New floor!

The old floor. Old carpeting. New in 1996 but after many years of hay chafe, puppies, children, and spills, it was way past due ... the time to go.

The Tiny house was getting a face lift! Moving things out wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The loveseat sucked though. Rich helped but it he nearly fainted from sudden loss of 02 and exertion.

Imagine the look on my face as I saw the layer of DIRT under the carpet and worse yet, the fine layer of dirt under the carpet pad. 

Once upon a time our living room looked like this:

Mr. Morris is modeling the living room...or as we call it, the West Wing. Dark paneling, brick wall and partial brick floor. 

Now?

It looks like this:

I'm sort of diggin' the uncluttered look. After all, IT is a tiny house! I love the new floor. I skipped around, twirled and danced on it in bare feet much to the amusement of my husband last night. 

IF anyone has a wonderful idea as to how to convince my husband to get rid of that OLD trunk? I'm all ears. For now I moved it into the kitchen area to use as a folding table for laundry. It also makes a nice place to do some still life photography, so maybe it isn't so bad.

Some other thoughts. The floor is lovely. I CANNOT see the seams!

Below they marked the seams and said Charlie was not allowed out on the floor for 3 hours while the glue stuff dried. 

After I removed the markers, I can't see any seams.

Crappy shots with the cell phone, but let me say.

I love it!

It actually feels like wood on my bare feet! 

I'm just having the most wonderful 'Up' day.

New flooring on Wednesday and a partial Solar Eclipse adventure today!

What more can a person ask for?

Creative Room of Wonders

And Still Life...

I'm trying to set myself up in the spare room that used to be our mess called a bedroom.
The room itself needs to have most of the corners re-taped and spackled AND the both rooms need painting to freshen them up.

However winter will come and I am sooo tired of remodeling. So it will wait until spring.
Right now I am setting up my own space for some Still Life work and actually going to build a light box along with getting a light. More on that when I investigate the light I am thinking about.

Still Life can be done anywhere. Outdoors, indoors, on the floor on a chunk of wood, the porch, anywhere you can think of.

The photo above was done when the zinnias were still in bloom and I had found a little vase that my youngest boy had gotten me many years ago.
The final photo with a 50mm lens was this:

I then moved into our future bedroom and used the neat floor pattern to take this shot.

I loved the floor color and texture and didn't worry about the rule of thirds. I just did what felt right.

So now I'd like to move into an area where I can leave things set up and 'play' with lighting and setting things up.

Viola!
The new Creative Room of Wonders.

I'm pretty excited about this.
A place I can use and not have to clean it up from the living room or kitchen floor.
How neat is that?

Other still life stuff:

I am looking forward to having some fun when the temps drop and snows are whipping along outside.

Mostly House Stuff

Right now our lives are being taken over by the finishing work in the Tiny House.
Walls of plastic are everywhere, the scent of drying drywall mud has permeated the house.

During the day the house is a literal dust bowl. Sheets of plastic cover some rooms and linen sheets cover as much of our belongings as possible.

Yesterday though I took some time 'out' and had a side trip to Tainter Hollow for some photography. 
It seemed to be a perfect day to practice with the infrared filter.

I could have spent the day doing photography but alas, Rich had run out of clean jeans and our laundry situation was desperate.
So sadly I left Tainter Land and traveled home.

Then I went to my neighbor's and did 3 huge loads of laundry.

Can't wait to have a washer and dryer at home again!

More on the remodel at:
The Little House Remodel

Morris: On Remodeling

I don't understand this thing called a house remodel. It doesn't make any sense to me at all.
Every day strange guys come and park all over the place with their trucks.
They make noise.

Hammer, slam, bang, bang, hammer, laugh, talk, hammer some more.

The only part of the day I enjoy is when they are all gone and I go hunting around to where they eat lunch at the picnic table and find little scraps of what they dropped.

I am getting most excellent at doing this.  NOW, if she would let me be loose during the day, I could run around to all these guys and give them the Morris Look.  They would hand me treats and stop work.
She says I'd be in their way and since they are using hammers, saws, and other dangerous type stuff...I must not bother them.

I have found the most comfortable place to be is away from the noise and on the new porch in my crate.  

I can warn everyone when another vehicle arrives and I can take little cat naps.

Even my place where I went out to pee and do my other business every day is ... Gone!
I guess I shouldn't feel so bad.  It is even worse for her and Grumpy Gus.
They don't even have a toilet.

Grumpy can go outside like me and pee on a tree, but She has to go to the outhouse.
Sometimes it does pay to be a dog!

Grumpy Gus has disconnected the heater to the house. 

This morning it is downright chilly in the house.  She put on an extra sweatshirt and I was kind enough to crawl into her lap and keep it warm.

That is, until I decided the couch was a better option. I could cuddle with my red blanket and the microwave oven.

Yes, I said the microwave oven.

She has NO kitchen at all right now.  They tore everything out yesterday.

That means She doesn't have to cook. I think She likes that part. 
But maybe not.... last night She sounded like she was already tired of eating pizza and burgers.

She says I will not recognize the house when I can go through the plastic.

I wonder.

So I lay on the living room floor and wonder for a moment. I can't think about things too long, it wears me out.

But if only SHE would remember where She put the dog treats.

I would be much happier you know.

Well, time to wait for the guys with lunch stuff to show up.
I hope they bring ham sandwiches and drop on the ground under the picnic table.

Let it go...

This week has been one of a bit of stress.  

Monday was busy with deliveries for the remodel and I had to go re-qualify at the Range for the year. 
Re-quals are very stressful.  You have so many seconds to shoot a silhouette target at different ranges.

Firing a Glock and a Shotgun while being timed is...well, let's just call it what it is.  A real brain drain.

So Tuesday I woke up and decided that after all that was going on, I was going to de-stress myself.  I decided to pick a project and attack it with some gusto.

So I talked with our neighbor and asked if I could dig things up around our mailboxes and see if we could have a small flower garden there.  She liked the idea.  I drove to the ridge and proceeded to spend most of the afternoon cleaning up an area and planting seeds.

I'll know in about 14 days how well the older seeds did and if the garden is a flop because of the shade, I'll get a flat of begonias which would do very well there.

I put the red mulch around the area to mark it.  Both of our husbands have just mowed through here so I wanted to make it clear that there was something besides roadside weeds around the mailboxes.

I pulled poison ivy and dug up as much wild parsnip as possible.  I showed our neighbor what the poison ivy looked like and will walk her wood trails with her to see if any is growing where the kids can get into it.  
I found this little plant in the mailbox garden and have not figured out what it is yet?

Anyone with any idea?

That is my gloved hand next to the plant.  I have seen this before but cannot for the life of me figure out where!

Anyway after working on the garden area I went back home and put my tools away.  

My old house is fading away.  It was nice though to have the basement covered now and be able to come through the old entrance.

Still feeling restless, I decided to take a small walk through the woods.  I found one trillium that was already blossoming.  

Mental note, ... I would love to hike to the 'back valley' and see the hillside of Trillium!

I stopped by the Hawthorne Tree and admired its leaves and flowers. It seems it is nearly done flowering, as the blossoms are fading.

Yesterday was another day full of activity.  
The crew came and worked on the house.  Rich and I went to town so he could get his 'annual' haircut and then I took him out for ice cream.

It was nice to get away from the sawdust and the pounding.  

After the crew left I went to sort out blocks of wood.  I had asked the contractor not to toss the chunks in the dumpster.  I'd sort through the wood and give some to my neighbor who has a wood cook stove.

I had ideas for some of the other chunks.
When I was a child we had a box of wooden blocks that my Grandmother had carefully sanded.  It was left over wood chunks that had come from her house when it was built.
I have fond memories of playing with those blocks for hours on end.

My mother did the same thing for her grand children when she built her house.

And...

Well, not all my grand children are small nor would they find blocks fun to play with.  But I've also thought of some other fun things I can do with the blocks.

Paint, stain, stencils...I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do, but sanding and listening to the the orioles sing in the trees above me last night was very relaxing.

I know this is kind of 'kitschy' but I thought it might make a cute project to do.

I am thinking more of something along the line of using each block to make a letter of our last name...or something else neat.

I really like this idea from 'diddle dumpling', on how to make a wooden 'vintage' sign using an ink jet printer!

Calgon take me away

Sunday ends a brutal work stretch of odd hours and many many hours.  I'm not complaining about the hours and the pay mind you, I just got a bit overwhelmed.

The house remodel is coming along.  I have to call the General Contractor and ask him to come and take a look at things.  Seems the plumber and the concrete people see a problem that the excavator didn't/couldn't take care of and since it isn't their job to fix it...the drain and the drain tile work stop about 15 feet from the basement.

The floor is ready to go in...but...well, there you go, that is why we have a GC, it is his job to take care of the little details.

In the Merry Meadow, the wild apple trees are starting to show buds, well...they were on Wednesday.  I'd like to go out and wander around a bit today and take some spring photos.

Hubby hasn't felt well most of the week due to a med change and error in his part of not taking his meds properly.  
Of course with my heavy work load this week, I haven't been able to help out as much as I like to.  Plus I felt guilty of leaving hubby on his own for some meals.
He is terrible about properly feeding himself.  
I leave him a meal and he eats cheese and crackers.

I'm also getting tired of dreary skies.  Apparently the sun will shine tomorrow while I am at work.  

I was able to grab a few moments earlier this week to do my weekly Still Life photo.  Last Saturday while I was running errands in town, I was able to pick up a china cup and saucer for $1.  I thought it would look nice in a photo and it was pretty.  I also picked up a Chicken Cookie Jar for $2.  It will look very nice on my new kitchen counter!

Here is the new cup and saucer.  I photographed it on the concrete floor in the living room.  This spot used to have bricks on it which we have removed for the remodeling.

I also was amused to find a photo from February that I'd taken of a pair of gloves.  I was going to toss them out, but I still find them useful.

I am wondering if I can use the wooden pallets that the concrete guys have left behind for something useful.  I'm already thinking of how I can take some old wood crates and re use them ... oh
the 
mind is 
wandering!

House Remodeling Stinks ~ by Morris

They are messing up the house and calling it Remodeling preparation.  

She took the pictures off the wall and started taking Wall Paper down.  She pulls, strips, and goes up and down the stool thing. I watch her and it makes me tired.

Every day I have to guess where my water bowl is going to end up because She has been moving my dishes around so She can work. I hope she finishes up soon!

But then He started to work on my most ever favorite place.  That most wonderful excellent spot in front of the heater blower.

I take my toys there and lay down in front of the heater every time it turns on when it is cold outside.

How dare He?

I should have seen the signs. 

Invaded by tools.

When He uses the pounder thing, I don't like it much.  I climb that step stool thingy where She is working and hide between her legs.

Especially when He starts the Thing He calls the Shop Vac.  

I wasn't really scared.  I just wanted to make sure They knew that They were disturbing my place.

I just wanted to lay in the sunshine on the couch with my favorite toy and enjoy the afternoon. 

But NO.  

Pound, pound, pound.  Noisy Vac Thingy.  Scary, nasty, dusty, and noisy.  I kept climbing the foot stool and making Her laugh.  She had to stop pulling wallpaper and comfort me. I think I'll make a big fuss every time He brings out those tools. I learned a good trick, she gave me a treat and held me.  I like that.

I didn't even want anything to do with my comfy corner of the couch or the heater.

Before the work:

After yesterday's pounding noisy session:

It is just not nearly as nice.  

I have lived here my entire life and saw absolutely nothing wrong with the house what so ever. And now I find out that They are going to change things around.

Finally They quit making a mess of things and cleaned things up.  I finally was able to grab a little quiet time on my corner of the couch.  

They talk like this Remodel is going to be a great thing.  I don't think so, not if it is going to disrupt my life.

I may just run away from home.

Or...

Sleep on the couch with my Angry Bird Toy.

Or...I could hide the remote on Them and see how They like that!

Remodeling stinks.  And that is my opinion on the matter.