Bathroom progress

... which sounds like the post title of a parenting toddlers blog or something....

But here at At Home In Logs, it means:

Floor and tub/shower in; linen closet with a little framing; medicine cabinet actually installed (not just set in place); and ceiling and vanity lights wired and working!   The downstairs bathroom has certainly benefited from these several rainy days.  But, caulking, trim work, etc. will have to wait, now that we have a few sunny days in the forecast.  YOU may enjoy these blue-sky days in the mid 70s, but *I* prefer those nasty rainy days now that we have inside work to do on the house.   Because it results in PROOOOOOGRESSSSSS!!!  

*ahem*

Let the bounty BEGIN!

We ran out of lettuce today, so I skipped out to my father's garden this evening to fill up my tisket-a-tasket-a-produce-gathering-basket and ... wow!  Pop's garden has exploded!  The peas are plumping up, the onions are tall tall tall, and I accidentally picked some radish leaves because they were so big I thought they were lettuce.  (In my defense, they were next to two varieties of lettuce).  Most of the spinach is past, as is the asparagus, but the tomato plants are spilling out of their containers and I can see little cabbages forming.

Well, just look:

I'd have gotten away with more, too, but the rain kicked into high gear and chased The Girl and I back home.

Adventures with Grandpa

I had a meeting this morning at The Wild Center:  Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks in Tupper Lake, NY and my father gamely came along to mind the two wee ones while I discussed heritage tourism.  The Boy remembers his last trip there several years ago, but neither Grandpa nor The Girl had visited The Wild Center and so it was a family adventure of sorts.  If you're in the Adirondacks or the North Country this summer, it's well worth the trek to Tupper Lake.

Everyone loves the otters:

and the moose:

But I'd never been on the outdoor trails surrounding the Museum, so I was eager to see what they are like. ....  despite the persistent light drizzle ALL DAY.

We walked all the way down to the water.  Well, "all the way down" conveys a distance a bit farther than the  mile total there and back.  It's a gentle, well-groomed trail with periodic interpretive flags for the nerdy among us.

 
We viewed the oxbow, gazed at the water lilies, noted the water skates, and searched the skies for something other than clouds.

Near the end (or the beginning, if you start that way) of the trail system, there's a new playground made of natural materials.  As in:  you climb on logs, through logs, and play with chunks of wood.  It's pretty much BobWorld.

It was a pretty great way to start our summer vacation!

Colors

I can't be bothered to go back and look for it, but several posts ago, a commenter asked about the paint colors of each room.   You'll remember the rough sketch I drew of the first floor layout, right?

The living room, is, of course, log on two sides.  The wall it shares with the dining room is really just a half-wall, and will be half-round log.  The side of the staircase will have wainscoting.  

The dining room will be two shades of blue on the 1 1/2 walls that are drywalled.  We've sanded and primed that room, but haven't started painting yet. 

The arctic entry has been sanded by yours truly, sanding slave girl, and QA'd by The Hubs. 

The bedroom is a sage-y green, and has two coats of paint on it, but we think it needs a third.

The hallway is a light tan color.  The ceiling is painted and FIL Jim has started in on the walls.

Here's Bob putting a second coat on the bathroom ceiling last Saturday.  We're all done painting in there, I think.  The walls are a light cream.

The kitchen will be a nice yummy tomato red... but it's not even sanded yet, so it'll be a while on that one.  Don't hold your breath.

The upstairs bathroom is the same color as the downstairs bathroom, and our bedroom will be tan.  Brown brown brown!  I love brown!

You know what's weird?  In reality, the House has way more drywall in it that either Bob or I had envisioned.  Not that it's different than we'd planned, or we don't like it.... it's just that we've been dwelling on log walls and wood floors and exposed log joists for so long, that so much drywall seems incongruous.  I'm the one who pushed for drywalled bathrooms and kitchen, since scrubbing logs in those rooms just doesn't appeal to me... so I expected a modern, clean look in those rooms.  But all those walls in the other rooms?   It shocks us a little, I guess.

Anywho, I think I'll be sanding and priming and painting for another month or so.  It's good to be useful.

Strawberry Dinner

This is what we had for dinner tonight:

Fresh from a road-side stand.  They were the picture of perfect ripeness, juicy and flavorful and ... oh my.   Almost all gone!

I love summer in the country.

Garden Update

Pop is a dirt farmer no more!

Plus, now there's a cool new feature up at my folks' house:

"Thanks, Grandpa!"

One room at a time

I stole up to The Lake today to paint the spare bedroom:

I know it looks mint-colored, but it's really more of a sage green, I promise.

All Primed Up... and Somewhere to "Go"

All that sanding and sanding paid off!  We spent the whole day up at Our Log House and primed, primed, PRIMED those walls and ceiling.  No, not ceilings.  Remember that the spare bedroom and dining room have log and board ceilings!   Plus, FIL Jim primed the downstairs bathroom yesterday.  He had a few spare minutes and rather than sit idle....  *shakes head*

And THIS time, by "we" I include myself!   {Yes, yes.... stop chuckling and imagining all sorts of catastrophes.}

So....  Bob and I and the kids, plus my mother, my Aunt Pam (who DROVE UP FROM SKANEATELES TO HELP PAINT THIS WEEKEND!!!), & FIL Jim spent the day knocking out some major tasks at the ol' loggy home.  (Johnny also gave us his Saturday morning, but more on that later.)   Pam actually came up yesterday, and we spent several hours in the afternoon finishing up the sanding and vacuuming, so that today we could get right to the priming.  Except that we still had to wipe down several of the walls first thing.   But THEN we got right to the priming!

MamaCathie primes spare bedroom closet

... and the hall ceiling

Aunt Pam does the hard part

In fact, we gave Pam ALL the hard parts.  Nice, eh?

Even the babies got in on the action!   With no major incidents, I might add.  They were enthusiastic and every bit as skilled as I was.   Ahem.

And The Hubs, when he was done with his morning project, took over some of the trickier bits:

And, of course, FIL Jim:

And all of that is so very VERY EXCITING that I can hardly stand it.... but the icing on the cake?  The piece de resistance?  The *muah*?

Plumbing.

Bob, etc. have been working all week to hook up the gray water and fresh water...

And the project that Bob, Jim and Johnny were finishing up this morning?

Bye-bye pee-pee:  the conclusion.   

And I used it.  

Yes-siree-bob!  I am now the proud owner of a functioning potty!  I'm not sure how to express my joy without sounding insincere and sarcastic....     because I'm really THAT excited about it!

I'm moving in.   Just try to stop me.

 

Sanding Slave Girl pt. 2

Sanding Slave Girl had some help today.

Yay, Chris!  

*Whimper*

Note:  this is AFTER I had washed my face and vacuumed my clothes off so I'd be presentable enough to each lunch at the Beach Camp with Grandma Ruby.  I totally should have taken a pic before.

The good news?  The first floor bedroom is now sanded and wiped down and the snowy piles of dust are vacuumed up.

It's time to PRIME!!  WOOO!!