The bathroom gussies up

After living in my house for a year and a half I finally decided to add a little color to my bathroom. It was some kind of dirtified off-white when I moved in, and I've long wanted to clean up the walls and change the color of the room too. Here are a few pictures from the project.


Here's a photo of the bathroom pre-painting. The flaglike patches are some paint samples I was trying out.


And here's the room after I've cut in the new paint.


And here's the room after two coats of Kingston Aqua by Pittsburgh Paints. It's actually darker than I thought it would be, but I really like the color. And it goes well with the browns in the room, which is good because I'm not ready to renovate my bathroom yet (still working on that kitchen).

A Halfway Kitchen (for a Halfway House)

Some of you may remember my post about that simple kitchen project I was looking forward to. With the very able assistance of one Mr. Mike Barnhart, that project took a giant leap forward this past week. Here's a brief photo update:



Plumbing in the new drain. Dad's trying out his old-timey serious pose.


The PEX water lines, which will feed the kitchen sink and dishwasher.


And here they are, stubbed up through the floor.


We had to remove some drywall in order to run new electrical lines for the countertop outlets.


More wiring. For those of you interested, we added six circuits: two dedicated GFCI receptacle circuits, one dedicated refrigerator circuit, one dedicated dishwasher circuit, one dedicated garbage disposal circuit, and one 220V range circuit (in case I decide to switch from gas range to electric range in the future). You could power a bingo parlor off this kitchen without tripping a breaker.


Closing the drywall back up.


The lower (base) cabinets are just sitting in place here. I still need to mud the drywall joints before I can install these, but Dad and I wanted to see what they'd look like sitting in the new kitchen. I think they look pretty good.

The floor beneath the floor

Spurious comments regarding my criminal activity notwithstanding, I'm glad to see that my posting privileges to Barnhart Central have not been revoked. And I suspect you'll be glad too (at least in an empathetic sort of way) when you see the photos of my weekend's work. I decided to use Lisa and Ann's upcoming visit as a good excuse to refinish my living room and dining room floor, and here's a brief photo journey along the way.

The drum sander (with 12-grit sandpaper), about to make the first pass (Friday night).

What 12-grit sandpaper hath wrought.

Another photo of the living room after the 12-grit pass (Saturday evening).

After a pass with 36-grit sandpaper, I found myself needing to fill a few gouges and cracks. Thanks for the wood glue/sawdust tip, Steve. That's worked well for me.

Au revoir, purple paint (Saturday evening).

The living room floor after passing over with a 50-grit sandpaper (Sunday morning).

Winter sunlight shining on a smooth, "nearly-new" floor.

The dining room floor, ready for a final screening and the first coat of polyurethane (Sunday afternoon).

The hard work's done. Applying the polyurethane should be much easier and quicker. The hardest part is just waiting till its fully dried. But I should have a newly-refinished floor by the time Lisa and Ann get here Saturday evening. Which reminds me, Lisa, do you still wear golf cleats indoors? I might need you to take those off at the door.

Update from Wednesday evening:

I applied the final coat of polyurethane this morning, letting the floors dry while I was at work. Here are a couple pictures of the finished living and dining room floor. Now they just have to dry for a few days before I can move furniture into these rooms.

Tomato Report #2

I think I can say with confidence that the growing season in Minnesota is over. We've been down in the twenties several nights in a row, and the grass is crunchy with frost in the mornings. So I thought I'd make good on my promise to keep you all updated tomato-wise and let you know how things turned out. A few weeks ago I pulled off all the green and orangish tomatoes (and two habanero peppers) and they're currently sunning themselves on my windowsill, as you can see here.



The plants looked pretty sad without their tomato finery, so I pulled them out and eventually put them in the compost pile. Here they're taking a well-deserved break next to the sidewalk, moments away from their long journey back into soil.




Lisa, I sent a bushel of tomatoes your way, but it came back to me. Somebody scrawled this note on the package: "We no eat this food. Not good food yum." I hope that was one of your roommates.

Birthday Boy Benny

Ben anxiously watches the clock wind down, in anticipation of the big "three/one" birthday celebration.



Alas, though, he has to arm-wrestle Daniel, to maintain his honorable birthright position as the firstborn son.




Having emerged victoriously, he is shown here with the most wonderful Ryke's cake! Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!!



Finally, a celebration bonfire for Ben's birthday, and also to welcome the new year.




The birthday boy, basking in the glow of the bonfire.

July 4, A Superior Ride, and The Best Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Ever

The Crumble

Rhubarb: Mmmmm.

Rhubarb and Strawberries: Even MMMmmmier.

Rhubarb and Strawberries in The Best Crumble Ever: Well, I'll just show you the picture.

Mom made this crumble from an acclaimed recipe using fresh strawberries from our garden and fresh rhubarb from our neighbor's garden. It was fantastic. We enjoyed having her up for a few days to help with this kids.


The Ride

Ben also visited for a bit and we were able to fit in a short bike ride to Lake Superior. It was a great day for a ride and we had a great time. I only wish I were still biking the paper route so that I would have been in shape.

We biked along the Portage to Lake Superior at McLain's State Park. As is typical, we spent more time tuning up our bikes than riding. In our youth, this meant getting as much oil in the chain as possible, flipping the bike up on its seat and handle bars, and spinning up the pedals to see how long the wheel would spin while we did laps around the house. Now we don't do laps.


The 4th

Today, we took Ella and Elisabeth to the parade in Dollar Bay. Ella liked the parade and all the floats. Her favorite was the root beer float. Tonight we'll try to take in some fireworks. Ella hasn't seen them up here before and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it will be a first time for Elisabeth as well.

You can find more pictures of the parade and the bike ride at our Photo Site: http://sandr.photosite.com/. I'm pretty sure Rachel is planning to update the site with those anticipated Elisabeth photos soon.

Have a good 4th all!

Let's keep this blog moving . . .

Not that I don't love looking at pictures of Nikki and Twila lying on Dad, but I think we need a new picture on the blog. If for nothing else than to attract new off-beat comments. So without further ado, I present . . . Ella and her dashing uncle!



I'm pretty sure this picture was taken just after I told Ella that she couldn't hold the ducks. Although it's also possible she'd just learned that Fletcher's not actually her older brother. Both events were pretty traumatic.