Kinda chilly

I haven't had much luck getting out in time to collect eggs.  I have six frozen eggs.  Not good.  Great for Schoen, not so great for us.  So we piled straw all around and on top of their little coop, not to mention we filled their coop with straw.  I put a styrofoam sheet in front of their door and then pushed straw over that.  They don't have much light at all in there, but its toastier... well, warmer and no more frozen eggs.  They're very well behaved birds.  I crawled in there with them and they didn't seem to mind at all.  They have a large feeder with cracked corn, a pan of laying mash, a pan of oyster shells and a pan of water.  The pan of water stays liquid longer than in the chicken waterer, which is basically a bottle turned upside down over a plate.  The exposed water on the plate just isn't deep enough and it freezes too fast.  So I change their water three times a day.  So obviously I check on them three times a day.  Probably in part why they don't mind me going in there.  Not to mention, where the heck are they gonna run to?!

Visit to a Flooring Store (other than Home Depot)

Very nice gentleman gave us a good education and then show me again how your laminate of the same specifications are better than Home Depot?  Certainly this flooring store had a better selection, no doubt about that.  But I don't really need better selection, I mean, there's enough and then some to chose from.  But I can see that folks with money to spend would want more choices and that's fine.  Especially those folks who hire installers and get kinda fancy.  But for us?  Naw, Home Depot is just fine.  I guess what we'll do is make our selections and then see who gives us the best price ~ per usual.  Gerald's good for that, he's a grand negotiator.  I'm so proud of him :-)

We have Bar Keepers Helper and its great on flat surfaces as you say, Alley-gator.  This is a gas cooktop and so my whining is about the curliques and corners of the burner grates - ingrates... or is that ingreats? :-)

Gosh, I'm looking at these pictures and thinking how lucky I am to be able to have such nice cabinets and countertops.  They're so pretty.  Of course Jo's house is pretty, you can see the sunlight coming into her kitchen, well there is a little sunroom alcove that is absolutely lovely.  I can't wait!

YAY! Pictures of the cabinets

Maple with Corian

It wasn't my first choice to have a white counterop, in fact, I'm a green kinda gal, but shoot, I'm not going to argue with Corian, for pete's sake.  The sink is a single basin sink, again, not my first choice and in fact I had already bought a Kohler cast iron sink (sheesh was that thing heavy! nearly tipped over the cart) BUT what I really like is that there is no lip over the edge of the counter where crummies like to hide and that keeps ripping out pieces of my sponge when I clean it, although that is another place where toothbrushes rule! LOL.  But Corian won't stain like laminate counterops and its pure clean through so it can be sanded unlike laminate, so I think I'll be happy because I'll be able to keep it white.

This U-shaped piece did challenge me in how I was going to design the kitchen-dining room but I think I have a good solution.  We'll see if I can't get that file in  the proper format to upload.

If you look at the row of uppers and lowers at the back of this picture you'll see a "thing" in the middle of the lower cabinets.  That's a warming oven.  It can be high or low and humid or dry.  Huh!  I bet that'll be really nice once I get the hang of it.  Maybe a person could make yogurt or tempeh in it, ya think?

We didn't get the dishwasher (silver thing in the middle of the "U") but that's no big deal, I haven't lived with one before so I won't miss it.  My mom thought that was odd that I didn't care for a dishwasher, but *shrugs* I dunno, its no biggie, not even for Thanksgiving.  I simply wash dishes as they get dirty and in no time at all the kitchen is as clean as before... *cough* :-)

This row of cabinets holds built in ovens which we were able to buy.  Gerald's excited about those.  He likes the look of built in stove ("U") and ovens.  Again, never lived with 'em.  I do remember when I was young that we had this fantastic cookstove, SIX burners and two large ovens with windows.  Gosh I wish I had something like that, but here I'll have a cook top with four burners in the "U" and two ovens, so that's pretty darn close to the same thing.  The cook top has closed burners, just like my current stovetop, which is the only way to go as far as I'm concerned BUT the burner tops and the guards are grey.  Again, not what I would of chosen if I bought new.  I've been struggling with that now for the past several years and ugh, its impossible to keep them grey.  You can say, "Oh just don't let anything burn on them", well!  Like that's possible?  I may clean up as I cook but that's simply impossible!  Oh well, maybe I'll figure out a better way of scrubbing them clean.  Or maybe someday I can replace them with black ones.  I like the look of grey, but I don't like the look of black burnt on grey! Patooie :-(

 

Kitchen Cabinets

I found them on Craigslist posted by the nicest people who are remodeling the loveliest home in Kenwood.  Their parking is an cobblestone-esque courtyard.  I felt totally outclassed driving up there in my filthy Tacoma.  Then when Jo opened the door to their home and I was greeted by a gently curving open stairway in a brightly lit foyer with a sunroom behind... it was all I could do not to drool on the floor LOL

I just went to load up the pictures and OH NO WHERE'D THEY GOOOO!

*wimper*wimper*

Picture light maple plywood boxes, Frank Lloyd Wright/Shaker-like panel doors and foot upon linear foot of white Corian counterop.  Holy moly, I don't know if its a counter or a roller rink, but I think I'll like rolling out cookies and making meals.   We have them stored in a ministorage in Shevlin.

Gosh darn it :-(

Cold and Humble Start

Here's the first thing we built out on the site, the electrical hookup.  Beltrami Electric charges $8 a foot between the transformer and your house lpp and the house has to be within 250 ft of the loop to avoid voltage drop, which is worse than bad breath according to Beltrami.  So the loop and transformer are in the middle of the hay field as is the house.  The original site of the house was on the back forty which would of cost us close to $10K so now we're in the front 40 with all of the machinery and junked tires LOL  Oh well, they'll get moved... someday

Here's the loop, you can tell me how lovely it is in the front yard if you like, facing south

This is a picture of the 32 ft rafters. two foot on center for 48 ft.

Here's a view from the house to the septic tank looking west to the drain field

Here's a picture of the end of the well line to the house, looking east.  Its now below zero so the well driller isn't coming out until more reasonable weather, we'll be covering the area where the well will be with straw.  Usually in January there's a thaw of sorts, or at least moderating weather for a couple, three days, hopefully this year is no exception.  Doesn't look like much, the blue thing in the middle of the picture is the line and the pile of soil (yes, soil, its only dirt when its tracked in the house) is next to the trench

And here is a picture of the site superintendent looking very official