Casters, Snow and Another "A-Door-Able Door"??

It sure is a good thing that they built a Jo-Ann's Fabric and Craft store right next to the Harbor Freight store in Marinette Wisconsin! While Steve was busy digging around in Harbor Freight for a few special items, I had the opportunity to go next door to Jo-Ann's. I grabbed some extra backing fabric for my quilt and a new spool of the variegated thread that I wanted.  I was still waiting in the parking lot while he was shopping, and he had the keys in his pocket.  So I had time to snap this pic,  Great ideas of the developers to put these stores side by side. On second thought, I should have gone back in JoAnn's. 

One of the things that Steve added to his shopping cart at Harbor Freight were four heavy duty locking casters. I have been kind of prodding him to think about getting them for quite a while. He has this really wonderful HEAVY workbench island situation in the garage. But every time he wants to move it, he has to drag this very heavy island across the cement floor. The screeching and scraping sound is AWFUL! Not only that, I can't drag it myself if I want to move it! So I had suggested a set of good heavy duty casters on the bottom, ones that could be locked into place.

Now it can be moved around with ease or rolled out of the way if we're working on something on the floor. I like having this open workbench island space in the middle of the room to work on projects. The heavy metal top was originally a steel door that was used during a construction phase on his brother's home. It makes an excellent worktop for his workbench island. The sturdy steel legs came out of a bulk item trash day rescue. So all together, it didn't cost much for the island itself, so the investment of 4 casters seemed to make sense.

Plus I got to shop and oogle fabrics. 

In my last blog I was showing how we added beadboard to the rest of the walls in the bathroom. Now it's finally complete. It looks so much better.  Covering up those portions of the walls kind of makes the room feel bigger.  This is a wide angle shot with the cell phone to get it all in. 

It lightened and brightened it up as well. I really like the look of the beadboard slats and it seems to fit with The Farmhouse motif. I am so pleased with how it turned out.  I have a few little spots here and there to dab paint on. Spots that we filled in the holes from the finishing nail gun on the quarter round trim around the baseboard.

Just one more of our projects finished that we can tick off the list.

Wednesday morning we woke up to absolutely beautiful white snow covering on the ground. Our first snowfall of the season. The temperatures have dropped now and the ground has stayed cold enough that the snow is hanging around.

We let little Binney out into her potty yard and she had to dash around and bark and snuffle around in the snow a little bit. I think from year to year dogs forget what snow was like. So the first time out again in the snowfall is exciting. Just like kids.  She is so funny.  She had to wait and see if the neighbor dogs were coming out.  Then she barks at them to tell them off, and prances back into the house. 

After my painting was done, I spent Wednesday morning sitting back with my feet up in front of the fireplace. The sun was shining outside but a few flakes every now and then came glistening down as they twirled to the ground. Steve went into town for a haircut and I had a peaceful relaxing morning to myself with a cup of coffee, some soft music, a good book from my sister, and the company of Binney.

When Steve got back from his haircut, he insisted that we had to hop into the Saturn and go check out something that he had located on Facebook Marketplace. 

Here we go again! 

It's another "A-door-able Door"!

If you look a few blogs back, I had mentioned about an antique door that Steve had located. He worked really hard to clean it all up, strip it all off and get it in place for our master bedroom. When our house was remodeled back about 6 years ago, some of the doors were changed to modern hollow core ones. Others were left as original with the five horizontal panels. So we have been trying to locate old wooden doors to replace the newer modern ones. Steve found another!

Soooooo for another $20 (same price as the last one) we drove down to Green Bay to pick up the door. It was exactly what he was looking for and it came home in the same manner the last one did. Wedged between us in the Saturn. Much better than hauling it laying flat on the trailer, driving through the slush and the snow. He looks so determined to get this door home, doesn't he?

I am just along for the ride, laughing at him and his eagerness to restore these doors and get rid of the modern ones. He doesn't like them at all and he said that they bug him. They are kind of MDF white plastic fake chipboard whatever stuff. Nothing can beat a good solid wooden door, in his mind.

I did get him to swing by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Green Bay. I think he was hoping to find another door! We walked around and I managed to spy an additional light fixture with my same stained glass lights that I have in the home. This one is a pendant. I got the whole thing for $6. I don't even have a spot for it. But it was worth it to pick it up in case I ever need the shade, or if one of our others breaks. Who knows, maybe I will find a spot for it. But in the meantime, it's good to have an extra on hand. At that price, it was a bargain.  It retails for $39.99 new. 

~~~~~~~~~~

So that was about it for yesterday. Today is starting out slow and easy and relaxed. We did bring the grand puppies over to the groomers so it was one less thing for the kids to do.  We picked them up a few minutes ago.  They are now minus a bunch of big bushy coats, and have their nails trimmed and we can see their eyes again.  This is Biscuit and Ewok. 

This afternoon we have an appointment with our local Health Insurance specialists to talk to Steve about his Medicare Part B Supplement stuff. He's only a couple months away from that. So it's good to get the paperwork in order and figure out what he's doing.

It looks like the Midwest and the Great Lakes are due for some very cold windy weather with wind chills down below zero in the next few days. Brrrrrrrrr

There's a Packer game tonight at Lambeau in Green Bay, and the wind chills might get down in the low numbers too. We hope they play as well as they did last Sunday!

Steveio Battles Snow Storm Ashley

We have been severely lacking in snowfall here in Wisconsin.  Our Christmas was far from "White", it was much more like MUD.  (I will do another post about our holidays next)

The weathermen started warning us on Sunday about the impending storm coming our way. Seems our section of Wisconsin was slated for some of the highest snowfall totals predicted. We were due for 10-12 inches.

The snow started coming down Monday morning, just enough to cover the ground and make things slick. My friend Linda in Tennessee misses having snow, and my friend Rosie in Missouri gets some, but she loves to see it too. I made them this little video clip:

By Monday afternoon, we were getting some sleet on top of it, just enough to make things a slippery mess!

Monday evening, the weather forecasters were warning us about an inch an hour. It was going to last all night into the wee hours of the morning.

We hunkered down to see how bad it was going to get.  After work, Steve prepped the snowblower, filling the fuel and running it to be sure it was in tip top shape.  (Knowing him, everything that has a small engine is running in tip top shape) ---   Most folks run out for bread and milk.  Steve runs out for more gas!  Smart man.

After supper, the storm kicked up a notch or two, and we started getting accumulation...  filming from the comfort of the front porch makes it easy to observe the weather and not have to actually be out IN it!~ 

Before we went to bed, we decided to take down our christmas tree.  It had been a pre-cut tree rather than a fresh-cut, and was losing needles by the dozens each time we walked past it. Time to get it OUT and less of a fire danger in the house.  Steve battled the winds to get it hauled just out the front door and dumped into the flowerbed. We will find out when the city sanitation offers tree pickup, but for now, out the front door was as far as he was going to go. 

The winds were whipping up to 25-30 mph and gusts of 45-50.  We could hear it howling but we were cozy and warm in our stout german house.  Before we headed to bed, I snapped this pic of the frosted frozen porch window... 

This was the wind, sleet and snow blasting from the south 

against this window... 

During the night, I could hear the wind howling outside.  The roads were not being plowed, as everything was shut down.  Warnings on tv said to not go out unless it was an emergency. About 1:30 am an ambulance made it's way down the highway in front of our home.  I felt bad for whomever needed the ambulance during the night. It was not a good night to be out and about.

By 5:45 am, Steveio was up and at em.  He looked out at drifts as high as three feet, and the plow had just gone through, shoving up a 40 inch high snowbank across the end of our driveway!  

If you are from the north, you know that if you DON'T get that plowed snow bank moved out fast, it hardens into a thick solid ICE BANK.   Steve donned his snow gear and headed out to fire up the snowblower.  Wheeee it was as deep as the blower and he slowly chewed through the snow to get up to the front yard... Here is a video I made in the early morning light of him working so hard.  

Notice how he has to take a tiny chunk at a time?

He managed about an hour and half doing that kind of hard work, before he stumbled back into the house.  He was wet from head to toe with sweat.  I sent him up into the shower while I cooked up a hot breakfast for his belly.  He had been hoping to get into work on time, but didn't even get the driveway cleared enough to get out with our Tracker.  Four wheel drive don't mean much when it's drifted shut three feet deep and all ice underneath.  ACK! 

He donned fresh clothes and headed back out again.  Soon he was able to get the Tracker out, but he also took the time to blow a path up to the widow lady next door, just in case she needed to get out.  Her daughter is in the hospital, and she might be needing to go there today.  What a guy! 

Then he hopped in the Tracker and sped off to work..... to do guess what?  

PLOW SNOW

SNOWBLOW WALKS

SHOVEL SNOW

allll dayyyy longgggg

(sounds like fun, eh?)

As it got lighter out. 

this is the view from our livingroom window:

Everything was so bright and clean.

I love the snow clinging to the pines across the street.

About 11 am the garbage and recycling trucks went through town, so I donned my boots and coat and hat to go out and pull our bin and the neighbor's bins back up to the houses.  I managed to snap a few pics of the house and yard because it was SOOOO pretty! 

Our poor motorhome is still buried,

 patiently waiting to head south sometime soon for a vacation.

The whipping winds made some interesting wavy drifts clinging to our garage

and little Binney kept an eye on me from her perch inside.

 The snow is piled up on my clematis trellis,

and adds to the holiday decorations! 

Although we didn't get a White Christmas, at least we got a White Christmas Vacation!   After Steve's long day at work, he came home to a hot meal and a shower.  He was going to head back out to snowblow some more in the yard and make the driveway wider, neatening up the banks.  The motorhome needs to get freed up, and the front sidewalk is only a single swath. But I talked him into just resting tonight, and hit it again tomorrow morning.  

I think he worked hard enough today!