Spring Storm

I love the power of a thunderstorm although they scare me sometimes! Regardless of how threatened I feel by storms, they are a sign of summer so they make me happy.  Around 3 a.m. this morning, my dreams were filled with a loud whooshing sound.  It was like an airplane was right outside the window.  I finally woke up completely and realized that the sound was the wind.  It was thundering and lighting was flashing.  Of course, I went back to sleep and in the morning the sun was shining.

I went upstairs and noticed these strange objects in Andrea's dining area!

The storm was more severe than I thought!  The howling wind that woke me up also ripped these shingles off the roof!  Do not be alarmed.  You can see that the shingles are attached to some sort of plastic piece...these belong along the peak of the roof and are more like a finishing touch than functional shingles.  It's still crazy that they blew off though!  Good thing Jakey was safe inside!

Today was beautiful and humid and felt like summer.  The grass has turned bright green and lucious over night and the leaves are finally opening on the trees.  I went for my first rollerblade spin of the season and it was delightful!  The only thing that made me stop was hunger!

New Year's S&%!storm 2010/11

In general, I don't think snowstorms are worth mentioning.  Like we all haven't seen the results before!  However, this New Year's Eve weekend was such a disaster I had to record it. There were two serious blizzards in two days.  When the bad weather started some freezing rain fell so there was (and still is) a lethal coat of ice all over everything.  My car is still a block of ice because of it.  My side mirrors are coated with ice that is so thick that I cant't penetrate it with a scraper without worrying about breaking the glass.  There is no where to bring my car that is warm.  So...I have been driving around with a limited rear view.  Also, there has been so much snow that the streets are getting narrow and what is usually three lanes is now two and you just have to drive wherever the person in front of you is driving.  No one knows where the lanes really are.  And the snow drifts are so high you can't see around corners to see if another car is there.  It's a huge mess and accidents are rampant. 

All of this snow and drifting happened on the 30th and 31st.  On New Year's Eve the interstates were closed so Justin couldn't make it here.  He tried and had to turn back.  The mall closed and many bars were closed!  That means it was serious!  It was the most dull and anticlimactic New Year's Eve I have had since I was a teenager.  Sigh...

Kirk had to remove snow from the first blizzard on Friday and the second one on Saturday.  I'm glad I didn't have to help.  I loathe snow removal.

The snow fills in their front walkway in a very extreme way.  Yikes.  He had to deal with this two days in a row. 

Snow inflitrated the dog door in the garage and left this lovely surprise.

 In the back yard the snow drifted as high as the fence, which is about 8 feet high.  Kirk had to dig a trench near the top so Jake wouldn't jump over the fence!  The sun looks pretty amazing in this photo!

This the drifting that accumulated on one side of the house. 

At least someone had fun!

Happy New Year everyone!  It was a memorable one!

Deck The Halls

I miss being at my house right now and I think about my lovely Christmas tree glowing in the window but at least I get to see alot of familiar decorations at Andrea's house.  She has a railing that is perfect for "decking" with decorations!  I love what she did this year!  Those ornaments were made by my Grandma Dorothy.  The needlework is a traditional Norwegian method that originates in the Hardanger region of the country.  It would be very romantic if she had learned it from her ancestors as an art that was passed down through the generations but she actually learned it from a minister's wife in the 80's, I believe.  Either way, she is very good at it and her work is perfectly done.  It is not possible to find a mistake in anything she makes.  She gives each of her grandchildren a Christmas ornament featuring Hardanger needlework every year at Thanksgiving and we each have between 10 and 15 ornaments.  Andrea and I have small trees so all of them don't fit on them (well, they would if we didn't have any other ornaments but we do because we have been given ornaments since we were children!).  I love how Andrea hung some of them on the garland. 

 Very festive and out of reach of their snoopy dog! 

Oooh yikes!  Well...they are almost out of reach!  I have never seen him do this before tonight when I took this picture! 

Speaking of misbehaving animals, Justin sent me this picture a few minutes ago.  It is the wine rack/cocktail bar in our kitchen.  It seems that sometime during the day Allan decided to check it out and broke one of my martini glasses

What a little brat!  He's lucky that martini glasses are not a heavily used item in our house.  I have so many impractical peices of glassware!  I wish I had a picture of the collection of martini/wine/champagne/bourbon glasses, flutes, decanters and snifters that Justin and I have accumulated through years of proms (my junior class picked some ridiculous martini glass with a twirly stem to drink our punch from at prom.  A few weeks later my mom broke it when she was cleaning.  Fortunately there were a few extras so she quickly got a hold of our class advisor to reserve one before she broke the news to me!  I still have the replacement and haven't had a drink from it ever!) college fraternity and sorority formals and our wedding.  Allan, I guess you are forgiven.  Who could stay mad at that cute little kitten?!

Change of Scenery

The farm that I refer to often is where I grew up (at least since 1991) and where my parents still live has looked pretty much the same since that time.  When I was in high school my dad built a new machine shed and the year I graduated he added a sunroom/mud room onto the house.  About a month ago I learned that my dad had a builder over to make plans to build a new shop!  There is already a building that we call the "shop" which is where my dad keeps his tools.  That shop is prohibitive because it is not big enough to pull a truck or tractor into.  Also, it doesn't have heat except for an old wood burning stove.  There are also a few machine sheds but they don't have heat or electricity and one has a gravel floor.  This new shop will have a concrete floor that is also heated!  It will have elecricity, heat, and plumbing!  "Plumbing" includes a bathroom!  He will be able to work on projects in this nice warm shop all winter long.  It will have windows and various doors.  This is going to be fun...

It is progressing quickly.  Dad excavated the sight with his bulldozer in preparation for the build.  One afternoon I was talking to my mom on the phone as she was driving home and as she drove into the driveway she said something along the lines of  "Oh, what has he been doing?!"  He had gone to town on the area and tore down an old elecrtric pole (the wires are now buried). I arrived today soon after noon and the builders had poured the concrete and were smoothing it with big electric trowels.  By the time it gets too cold the structure should be up and ready to be finished.  He plans on doing the interior work himself, including the insulating, wiring, and plumbing. 

I saved my photography for after the workers had gone home so they wouldn't think I was crazy!  Who would want a picture of cement drying?  I am actually pretty amazed by this cement...it is fast drying so it could already be walked on today although it is not ready for heavy use.  Building will start on Monday if weather permits. 

 I carved my name for posterity!

Wally is mildy interested in the project.  Fortunately, the builders didn't seem to mind a clingy dog visiting them throughout the day.   There is going to be a dog door for him so he can take shelter on cold nights. 

Those orange tubes run under the concrete to heat the floor .  This is where the bathroom will be.  I've always thought we needed a third bathroom!  Maybe I will start sleeping in the shop when we have alot of guests!

I think it is so crazy that this cement dries so fast...it still looks wet but is solid!  The view will be quite a bit different soon, but in a good way!

Andrea and Kirk's Patio

This blog is supposed to be focused on homeowner related issues and projects so I will return to my original mission today to give you a look at Andrea and Kirk's new patio in their backyard! Andrea just put up a bunch of pictures of it on Facebook so I stole them to share with you!

When they bought the house it had a "pool pad" for an above ground swimming pool. It was a circular sand pit with pavers around the outside. Since they didn't want an above ground pool they used it as a fire pit instead. Recently they decided to turn it into a patio. I had no idea how much was entailed in building a patio! I wasn't there the weekend they did this, but I remember the weekend and it was really hot! A friend of theirs who is experienced in cement work helped out.
I don't know where they got this little tractor!
I also didn't know they had cement delivered! I assumed they could mix it, but I don't know anything about cement so I guess I'm not really surprised!
Here is the layout of the new patio before the cement was added. I love how it meets the steps because that area of grass was all worn out anyway.

There it is after the stones were added. It looks good! I wish I had a finished photo. They built a little brick fire pit that they placed in the middle and now it is perfect for a gathering! I saw it for myself last weekend and it was nice. It WOULD be nice if someone I knew had a pool, preferably above-ground, but I guess I can live without it! Haha.
This weekend in Bis we went to a pretty cool wedding. My two friends from law school got married to each other and they had their wedding on a riverboat on the Missourri River. It was a really nice day and a fun! It was way hot on Friday, near 100 degrees, and today it is hot and humid but yesteray it was actually pleasant! Lucky day for a wedding!

I Met a Baby Over the Weekend. . .

I finally got to meet my newest nephew, Jack, this weekend. Justin and I went to South Dakota for his baptism. I also got to see Josh and Kelsey's house for the first time. Josh is Justin's step-brother and he and his wife Kelsey recently finished building a new house in Hendricks, MN, on Lake Hendricks. (The town of Hendricks is officially in MN but the lake straddles the border of MN and SD. Josh and Kelsey's house is located in SD. I think most people imagine that they might build a house just for them, with their own specifcations in mind at some point in their ideal life. I can't imagine doing such a thing in my 20's! It was fun to see their house finished. The last time I saw it, the house was a shell. It had walls and beams but that's about it! They have been living there for awhile but they finished their basement right before the weekend started! When we arrived on Saturday the finishing touches were still being worked on and dust was still settling from carpet installation (and being promptly cleaned up by Kelsey's attentive younger sisters!).

I finally got to see Jack. He is a cute, sturdy little guy who likes to go with the flow. He doesn't mind commotion and can sleep amidst the sounds of vacuum cleaners, the TV and the presence of alot of people.

Oh, look, he's with Aunt Maren. . .and he looks thrilled about that!


There he is with Uncle Justin! Sure, he gets to hold him when he's sleepy. . .check out those arm rolls! Adorable!




This is Cayson, Jacks slightly older cousin who was born in January. The last time I saw him was in mid-March when he was baptised. He has already changed alot and is now much more alert and muscular. When you hold him, he can squirm and wiggle, and he rolls over and the floor and can sit up on his own.

This is Jack with Kelsey, his mama!

Here is Cayson, rollin' and hangin' on the floor with his books and his turkey toy (that thing in his hands is a turkey). "Farm Kisses" was a great book! It is about how farm animals say goodnight to each other. Very cute.

Look at the big boy! Almost ready to get crawling and start exploring!

These next few shots detail the challenge of getting a group of kids to pose for a photo. It was pretty funny. I never got a "good" shot on my camera (who says what is good, anyway? They are all worth having!) but someone else might have.

Blake?


Blake!

The cousins together! On Saturday evening, right after Cayson and Jenny and Corey arrived, Jack was fussing and crying. Kelsey was holding Jack and I was holding Cayson and we put them in each other's vicinity and Cayson reached out and patted Jack and sort of held his hand! It was so cute.

The Stereotypical "House" Problem

I am in my final week at Andrea and Kirk's house after several extensions at my temporary job. Several months ago, before my extensions were known, they made plans to let their friend Aaron live with them for the month of June. He is a high school teacher and is going to work at his old undergrad summer job at NDSU. This means that I politely gave up my bed to its rightful tenant and planned on spending my last four or five nights on an air mattress. I went to the movie "Sex and the City 2" last night and found that Andrea had kindly blown it up for me when I returned. I put some sheets on and went to sleep. At 2 am I woke up on the floor with the billowing sides of the mattress surrounding me! Apparently it has a leak. I struggled to free myself from the mattress and then relocated to the basement couch (It is the couch they had in their old apartment and I spent many nights on it when I would visit them for the weekend during law school. It is an old buddy!) This is certainly a sign that I have overstayed my welcome!

You might be wondering how that seemingly pointless story connects with the title. The title is referring to the fact that at the moment when four people are living here instead of three or two the water heater has broken! Water heater problems always cause, at a minimum, inconvenience. They also escalate and make everyone's lives miserable. At the KD house we had a few water heater fiascos during my years of residence. My sophomore year something went wrong with the hot water in the kitchen. We had to follow health codes pertaining to the sanitization of dishes. Since we couldn't sanitize dishes we had to use paper dishes until the problem was fixed! We all had a paper cup with our name on it that we were supposed to try to reuse! A story is still told about how a resident sat on a paper glass of koolaid after she tried to perch on the table after a night of drinking. Hilarious. My junior year the water heater broke and we had to resort to showering elsewhere. Some girls went to the Wellness Center and I headed over to the familiar freshman dorm and its endless supply of hot water to shower on Andrea's floor. When I returned I found that the hot water was back. Sigh. Bad timing!

The water heater at Andrea's has been acting strange for awhile and tonight, Aaron, Andrea and I had cold showers after our evening runs/rollerblades/days of work at the ag experiment station. Brrrr! A repair man is coming tomorrow. He is the second they have spoken to after the first gave them an exhorbitant price quote. It is a pain, but all a part of having a house, I guess! It is their first homeowner related snag, so I guess they have been pretty lucky so far. I wonder what ours will be?

The Bar

No not Chubs, not the Turf, not the Stadium, not the drink burning Comfort Inn. I'm referring to Kirk and Andrea's basement. I blogged about this last fall when I was visiting. It was still a work in progress. Over the weekend Kirk and our friend Jacob (Bailey, as he is known!) finally finished it by grouting the tiles that cover the surface. It looked pretty fun. I have had ambitions to do projects with tile. I kind of want to make some kind of tray or other decorative object with the sea glass I have collected on my various trips to Mexico but I haven't done it yet! (Shocking, I know.)

Baily has experience with grouting.

I think this one was taken before they started. . .

This is a photo of Justin's basement work bench after he finished painting it. He also hung that shelf above it. Very nice.

No post is complete without a picture of the kitten! Allan loves to find clean clothing and whenever I have something on a hanger he finds it and lays on it. That is a dress that I tossed from the extra bedroom excess clothes closet (which is also stuffed, by the way, with little worn dress clothes and piles of my sweatshirts that didn't fit in the other closet) onto the bed. I went to continue my packing and returned to find this. He's lucky I love him (and that he doesn't shed that much!)

Someone Else's House For Once

I had intended to discuss not only our house but also other new homeowners' house related projects and adventures when I started writing this. So far, I've been mostly self-centered...until now!

My sister Andrea and her husband Kirk bought a house in February of 2009. They got a newer house (new=built in the 90's), so they didn't have to do the same amount of work or the same kind of work as we have been doing. However, they recently made a very fun improvement in their basement. They built a bar!

This photo was taken when Kirk and a friend were tiling the sides. When they started, the room was all carpeted. They put laminate under the bar and hung the shelves on the wall. The bar now has a counter of course, and some second hand bar stools. (Andrea and I both like to scrounge for cheap and/or old items.)

This weekend I visited them and they were doing something we also did before we moved in. They rented an insulation spraying machine and added extra insulation to their garage. We did this back in August and, on the recomendation of the inspector, added several extra inches to our attic. It is a gross, nasty job and Andrea ended up assisting. When we did this, I was just a bystander although I did get a lung full of the insulation dust a few times. I'm so glad Andrea wore a mask even though the result is a hilarious and scary looking picture!