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.

~~~~~~~~~

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"! 

~~~~~~~~~

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.

Getting Back on Track but Cancer Strikes Our Family Again

Yes, it's sad... after just losing both our father and step father, cancer has again struck another family member.  As we go through this, with support and love for our family, we are asking for prayers and kind thoughts.  

Steve's family has also had too many family members suffer with this horrible disease, and has lost some of them too.  It has been a shocking time for Steve and I, and for the members of both of our families.

Mom is adjusting well to the loss of Lowell, and we are in contact multiple times a day via computer, chats, email and phone.  I am sure it's hard for her to get used to being alone, cooking for one, and filling her days with things to do.  She is doing well, organizing her craft stuff, and handling the rest of the details that need to be done when one loses your spouse.  I am so proud of her for stepping up and coping so well at age of 77.


On one bright note... we have something positive to look forward to!  Our oldest daughter and husband have announced the forthcoming new arrival!   Sometime in November we will be greeting our seventh grandchild!

Now, isn't he or she extremely handsome, beautiful,

educationally advanced and spectacular? 

*just like ALL of our grandchildren???*

Since our coming home from Florida a few weeks ago, we have been getting back on track at home.  With multiple obligations slated for Steve's work schedule and our family gatherings, we are trying to get the repairs completed on the motorhome too.  We need to fix the waterpump seal leak and replace the clips on the alternator.  Both projects require getting out on the ground underneath the motorhome to work on it.  The only problem is that the weather isn't cooperating!

FIVE times since we got home, we have woken up to ***S*N*O*W***~~~~  

The weatherman is promising warmer weather this week, and hopefully encouraging Spring to make it's appearance? After basking in the 80+ degree days in Florida a few weeks ago, this wet heavy icky frozen Wisconsin has been kinda hard to deal with.

My flowers are poking up their feeble leaves along the house on the south side.   I carefully covered all of the tulips, daffodils and crocus to shelter them for the first two snow storms because I knew in advance.  The last few snowfalls were more of a "surprise" so they didn't get covered.  I hope they all survive.


I have been working on customer's orders for rugs that I had put aside while we were gone.  Got a few orders completed and shipped out, and working on a few more.

My Newcomb Studio loom needed a front take up lever on the front beam  The loom had come to me without a take-up lever.  Until Steve could make me one, I had to either borrow the one from the other Newcomb or use a "strap wrench" for taking oil filters off cars!   Finally, he took off the other one, matched up the materials to make a new one, and installed it last night for me!!!!

 Back in business without having to swap levers from loom to loom just to weave.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to babysit for a couple grandtots.  It was so good to fill the house with childish laughter and squeals of delight.  We put the kiddos to work with projects and baking tasks and positive attention.  It was a great time....

Making Auntie Lois's banana bread recipe:

Grandpa Pfun attended Chelsea's Hair Salon

Grandpa also attended their medical clinic.... 

using our blood pressure monitor and oxygen sensor, 

they put Grandpa through a full medical checkup.  He passed. 

Any task we ask of them, at this age, they gladly join in and help. 

 They helped me work on this quilt, and also to finish up these rugs....

With the arrival of spring, we have a lot of projects in mind to get done around here. If the weather cooperates, we can perhaps start a few things this weekend.  

Tonight Steve is going to lead the orientation for the camphosts we have lined up for the park this season. I am cooking up a meal to serve out of crock pots to the group of volunteers before the meeting starts.  But then.....  I am going to "play hooky" on the meeting and head up to Green Bay.  Granddaughter Allegra is having her dance recital, and if you ask me, that is WAY more important.  

VACATION - Starting to Forget What Day It Is

Yup, vacation mode is really setting in now, 19 days into our time away, and we are forgetting what day of the week it even is!  THAT is true vacation brain and you know you are really relaxing!  We forgot it was only Monday, and Steve was thinking it was Tuesday to watch his one and only tv show he likes to watch (Person of Interest).  Oh well, now he can watch it tonight.

You might not think this is relaxing, but Steve is having a great time with Lowell. They are two peas in a pod, and love to have projects to work on.  If they don't have something to do, they are at odds with themselves and can not just sit and twiddle their thumbs.  Here they are washing a truck that Lowell is fixing up to sell.  When they were done washing it, they started working on the body here and there....

While they worked so hard,

here was MY view, from my lawn chair! 

Yup, the sky was THAT blue... ahhhhhh! 

This bug is another project car that Lowell worked on and repainted.  

He likes it so much, he don't want to sell it now.  LOL 

He has a case of  "too many vehicles" 

I count eight vehicles and a travel trailer in the yard at this time.....

Mom and I have been busy, working on crafts and projects, in between cooking meals for the guys and running errands.  It's been great spending a lot of days in a row with Mom.  Usually we have to cram in our visits to a few short days when they stop by as they head up to Michigan.  This has been a wonderfully long visit.  I know we have not been doing a lot touristy things, or items of travel interest to blog about for my RVing friends.  But my fiber and crafting readers will love some of these----

I set up my sewing machine on a folding table in the livingroom.  Working on some quilts and hot pads... 

While Mom is working on her addiction:  doggie critters made from pipe cleaners! 

and these jungle ones:

I even came in yesterday to catch her googling new patterns and animal shapes to make more!  She is getting better and better at the computerizing and using the internet to find out stuff.  I am proud of her!

I have been working on my quilt--- it's all together into two large panels, and now I have been working on the free-motion machine stitching of vines and leaves around on all the dark sections.  I am stitching it in rich shiny red threads on the dark black/brown portions of the quilt, and am about halfway done.  I hope to be handstitching the binding by the weekend.  Once each side is done, I will join them and butt up the battings to each other and seam the back by hand so it doesn't show through to the front. The dogs both approve when I was laying it out flat to check matching something between the blocks.

The dogs are really enjoying this Florida weather.  We leave the door open so they can go in and out at will, but we do keep Finnegan on a rope tied to the deck to keep him around. Duke is reliable and won't leave us, and Finney is getting better about hanging close too.   

A neighbor's dog came into the yard to visit yesterday, and it sure got these guys all excited to have a visitor.  Sniffs all around before the other dog was grabbed by it's collar from it's owner and hauled back home again.  Auntie Lois has come over to visit, and is also spoiling our dogs rotten, finding the cheese puffs!  She's just as bad as my parents!!!

Steve has been doing the outside cooking on the grill we brought along.... while Mom and I have been making goodies like fresh beans from Trader Joes, and Mom's traditional potato salad.  Steve has been grilling up burgers, steaks, chicken and other goodies.

I decided to bake up some apple pies, and Mom had some frozen apples so I used those for a couple pies.  Boy oh boy the house sure smelled good, and I shared a couple pieces over to Auntie Lois and Uncle Sam's when I went to untangle a little something on her computer.  She is doing good too!

Last night we settled in for an evening of crafts and some tv watching.  Lowell was watching his western show "through his eyelids" while Mom and I were working on our things. So Steve decided to help out Mom with another project of his own.  Mom had bought a cuckoo clock while visiting Germany a number of years ago, and somehow during moving households, the chains had jammed up inside of the clock mechanism.  She was quoted $200 from a clock repair shop to fix it.  Steve took it apart, and within the hour he had it working again!

Now we are kinda anxious to see if the little bird popped out on the hour like it's supposed to!  We wandered out and went to bed before the hour for the bird to do it's cuckoo thing.

In our family, we don't use the label "step" although Lowell is my step dad.  He has children from his first marriage.  This weekend, his only daughter and her husband and youngest son are coming to Florida for a quick visit.  So now I will be able to meet my step sister in person! We have sent emails and photos and are friends on Facebook.  Looking forward to extending our family even wider.

We told Mom that fish and company start to stink after three days, and we should be moving on soon... she won't hear of it and wants us to stay even longer.  I admit that I do enjoy the sunshine, warmth and ability to wear shorts and tshirts each day.  Kicking off the sandals as I walk into the house is nice too.  Far cry from bundling up in snow boots, heavy wool socks, sweaters and parkas.  Ahhhhhhh  Record cold temps up in Wisconsin make it hard to imagine leaving here.

But------ I think we will start to head north early next week.  Hope the ice and snow are held at bay, so we can have dry roads to travel on.