Springfield Field Trip

Wed. Mar. 18th we left for Springfield from Northmoor around 8 am on a Peoria Charter bus. We watched Horton Hears A Who. I chaperoned Josie, Jennifer and Jensen.

First stop was the Lincoln museum. Here they are w/ young Lincoln near his log cabin home.

This is Mrs. Lincoln's attic where the kids can try on clothes.

Here are the girls w/ the Lincoln family in front of the White House. The shows at the Lincoln museum are cool if you ever get to visit.

Next we went to the Illinois State Museum.

Then we went to Lincoln's tomb.

I had to lift a lot of kids to touch Mr. Lincoln's nose.

This is Josie and her friend, Hayley. She just got a leg cast off the day before and she was having trouble getting around. Her chaperone found wheel chairs at the museums, so she could get around faster.

This is 2/3 rds of the 4th grade class. The other 1/3 went to the site earlier.

Last stop, Lincoln's home in Springfield. It was kind of boring, because we could not go inside. Back on the bus to travel back to Peoria. We watched Madagascar on the way back and I took a little nap. We got back around 4:30. It was a fun day!

Trim

They finished the siding on the garage on Tues. the 17th. It looks so pretty. I think it looks good w/ the brick.
The porches are poured.

This is the front porch. Now we don't have to jump to the front door.

Sat. 7 am, Dad and I met at LS Lumber in Bartonville to plane the 1X4 oak case. 500 linear ft. The headers don't have to be planed, so they are 3/4 inch. The legs of the doors and windows were planed down 1/8 inch to have a reveal on the headers. It only took us approx. 1 1/2 hrs. Dad and I are a good team. Next weekend we are going to work on the 500 linear ft. of 1X6 oak base. It needs to be planed down 1/4 inch to have a reveal on the legs of the doors. So we will need to do 2 passes through the planer, and maybe another set of hands. We are thinking of having Jackie help us.

The sawdust is flying. I do have my safety glasses on. I don't want anything to happen to my $3000 eyes. I forgot ear protection though. I will have to remember that for next weekend, because they were ringing a little after we were done.

Lots of oak sawdust to clean up. It filled 1 1/2 barrels. I even put some in a bag for bedding for our hamster.

I have a blood blister from stacking the finished boards and getting a little skin caught between them. No splinters though.

I called Dan on Monday to check if the furnace has been turned on to dry out the basement before we bring the trim in. It's on and we talked about bringing in a dehumidifier also. I really don't want 1000 linear ft of oak trim to get warped.

Tues. Mar. 24th - left work to meet the truck from LS delivering the planed case. The wall for the island is up. I looks kind of weird out in the middle of the room. The drywaller was there putting corners up. It is getting cleaned up a little too.

They installed the door from the garage to the house.

The delivery truck came around 1:30. Steve and I took it from the garage to the basement, so we can start staining soon.

The plumber, Darrin, was working on the tub and the plumbing downstairs. Steve had to check out the tub. I can't wait for my first bath. OOOOHHH!!

So the next steps are dry wall taping and mudding. Dan is having the cabinets delivered, so no large trucks will be delivering after the driveway is poured. No driving on it for 2 weeks. Of course, they won't be able to pour the driveway until it stops raining. After the driveway is poured the excavator, Fred, will come and grade the yard. (When the yard dries out!)

Steve and I are working on flooring. I'm picking out paint colors. We need to check out KBL for lighting fixtures.

my 2nd blog tonight!!

It's almost 10:30 and I need to rest up for the 4th grade field trip to Springfield tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I thought I would make another quick blog about the drywall. They worked Sat. and Sun. The four of us and Shelby went over Sunday to check it out. This is Josie's room. Hers will be done first.

She has a short closet door. I told her that it was going to stay this way.

We took the tile over that we liked from Leeway, so I can get some perspective. I like this one for our bath.

I stood in our shower.

This is the tile we like for the kitchen. It was about 2 pm and there was a lot of light even w/o electricity. Steve mused that soon we won't be able to look from one end of the house to the other. It definitely will be different.

I should make another blog for the pics I took after work, but I need to sleep. I'll try to update tomorrow night. Maybe w/ some pics from Springfield.

I'm slacking off - Sorry!

I haven't been updating my blog. It is getting crazy, and I haven't even started the "sweat equity". Signing up for girl scout camp, cookies and money, and packing a little. This weekend I was just burnt out and spent the weekend like I wanted to: in my pjs watching movies, reading and playing Wii. I did get some cleaning done.

The dry wall guy started Friday. I didn't notice it a first when the girls and I went Fri. night, but they started on the ceilings. This is our bathroom.

We went down in the basement and saw that our water heater is hooked up.

The siding is close to being done. All that is left is the front of the house and the back porch. They are waiting for the flat work to be done on the porches.

Here's the girls on the back porch.

We are headed home to watch "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" , eat pizza and play Wii.

Brick, siding, and insulation - all in one week!

I stopped on Wed. night after work to see if any brick was up. They have poured the bases for the columns/piers.

The back porch soffit/ceiling is in. I think this was the last opening to the outside, so the house is totally enclosed now. Woo-hoo!

It is funny that I include a lot of the pics I take. I couldn't figure out what this was. Then I realized that a flexible hose went from the bath fan to this area of the roof, so this the exit for that hose. I'm learning so much from this experience.

Thurs. I stopped after work, because Steve told me they had a lot of the brick work done. I like it. I didn't think there was going to be as much red when we picked it out at Peoria Brick, but I like it. I wanted more browns, but I think this will look nice w/ the siding.

This is one side of the front of the garage. They will probably get a lot done today, since it is so nice. Of course, it is Friday, so they might not work all day. Maybe I will cut out early too.

It was pretty breezy, so they worked on the back siding. I like it too. It was hard to pick a color from a little piece, but it looks good in the big picture.

All the walls are insulated. Time for drywall!!!!! This is a pic of the garage.

Steve and I went to Leeway to look at tile yesterday at lunch. I was totally overwhelmed. I have no idea what we want. Everything else we have had to pick out, we knew what we wanted. So we are looking at tile for the bathrooms, our shower is going to be tiled and maybe the kitchen floor. The kitchen and great room are one big room, so we might have to go w/ just wood floors. Steve liked this tile above. We brought it home to look at it in a kitchen setting. The samples on it are the countertops. I kinda like it, but Steve thinks it might be too dark.

Here it is up against the wood floor that we might use.

This is the tile we like for our bathroom. Again we brought it home to put it in perspective. It is a middle priced tile. We also brought home the cheaper tile the salesperson showed us. We might us that in the girls bathroom. Or vinyl (gasp!). Steve has an aversion to this for some reason.

This is the tile w/ the sample of the sink counter on it. Also I'm trying to see if I like it w/ the paint color in our bedroom.

I don't think Cilco has worked on bringing the electric and gas to the house yet. We need this for the drywall. I bet the guys start on the walls next week. It is almost time for our sweat equity to start. I'm not looking forward to working full time, running the girls around and painting, staining, flooring, and cabinet installation. I think I'll need something to get me thru the next couple months. Maybe I should consult my doc for some valium. Ha-ha! "It will be fine!!"

Passed inspection

On Monday we passed inspection for the electrical, plumbing and heating. Now we are ready for the rest. The brick as delivered for the front of the house. I doesn't look like it did at Peoria Brick. I can't see the face of the brick, but it was not all red. I'll have to double check w/ them tomorrow before the masonry guy puts it up.

Some of the soffits are in. The house will finally be totally closed in when the soffits are done.

We are waiting on Cilco for gas and electric hook-up. It will be nice to fire up the furnace and get it tolerable inside. Then they can start putting up the walls. I think the drywall is going to be delivered this week.

The siding is in the garage. It was too dark when I went after work to see the color better. Steve and I might stop over in the morning.

I am looking forward to a nice hot bath - sometime in May probably.


The lighting is up in the basement. I can't wait to take a better look down there once we have power. I signed something for the water company, so they can bill me, and get the water hooked up.

It is slowly but surely coming together. As soon as the drywall is up and taped and mudded, we will start painting. Dad and I will probably start working on the trim soon. Meanwhile we are talking to realtors to sell our house, and I'm not looking forward to keeping my house show ready all the time. It's time to find a storage place for our boxes that are filling up the garage.

They say that stress lowers your immune system. I have another cold. Bring on the NyQuil!!