More House Prep and Steveio's "Man Cave"

We got a lot more done around the house this past weekend.

I cleared out the closet in the guest bedroom which had doubled as storage of my weaving and fiber supplies.  There were 16 rubbermaid totes in there.  I was able to condense, sort and repack so I only have 7 totes now.   That means NINE empty totes!!!!  Whew what an accomplishment!   I was so proud of myself I even Facebooked the announcement!

Then I painted the closet,  This room used to belong to our daughter Heather.  At one time, we had let her and two friends (Amanda and Jessica) help her paint the room BRIGHT turquoise.  They added this little bit of closet graffiti .... I almost hated to paint over it, it's been there for about 13 years.

Once Heather moved out after graduation in 2003, we repainted her room with a nice creamy beige but never had done the closet.  Thank you for decorating our home, Jessie and Manda! heh heh

Speaking of Heather, she and her husband Jesse, and our grandson Jameson went to Florida for a week to hang out with Micky Mouse.  Little Jameson told the ticket gal: "I AM GONNA DRIVE THE PLANE!"    heh heh.  He was even wearing his airplane sweatshirt -----  Here he is with his little cousin Scarlett, from Jesse's side of the family.  

Back to work here. Steve and I laid the carpeting in the guest bedroom downstairs.  This was the piece leftover from half of the loft.  We cleared out the room, laid the carpeting ourselves and then put everything back in the room.  Whew! But we needed mop board trim to go around the room, so it's kinda undone yet.   

That meant a trip to Menards.  (for those not in the midwest, it's a chain similar to Home Depot or Lowes) By the time we got outta there, it was close to $100, but we picked up a lot of things for the final touches on the house. New shelving boards for the closets and laundry area, the trim boards, some new outlet and switch-plate covers etc.  Plus we have a little grout job to do around the edges of the fireplace hearth, so we found some matching grout for that too.

On Saturday our Galaxy tablet did a new update on it's own, which functions as our router hub to bring the internet signal into our home.  Now Steve's older laptop with network USB device won't hook up right.  I struggled with the settings for over 2 hours.  I suggested he just get a new computer, since our income tax refund came.  I know our daughter Heather wanted a laptop because she and her husband share one.   Ya ever share a laptop with a spouse?  It's HARD to do!!!    We will give Steve's old one to her because it will work fine on their DSL line.  This is the same laptop we got from Jim and Dee of http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/   So it will live on, still being a part of our family.   

Steve knew of a student who was selling a netbook because he needed a Mac computer for his schooling.   The young man brought it over, showed it to us, hooked it up and it works just fine on the new-fangled connection of the Galaxy tablet.   It's a Asus Eee Netbook, smaller than a laptop, 10" size, and it's only about a year old.  New it was $400, and he sold it us for $125.  Good deal! 

It runs on Windows 7, and has everything he needs, including Office and even Skype with a camera for talking to the grandkids.  The keyboard is a tiny bit smaller, but it will be a nice device to have along in the motorhome.  He only plays Hearts on Yahoo or MSN, and browses Ebay and Craigslist.  That is the extent of his computering. 

Now that he got to buy something from the income tax refund, I get to buy something too!  Not sure what yet, but thinking... thinking...  We also splurged on a new hitch for the back of the Tracker, so that was our "together" purchase.  Our other Tracker had a nice hitch on the back, and twice now we found ourselves wishing the new Tracker had one too.  The rest of the refund will go in the bank.  No trips this year.

By the time Saturday night rolled around, we were pooped and I was aching sore and feeling yucky.  So I filled up the big whirlpool tub and soaked till I was wrinkled up like a prune!   

This is one thing I am gonna really miss about this house.  My tub!    I do have a tub in the motorhome, but it's not nearly this big.  Heeeeee heeeeee.

Sunday morning was another day full of tasks around the house again.  The spring on the dishwasher door broke so Steve fixed that.  I cleaned out the coat closet.  We installed new carpeting in the bottom and I think I threw out more stuff than what got put back in.  So I call that a success.   

After lunch, Steve and I sorted some more items in the basement storage area of the house and he carried out about 5 huge "body bags"  errr heavy contractor bags to the garage.  Destination St. Vincent De Paul's Thrift Store!  

I was planning to hostess a meeting on Monday evening for my Homemakers group, called HCE Home and Community Education.  It's kinda like 4H for little old ladies. LOL     

I needed to set up for 12 ladies to come and eat a late evening luncheon and have a meeting.  I had Steve haul in our extra folding table from the motorhome (we carry it in the basement of the motorhome for those times when we are boondocking without a picnic table).   Borrowed a half dozen folding chairs from Erin and we were good to go!  

Did I ever post a pic of my freshly painted kitchen? 

(excuse the clutter on the countertops while cooking) 

Lots of room for cooking for parties, just not so much dining area room. We put Steve's chair over by the fireplace by mine, to make room for the meeting table.

I baked up a banana bread in a bundt pan (I double the recipe) and had a little leftover batter, enough to bake a separate loaf (no nuts in that one)   Oh, I add a dollop of vanilla to my banana bread, and sprinkle brown sugar on the top to get a coffee-cake tasting crust.  When cooled, I inverted it onto a platter and drizzled on icing.   

The other thing I planned for little luncheon meal was something I enjoy making for the grandkids.  Our meal is just supposed to be a little snack for our meetings, not a big full meal.   These fun little piggies in the blankets are made from tiny smokie sausages, and crescent dough cut into strips, and extra diagonals with a pizza cutter.  Wrap up each little piggie and bake for about 10 minutes until done.  I use parchment paper so they don't stick from the cooking sausages.  

Now, here is the part where the "Man Cave" comes into play.  See, with all these elderly gals coming here, in the darkness, we felt it was probably best to NOT have the motorhome sitting in our driveway.  Not only would it make more room for the parking cars, but avoids the problem of someone possibly backing into it or creasing down the side as they are trying to maneuver in the dark from an unfamiliar driveway.   

We decided that Steveio would load up the dogs, some take-out chicken, and a few beers.  He drove our rig over to the neighbor's driveway!!!  Heh heh it became a haven to escape the clucking hens who overtook his house for the evening.  He had his little netbook, and a tv, heat, lights, and two doggers to keep him company.  What a great "Man Cave"!!!

Charlotte, my co-hostess made veggie pizza and Valentine sugar cut-out cookies. 

Along with some candy dishes, coffee and laughter, we had a great meeting! 

Once the meeting was over at 9:30, I walked across the yard and knocked on the motorhome door. Ahhh my man let me enter his "Man Cave" and we relaxed together inside for a while, pretending we were somewhere other than a driveway in Wisconsin in the Winter.   Soon it was 10 pm and the news came on the tv.  I got out and guided him over into our own driveway, he backed into it's own space again, and we went back in the house for the night.  

Our motorhome was a little disappointed, as were the dogs.  They all thought we were going SOMEWHERE!    

Soon, little motorhome... soon....  

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