This last week we went up to Seattle to Seattle Glass Block and picked up the base for the downstairs shower, and traded in the glass blocks we had for ones that were already put together in sections! This will make the job a lot easier. The company that makes the new shower base called Ready4Tile did a photo shoot using our base and in return we were upgraded to the pre-fab blocks! Not bad huh???
Our brother-in-law Jim also gave us some big sheets of insulation, we can really use that! Thank you Jim. So we came home with a full truck and trailer for sure!

I finished painting the closet, got it swept and mopped and then spent the better part of an afternoon putting together the new shelves. It will be so nice to get everything put away in there.....I might even be able to find the opposite side of my office!

We have really been busy since the last post. Time is flying by and everything seems to take so long to do......so many steps to get each item done.
Brian has been under the house a lot working on the plumbing, just one more fixture to put in and it should be done.
I have continued insulating every little crack and crevice I find. Have done around all the windows in the living room, dining room, hallway and kitchen. Gees that is a scratchy job! But it does seem a bit warmer.
We worked together to get the sheetrock and green board up in the small bathroom upstairs and in the closet. I even mudded and taped in the closet, and will finish painting in there this week. Brian will build some shelves and then I can finally get this place organized a bit!
We ordered our Conservatory from England and it is on its way. So excited to get that!
Also spent a lot of time at Home Depot designing and getting our kitchen cabinets ordered! We are so pleased with the layout and looking forward to the challenge of putting them up. ???
Let's see what else??? Well the weather has finally dried up a bit and Brian has been able to get outside and level the ground for the conservatory, and do some clean up around the yard. He also went down on the beach and cut down some trees that were beginning to block our view.
We have done a lot of other little things, like re-wire some plug-ins, tear apart the wall in the front bedroom and remove soot and an old honeycomb! It was a mess!
We are really focusing on the kitchen as we need to be ready for the cabinets. More sheetrock to put up and the ceiling to finish by insulating and put up the beadboard!
Whew! That's a lot!

Have been busy! Got all the vinyl tile put down in the small bathroom upstairs. That was some job....a comedy of errors really! I did not do well at all with the glue! Got my foot stuck once and it then put my knee in it. Yuck. But it is done. We went to Home Depot and got the sheet rock and green board to put up so we can get the shower and toilet in. If it ever stops raining, we might be able to get it out of the trailer and up the stairs. More to come

Well we have had another minor setback. Brian had another pancreatic attack and was hospitalized for a few days. He is back to work tomorrow, but his energy level is pretty low, so it will take some time to get back up to parr.

Before he got sick we were busy with the holidays and really did not get a lot done. Just little things here and there. I have quit my job in Cathlamet and now my full time job is this house. So tomorrow it's off to work I go!

In the last week or so Brian has been concentrating on the plumbing. Whew, trying to run lines to three bathrooms and a kitchen is a bit overwhelming. But he is doing it! I just hand him stuff! I have been trying to get the upstairs small bathroom ready to go. I have been sealing the old wood floor so we can lay the tile, and get the shower and toilet in.......and insulating...of course.
Yesterday Brian was cutting some boards to use for trim on the new window downstairs and he cut his thumb with the table saw!!! Had to run him to the Dr and get 10 stitches in it. It was a nasty cut! Guess we have to be glad it wasn't any worse and that it is his left hand!

Well we continue to do more insulating and last week when we had a few nice days Brian got out in the yard with the tractor and spread the rest of the dirt and planted more grass. We have our fingers crossed that it will come up. We also spent one day putting up siding on the west side of the house. That should keep it a bit more weatherproof and warmer I hope!

Here it is the middle of November and we are freezing! Even though we have the new fireplace and the wall heaters, there are so many drafts that it just does not do a good job heating the house. I have been insulating and weather proofing every crack I can find, but until we get the sheetrock on, it will continue to be cold!
The electrical inspection was done a few weeks ago and we passed, now to get the plumbing in! Then we can get that inspected and finish the insulating and get that much needed sheet rock up.
Slowly but surely!
Oh...we have nice clean well water now too! Tastes great and is so clear. No more buying bottled water. A definite step in the right direction.
We planted the grass, but it has been raining so much I am not sure all of it took. We can see a little bit coming up! Let's hope it does! I am sure we will have to add some more in the spring.
All for now! Back to insulating!

It's October already!!! I guess I have just been too busy to write, so better catch up a bit!
We have done the following projects since the last time I wrote.

The new windows are in! Wow, what a difference! And what a lot of work it was to tear out all the old ones. Thought we would never finish!
Rebuilt and insulated one wall on the outside of the house. We added a window on that wall, so had to tear all the siding off and replace it.
The new gas fireplace is in and the old gas stove is sitting out on the porch.
Brian built the surround for it and replaced some flooring.
Built walls for a closet upstairs
Bought a tractor so we can stop renting machines and do our own work.
We had 5 loads of dirt dumped and Brian has been busy spreading it out. We need to add lime and fertilizer and get the lawn planted, but the weather is not co-operating! Rain and more rain! Got to do it soon!
Bought the last toilet, sink and vanity. I think we have everything now to put together the bathrooms, just got to get the plumbing finished.
The electrician is coming back tomorrow to start on the rest of that project. Yippee!
Well that's about it in a nutshell. A lot of work has been accomplished, but so much more to go.

Well the electricians John and Mel were back and got a lot done and then BAD NEWS! John broke his wrist! So they came back once to get us 220 again, but will have to wait until he heals a bit to come back. He is in a lot of pain now! Poor guy~ I think we are one maybe two days away from being finished and then we can get that inspected. So in the meantime we have walls to build, waterlines to put in and other projects to do. So we can work around that project. Always a lot to do here for sure!

Well we made it through another Work Party Weekend. Not everything went as planned. We had some machinery rented to dig the ditch for the water line, and all was going well until we blew a hydraulic line! So had to dig the rest by hand....pick axe and shovel. But all the kids pitched in and worked and they got it done. Got the road dug up and the line laid. What a huge job!
Here at the house we worked on a few little things like scraping paint off the windows and hallway banister. Got a little bit done on that. Madi and Maliah helped me pull weeds and morning glory from around one of the rhododendrons that was being choked off by all of it.

When we finished on Sunday they all went down to the river and had a good swim! Nice and refreshing after such a lot of work!

The electrician is back tomorrow, so back to that project!

For the last two days the electrician has been here working in the bathrooms and kitchen. Oh my.....we really had to keep ahead of him tearing down walls and building them up! Moving boxes and cleaning out rooms! Got the divider wall built in the small bathroom upstairs and the hole for the door cut! There are now wires running everywhere!
Even had to make a run to Longview to pick up a few things that we had forgotten. What a busy two days! And tonight the rest of the family arrives and we get to start on our work party lists tomorrow!
Also Richard Trojan was here and helped us on Thursday. He just about single handedly put in the stairs to the attic, and then he cleaned up some of the nasty mess up there. Found two treasures! One old high topped child's shoe, and the old swinging door that was in the kitchen. I was thrilled to see both of them! Nice to find the unexpected! There is also an old rocking chair that is in pieces. This will be a great storage area once we get the insulation and flooring in! Richard also did some scraping on the stair railings. It was nice to have him here for a few days! What a hard worker!

Well it has been a busy few days! Brian has continued to work on the plumbing and get things ready for the electrician when he gets here Thursday. I have been assisting him and trying to clean out rooms so we can get the wiring done and get to the windows to take them out. the new ones are going in in just a few weeks!
Then yesterday we went to Portland and picked up a few tools and picked out the cabinets for the bathroom. They are a nice light wood. I think Maple. It will make the bathroom so light and bright. Then we went to Home Depot and picked out the lighting and a sink, faucet and vanity too! Whew what a load we had! But it felt good to get all that we need. I picked out the kitchen and bathroom flooring at Golden Ladder last week, so that should be in pretty soon too! It is all coming together......slowly but surely!
The work party is this weekend, so we hope to accomplish a lot! Hope to report much more later!

We have a working toilet!!!! For the last two days the old one has been torn out, and all we had was a porta-potty! Thank God for small favors! So nice to have a new one, and it is even in the right place! No longer in the middle of the room! The room looks much larger now! What a big improvement!

Whew, a lot of banging and crashing in the last few days! The plumber, Jim has been here and now we have pipes and vents going everywhere. Jim and Brian really got a lot accomplished! Today we are moving the toilet to it's new location and also the gutters are going up! I stained part of the front porch a few days ago, it looks so nice. Am so glad to see all this progress! It is a lot of hard work, but all worth it.

Wow, what a great day! We had Sally & Dom and most of their family and a few friends here today to see what we have been up to at the house. We had a great visit! Nice to see everyone! It was a beautiful day at Dahlia House.

We have been so busy the past few days. Went to Longview to pick up more lumber and get rid of the garbage from the last few days of tearing out. Then we went to Astoria and picked up the mantle and fireplace. As soon as we get the walls built for that, they will come out and install. We also got the divider wall built between the two bathrooms upstairs and the rest of the walls torn out. Just a few more things to do and then we can have the plumber back to finish the job!

We made great progress today! Colleen was here and gave us lots of help! We got the walls torn out in the bathroom and in the kitchen. Also tore up the old floor in the bathroom. We filled the little trailer with debris from the destruction. Lots of old rotten boards and nasty flooring. And a lot of old mouse nests in the walls.
There is a lot of rot we are going to have to deal with, boards that will have to be replaced. But it was a good days work. We need to build the walls upstairs to divide the two bathrooms, might start that tonight or tomorrow. We also have some major decisions to make concerning placement of showers, sinks etc...before the plumber comes back.

Today was awesome!!!! We had the plumber here to help us and we also had people here to give us quotes on gutters and windows. We are headed out tomorrow to look at more flooring and cabinets in Portland. And to buy more plumbing parts and lumber.
We have a lot of tearing out to do in the bathrooms, and we need to put up the interior walls. So Saturday will be a busy one! But it will be fun to see the progress!

I am not writing this evening about any of the progress we are making, but about what it is like living out here.
I was worried that it would be too secluded and maybe boring, but the opposite is true! We are a bit overwhelmed with all the wildlife and wonderful scenery we see on a daily basis. Being a born and bred "city" girl this is amazing to me, and Brian says he just didn't pay attention to it or appreciate it as he was growing up.
We have two "resident deer" that are here for dinner each night at dusk, and they are not afraid of us at all. We go out and talk to them and they listen, and then go about their munching and crunching on the grass. (I will have to have serious talks with them if they start eating my Dahlias or Asparagus!) There are twin fawns we see just down the road and one doe with part of her back leg missing. She has a terrible time keeping up with her baby!
Besides that we see eagles and kingfishers, and all sorts of other birds. And there are always raccoons and the occasional porcupine wandering about. Had to wait while one got out of my way the other night as I came up the drive.
I even saw a bobcat on the way home one dark night. He was just strolling down the road in front of me. Today my big find was a black and white bunny rabbit!
The views out the front window are always changing, whether it be the wildlife in the front yard or the ships and boats that are passing us by. It is a forever changing scene, and we love the move we have made.
I hope that when we open our B&B that people will relax and enjoy it and appreciate the constantly changing events that unfold around us.

Went to Seattle and picked up our bathtub at Lowes and then got the glass block kit at Seattle Glass Block for the shower downstairs. Then we spent about 4 hours at Ikea looking at the kitchen area. We have it pretty much all picked out, but didn't have room in the pick-up and trailer to bring it home. They have it saved in draft form and all we have to do is convert it to a sale. We will live with and work on the design again for a few weeks and see if we want any changes. If not, we go and get it as is.
On the way out we saw the sink we wanted for the big upstairs bathroom and the flooring we wanted for the kitchen, so we got that too! Quite a load we brought home! A very satisfying trip!