Our Monona Mess

  Warm Inside, Cold Outside The HVAC techs came back today to put in the final run to the living room. It was one of the most complicated  to move even though it moved a very short distance.  They took out the one on the left and moved it to the floor on the right which involved going through, under and around. It also involved 2 extra holes in my office ceiling. After a trip to Home Depot in Wisconsin Dells to get wire for the electrical work. Dave came home to find new parts for the mower. He cleaned, painted, and installed a mulcher kit to the mower this afternoon. Now the mower will mulch the debris instead of shooting it out the side and it the non-stick coating will make it all fall off. 

  Before we can finish the house into the beautiful home it is meant to be, there are 4 big hurdles--structure, plumbing, electric, and HVAC. Dave is always working on structure and electric and our plumber has been working for weeks behind the scenes. Today was the HVAC's turn.  Some needed to be moved like duct for under the sink in the kitchen (top picture) and others were new runs like the laundry room (bottom picture). In some cases, the old runs needed to be taken out and blocked off.  In some cases it was pretty challenging to get everything to work together--the plumbing, structure, electric, and HVAC all need to use the same space.  They got 4 runs done, but they need to come back tomorrow to finish the most challenging run.  Remember all the cleaning we did last weekend--all those shelves are covered in dust and debris now and the office will need clean up again too.

  An Visit to IKEA The kids and I ran to Milwaukee today and while we were there, we decided to go to IKEA. It was fun to look at the vignettes and see how they used storage space. I especially liked the kitchen area with a kitchen with large drawers. Of course they were sold out of the drawer liners and storage bins that I wanted to our kitchen.  Teagan got a new desk, Lauryn got a lamp, and I bought a light for the entryway. It will look like this: While we were gone, the city came and took all the brush that has been by the road for over a month.  Dave started cleaning out all the other grass and debris from the lawn today because they will come pick it up soon too.  Notice all the matted long grass under the bushes. We have heard from the neighbors that the lawn did not get mowed last summer and now there is long grass everywhere in the lawn.  There are also flowers popping up everywhere too.  In other news, Ralph got a Puppy Bumper today so that he can...

  A Functional Room This room was the office--before we bought the house, it looked like this.  It had not been touched in years (I submit those computers as evidence). This morning I brought in the rug and couch and put the table and desk back after cleaning the floor yesterday.   Through the last couple months, we have called  that room by many names (office, breakroom, scary, etc.), but now it is a multifunctional space. Dave works there during the day, we eat at the table in there some nights, and now there is a couch and TV and rug--to hang out, do yoga, or avoid work. This room is the exact same size as the living room will be--which will not be done for A WHILE! Today we took out a window. Dave went on a 3 hour Home Depot and Farm Fleet run this morning and when he got back, he decided we were taking out a window today. The windows in the soon to be kitchen will not work with the new layout. The one over the sink will need to be smaller and the other one ...

  And Attic Fix Up Today involved so very much cleaning. During recent rains, we could tell that the downspouts are doing very little. Today Dave decided to clean up the one over the breezeway and this is what he found. All the gutters need to be replaced, but removing all this moss make the water move through the ones that are there.  In the basement, there was a storage "room" at the back with some old shelving units in it. We have decided to make it into a proper storage room by moving the wall out about 15 feet.  Dave moved the wall and then we moved the shelves out and scrubbed the mold off the walls and scrubbed the floor. Then I painted the walls with mold killing primer. The mold appears to be from just lack of air movement around the stuff in there for years, but you can never be too safe.  Dave's parents came and while I was painting, Jim put together 5 more sets of shelves for me and Mary removed strange plastic runners from the hanging shelves (they were ...

  The Fence is Done Yesterday the final section of the fence arrived, so today we finished installing it. It is great. The dogs have a fenced in area hang out in and there is a 4 foot gate at the back to come in and out of the area with the dogs, the lawn mower, and anything else we need.  After dinner, Dave and Chad worked on the electric boxes in the kitchen.  They had to cut a channel around the room to run the wires and then cut the boxes in and run the wire. They work so well together and can get so much done! We got a call from the cabinet maker today--our cabinets are done!! They can deliver them next week--that means we have a lot of cleaning to do to be able to bring them into the house until we can hang them!

  The Fine Print The plumber that the home warranty company sent was in the house all of 5 minutes. He looked at the water softener, said it was old and worn out, and  that the warranty did not cover it and then charged us his full service call fee, instead of the $75 warranty co-pay. The entire interaction left us confused. After talking to the much more pleasant, but no reassuring, the water softener is not covered under warranty, because it did not have a mechanical failure. It is old and plugged and not working, but not broken.  Nothing else new today! Dave just kept installing light boxes and outlets in the bathrooms. 

  Driving for a Dethatcher Dave was off work again to today and began his day cleaning out the gutters by the big wall leak from yesterday. He took out the foam gutter fillers that are supposed to keep leaves out (we have no trees by the house, so I am not sure which leaves.) They were so full of moss that water could not get through and they were full of mud and muck underneath. They work so much better after Dave cleaned them out.  Then he spent time figuring out where the cabinets will be in the kitchen and where we should put the lights in the ceiling.  In the afternoon, Bill, an electrician, stopped by to give Dave advice on the electric install.  Thanks Bill for keeping us moving.  The water pressure in the house has been diminishing steadily. Our plumber told us to bypass the water softener and that worked wonders. This afternoon I filed another claim with the home warranty company for the water softener and someone is coming tomorrow to look at it. ...

  Too Many Decisions to Make Lauryn was showing a friend the blog today and she felt that she had to scroll a long way to find the big changes. It is true; the changes happening these days are small, but big changes are coming soon. Our cabinet maker called today to say that our cabinets will be delivered in TWO WEEKS! EEK! Last night was a slow night. Dave attached all the downspouts to get ready for all the rain in the forecast.  While he was there, he raked around the front of house.  Then he spent a good deal of time setting the bathtub in its permanent home.  We also shopped for tile. So many decisions to make! Tonight we looked at tiles for the breezeway and screen porch.  Tonight had us making more decisions. What lights for the bathroom, lights for the kitchen, where do you want the outlets in the bathroom, where should we run the fan exhaust out of the house?   We finally decided on wall lights over the mirrors for the bathrooms (I don't like ...

Fence Fiasco Today was even nicer than yesterday--another great day to focus on the outside.  Dave and I started the day working on the fence and then we discovered that we were short one section of fence (oops, I guess I miscounted). We installed the last section we had and the gate and then used the fence we borrowed from our friend to close the opening until the last section comes on Wednesday.  Then we started working on cleaning the garage to get the new lawn mower in. While we got started, Dave's mom trimmed the bushes in the front of the house. Look how nice they look above. Through a joint effort, we got shelves up in the garage and Dave started putting stuff on them and the bike hooks up.  We also hung the old kitchen cupboards in the garage--just a reminder of what the house used to look like.  But then came the best part of the day--the part where the fence we put up this weekend did not keep Ralph in.  He squeezed right through it today.  So now...

  A Beautiful Day We tend to focus on the work in the house, but today was all about the outside of the house. Dave bought a used lawn mower with a snow blower attachment and his parents used their trailer to deliver it today.  We continued to clean up the garage so that there is room to get it into the garage. I took a load of stuff to the  ReStore and then started to work on selling other stuff online. I also finally went to The Tile Store while Dave installed the shower pan and bathtub for the plumber. Then Dave and I went and picked up the new fence for the dog run area of the yard. While we were gone,  Dave's parents raked to uncover the flowers in the side yard and dug up the ferns in back of the house and moved them.  Then we all worked together to install the new fence.  Dave and his mom installed the posts and the bottom rail and Dave's dad and I installed the top rail and pickets.  We got 6 out of 8 sections installed really efficiently. We s...

  Friday Night Fish Fry The block we live on is long--we live on one corner and there is a shopping center on the opposite corner. Tonight Lauryn and I walked down to pick up fish dinner for her and Dave. The sun was setting on the other side of the lake as we walked and I was able to get the photo above. I love living near the lake AND near places to walk to get breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  After work we went to look at eco-friendly flooring for some areas of the house. We have 2 favorite;  The Adriatica blue linoleum in 12x12 squares for the front entryway and the waterproof cork planks for the laundry room/mudroom/dog water room.  While I measured and shopped for flooring, Chad and Dave continued to work on wiring the lights and the bathroom outlets.  And then Dave finished our bedroom door!