Day 230

Today I reorganized the dining room. Of course by doing this I messed up the craft area that I worked on this weekend. But it is going to start being cold and wintery later this week. So we are starting to bring a large portion of the wood pile into the dining room. I want to have a bunch stacked up there it keep it dry when it starts snowing. I am also hoping to bring wood up from the ground and replace the wood on the back porch.

I figure the more boxes I organize or unpack the better things are going to be down on first floor. But there is still a lot of stuff to move around. And it is disappointing that the room I had looking pretty nice after the weekend got all packed full again. Somehow I don't think we have enough shelves for everything. I don't know how this can be possible as everything was on a shelf at the other house.

Day 228 - 229

The weekend...
Jonathan was working in the basement most of the weekend. He was organizing and setting up his tools, while working with the corn burner. I spend most of the time moving and opening boxes on the first floor. I am trying to get most of our stuff organized or unpacked so that we can actually use it. We are going to be keeping a bunch of stuff on shelves down on the first floor. If it is all out and organized we will be able to go down there and get a game, toy or project whenever we might want it, and yet not try to cram everything onto second floor. The weather has been warm the last couple of days so it hasn't been bad working down there without much heat. The kids have been excited that it is easier to get to their stuff.

Day 227

Today my main goal was to clean the corn so that we will be able to add that to the pellets and burn it in the corn burner. It took a bit of fiddling around, but I think I have it all worked out. I am hoping that the next load of corn does not have as much chaff in it. We are hoping to get the corn burner set this weekend so that it doesn't keep it too warm in the basement. This might sound funny as heat would be a good thing. But we want to use as little corn as possible, as we mostly just want it to keep the pipes from freezing. Of course any heat that makes its way up to 2nd floor would be just fine with us as well.

Day 226

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Today we are going to go over to Deseray and Jeremy's house for Thanksgiving. I can't wait. We'll tell you all about it when we get back. :D

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great time with Deseray, Jeremy and Axel. We got to see their new house. (It is pretty nice...I just wish it was a bit closer.) We spent some time talking, we played a few games, and of course we eat some good food. It was so good to spend the day with them. I can't wait to do it again. :D

Day 225

Today is more of a getting ready for Thanksgiving rather than working on the house. Maybe by this weekend we will be getting a bit of work done on the house.

Day 223 - 224

Well, we haven't really done much work on the house the last couple of days. It has just been the normal, carrying wood and school and such. I have continued my sorting of boxes down on first floor a bit.

Day 221 - 222

Mom and Dad came over for the weekend. Jonathan and I continued to put insulation up in the ceiling in the 2nd floor landing room. We were hoping to get some of the wiring done in that room this weekend. But the plans were changed. Jonathan and Dad went down into the basement to see about the giant corn burning stove. We had been hoping to sell this and get something else for heat in the basement. But we haven't had luck finding someone who wanted to buy it. So Mom and Dad thought if we could get the thing working, maybe we should just use it. So they worked on the stove it bit, getting a chimney pipe out the window and making sure everything was working. We fired it up, and it started heating the basement as well as the first floor. The bad news it that it seems to be using more corn/pellets then we want to. To keep it burning without smoking we have to keep it warmer in there then we want too. But we are planning on playing with the settings to see if we can get it to work more like we want to.

Jonathan also got the blower hooked up and working on our wood stove. This seems to help keep the second floor a bit warmer. While he was working on the wood stove, Mom, Dad and I went up to third floor. We got plastic on all of the windows up there. We also put some insulation in the cracks and gaps between second and third floor. Hopefully this will keep more of the heat on second floor.

Day 219

Well, I called to have our dumpster picked up. The sad thing is that it isn't full. But with it being cold and snowy here, we just aren't carrying much stuff outside. So it is better to send it back less then full instead of continuing to pay for it waiting for a warmer day. Thought today is a pretty nice and sunny day.

I am back to organizing the first floor in hopes of finding some things that were hidden away in the many boxes down there. And the other good thing about that, is that we will be able to find and use any of our stuff that we won't be bringing up to second floor.

Day 218

I continued my moving things around down on first floor. It is such a huge mess of boxes that I don't even like to think about it. But I guess I am making some progress. I haven't gotten to the opening and getting things out stage, I am still finding and putting like items in the same areas.

The last few days, we have been a bit cold. But this is to be expected, with no furnace, but our wood stove. Most of the walls do not have insulation in them, and the windows are no where near sealing or keeping out much of the cold air. We do have plastic on all of the windows on second floor. And now that we have been working on three of the six rooms, at least those three have insulation in the walls. We do need to get the drywall up in two of those three rooms. I am sure that this would also help to keep us a bit warmer. But that is not something I can do right now. So I started with some little things. In addition to the plastic on the windows, I hung up some extra quilts on the windows in the tower room. We did buy the fabric and the batting that I will use to make the drapes. But I just haven't had the time to get that started yet. And then there is the hole in the floor where we have been running wiring and pipes. It is so cold over there. All of the cold air from down on first floor is being brought up through this hole. So I took apart some of our cardboard boxes and made a removable cover for this hole and laid a piece of insulation over that. WOW! It is hard to believe the difference that these two things can cause. It is much warmer in here. I do still want to put plastic all around that column that we are running the pipe and wire through. But I am happy with what I did today.

Once I get some of the things moved away from the windows down on first floor I want to also cover these with plastic, as well as the ones up on third floor.

Day 217

Instead of going up to third floor to cause more destruction, I decided that I needed to start organizing the mess down on first floor. We have gotten out all of the things that we have to have and taken them up to second floor. But there are still many things that it would be nice if we would be able to use them when we want too. Right now there is no way to find anything in all of those boxes. So it is off to the "underworld" or first floor, to see if I can start moving things around into a more organized way.

Day 216

Today is cold and snowy. First the kids wanted to play in the snow. And now we are sitting in front of the fire snuggled up in blankets, watching a movie. :)

Day 215

Today we worked on the landing room some more. I was working on getting some of the lathe nailed to the walls. (This is so that when we put the drywall up, the woodwork will fit correctly.) And Jonathan was nailing the outlet boxes in place.

We also started to put insulation in the ceiling. We want to try and stay warm this winter. It is starting to get cold already. BRRR.


Very odd angle on this picture. But you can see some insulation in the wall and in the ceiling here. We still need to finish it, but I can imagine that it will be warmer in there.

Day 214

Today we finished getting the plaster and nails off of the walls and ceiling in the landing room. There wasn't much left. But there is a lot of going up and down ladders.

Then we went into Lincoln to buy the lights for the landing room. We are going to be putting up a ceiling fan in the middle of the room and a light in the area near all of the doors. I am always excited when we get to the point of buying things like this. But know that we still have all of the drywall to put up before we can actually put the lights up.

Day 213

Today I was feeling very tired. So mostly we took a day off. We need to rest up for the weekend's work.

Day 212

We worked a bit more on the third floor. But still have a bunch to go. We had cub scouts this evening. So it was a slow day, workwise.

Day 211

The kids and I were working up on third floor again today. The weather has been pretty warm. And I really would like to fill the dumpster a bit more before we send it back. And of course, it would also be nice to get all of the plaster and insulation out of the third floor so we won't continually be making a mess as we carry it through second floor. We have most of the plaster and lathe off of the walls on the landing room on third floor. That means that there is really only one room left to work on. Then we will have to start on the ceiling. That will be the really messy part.


This is the 3rd floor landing room. There is still some lathe on the top part of the walls. For me to get that down, I need to carry up a ladder. But we are still using them on 2nd floor. I hate carrying things up and down the stairs. So I will do all of the low work first. When there isn't anymore I guess I will have to bring up the ladder.

Day 210

The kids and I started carrying some more buckets of plaster down from third floor. I had almost decided that we just wouldn't be able to get this done before I want to send the dumpster back. But I just don't like to give up. The kids have been wonderful helpers. I know that I wouldn't be able to do it without their help.

Thank you Zeb, Ella and Melinda! You are all of my angel helpers.

Day 209

There are just so many things for me to do during the day, I just don't even know where to start. So today, I mostly tried to think about just what I thought I might be able to do. And then I decided to start knocking a bit of plaster down on third floor. Whenever you don't know what to do, just find a wall and start hitting it with a sledge hammer. ;) This bit of direction will work for a while longer. But hopefully sooner or later we will have knocked down all of the plaster. Well, it might be later, as we haven't even started down on first floor.

Day 208

Well this morning we worked just a bit in the landing room on second floor. We finished taking down the last bit of plaster on the stair wall. And I also worked on getting some of the nails out so that everything will be ready to put the drywall up.

Then in the afternoon, we headed back to Hickman for the last and final load. We had the kids' space dome to bring and just a few misc. things. But YAY, everything is out of the old house. And the best news yet, is that LuCinda might be able to just buy the house, instead of the rent to own agreement that we had worked out. That would be so wonderful. :)

Day 207

Today we are off to Hickman to take down the kids' playground and try to bring the rest of our stuff over to the new house. It is kind of a shame to waste this wonderful weekend, on hauling things instead of working....what am I saying, it is too bad we aren't spending the warm and sunny weekend playing and having fun. But it will be good to just have all of our stuff here and not have to worry about any of that.

Day 206

We are back home now. It looks like the weekend will be really nice. Hopefully we will be able to get a lot done. But we are taking a rest for the day and mostly working on school.

Day 205

Rose Marie's funeral...

This is the third funeral in 4 weeks. It has been a really sad month.

Day 204

Today we are going to do a bit of organizing. But then the kids and I are going to head over to my parents' house for my cousin's funeral. :(

Day 203

Today I carried in the insulation. The kids and I made a couple of trip over to the old house. We worked on getting the rest of our stuff out of the garage and the back yard. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to get the rest of the stuff out of the shed and take down the playground. So we are hoping for good weather and nothing else unexpected.

Day 202

Today was a mostly restful day. I worked on organizing the kitchen.

Day 201

Due to all of the things that have been going on in the last couple of weeks. Jonathan's back wasn't doing so good today. He spent most of the time in bed trying to give his back a rest.

The kids and I cut up a bunch of wood for the stove and carried it down to the tower room. Then I started knocking down the plaster and lathe on third floor. We still have the dumpster for another week. And I want to get it as full as I can before we send it back. And there is another good thing about doing this, if we get all of the 3rd floor cleaned out, there will be less dust and mess for us. We might even be able to start finishing some of that floor.