Karla reporting. Well, the demolishing will begin in early part of October with the hope of selling the garage (every bit helps). We got good news last week on financing, the first quote we were given a few months back was based on their knowledge that we were going to be first time home owners, but that's not the case, so we got a phone call last week from our loan officer that we usually work with and the budget for the construction went up significantly. Mind you we would never borrow as much as they said we could, but it's reassuring we won't have to skimp on some items of importance: quality windows, wood or cement board siding, airlock system, a carport and south facing porch. I guess believing that you are poor has it's benefits...it means you live way below your means. We were astounded. 
This also means that we plan to sell in early spring and hopefully start construction mid-summer....but if we have to wait we will - were good at that too. It's a little surreal that this is all going to happen.
Our architect made our day when he said that this "little" project finds him a lot of joy...he said it's nice to work on something that you love to do! I'm glad he's on our team.

As I write this Paul is staying overnight in the other house (it's a Blue Moon tonight) and I plan on staying over tomorrow, with pizza in hand. It will be nice to get a feel of what it will be like someday. It's a great view...out the south window you can see the lake and at night it's all lit up with sailboats...

It's really happening. This year has had many highs and some lows, but for everything that has come my way I feel blessed. Now, if I can just get to sleep! 
Later! 

Karla 

Trying to get more maple

 This little area in front of the bathroom has some five or six feet pieces of maple that I'm trying to get out.

 They extend under the bathroom sub-floor. I have tried to take up the sub floor with numerous hand tools, but it is not worth the amount of time I'd have to put in to gain a foot or so on each board. Maybe someday someone will invent power tools, or electricity.

Small Room Off Kitchen No longer Has A Maple Floor

The first two photos show the dining room floor without its maple wood covering.

 The two lower photos show the upstairs floor I am going to start dismantling. These rooms look quite nice yes?  The large room is at the top of the steps. It has a nice view of the river. If you didn't know any better you'd think this was new construction.

The Mapo Floor Is Empty

What a suprise. The maple floor came off really fast. It took about a third of the time that the other room took. The boards came up easier but trying to remove the nails was near impossible, so I took the hack saw to the nails. They cut fast. Saw halfway push with thumb and snap!  On to the next room. 

Very Successful Benefit For Karlas Brother.Now Maple Floor

Sunday, Karla's brother had a benefit held in New Lisbon, Wi. Kurt (Karla's Bro) has been kicking Cancers ass really bad. Soon we will see the knockout punch delivered. Talk about small town community outpouring, These people exemplify caring, kindness, generosity and love. They renew my faith in the goodness of people. Bless them everyone!

 Here is about 80 sq. ft. of maple floor that I have started work on. Unlike the soft wood used up stairs, maple hangs onto a nail so tight that I have had to hack saw each one off.

 They come off easier than the upper floor but, sawing each nail eats up time. I could not believe how worn out my legs were last Friday. I'll get used to it.

I duck taped two small pieces of maple together to raise the floor board up enough to get the hack saw flush with the board where the nail protrudes. I like getting lost in the repetition of doing the same thing, it allows me to create things and ideas about fishing lures to politics. Last week I had this idea: Set up a website that allows people to bet on when the next mass shooting will be. Lots of little details could also be tossed in, like how shots will be fired. Now, as sick as this sounds, wait one second while I type the good results of such a bad idea. The profits are used for fighting for reasonable gun control laws. Use the money against the very people who gamble and promote gun violence. I mean, what kind of person would take part in a website like this?

The Face On The Bar room Floor

I finished taking the floor off in one room. I estimate that I worked 16 hrs. to do it. The nails are the old fashioned kind. The house was built in 1910 and this floor was the original. I could tell it was the original because the supporting 2 x 10's only had nail holes where I pulled nails from, no other holes anywhere.

 As I lifted the last floor board off I thought "The room no longer has a face" My second thought was about Robert Services poem "The Face On The Bar Room Floor" I don't know why but the room being faceless just fits the situation. There certainly is no longer any character in the room. Character is a by product of age I think. The walls were sprayed white fairly recently, they have about as much character as vinyl siding. This room does not exist anymore.

Close To Finishing One Room

As you can see in the photos I am getting close to having all the floor boards off. I tried to capture the amount of grit and dust accumulation in the tongues and grooves. The house was built in 1910 so thats what? 110 years approx. of stuff making its way into the small cracks between boards. It is caked on up to about 1/16 of an inch and has to be scraped repeatedly with a paint scraper to get it of. You can see the scraper in the photo as it slides along the tongue.

Tuesday's Lawn Cutting

              First, Karla did all the mowing except for the portion our new neighbor was so kind as to cut.

                                     As you can see in the photo above, it really needed a haircut.

Karla pushed the mower, and on a "lawn" like this you just know she worked her ass off. As for yours truly I cut weeds around the garage with a scissors. Much easier than pushing the mower. Whats my excuse for being a slacker? I'll let you know after the house is down and I have not been stung. Today I worked on taking up the floor I started sometime back. I will be going over to the house tonight to listen over and over to Paul McCartney (wrong spelling) sing "Oh Darling" from the "Abbey Road " album. I never paid much attention to his voice on this track I guess, because I'm really appreciating what he does with it here. He gives a very blatant nod to Little Richards trade mark "Ohh, Ohhhhhhhhhh"  high pitched squeal. And as I wallow in blessed repeitition I'll work on the floor and perspire as per usual.

Karla reporting. Well, we met with our Architect today, Matt Wiedenhoeft, of Martin Riley Architects-Engineers of Oshkosh. We signed on the dotted line for him to be a part of our team! He's a wonderful architect who I'm glad we have the chance to work with: his heart is in the right place. He really thinks about space and listens: I think we may be atypical: we don't want anything grand, and with the motto that EVERY space should be used. An architect Paul and I both highly recommend (we'll put a little plug for him at the end of this entry).
I can hardly believe this is a reality, but it's scary, too. All I see right now are dollar signs, and have to trust that how we live (frugality is our motto) that we will be just fine...I have to trust in the unknown.
 We have made some changes along the way, and I think a house you envision should breathe along the way, and not become static. So, we went from modern design to a more practical, clean, and european aesthetic (think Nordic with a Finnish twist). We will post plans when they come available. Also, we went from a story and half to one story (come people we need to be realistic..stairs with age is not a good idea!). So, here we are at the preliminary stages....and realize that this will be a long process, which Paul and I are very good at...waiting.
Then there is a part of me that feels guilty to be a part of this adventure. At times, I would have preferred to give all my savings to my brother who is going through so much right now (diagnosed with leukemia in May)..it's an internal struggle that I'm going through. I know I would be a phenomenal rich person, for sure...if I had a ton of money I would give it to people who need it more than I do....not sure how really rich people who keep it ALL for themselves deal with this: I guess they don't, right?
I digress. So here we are: in the middle of home that is "still" not ours, but will be. 

Finally, this image was taken from the Finnish Museum in New York Mills, MN. All the buildings there are original buildings from Finnish life. We love the clean aesthetic: symmetrical, clean, practical, and no frills....space is used and not wasted. 

Here is the firm and architect we are working with..click on the link.

http://www.martinrileymock.com/newsdetail.aspx?nid=f6805240-322b-4bd7-9add-8af1105d059a

Thanks for viewing!

Kind Of Like Stuttering

That's the Monday I had. I got up this am around 7:00 and thought I would get some things done today. By 3:00 pm I had nothing accomplished. Since we now have two places that have to be mowed we decided to buy a power mower. We have a Fiskers push mower for our small yard, but the other place has a much bigger lawn. Anyway, I go to the mans mall and purchase a nice self propelled power mower. I take it home and do the assembling routine. I'm ready to mow, all I need is some gas in the tank. Put in said gasoline and looked it over only to discover the gas leaking out from under the air filter. I frantically grab the first tool that will do the job of fixing the leak. It doesn't. I go to the hardware store and get a box wrench, wrong size, I'm dumb all over. I decide that I shouldn't have to fix a new mower. Take it back, its 3:00 pm. I'm told it has to be shipped to the repair center. I still need to get two lawns mowed. I tell the tech. my problem. He takes $20.00 off the sale price. So I'm somewhat mollified. Go home get things together and I'm at Paris St. around 7:00 pm. I leave at 9:00 pm with two lungs full of soot! The floor boards are so full of dust, grit, and fine grey powder that when it combined with the sweat dripping off me it made a grey ring around the drain when I took a shower. As I'm showering I wash my leg I feel a little burning sting on my shin. Moments later I discover a staple from the floor on the shower enclosures floor. So, have a look at the mower, the floor I pried 4 or 5 boards off, and the lethal looking nail that holds this floor down. I don't know how old these nails are but they are pretty far back there.