Winter is Coming - Lining Up Some Indoor House Projects

 Winter is coming!!!

These dogs are sure getting into hibernation mode already. They're slowing down and curling up and taking advantage of the shorter days. When I look at them, all I want to do is curl up in a warm quilt, wool socks, and sip a hot cup of cider. But that doesn't get things done does it?

Instead, we went out and raked up some leaves, threw some sticks in to the woods and admired the piles of wood that Steve cut up from the trees he took down.  

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We have an exciting day coming tomorrow... the insulation company is coming to remove the rest of that old attic insulation with a big vacuum suction thing into a dumpster, and then blow in all of the new insulation for R50 rating.  Wheeeee I will be sure to take some pics. 

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In my last blog, I left a little hint of how our projects get started. Steve and I work as a team, each contributing what we can to the planning, gathering, bargain shopping and execution of each step. 

Here was a little drawing with some measurements. What I do is I come up with some ideas, or Steve comes up with some ideas, and then we start talking. Once we start talking, we come up with more ideas! Then we do a little research into materials or prices. Then pretty soon we are jumping up and down and getting measurements and drawing things out on clipboards. And that's where we are right here:

The other night, we had been watching an HGTV program, and somebody had nice white beadboard for their backsplash in their kitchen. My eyes caught that and I thought it was really attractive! I then Google'd the words of "beadboard backsplash". I saw a whole bunch of great ideas!

So I mentioned it to Steve and he looked at a few ideas too. Last winter we did an indoor project where we had added panels of beadboard to the sides of our kitchen cabinetry to match the island. 

here are those blog posts:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2020/02/beadboard-and-beetle-bug.html

and 

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2020/02/beadboard-doors-hce-and-chandelier.html

We had a few scraps left over from that project in the garage. Steve dashed out and got one and brought it in to lay it in place, covering a part of our kitchen backsplash.

Oh I sure like that! 

I think that's what I want

 to do as a project.

Yes, I have a cool glass tile block backsplash that was put in by the previous owners. But, it really wasn't to my liking. The little rectangular horizontal style blocks were kind of a fad about 10 years ago. It really wasn't my taste then and it really isn't my taste now.

But, to top it off, being an old house, things are always crooked or skewed in a way that doesn't lend to good level horizontal construction. You can see where the seller  (he admitted to us it was his FIRST time ever laying tile)  had followed the top of the cabinetry and allowed the bottom line to slope down on an angle. The countertops were installed after the backsplash was mortared to the wall.  So there is no way to pull it off! 

See how it slopes???

This is always bugged me and I tried to cover it up with things on the counter, all the lines are crooked and it just does not appeal to me. I know from a distance the kitchen looks pretty but I really don't care for that pattern nor the horizontal blotchy blocks.  It is distracting from the marble veining on the countertops. Kind of like the same way that I didn't care for the blotchy blocks pattern of bathroom flooring that we changed out last week.  Too many patterns.  Ugh. 

So now that I have all my measurements, I think we are going to be changing this out. We can't remove the old glass block tile because it's in place before the countertop was laid. Instead, we are going to glue it over the top with heavy duty construction adhesive. I'm making my measurements and making my shopping list to get new beadboard pieces to fill it in. For under $20, we can make a big transformation! 

There is something else I would like to do, but it's a LOT more expensive, and I will have to wait patiently.  I know my birthday is coming up in 2 weeks.  Maybe then???   But in the meantime, I will be satisfied with a $20 upgrade. 

 (hint - SOMD .... Sink Of My Dreams?) 

So as I am figuring out the order for a beadboard curbside pickup, Steve brought up the idea that we had installed a beadboard wainscotting about 4 feet up all the way around in the bathroom in our last home in Chilton. He really liked that look. If we were going to order a curbside pickup of a little bit of beadboard for the kitchen, might we want to do the bathroom here at the same time?  It was a fun project and really changed the look of the bathroom.

Here is my blog post from that project:

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2017/12/our-bathroom-facelift-almost-completed.html

So, we just might do that in the master bathroom here! That would be a good winter project. 

Nice creamy white beadboard to match all of the trim around the bathroom. So that's what the rest of the measurements are for. We will see what we end up with, we got a couple ideas in mind. We can buy the narrow beadboard in 3.5" wide strips or get the full panels.  Either way, I can paint them in the basement on sawhorses before putting them up into place. 

It's nice to look ahead to some fun things that we can do inside, over the winter, that will be pleasant and fun and not take a lot of money or a hit to our budget

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Last winter I bought this goofy plant on impulse at Aldi. It didn't grow so well by summertime and it was dropping leaves. So I decided to stick it outside in the flower bed and see if it would grow or die. It grew and flourished! So I brought it back into the house now before the frost came and put it in a flower pot. It's growing again. Let's hope my green thumb can keep it going through the winter??

One more winter project jumped up, or actually more of a spring project. Steve was looking on his Facebook Marketplace, always looking for a bargain. He happened to find this listing of two brand new windows! They were ordered incorrectly for a build job at a guy's cabin. Until the new windows could come, they were put into place for 6 weeks. So essentially they are brand new but not able to be returned because they were a custom order, and because they got used for 6 weeks. They are the same brand of the other windows we have already installed in the kitchen, laundry room and she shed.  They are 4 feet high and 6 feet wide. 

So the guy and his contractor came to terms on the mistake and now he decided to sell them. New they were over $600 each. By the time Steve was done negotiating he got them for $255 for the pair. That is $127.50 each.  

$1,200 worth of windows.  

Sold!   

Steve knew the measurements for one of these combination windows sets would fit perfectly into the south side of our kitchen. Then, after much of my insistence, he bought the other one to put in our bedroom! 

I have been begging and begging for an extra set of windows facing to the east from our bedroom. Our bedroom is very dark and dim with only one window to the side of the bed. Now that he removed that back entrance enclosure to the basement, we have been debating on adding a pair of windows to the bedroom.  Steve voted for one window, I voted for two.  He ended up buying a combo unit of THREE! LOL!!!

So you can see why we have not yet redone the siding on this part of the house. It's because we were determining what type of window (or windows) to put here. It will take a little more construction with adding a header and shoulder studs and king studs, but it will be worth it. It will brighten up the bedroom to put in this large window combination unit.  Like my finger scribble drawing from my phone? 

This is what the bedroom looks like right now and I would like the window to be at the foot of the bed shining in beautiful sunshine in the morning from the East....ahhhh  We had eastern morning light from two large windows in our bedroom in Chilton, and we really liked it.  We are also redoing the ceiling this winter in there, because those are the old closet walls that were removed to make a larger bedroom.

This is where I would imagine it could end up. I think it will be absolutely wonderful and exactly what I have been thinking....

So again, that's another project, for most likely next spring. Although Steve said we could probably work on the kitchen one yet this fall..... that one's the exact same size and doesn't take any reconstruction of the wall or studs to put it into place. 

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The Packer Game is on, and supper is in the oven.  Time to post this and get some salads made to go with our baked pork chops and potatoes.  

 Go Pack Go! 

Snowy Sunday

The cute little Beetle Bug woke up at 7 am. It's so nice she slept in. She is accustomed to getting up at 5:30 - 6 a.m. I think we wore her out last night so she slept well in the grandkid's bunkbeds in the guest room, all by herself.

She enjoyed a fun time this morning, crawling around on our bed with us, snuggling and tickling, giggling and watching cartoons. Grandpa brought us in each a donut with my cup of coffee. What a wonderful treat! Except now we have to change the flannel sheets on the bed, due to the crumbs all over the place, now crushed into the flannel fabric.

She figured out how to put her boots inside of Grandpa's big shoes.  My oh my, what big feet you have?

Her mommy came to get her around 10 a.m. and it was time to send her back home. It's nice that we now live close by and we can babysit for special occasions for all of our grandchildren. Her parents celebrated Valentine's Day early, as their schedules allowed, to spend the entire Saturday day doing couples things--- including manis and pedis, a couples massage, and a nice dinner out.

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We were forecast for some snow today. They first said about 6 to 8 inches. Then the forecast crept up from there to 8 to 10 inches.  We went over that by the end of the day.

It started coming down about 9 a.m. it snowed steadily all day.  It was so peaceful and pretty.  So fresh and white and fluffy.

Honestly, it was very cozy and we were warm and dry, well fed and comfortable. Our power stayed on all of the while, and our gas fireplace in the she shed added to the coziness.  The heat from that room goes up into the house and supplements the main part of the house too. 

and the snow kept softly falling down 

As we sat by the big windows, watching the snow, we were also watching the birds outside at the feeders.  They really scavenged our bird feeders down to almost empty levels. A big pileated woodpecker, which is huge, finished off the rest of the suet block. 

They are between 22 and 24 inches long and weigh close to a pound.  They are very shy birds and don't often come near developed neighborhoods.  We are located close to the nature preserve (backs up right to our backyard) so they probably feel safe enough to scavenge over to our feeders.

By 1 pm those feeders were almost empty.  I bundled up into my snow gear and high Iceman snow boots and went out to refill the feeders. As soon as I put that fresh new suet block out there, that big old woodpecker came right back to test it out when I went back into the house. I think he was watching me.

I went through three loads of my 2 quart pitcher filling up the big bird feeders with sunflower seeds, and a good chunk of the bag of thistle seed for the little black-capped chickadees. I get flocks of chickadees and some finches at the niger thistle seed feeders. We get such a nice variety of big blue jays, cardinals, and woodpeckers hanging around.

Here are the thistle seed feeders, before I got them filled.  There are 12 perches to eat from and they are usually filled up with 12 birds at a time....with others waiting for their turn, perched on top of the rods.

We had the dogs out in the snow for a while, they were plunging around in it but it was up to their bellies and they didn't get too far.  It was snowing pretty heavy, so we didn't push them out for a walk.  We came back inside and pealed off the layers of winter outerwear. Whew!

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Steve finished putting up some more of our beadboard panels. This time he added them on each side of the window in the kitchen, on the ends of the cabinets. Once he had them nailed securely into place, I gave them two coats of paint throughout the day.  I think that they sure came out nice.

LEFT SIDE              RIGHT SIDE 

These little beadboard panels added a touch of "farmhouse" style to the kitchen. Maybe some day Steve will build some different beadboard doors to go on the fronts of the cabinet boxes.  For now, just trimming up the ends is enough.  I like the layout of the kitchen as it is, and like the sturdy old wooden cabinets. I can load them up and not worry about them flexing under load like the fiber manmade composite boards of newer cheaper cabinets.  What I have is enough to make me happy, and that is what counts. 

(still working on the idea of a 

new single basin deep stainless steel sink) 

He cut the rest of the 5 beadboard panels to insert on the doors of the island, but he realized that he was getting low on construction adhesive. I told him that "tomorrow is another day". It was too snowy to go out and drive just to pick up a tube of adhesive. So instead he heeded my advice, cut off work for the day, and we took a nice nap!!!

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We popped a couple frozen pasties in the oven for supper and the house smells so good this evening. The smell reminds me of when my mom would make rows and rows and rows of pasties. It was like an assembly line on the counter and table to put them all together.  Then we would stack them up in long empty plastic bread bags to close up and put them in the freezer.  With 6 kids to feed, it made sense to make a bunch of them in advance and freeze them until needed.

For anyone who wants to know what a pasty is, it's what the Cornish miners would use for their meal, taken down into the mine shafts where they worked. It became a staple food of the miners in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The miners would heat them up by setting them on there lanterns and they would be ready to eat by lunch time. In the old days you pierce your initial into the crust with a fork.... so you knew that was your pasty and not your brother's or father's or uncle's. Womenfolk would make bunches of them for the entire family of men who were miners going down in the shafts underground.  Nobody came to the surface for lunch breaks, they ate underground. They would eat part of it at one meal break and wrap it back up and then eat the rest of it at another meal break. It is definitely a traditional food from the upper peninsula of Michigan. I buy them pre-made frozen in the unbaked form. Then I just have to thaw them a bit in the microwave and toss them in the oven on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet to bake them to their golden brown crust ---   the insides are delicious.

This is from a Pasty Website: 

To many people in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the pasty is much more than food, it is an identifying cultural mark that gives them their own identity. When the Cornish came to the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula, they brought with them a lot of mining knowledge which the other ethnic groups did not have.  The pasty was the standard lunch for miners.  The pasty became popular with these other ethnic groups because it was small, portable, was very filling, and could stay warm for 8-10 hours.  Pasty rivalry occurred between the Finns, Swedes, Irish, Poles, Germans, Scots, Italians, and French with each group  contributing something in the way of seasoning and other ingredients.  All groups agree that pasties must contain two things, potatoes and onions. The portability of the pasty not only made it easy to carry, but if it should get cold it would be relatively easy to heat up.  This was done by putting the pasty on a shovel and holding it over a head-lamp candle.  Miners never ate a pasty with a fork, they ate it end to end, and held it upright to keep the juices in.  Since entire families worked in mines and each member of the family wanted different ingredients in the pasty, the wife would stamp the bottom corner of each pasty with an initial.

According to the Cornish Recipes, Ancient and Modern, "The true Cornish way to eat a pasty is to hold it in the hand, and begin to bite it from the opposite end to the initial, so that, should any of it be uneaten, it may be consumed later by its rightful owner.  And woe betide anyone who take's another person's corner!"  There was a superstition among the miners that the initial corner should not be eaten, instead it was dropped on the ground for the mining gremlins (also known as Knockers) to eat.  These "gremlins" caused mischief in mines, causing accidents and mine collapses, feeding them supposedly kept them out of trouble.

The pasty is a simple food and can be described as a portable meat pie.  It remains relatively unchanged today, a few places have put in healthier vegetable shortening instead of lard, and a couple of other minor changes like the cut of meat used.  

(I like the beef and pork sausage meat and rutabaga cubes along with the slices of potatoes and onions) 

The snow seemed to let up a little bit around 6 PM. It's still coming down but lighter. The plow finally went through and of course it piled a huge snowbank across the end of the driveway.

Steve decided to get out there and snow blow it out of the way as soon as possible. Otherwise it hardens into a very heavy row of chunks of snow that are difficult to move.

The temperatures are dropping out there, so he put on his gloves that were a Christmas present from our daughter Erin and son-in-law Waylen. They are electric gloves!  They are from Global Vasion and are really worth their weight in gold in cold weather.  It seems as Steve ages, he said his hands get colder faster.  These gloves do the trick.

There are 2 little battery packs that you pre-charge and then plug them into the gloves. There are electric wires within the gloves that go down into the palm and finger areas. 

See the blue glow on each of his wrists? Blue is the lowest setting. Then green is the middle setting. And then red is the highest setting.

It looks like we have about a foot of new snow on the ground... And Steve did a great job getting it all snowblowed away. He did the driveway, the walkways, and even around the fire hydrant in front of the house. I didn't go out there tonight but I will help clean up a bit in the morning and do the front porch and steps.

In our little town it's a city ordinance that you need to keep the fire hydrant clear if it's on your property.  If not, you get a fine if the city has to come by and clear it out. It's a good thing to do as an added benefit for all of the neighbors in the area. If there ever were a fire at any of our houses, the firemen would waste precious minutes trying to dig out a fire hydrant from the snow. So we will do our part by keeping a nice clear berth around the hydrant, and we avoid any nasty letters and fines from the city.

He turned his gloves up to red HOT! 

He is back in the house now and taking a shower to warm up. Now that we are cozy warm inside I think we will snuggle down with the movie for the evening, after I finish this blog.

Beadboard and a Beetle Bug!

Now that our kitchen cabinets are finished with their painting...  we changed them from brown to white, it was time to dress them up a little bit.

The old sturdy solid cabinets are wonderful in this kitchen. But we decided to dress up the ends of them with the beadboard panels to match the beadboard sides of the island.

We carefully measured the existing beadboard on each side of the island.

We realized the beadboard choices at the store are all different thicknesses and depth of the grooves. Some of it is just white MDF paneling, other panels are sheets of wooden beadboard, and some are thick beadboard planks instead of panels.

We picked up a 4 x 8 sheet of primed wood paneling that matches the island beadboard from Home Depot, for just under $20. We hauled it home the same day we hauled home the roll of bathroom vinyl flooring that we will save for another project day...

Now for the Beetle Bug part...

No, we didn't find any beetle bugs in the woods of the cabinets. LOL.  We just found a little three-year-old Beetle Bug named Claire who wanted to come over and help us today.

I grabbed the clipboard and the pencil to take down the measurements. Grandpa had his big tape measure and the Little Beetle Bug had to have her tape measure too.

She measured and measured, 

and called out numbers to me 

to write down for her.

Of course, Grandpa made his own measurements too and we wrote them down in a separate column. I think when he went with the cut list out to the garage, he had a pretty clear idea of which numbers were his and which numbers were hers.

While Claire and I laid down to take a nap in the afternoon, Grandpa took care of cutting up some of the panels.

Once naptime was over, he brought in the big air compressor into the she shed, and then he ran the air hose up the stairs into the house.

He ran thick beads of construction adhesive around on the back sides of the panels.

He nailed the panels into place with the air nail gun. He added a few trim strips here and there as well, to balance it off and match the other cabinetry.

We really like how this is coming out!

Before supper, I managed to get the first coat of paint on some of the panels. Grandpa kept the wee one entertained while I could get out a paint brush and roller to see how the finished panels were going to look.

I still need to get a second coat of paint on them

He did the side of the cabinet 

that meets up against the open pantry, 

and a small square alongside the 

longer cabinet in the corner. 

The side of my coffee bar / wine rack got a new panel too.  This is located closest to the island and looks nice now that it matches! 

He has a few more pieces to cut yet. He is doing three small panels for each of the doors on the island as well as a panel on each side of the upper cabinets that surround the center window.

It will be nine panels in total. If there's enough left, there are two tall skinny doors on the backside of the island with our trash and recycling pull out bins that I would like to get covered as well ... if he can eek them out of the remaining pieces.

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It's time now to finish up this blog. The Beetle Bug helped me cook supper and now it's time to pop her in the bathtub before popping her into bed. The dogs sure enjoy cuddling with her and watching for any dropped crumbs from her graham cracker snack. 

Here she is saying "Goodnight Moon"! 

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Continued prayers are appreciated for our family members that are going through a rough time with health issues right now.  That is all I can manage to say at this time.