The New Kitchen (164)

It was a nice kitchen, then it went to "no kitchen, and now its "Super Kitchen"...
The Process took 3 months, but I must say with all the effort that it was fun, exciting , somewhat expensive, but very rewarding and enjoyable...

Sweet Pea and I first tossed around idea's, then one thing led to another and we started visiting places that displayed floor tile, hardwoods, counter tops....Lots of price and quality comparisons, and dreaming followed, more idea's started to emerge. Dreams followed that and then desires to turn dreams into reality...a little daring and money started to make all that happen...Guts even for a guy 69 and 20 some months to muster the energy, desire is one thing but energy to follow through and achieve this is something different..And a little luck here and there along the way, like finding out that at Lowes we could purchase Granite tops through CamriStone International Inc for less money than most of the manufactured tops like Staron and others...And that locals will meet the big boys prices in Indy if you just ask and work with them a bit....But it all happened and am glad it did...we do love the "new kitchen"...maybe its not really a super kitchen, maybe its a "just right kitchen"...we got two bar stools ordered from JC Penney that will finish it off by setting by that bar area..

Comes now the "Corbels", that in case you were unaware like me is a piece of wood or stone in this case, granite that supports another piece of granite, our "island" where many a breakfast, lunch and even maybe a candlelight dinner will be enjoyed...
Anyway corbels is just a word I had not known...now I can not only pronounce it and spell it but I even own three of them here pictured...they made them of the same stuff the big slab of granite we picked out near Valpo..after they cut out the counter tops there was enough left over to do the back splashes, a cutting board and our three corbels...they needed two big ones 14 by 14 inches weighing 50 pounds each we just put epoxy glue on them and held them in place for 5 minutes...after that they were stuck there and doing what they were designed to do holding up the granite that extended over the lower cabinet...I think they add some wow to the whole job...I love our corbels....

Well that's about it for today...the farmer in me will finish planting soybeans today, have had about 4 acres that has went unplanted because of wetness..but finally the spring rains of 09 have come to an end..wind and sunshine has dried that area and many like it throughout the midwest...planter will complete the planting season and we watch those last acres hurry to catch enough growing degrees to make a crop along with the earlier planted ones...

Have a great day...

Rain Lillies are smart, Very Smart (163)

Doggone it they are blooming, the rain lilly's that is, and that is a bad thing for Indiana farmers trying to get their crops planted. But sure enough these lilly's my brother Larry bestowed upon my wife a few years back are telling me its gonna rain some more...In the last few years I have watched these things and sure enough when they bloom within a day or two it rains...Like I say not good news as the last of the acres that lays a little wet just is having trouble drying out and now after the last big rain a week ago, most of these areas now have standing water on them...and now this, blooming water lilly's aka Larry Lilly's.....

I love June because about every flower in the flower beds is either blooming or about ready too...and no exception is my sweet pea...second picture down...we picked the seed on the side of a mountain in Washington state outside Seattle...they caught our eye blooming so pretty, we seen some that had made pods and dried up a little...I said you know I think maybe these would grow back in Indiana and sure enough they have....

OK up date ( June 9) on those Really Smart Rain Lilly's....a day or two has passed since I took these pictures and let me tell you it rained again like crazy...and forcast for sure again tomorrow...it just keeps coming and word is that this is the wettest spring since 1938...that's a long time back, before this guy was born so most farmers in this area have never seen one this wet...and maybe will not again but who knows that is what makes this farming and gardening interesting and fun...you got to be ready to go with the flow..this year the flow is lots and wet...

Meet Hank the Tank (162)

Jill Sims came calling this weekend to visit her mother, my gal Susan....and with her all the way from Lexington where she is a nurse and is caring for her boyfriend's dog...
He is quite impressive, Hank that is as I have not met Hank's owner yet, wow he is in four wheel drive all the time for sure...He bolted in the house last night, like he had lived there all his life as Jill arrived and immediately excused herself for a needed "powder room" call....As Hank bolted into the room the first thing out of Jeff Sims mouth was "hey its Hank the tank....and what a description, fits that muscle bound doggie to a tee....

Jeff is also visiting this week from his job in Austin Texas, same town as my grandson Clint recently moved to and there will exercise his new Purdue degree....Anyway I on my way out the door to join the crowd at Arni's for some pizza and salads but just had to make a quick post here to intro the new dog Hank...who belongs to Matt who is on a business, yeah right, trip to Finland right now with Jill taking care of his baby...

Semper Fi all the way here too as some of you may know these English Bulldogs are the official mascots of the United States Marines...One is taken care of and spoiled rotten and dressed up and part of all formal Marine Corps parades and such at each Marine base around the globe.....So its Hank the tank yeah it fits....

And by the way, he is quite a lovable dog once he gets settled down and used to things...yeah he's lovable and most handsome...but very friendly for sure...nice doggy....and he dearly loved getting into and drinking from the pond...Jill was worried sick he would jump in and drown, but he stayed in the shallow...I do wonder, hope he comes back when there are lots of grandkids swimming this summer, would like to see if all that muscle swims or sinks....

Oh, one more "by the way", and that is that Jeff served in the Marines in Iraq during the invasion of the country I think it was back in 05, He's still a Marine though like it or not....and beleive it or not in the very same outfit I served back in 57 and 58...The Amphibian Tractor Battalion stationed at Camp Del Mar on the coast...My stint ushered in the P5 landing craft..he tells me that during his time they phased them out for a lot better stuff....but hey 40 years maybe or more, I 'd say the Marines got their monies worth out of those landing craft...

After the dust has settled (161)

Well, here is my first effort I promised of "before and after", my extreme makeover on my house...I will try not bore you with too many of these, but significant work has taken place here. Sweat, tears, aches, pains, maybe even border line revisiting "mono" as I did last spring, but all in all, I kid you not, it was also a lot of fun. And it ain't near over yet, but enough is done that I can share some of what has been accomplished these last 3 months since returning from Florida.....

I guess truth be known, sweet pea kind of planted the seeds of all of this last summer and fall, pointing out to me from time to time, maybe some "cool" things that could maybe be done to this house to maybe "upgrade" it just a tad...As time went on I guess some of it kind of sunk in and the guy with the brawn and back kind of caught the vision on just how nice it could be. And maybe I caught the nations "stimulus package ideas" of throwing money in several directions all at the same time, just to see what happens...Well of course mine being on a much smaller local scale but never the less, our effort of stimulus, for the likes of Home Works, Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, Sherwin Williams, Russell Drywall and even a few others, but you get the drift, it all cost mucho moolottus, aka, lots of bread....But we both did a lot of labor also along the way that probably cut our cost by maybe 40 or 50 percent....and some of the expense stayed in the family or went to some good people I also consider "friends".........

So to the right is the first two before and after shots...both taken from the exact same spot in the house with the same camera, but a couple months apart...off to the right side is the reference points the door into the guest bathroom, the heating thermostate on the wall and the "mickey mouse", light ficture above now slated for replacement some time soon...But in the lower picture you see the old walls arrangement of an entrance hallway and a door going into what is now the new "study"....aka office......several walls were removed, ceilings repaired so good there is no evidence they were ever there, a 22.5 degree angle wall was added containing a stained french door highlighting the room as well as the new entrance...some nice painting happened and staining, some excellent electical relocation work, lots of tile cemented into place, and of course the tigerwood 3/4 solid hardwood flooring all down, and actually as I now notice essentially the same picture spot taken on the third picture down of the hardwood being installed, and reinstalling the baseboards made it "home again".....and the house more functional, and opened up than before, I like it a lot...

So, how about we all belt out a couple verses of "back home again in Indiana", and call it a day.....

PS...lest we not forget to mention my part time doggy, Buddy James Pickerill asleep there on the porcelain tile in the bathroom...One of his favorite spots during the day...