fireplace, propane tank, painting and Laquer on

This is cute Darren Mathews, Vicki's brother that has been sooooooooooo faithful to come here from his regular job of chinking, painting, caulking million dollar huge cabins in Bear Lake, Utah. He brought his own sprayer and other equipment, but most of all his great knowledge and experience to our round house. He just loved this log and ZOWIE, when he lacquered this log, what a beauty..... He hugged it and said, "oh, if only she was a woman". I laughed and took this photo. He painted all on the outside until it got tooooooo cold. Then he did a lovely cherry stain on all the windows and ledges. He took off the knoty Alder doors and took them to Vicki's resturant (that will be some other building when finished, someday)...and did all the 4 coats of laqure on these. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, soooooooooo lovely. THANK YOU DARREN.
Here is Darren with his working magic on my house.......and as I say frequently, "all with his left hand!"
OH WOW, before it got nasty weather, I had the 500 gallon propane take delivered. yep, cost BIG BUCKS to fill it, but I'll have a gas stove, hot water heater and furnace, so filled her up as well.
Sterling Petersen here is beginning to put in the outside pipe for our free standing VERY LOVELY Napolean real fireplace. It was starting to get cold all the time, so we got all motovated to get this hooked up.
Our truck decided NOT to work a few days before this event and so I had a pile of sand bags that were at the house I live in now.....went home and got these and emptied these out and then the gas guy laid the pipe after this. You can see Darren with his Perma Chink going over to help them with something.
ahhhhhhh, AHHHHHHHH, I can't tell you how much I love a real burning fireplace inside this home. This is such a beauty and puts out fantastic heat. We put a fan in back of the stove to bring out more of the heat faster. Darren suggest that "just for now'. I've sat and sat in front of this heater, yep, THINKIN AND THINKIN. Then brought up one of my recorders and played music for hourse as well.
I love this darling dog....this is Silent Bob, he Vicki's "construction dog"...and comes here not often enough.
This is Vicki's nephew and he was needed to help with putting the sand down before the propane gas tank came. sooooooooooo cute. age 13. He enjoyed working with his Uncle Darren.

Plumbing fiasco

It's quite a long story how this all came about, but because I don't want it ALL ON MY BLOG, I'll be short with it. Our house was "targeted" and "someone" who had a "beef" with someone else, called in the STATE plumbing inspector. He requested that I tear up the floor and he could "inspect it" and then have it all replaced. sad, but ture. Vicki and Aki used the international Plumbing code and checked everything. They had other building folks come and check it. All the houses that Vicki worked on in Nauvoo area NEVER had a state building inspector come. oh well. In fact, NO ONE on this street on all the houses that are built have had a state inspector. Illinois has a "higher code" and 4 inch pipe is required under the house....and other little nit picky things, but it's done. aloha, $1,600 for Joe the Plumber. and another amount that will go for the septic tank outside. What is done is done. Not going to keep crying over the beautiful cherry wood floors that were already done. sigh.
these have since been reinforced but not covered up yet. We're waiting for Sterling and Clark Petersen to return to this working site. They are wonderful workers and seem to know what to do without being asked. What a blessing they have been in building our house.
Vicki was so disgusted that all this had to be done. AGAIN...and in such a mess.
But for the record, I put it all down. Setbacks for building anything just happen.
Vicki and I got a "cool tool" that can cut into the remaining cherry wood, and somehow we'll be able to get some new cherrywood down after these holes are covered up. yep, it's all been inspected.
This was the worst tear up. what a mess. hrumph
And down the middle of the main "great circle room". just for 4 inch pipe.

preservative coat

Here is Vicki's 3ed brother, Darren Mathews.......He's been working with paints all his adult life. For the past 3 years, he's been a partner in Diamond X Construction in Garden City, Utah.....that's near Bear Lake, Utah. He's been doing log staining and painting in million dollar houses. I'm so grateful for this talented happy person to come and work on my house. I'm amazed at all that he can do in just a few days. He put a stain on the outside of the house and the color of the wood stands out more and the lovely contrast of the chinking. He'll be doing more chinking later. AND he does it all with his left hand. yep, a south paw. speaking of "south paw" ............Darren brought his dog with him. A friendly guy....but Vicki and I call him Bozo...

See the difference here on the porch. oh so lovely.

yep, you can see his mouth a working and talking and south paw painting. He is so accurate.

This is Clarks Peterson's brother. He was also out of work for a while and so when I asked Clark about him, he said that his brother Sterling Peterson also did construction. He spoke highly of him and so I asked to have Sterling Peterson to come on up from Missouri. What a wonderful mother to raise these sons with such great work ethics. He is fixing a window that would not open or close because some earlier workers didn't square this opening. This is in my sewing room. I call him, Sterling "Silver" Peterson.

squareing a square is no easy task after walls are in....(and not square)....well, as Sterling would say, "it is what it is"....instead of complaining, he just gets the job done. He's also done some nice barnwood finish decoration on my skylights. Another happy person to work with. How can I be so blessed?

Akihito Inouye

Going back to see old pictures that I didn't have time to put on my blog.....He is one that I want to SPOTLIGHT. He was such a wonderful worker and could figure out all the puzzle of the flooring.....WHAT A JOB that was. He was also marvelous in helping Vicki do plumbing as Tomasi was going daily to doctors with Chemo and radiation....

Aki worked with Tomasi doing all sorts of pipe work many years ago in Hawaii. They are the best of friends....he now lives with his wife in Vancouver, Canada. I wish they could move here. We could use some good Japanese guy like Aki in Nauvoo.

He can figure things out that no one else can. He's made a dictionary translation of Japanese/Aribic.......worked in so many interesting jobs. extreemly creative mind.

Progress on floors and other shots.

well, this is what it looks like WITHOUT A LOVELY SKYLIGHT...and the sound inside is not the same either. yep, I was covered with homeowner's insurance and I pay my dedutable of $250. and they will pay for new skylight, shipping and installation. I'm getting two bids on this. I should be in by THANKSGIVING, but I don't think I'll be moved in by then. The floors will put me back some, but all worth it to me.
all this wood and 6 hours more of Chop sawing.........dat's me, "Irene the chop saw queen".
Here is a big cedar log that Dave Hardle had cut for me....beautiful, eh? yep, that's the loft up there and it will be finished before I move in as well. the area below goes into the Kitchen.
my ceiling in my bedroom with a SKYLIGHT. I waw Jerry Brown's skylight above their bed and said that is what I'm going to do too. DID IT. yeah, thanks again for this wonderful idea.
another shot at my lovely cedar tree, yep, I hug her often. you see, wood lives on.
AHHHHHHHHHH, MY AWESOME LOG....that holds up the loft....I love this log....and I hug her often. found her thrown away on the side of the road...had her put up on Vicki's place until I needed her. you can see here also a pile of stuffs that we move around to make room to work on floors. whew....Glenn's photo
my lovely swinging front door.....yep, gonna do something with the glass, maybe put in a stained glass? still thinking on this one. Glenn's photo
more lovely floors. Glenn's photo
bedroom floor going in. yep, there will be 3 varithane coats going on...Glenn's photo
piles of wood ready for flooring...yep, I chop sawed all of these. and again, Glenn's photo
Here is the floor in my sewing/spare bedroom. here the one year old played with scraps of wood. Glenn Hawkes took this photo. and some more here.....same same
Ceiling in our bedroom. yep, Madison Hales did this work....barnwood. I LOVE RUSTIC, can you tell that?
You can see that we need to still do some more chinking. I think that Madison did the barnwood work above the porch opening above here. He really is an artist in woodworking and I hope that he'll do more of it after his mission. Glenn Hawkes photo
This is from a BIG CEDAR TREE that Dave Hardle took to a local mill guy....and oh how I love th smell of these woods in my house....there will be stairs that will go up after the living room floor is done. and yep, there will be "box car siding that will be for the ceiling under the loft here....but electrial light here ready for put light in.....laters.
POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR HANNA THE VANNA....yep had to be towed AGAIN. I went through a HORRIBLE rain puddle, where the policeman says........."oh we keep telling the road commisoner that we need to get this road fixed that every time there's a BIG RAIN....someone has to go through it and then their car doesn't start and gets stuck going UPHILL and we have to call a tow truck". The tow truck guy says the same thing...HRUMPH. she still sits in my driveway, not been able to start for a week and 2 days now. yep, this was the same bad storm that sucked out my skylight that was not latched down as it should have been. more HRUMPH.
Tomasi and I have been sooooooooooo grateful for the Peterson Family....he suggested that we have a little Luau for them....first but not last cook at our place. Here he is telling Sterling Peterson on how he's making this fire and food for our lunch yesterday, 6 Nov 2009
good use of the scrap woods after the cut off for the flooring.
HUGE STACKS OF WOOD...each weighs about 1,000 pounds. I've had them stored in Jack's little wearhouse from July 2009. I'm grateful for Jack....JPK construction.
Here are THREE PALLETS OF WOOD.....and you can see they are just cut off planks of the same hight....sooooooooooo they are put into stacks and then cut to one of 5 sizes.....so we can use as much of the wood possible. yeah, no rain for a few days.....so we become a processing plant.
mountain of saw dust in one day's working these dado blade and the router bits.
THE CHOP SAW QUEEN.
This is too serious a picture.....I'm laughing at this one.
Here are two of Clark's children....Joseph and a married sister that just loves doing this work...can you believe? She has a darling one year old that was born on Bob's new baby's date....
I LOVE how the sun comes in the afternoon on this floor and kitchen. What a pleasant room to prepare meals in. The stove is in the other room that has a finished floor. I need to get some "coasters" to put under her legs and then hopefully, I'll get the gas man up there to hook up the gas and get her all going GOOD. you also can see my dishwasher that has a plastic cover on her for protection. yep, she's black....looks good.
the kitchen floor is done...oh what a beauty.
Clark working soooooooo hard....BAMB and and a floor nail is IN. they glue all the boards, then nail every third row.
SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.
AND HERE IS MY SWEETHEART....feeling good enough to be here. We're saving all the cut off wood for our fireplace and the sawdust we'll let rot for a while and use on our garden next year.