Illinois Stories T.V.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

getting caught up


What's going on inside this house? ahhhhhhhhhhh, so beautiful in this snow setting, yes? You can see the fireplace pipe up the left side, yep, that will be covered up with a chase and it will be covered up with barnwood to match the house...but in the mean time, we've sooooooooo enjoyed the fire inside.
Here is Dave, sanding off some barnwood IN THE SNOW.....what an awesome man.

Here is Darren and Sterling getting the rest of the oak flooring done. I have other pictures further down in this post about our oak flooring.
Here is Josh Adams when he was working for Dave to come to the house and he's sanding these big cedar future steps for going up to the loft.
Here is Darren on his knees also putting in the oak flooring. We were all glad that I got this oak flooring because it's much easier to put down when it's all ready to do so. Daren would measure it and Irene here.............would CHOP SAW it to the little pencil mark. I became the "chop saw queen". It was a "dance of sorts". I'd chop saw and take that board to Darren, he'd already make another mark on another board in another bay. I'd take that back. In the mean time, Sterling would have chopped his two boards.....this was no short easy process. ahhhhhhh, we used 5 gallons of wood glue. Yep, used that floor nailer too and small nails when necessary. there are very few squeeks in this floor.
Tomasi had a JOB....sorting these to sizes that we needed to put on the floor. my lovely bathtub awaits her place in my lovely bathroom. and I await sitting in her as well!!!
These boards look good and long, but are truely cast offs....missing edges and groves and became firewood.
more of the same. I took these pictures in case the folks at Lumber Liquidators didn't take the Utility grade lumber back in exchange of a better grade.......I had no problem in taking it back though. Darren, Tomasi and Sterling loaded up our truck and I took it all back and when I got there, this nice guy was unloading it and saw that this was a really junk batch of wood. Said, "so, you live in Nauvoo and have a large family?" (yep)...then he said, "My wife and I met in Nauvoo, are you a Mormon as well?" (happily I said, yes)...and I'm sure he gave me the best of the grade of wood I came there to get.
You many wonder, "why does Irene have this round barn in her building of her house here???" well, here's the story. Kapua, our daughter, got a GPS thingie for me to use and it was in our truck. I had someone program it for me to get to Peoria, Illinois where Lumber Liquidators were located. Yep, it did a great job until I must have made some wrong turn somewhere....and when the GPS (Tom Tom) said, "you have reached your destination" I could only totally laugh...as I was facing this round barn....took this picture and called on my cell phone how to get to the Lumber place. ha ha ha. I called several times......
You can see the "radiating" FLOOR pattern that was followed...also, all the junk wood. DO NOT get "utility" grade of wood.....tooooooooo much bad wood.
This shows Tomasi holding up a pattern that Pat Halman was using to set in the stained glass window. amazing his workmanship. You can also see the washer and dryer were not in their places yet. (but now are)
I was having such fun taking photos of this momentious event. I'd seen these two stained glass windows in the first week we were in Nauvoo..........one was in a antique repair guys window in Burlington....I just loved them at first site. then thought about it for almost 2 years before making the guy an offer....he said he had another one that was not framed.....I got both of the windows and had them in my garage for a long time....now they are finally up inside....yeahsville.
ahhhhhhhhhhhh, now done.
taken on the outside of the house.
We have some great friends, one of Pat halman. I've written of him before in email, here he was putting in one of the stained glass windows on the driveway side of the house. Vicki and I ordered the glass side of these windows especially for these windows. Even though the arch was different, Pat just worked with it and put it in and oh, how sooooooooooo lovely. Above here is the INSIDE of the computer area....Pat did more work on it and it's looks just super lovely.
Here is smiling Pat Halman. I decided with the suggestion of the others there, not to put this stained glass in the window that was made for it. I'm so grateful to Pat for being so creative in first knocking out and making bigger the little window that I was going to have open from my computer side....now, it will have this lovely stained glass to look at as well. I just could not give up that view towards the River.....
Here is Pat in front of this lovely window. the barnwood surrounding stained glass, what a contrast...how fun really. Pat said that he'd not had this much fun in a long time.
He staged this photo shot....this is the middle window where Tomasi's side of the desk will be. how fun it is here....
The two windows inside the house......on this side will be where the musical instruments will be. our "little stage".
Smiling Dave making the creative railing on the Loft.
Dave demonstrating how strong these railings are. yep, I'm sure the "grands"will try such antics.....you can see that the huge Cedar beams are beautiful painted in varnish and the railings will also be painted. You can see that poor little Frankie Ficus Tree did not like the winter and cold of her new home...but she has live branches and she'll burst into green leaves soon. I've been talking to her and so has Vicki. (plants and trees all have feelings, and we love this tree)
Tomasi went up to the loft and cleaned up there....letting old cherry wood come down via this rope line you can see here. I was going to have a cherry wood floor up there, but we're all sick of putting flooring down on knees. yep. going to have some carpet up there for families to sleep on with their little kids coming.
His not smiling face here...........(why do you have to take this picture?)
totally TOTALLY lovely railings. "orbs of dust" can be seen in this picture as well as a few others.
The process of putting on the resin goes like this. first prepare the wood by sanding it, then fill holes. I personally fill the holes with clear cauking...but that takes a few days to dry, so Dave does it a little differently. Here above he's using the "torch" and "wanding it" over the newly poured resin. this busts the bubbles. making a lovely smooth finish. It was Dave that taught me how to do my tables like this. You can see here that the Table is now turned over and we're working on the top.
This base below the table, is from some big old odd pine tree that Dave saw our friend going to cut up and put in his outside wood stove.....Dave asked to "save that log for Irene's table". THIS IS GOING TO BE MY ISLAND TABLE in the kitchen under those darling little lights.
We're saving the floor with the paper under....
ahhhhhhhhhhh, the LAST OF THE DRY WALL PUT UP. This was where the furnace was to be put and someday it will, but the furnace guy was wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too busy for me all winter long. My wonderful workers had to use the wood heat and you know what, when all the holes get totally covered and this house becomes air tight, I'll not need a furnace except when we're gone for some winter times. We all have been very impressed by the NAPOLEON FREE STANDING WOOD STOVE. a marvelous worker of a stove....made in Canada.
Here is Tomasi hauling the last dry wall. You can see he's gotten back most of his strength. He's hauled all sorts of things and what a jewel he has been on cleaning up rubbish and burning outside and keeping our "home fires" going in the stove.
YEP, it takes gas to go up and down to our place from where we live. Here I am getting gas at the newly opened older gas station. SINCLARE Gas. When I was a little kid, I'd beg my daddy to "get gas at the dinosaur place, pleeeeeeeease." I was the first customer and asked the owner to take my picture. These new folks will offer diesel and that is GREAT for so many folks have had to travel quite a distance to get this kind of gas.
Here is Dave taking off the "bottom" of this log. the table is made of 2 of the 3 best logs that we built the walls with. (you can see these clearly here). the Master Craftsman/logman at his best. Creating.

this was the WORST DIRTY JOB that Sterling did. hooooooooooo boy. can you taist the cement dust? ugh. He lined the shower with this stuffs. When Vicki came in, we opened the window and put fans on and shoowed out the dust. It took over and hour to clean the dust from this room. I'm soooooooooo grateful for Sterling doing so many jobs that were not "fun" to do.
you many wonder why I have this picture of Sterling on his knees here...but he's putting on THE LAST OF THE CHERRY WOOD PART OF THE FLOOR....in my bathroom. This was one HALLELUJAH DAY. More so to Sterling then to anyone else.............except me.
Darren painting walls..........a cheerful color. I JUST LOVE a yellow kitchen. How could Vicki have known this when she picked out the color.....At the time I was taking Tomasi to the Mayo clinic and told Vicki to choose whatever as I'd like it no matter what she choose. I've ALWAYS loved yellow kitchens.
She's now finished with that little hard job of laying that floor....you can see the water heater in place.
this is what this lovely house looks like in the snow. hoooooooooo boy. and the trail of Sterling going up. yep, it became big time ICE later. both Tomasi and I have these rubber/cleakes things that we put on our shoes so as to not slip on ice and snow.
this is Sycamore Creek....the snow on the trees was so very beautiful, I just had to take this photo.
Here too. snow IS beautiful...but by now, we're tired of it. this was late Feb.
This is my 69th birthday. Folks asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I said, "Work at my house, of course". I have soooooooooooooo loved being a participatory in building this unique house and it could never NEVER have been done without Vicki. she is in the blue jacket here. She made some cakes and so did Clark's wife and sweet stuffs were had by all. You can now see these darling little hanging stained glass lights that Ralph put up. These also were on sale in the summer time. They will hang over the "island table".

Vicki is laying some floor down in the bathroom that will also be a laundry room. This is where the washer, dryer and hot water heater will go. They are now all in place. oh yeah.
I can hardly believe all that Vicki has done in this house....
I am forever grateful for this dearest of friends.
Here Dave is measureing the steps....you can see these going up....They will go to a platform, then one more step and a platform that will be held up by the large log on the right. I sanded all that log this late last part of summer. It's been sitting on the porch all this time waiting to come inside. Dave named this log, "the man from snowy mountain". good name...as it's snowed soooooooo much this winter. On the left side is one of the windows that Vicki and I had put in to put the other stained glass in....but I just could not give up that beautiful view that was there....it brings so much light into the house as well. You can see the pretend art work of Vicki here.....the "rocks" around the window.
starting from left to right........Sterling, Josh Adams, Darren, and Smiling Dave.........the log man.
These guys hauling that big 'ol log in the house on that little sturdy dolly.
These steps are made from real smelly cedar. yep, the kind that folks make cedar chests from. these are almost 5 inches thick. very beautiful wood. Only Dave could think of using such a style of making these steps. He is a log artist FOR SURE.
Here are the steps all waiting to be put in place. such an unusual design. .
Dave Hardle came to the house and began working on the steps that will go up to the loft. Here you can see that he's cut these places to put the end of the steps in. all out of sequence, but that's okay, you can figure it out.
both Dave and I took pictures here and you can see me sanding these old logs. They were brought back from Parley's Canyon, Utah. Dave's uncle had a cabin up there that burnt down and all the Aspen Trees died around that cabin. Dave uses these to build stuffs with them. I've sanded sooooooooooooo many logs. Really fun.



not too good a picture, but shows the heating vent that we put in.
Here is Sterling putting on the OAK flooring that I got at the LUMBER LIQUIDATORS. I choose this flooring because it took soooooooooooo much time to make each little cherry wood board into a tongue and groove and it would have taken at least 4 more pallits of wood to come from Shipshawana, Indiana. So originally I got it at $.89 per square foot. hoooooo boy, most was great firewood. so I took a trip back to Peoria, Illinois and traded the lousy #3 "utility grade" for #2 grade. We used most all of it. Sterling hurt his finger on one of the saws, yet kept going. He has been an extreemly faithful worker.
this is the edge of the wood madalion that I made. I explained this in an email. but when Sterling and his brother Clark said it would be easier and look better to have a "radiating floor" instead of a straight across the floor............the madalian I made here represents the 4 winds. One point goes "true North". Sterling has the lighter wood screwed down and I put all the plugs in. These will be all sanded smooth.
this is a good picture of the Medallion. I enlarged it at Staples from a 2 inch little picture. I used to put these on my bowed psalteries.
This is how I made it. I laid out all the boards, put the pattern on. cut the boards apart and numbered them. I then cut each board. There are 71 pieces in this....like a big puzzel. I stained what was not the "four winds".
This shows the beautiful 3 stained glass lights that are in the living room round area. the open bay windows are for book cases, they have been sense put in. Vicki and I made these......Darren stained them. all ready for the books.
Here is Darren Mathews that is painting the cherry stain on the window sills....you can see outside that it's VERY COLD...yep, snow and what Darren calls the "ice palace"....the outhouse. Darren has a great sense of humor and loves to listen to country Western music. sings along with many of the songs....I laugh at some of these, one is "I got a brand new girlfriend". Darren says that if you played all the Country Western songs backwards, you'd get all the couples back together, dogs would live again, everybody would be happy and all that stuffs."
Ralph Angrus above here is putting in all the lights and finishing up. I'm so grateful for him coming to do this. While we were building the house, he had some job working on fixing a bridge? not too sure here, but he had to take a bardge out there to do it....very cold and aweful work and he was more then glad when it was done....laid off for the winter. Yeah, he could come and do this work for us. Thank you Ralph.
this picture above is showing the plumbing that was replaced....not necessary, but now 4 inch pipe inside. totally runining my lovely cherry wood floors. I could go on and on here, but don't want to waist my time talking about plumbing and grudes and etc.
See that little COOL TOOL that is at the top left corner? It's been a great tool for cutting the cherry wood and then replacing it later on. ALL THE CHERRY HAS BEEN REPLACED by Sterling. Vicki and Sterling have cut out in "jig jag" ways so as to put the floor back almost as nice as it was before the big tear out for the jerk state plumbing inspector.
more of the same. just showing the wide path of the cut out. all of this took sooooooo much time and money to take out, then replace and hung me up at least 2 months.