Hey.... the weather was nice for a few days, so Brian got out on the tractor and leveled out the side yard some more. Got the grass seed in just before it started raining again. Also worked on my dahlia bed. Got it set up and the dahlia tubers ready to plant. Just need a nice day to get out there again. Even got a tree planted! Bought the Barberry bushes to put across the front of the property, will do that when we get home from vacation. Also picked out the paint for the rest of the kitchen.
I have started refinishing the vanity for the big bathroom upstairs. It is looking good with just one coat. Have to sand it and do the final coat tonight.
Finished staining the last of the bead board for the kitchen ceiling. Now to get it up.
Still having electrical issues, have had the electrician back again. We are going to have to trade out this old electrical panel for a new one. Everything in there is loose and we get sparking when the hotwater tank kicks on.
Started putting the sheetrock up in the kitchen today. I think we set a record for the longest amount of time to get one piece up. Sheesh. First we cut it the wrong size, and then we had to make all the cuts for the electrical outlets etc......it just went on and on. Nothing seemed to go right! But after 3 hours we have two great looking boards up and screwed in! It's a start!
Heather & Em will be down while we are gone, so we have a whole list of things for them to do. We will see what gets done!!!

We have really been busy for the last few weeks. Heather and Adam were down. Heather worked on cleaning off bricks and scraping the old paint on the stairs. She is still recovering from knee surgery and had to do sit down projects. Adam helped Brian get the foundation for the conservatory laid out and was a big help in putting up more ceiling boards. Just about 1/4 of it left to do. We went to Portland and picked up the conservatory. Borrowed Henry's pick-up, ours would have never made it up the hill! So it is now sitting in a big crate in the trailer. After we get back from our vacation we will start on that project.
I picked out the paint and got the top 3 boards along the kitchen walls painted, that's all that will show above the cabinets. Nice brick red color. So anxious to get the cabinets in.
Also had the electrician back down to finish up a few things, nice to get some of the temporary wiring out of the way.

Emily, Colleen and families were down for the weekend and helped us bring in all the sheetrock, do some tractor work, move the old windows up to the barn and clean up the yard a bit. The girls moved a lot of the bricks around to the other side of the house where we will be building a walkway with them this summer. Brian and Jahn also got the other set of stairs in place, so we have two ways down to the beach now!
Then the last few days I finished sealing the chimney and then Brian and I put up about a third of the ceiling beadboard. It looks great! Heather and Adam are coming down this weekend to help too!

WHOO HOO! We passed the inspection! The plumbing is approved and now we are going forward to finish the insulation and sheetrock! How awesome!!!! A Big step in the right direction!

Brian finished all the rough-in plumbing today.......Yippee! It has been such a big job! A kitchen and 3 bathrooms to plumb. Not an easy thing to do. It will be inspected on Thursday, so we shall see. Then we can get the sheetrock up. The cabinets are supposed to arrive next Monday so we have a lot to do in the kitchen to be ready for them.
I finished cleaning off all the old mortar on the chimney in the kitchen and it looks pretty good. Sealed the old mortar between the bricks, but still have to freshen up the old bricks themselves.
Have been giving the bead-board a coat of varathane before it goes up on the ceiling. Have about a third done so need to get going and finish them.
And of course we put up more insulation on the walls and ceiling!
Last week we finished putting up siding on the back porch and around the side of the house. Now the kitchen seems so much warmer. Getting there slowly but surely!

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.