He Lives!

It feels like Spring is on the way! With warmer temps in the forecast all week, we should lose a substantial amount of snow. Our days seem to be full, as usual. Steve has been "makin' wood" and working upstairs. He finished the trim in the guest bath on Saturday evening. That room had some tricky trim pieces due to the shape of the ceiling. I'll show you some photos in an upcoming post.

Easter is coming early this year, and my Easter decor items are slowly trickling out. I did make some free Easter printables to share with you. Here's the first one. It can be printed in any size you prefer, but it works well in a 5x7 or in a 3-1/2x5.

If you would like to print one, click on the following link:

He Lives

The flash washed out the background print in these photographs. 

You can see the background a little better in the next photo, but it still looks darker in person.

If you're in Michigan, don't forget to vote in the primary tomorrow.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Gettin' There

Our Keweenaw weather has been pretty nice this week, so you're probably wondering how we're doing now that the spray foam crew has pulled out.

Well, Steve had quite a few errands this week. In fact, yesterday was almost completely devoted to errands. Plus, I had another 2-day migraine episode this week that prevented him from making noise in the house. Still, he has managed to get this far on Guest Room 1.

As you can see, it's almost completely closed in now! 

Can you see what else Steve did in the next photo?

Yep, he put Mr. Buck back in place.

My head and lower back issues prevented me from completing everything on my "putting-my-house-back-together" list, but I'm gettin' there.

I have the great room and everything else on the main floor finished.

I still have a few more things to do upstairs, but I should have those things crossed off the list by the end of the day today. 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

What a Drip! (Part 10)

WE.  HAVE.  OUR.  HOUSE.  BACK!

Let's start at the beginning of the day yesterday. I got up early to get dinner started in the crockpot. I began thawing a turkey breast in the refrigerator a few days ago with a plan to make it yesterday. Little did I know that the timing would turn out to be perfect for a Thanksgiving type meal. 

Our crew showed up exactly on time and got right to work with Steve. They finished the T&G boards and repaired those few spots on the great room ceiling where the insulation had leaked through - all before lunch. After lunch, they reinstalled the remaining trim and wiped down the ceiling fans for us. Before we knew it, the scaffolding was coming DOWN and the clean up had started. 

Have you ever noticed how foam packing peanuts tend to cling to everything due to static electricity? The same is true for foam insulation. Little shreds tend to cling to everything including furniture, floors and feet. Even though most things were covered in plastic sheeting, we still had foam pieces everywhere. Steve quickly vacuumed the great room with our old vacuum cleaner while the guys packed up their truck. Then, they moved the large furniture pieces back into place for us and were leaving our driveway by 2:30 p.m.

I got out the new vacuum cleaner (with better suction) and went around the edges of the room with the crevice tool. Then, I thoroughly vacuumed all the upholstered furniture and started vacuuming the floor a second time. That's when I remembered something. I had been so excited to start nesting again that I forgot to take any photographs. So, I stopped in my tracks and grabbed the camera. Here's what they finished yesterday.

Not too bad, huh? Plus, clean ceiling fans!

Beginning to get things back together:

I stopped snapping photos and went back to work. You can't imagine how many little foam pieces we vacuumed up. I concentrated on cleaning the main level and Steve was giving the stairs, the upstairs and the basement their first going over. (Like I said, foam was everywhere!) I finished the floors, dusted and got the lamps and a few other items back into place before I had to stop and finish dinner.

When dinner was ready, Steve gave thanks, and we enjoyed our "thanksgiving" meal of turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy and a nice salad. 

We have errands to run this afternoon and more work to do to get things back to where they were when the big drip started, but we're so, so thankful to have all this behind us. The chaos and stress has been exhausting for both of us, but the outcome was better than we had dared hope. The Lord is so good!

All is well (and almost back to normal) in the Keweenaw.

What a Drip! (Part 9)

Our 3-man crew made good progress again yesterday. When the day ended, the plan was for 2 of the guys to return on Monday to finish up the ceiling in the great room. We received a phone call immediately after dinner telling us they had changed plans. Instead of going to Wisconsin today, they would come back to finish our job! Can you believe it? TODAY is the last day! We will have our house back TONIGHT! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Here's what they accomplished yesterday. The peak was completely finished. 

The area to the left of the trapezoids was almost finished. They just have to cut a couple new boards to replace this row that was ruined and install the trim pieces.

The area to the right of the trapezoids was started.

They cut one of the new boards to replace the row that was ruined there. It is a tad bit lighter, but not too bad.

Here's how things look from the loft.

Before they remove the scaffolding, they're going to wipe down the ceiling fans for us, as they got pretty dusty during the first few days of this project (before they were covered in plastic). The fan closer to the trapezoids has always wobbled slightly, so Steve is going to have them add a tiny weight to that one while they're up there. (That's one thing Steve can cross of his personal to-do list!)

We're pretty happy with the visual outcome. If you weren't following the blog and didn't know we had a leak, I'm sure you would never notice.

I'll be back tomorrow with photos I'll take later today - the LAST installment in this series of posts about our big drip.

All is well (and almost finished!) in the Keweenaw.

What a Drip! (Part 8)

There's nothing more enjoyable than listening to the sound of an air compressor and hammers when you have a headache - like I do today. But, it's the sound of progress, so I'll gladly put up with some discomfort in order to move further toward the goal of getting my house back.

With Steve's guidance, the crew did make a lot of progress yesterday. They spent the entire day working in the loft area. I do my best to stay out of everyone's way during the work day, so I was delighted to see what they had done when I left the master bedroom sanctuary. Nothing had changed in the great room, but I saw this when I looked up to the loft. 

I went up to the loft for further inspection.

Closing it up again!

Yes, we do have a non-aged, lighter-colored replacement board or piece of trim here and there, but we're hoping they'll blend in better with time. Our pine varies a lot in color naturally anyway, and our eyes don't seem to notice the variation as much as the camera picks up in these photographs.

All in all, Steve and I are relieved and satisfied with how it looks. They moved on to the peak down the center of the great room late this morning, and they're hoping to get most of the boards reinstalled near the trapezoids this afternoon.

The crew will be in Wisconsin tomorrow and Friday, so we won't see them again until Monday. That means we'll have to live with the scaffolding and some chaos a while longer, but the end is now in sight!

The sun has been streaming in the windows most of the day today. That's always a welcome sight in the Keweenaw in February.

Oh, and I noticed this today. The snow on our lawn is roughly 3-4 feet deep in non-drifted spots. Can you see a dip in the level in the next photo? About a third of the way up from the bottom - above the word "Keweenaw?"

You know how the grass is always greener over the septic tank? Well, the snow is always shallower over the septic tank, too!

All is well (and happily reconstructing) in the Keweenaw.

What a Drip! (Part 7)

We had a lovely Valentine's Day on Sunday, but I'll tell you about that later this week. 

The 3-man crew from the spray foam insulation company arrived about 20 minutes early yesterday morning, and they were eager to begin reinstalling our T&G boards. However, Steve had been studying our roof over the weekend and noticed some melting in one other area. He mentioned it to the crew and they tromped around the house in the deep, deep snow and did their own inspection. They agreed there may still be another problem, so they did some more poking around in the small space above the guest bathroom upstairs. Sure enough, they found another pocket the insulation had missed and there was some moisture on the insulation around it. It didn't seem like an actual leak - more like condensation from warm air meeting cold air. Still, they had to dig out the moist insulation and refoam the entire area. Thankfully, they brought their foam truck with them - even though they had no idea they would be spraying any more foam today. They were actually puzzled as to why they brought the foam truck, but it seemed obvious to us that the Lord had His hand in that one.

That issue took up a good part of the day. After lunch, they shaved the insulation that still needed shaving and began the reinstallation of our T&G boards. Did you catch that? Yes, they began the reinstallation of our T&G boards! Although these guys removed the boards 2 weeks ago, none of them had ever installed any T&G. If you remember, they carefully marked each board and location when the boards were removed, and Steve was there to guide and instruct them every step of the way as they began the reinstall yesterday. 

I zoomed in for the next shot to show you some of the reinstalled boards in the peak above the guest bathroom upstairs - and also in the area on the right side of the peak.

I can't tell you how good it feels to know that boards are starting to go back UP! In their last 30 minutes of work yesterday, they also began to rip down some of the plastic in the great room and loft. This is the state things were in when they left for the day.

We can see trees (and snow) through our trapezoids and sliding doors again!

We did find some insulation had oozed through a few spots - mostly between boards - but also in one area of the great room ceiling. Can you see it in the next photo?

Can you see it now?

This arrow should help.

That spot used to look like the area I circled in the next photo. (Sorry about the low resolution.)

We're not sure if the foam pushed the knot outs - forming knotholes - or if the foam just oozed out of two little gaps. We'll find out today or tomorrow when they climb up on the scaffolding to clean off the foam.

OK, back to the tour. When I climbed the stairs, I saw this. . .

and this. . .

and this. . .

and this. . .

and this.

Steve spent some time last evening cleaning up the floor in the loft. He organized and stacked all the boards in neat piles off the floor, and he picked up the garbage and most of the foam off the plastic on the floor. That helped the crew get started very quickly after arriving this morning. 

I can hear Steve out there guiding and instructing them again today. I'm not sure what things look like yet, but I find it encouraging when I hear Steve say to them, "Good job! That looks great!" He's a good boss. They will probably reach some areas this afternoon that will require new boards to replace boards that were ruined in the deconstruction. Not sure how that will go until we get to that point, but I'll update you tomorrow.

All is well (and still reconstructing) in the Keweenaw.