal was when the snow got that deep! When I told Mike of this great insight....he just grinned and smiled. I wonder just how high the snow will get on those 9' yellow sticks. As you see....they are attached to all of the services in the picture below!!! Maybe I will need a 9' yellow stick attached to me so I can be seen when it gets too deep around here!!

The sheetrock guys are finally finished. I say finally because it took 10- days timeframe to complete 4 days of actual work. They just spread it out like they have all the time in the world. I was really anxious to get the painting started. Now that I have started the priming- I wish it was completed. The roller is heavy, the ceilings are high and it takes time to do the first coat. Good News!!!! WE HAVE ELECTRICITY!!!

Drywall is Hung!

So the drywallers showed up on Wednesday morning at 10 am. They worked and worked until they finally had the upper level all hung. It was so interesting to watch them "puzzle" it together. Like a bunch of bees- they screwed all the sheetrock to the walls, then they finally left at 10pm. Thursday the sheetrockers cleaned up the mess they left, covered the floor with paper and got it ready for the next stage. Monday they will return to tape and mud the seams- then the rest of the week will be spent finishing the texture.

Mike has been busy getting all of the electrical connections made in the utility room. Every heating zone has a thermostat and pump to get the heat to the right place at the right temperature. It looks like the engine room of the boat. Complex and yet not so much!

Let's see- Where are we now?

Thank goodness for family!

Without Arlene and Terry- this project would have been impossible to complete. Not only has Terry provided his earthmoving talents but they both have been sharing their home with us. Our spot is the front slanted roof portion of the house. Not only are we occupying their home but we are also taking up one side of their garage. All of our worldly possessions are in one stall of their garage. I am sure they will be glad to see us get into our own space. Hopefully by October we will be in the our new home.

We've been berry picking up on the Denali highway. Climbed up a steep hillside to find blueberries along the ground like strawberries. One hour later we had about 2 gallons of wild blueberries. It is a bit disconcerting when Mike straps on his "bear" gun. I guess we are all competing for the berries. This last weekend we picked cranberries at our own place. Once again we had a gallon of cranberries for future jelly and cranberry ketchup.

You all have to forgive me for not getting the updates on here as quickly as they should be. A lot of the work that is being completed until today was "small stuff" like outdoor lights, receptacles, oiling and wrapping plastic on all of the windows. The constant sweeping, cleaning and picking up also keeps us busy. Mike got our cradle built for the 500 gallon fuel tank. We picked the diesel tank up today and onto the cradle it went. I have tiled/grouted our Japanese soaking tub deck area as it had to be completed prior to the sheetrock installation. My other job has been caulking all the seams under the deck. I now have cedar colored caulk all over my painting bibs- not a pretty sight.

Plumber "Ritchie" is still working on the heating and plumbing system. I think this project was much bigger than he thought. A quick peek into the "boiler" room shows you all of the pipes and valves required to heat our house. Ritchie sits on that bucket everyday- putting pipes together to get it all routed to the right places.

Now today- things really started to move. Current River Electric moved all of the digging equipment in and started to lay in our cable for electricity. We got all of our transformers and cable and the power is now in sight. It seems like it has taken a long time to get to this point.
The great news is that we have red cable running down the side of the road- tomorrow it will be buried and connected to the transformers in the near future (hopefully next week).

The drywall people started hanging sheetrock and will be done with that today. They sent a crew of 6 to get it done quickly. It is amazing to watch them cut, lift, fit and screw all of the pieces like a gigantic jig saw puzzle. Tomorrow they will start to tape the seams. Then the mud, then paint, then flooring- Oh Boy!! We are getting closer!