Where Have We Been?

Oh, we've been around. Just seems so busy but not with much that exciting. It is hard to understand just where the days and weeks go, time sure does fly by when you have so much on a "to do" list. The weekend after the chili cook-off party, we had the annual PPP. That is known by many around the lake as the Pier Pulling out Party (or in about April, the Pier Putting in Party). This starts with a pitch-in breakfast about 9 and then many hands make light work. Several men and a few women don waders and tackle the cold lake to remove piers, rafts and boat lifts for the winter. When it is the autumn PPP, it is a bit bittersweet, as we hate to see summer end and give the lake back to Mother Nature for a rest period. But, in the spring we joyfully gather to "take back the lake" at the official kick-off to summer fun. That was the 17th of October. Then, that following week Grandmommy took a short road trip down to visit the grandchildren for a few days. What fun to hold the new little one again and see how much she had changed and grown already. Then, when she returned for the weekend, we had two nights in a row with euchre parties to attend, another non-summer activity here with the year round folks. Last night for Halloween, we attended the annual costume party at some good friends' home. They go all out with decorations everywhere you look, each and every room of their home is decorated and there is always loads of fun seeing what costumes are created each year.

Yesterday afternoon Poppy caught this photo, which we thought looked a bit spooky and very appropriate for a Halloween day. He was outside on the deck and Sammy was inside looking out the patio door. The reflection created sort of a surreal image.

Then, when she does come out on the deck, she loves to chase the blowing leaves and eat them. Thus, she is not able to come out much. She just doesn't understand that leaves are not for eating.

Speaking of leaves, here are the hardy few that are still clinging to the one maple out by the lake. Last weekend almost all of them fell in the front yard and we spent a few hours clearing them up. It took forever to burn them, as after the heavy rain we had on Friday, they were still awfully wet. It was more like smoldering, smoking leaves most of the day.

But, as you can see, today there were still a few hardy souls of the maple variety and the beautiful sunny day made for a perfect back drop to Poppy's photo. We spent this afternoon raking, blowing and burning those that had finally fallen in the back yard and hopefully they are about all down.

The finishing of the new section continues to progress well. We are nearing the end of hanging drywall. The master bedroom is about done and then all we have left is the stairwell walls and inside a few closets upstairs. But, before we got the stairwell drywalled, we had a big project to tackle. When the contractor did the stairwell he took the stair treads right out flush with the wall studs. This makes drywalling the stairwell very tricky. So, to make it right, we tackled the big project of rebuilding the stairwell. In the photo above you can see how the treads as they were done originally. We started with the lower section of the stairwell, the first six steps below the landing where it turns.

Here is a shot of the "after" on the lower section. You can now see that the stair tread is spaced out from the wall studs leaving space for the drywall sheet to drop right down along stair edge and also allows for the wood trim board that will also be installed along the steps. It was work, but will be worth it as we finish this section off. Tearing it apart was much harder than putting it back together. But, we worked together and got it done easily.

Here you see Poppy at work as we began to tear down the top section of five steps. The spots you see are the dust particles floating in the air as he pries and pulls and hammers this step loose.

By the end of the day yesterday we had the upper section torn apart so we could begin to redo it. Today we had a bit of time after the leaf raking to install the boards that are the spacers and the stringers are back in place. So now all we must do is trim down the risers and stair treads so we can reinstall them to finish off this job. Then we will continue with the final drywall and feel like we have accomplished A LOT! Can you see why I haven't been here to blog lately? We are just so busy. Poppy has been quite busy during the day with his new job so he is not here to work near the hours he did this summer. So, the weekends see the bulk of our progress and they have been chocked full of social events we don't want to miss. Hopefully I will be back soon to share the finished drywall photos.