What Are We Doing Now?

All right, what is that Pfundtner Guy up to now???

It was such a beautiful day that he decided that we needed to haul sheets of drywall on the flat trailer. It's unusual to be able to do this in the middle of winter without getting them all full of road slush and salt. But because all of our snow melted, and it's a sunshiny day, we were able to haul back 12 sheets of drywall with no problems whatsoever. Of course, he also added four big rolls of insulation into the back of the Saturn at the same time. 

Want to hear something strange? The last four times we have taken this trailer out to haul things, somebody has hit it! Twice it's been hit in the parking lot --- when it's empty, just sitting there attached to our Saturn --- where it's been parked legally on two long parking spaces end to end. People drive around the rows of parked cars, looking for a spot to cut through and don't see the trailer there and they just hit it. Always in a rush. One guy even hit it so hard he dragged it a couple feet to the side. We came out and couldn't figure out why our trailer was moved over. Till we saw the skid marks and realized the tail light was broken right off from where he hit it!

Twice now we have been waiting at stop lights where people have been stopped behind us. They see us and pull up and are stopped too. But then the light turns green and they jump it and get anxious and they drive right into our trailer before we can even pull forward! This happened once before--  and now AGAIN today! The gal behind us knew the trailer was there. She saw it when she pulled up and stopped behind us to wait for the light. But as soon as the light turned green she evidently forgot there was a length of a trailer between us? She drove her front bumper right into this little metal tab sticking out the back of our trailer. 

That little metal tab is for the cross bracket when we put the ramps on the trailer if we're hauling something on wheels. This crazy lady pulled right up and banged into it. She didn't get out or say she was sorry or anything... she just drove away? Plus she must have just bought the vehicle, because it still had dealer plates on it.   Car dealers are closed in Wisconsin on Sundays, so it's not like she was out for a test drive.

And the last guy that hit it had a big fancy pickup truck. We got out that time and he shrugged his shoulders and said "no harm no foul no big deal let it go". And he left!  Who knows? It's just every single time we take this trailer out and somebody hits it!  Jinxed?

So what did Steve need all of this insulation and drywall for? He decided that he was going to do another section of the garage because the temperatures were up in the 40s today. He has already insulated and drywalled over the entire ceiling of all four stalls worth of the garage. Then he has about 1/3 of the walls done with insulation and drywall. We did that last fall and reorganized a bunch of our gardening tools and his workshop area. So now he wants to get the two walls done on either side of where we park our vehicles.

Right away, he jumped to it and got the insulation all stapled up into place. Then he started lifting up the sheets of drywall before I even knew what he was doing out there. So he got a lot done and there's still more to go. But soon he will have the entire garage insulated and drywalled!

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While he was doing that, I was taking care of my own thing. Remember in my last blog I had a couple little cans of sample paint trying to decide what to do in our kitchen. I finally made my decision and went with the Misty Meadow. 

This was going to be a complete change from the beige mauve color that is there from the previous owners. It's kind of "blah" and I wanted something fresh and clean.  I started taping off around sections of cabinets and along the edge of the countertop to start in one small section of the kitchen. Just to see what it looked like.  

(this is my wine rack and coffee bar

made from a repurposed old cabinet

turned sideways and a countertop added)

Since I had the trim paint out, I touched up some of the areas around the windows where they meet at the southeast corner of our kitchen. That was an area that needed touch-up for quite some time. 

While I was at it, I added a new coat of paint to the windowsill ledges. This is where I line up all of my little blown glass paperweights.  The sun was out and it felt so good to paint with the sunshine streaming in the windows. 

Now the paint was dry over in that test section. It looked pretty darn good! I gave it a second coat and decided to plow on and keep going. Steve was gone with his brother Pete to help their father with a project.  I could do this on my own. Time for a change! 

I taped around some more of the white bead board and trim. I also laid down some drop cloths--- really old towels to protect the hardwood floors. Bit by bit I went around the room, and when Steve got back, he did some of the cutting in along the top for me. He is color blind so it's really hard to see the difference between the brownish mauve and the soft mossy green. So to him it kind of looks like the same color no matter what. LOL

Steve had to pull the cabinet the big pantry cabinet away from the wall so I could get behind that section too. It wouldn't do any good to paint around and not that part of the wall in case someday we ever removed the cabinet?? 

It's pretty heavy, it serves as a pantry to hold all of our additional canned goods, all of our extra appliances that I don't like cluttering up the countertop, and then big serving trays and platters etc. It was a huge old wooden cabinet we bought from somebody off Facebook Marketplace two years ago. We dressed it up with beadboard on the sides and new handles on the front. Now it serves as our pantry.

Here is the blog post about that:  

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2021/07/beadboard-cabinet-pantry-space.html

While I was waiting for that coat to dry, I didn't feel like getting any supper cooking. I had painting supplies all over the island and didn't feel like cooking. We are lucky to have a new Mexican restaurant in our small town.  https://www.losmagueyesgb.com/

Their food is really good! Plus they happened to have a coupon in the local paper $5 off a $40 meal. Of course, to reach $40 we just have to each order a great big Margarita to get started along with our chips and salsa.

Our food came and it was delicious. Steve ordered a chicken chimichanga that was absolutely great and packed full of chicken.  I ordered the shrimp quesadilla and guacamole salad. There was more shrimp than anything inside the quesadilla and very few tomatoes or onions. They were grilled perfectly and soft and tender.

Plus, they LISTENED when I said no cheese. We've been to other Mexican restaurants that put it on or add a cheese sauce, no matter what, and shrug their shoulders when they give it to you. Even when I complain and try to send it back. I just can't handle digesting cheese anymore. That's a bugger when you're from Wisconsin and you can't eat cheese?

We got back to the house and I rolled the second coat of paint before we settled in to watch some TV for the evening. I couldn't wait until this morning when the sun shone in to see how nice it looked...

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Got up this morning and it looked absolutely wonderful. I touched up a little bit here and there. I was able to put everything back into place including all of my little blown glass paperweights

Steve helped me push the pantry cabinet back into place and now this whole section of the kitchen is done.  I really like how it turned out.

Maybe tomorrow we will roll out the refrigerator and do that section of wall behind there? Or maybe we'll take a break. Who knows?

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As for our goofy Wisconsin weather, it's been up to 45 again today. This is the very last snow bank left in our yard. We have absolutely no other snow at all.  We saw a bit in the woods, on the north sides under the pine trees, but that is about it.  We should be about 2 feet deep in snow by this time of year! 

But never fear, we do have some snow forecast for the next 7 days! 

On and off, 

maybe snow 

maybe rain 

maybe sleet 

maybe who knows what. 

But since it was so nice out we did get little Binney out for a walk about the block and stretched our legs. She said no more, she is still in Hibernation Mode.  When spring actually does come, then she will walk again.  

And to continue from my last blog, we are happy to report that after a couple nights on our new Nectar mattress, we are really pleased with it. We filled out the warranty card and registered it and decided we will keep it. There is a trial period that you can actually return it free of charge and they will ship it back for free!