Where Should I Begin???

Whew, it is hard to believe I have not added new photos or news since right before Memorial Day. Now the days are getting shorter and summer is about over. Guess I better take some time (lots of it!) and catch you up with what has been happening around Loon Lake Lodge over the past three months! The next few nights I will be working to catch up.

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I must go back to right after my last post. We had gotten the carpet down and the upstairs was basically ready for occupancy for the Memorial Day weekend. So, they arrived! Everyone was thrilled with their newly finished rooms. Here is a shot of the girls new room and Kate was thrilled to have a "big girl" bed just like Sissy's at the lake!

The weather was beautiful for swimming and of course Amanda was so anxious to "coax" her girls into being water lovers just like she was as a girl. They were not near as excited as she wanted them to be, but here Libbers was about as brave as she ever got all summer.

Kate was more occupied with all the toys to play with in the water and spent most of her time on dry land "squirting" everything in sight. Even GG at one point, which really surprised GG! These toys somehow got tagged by Kate as the "users" so now all water toys are "users." She would see a shovel floating out away from the sand and yell, "get that user!" Poppy even bought a special big tote to store the "users" in! I guess you "use" them to play, hence the "users!"

Of course, this was only Jillian's 2nd visit to the lake, so it was fun to see her explore and see what kind of trouble she could get into crawling all over the deck. She is such a happy-go-lucky girl and always smiling!

She was so near walking, we thought for sure she would take off anytime.

On June 1st, Poppy's birthday, Shell & Richard arrived in the evening. It was wonderful having them come from NC, as Richard had not been to the lake since 2008! He was amazed at all the changes and pitched right in with offers to help Poppy. Of course, we wanted this to be a relaxing vacation for them, as Richard had been busy for the past two years going to school for his master's degree. So, we did not make them work. We PLAYED! The kids gave Poppy a beer brewing kit, so for about one whole day they worked to "brew" his first batch. Poppy also received a Ladder Ball game for his birthday, so we had several fun games to test our skills.

Nice form Michelle!

Amanda and their crew had returned for the next weekend so the whole family could be together. It was fun and we were so happy to have plenty of space for everyone! GG was here one day and for supper we had to set up the card table and all gather around.

Saturday was the Kid's Fishing Derby and everyone "helped" Elizabeth and Kate "catch" fish. Of course, they were scared of them once they were hooked and wiggling all over.

Unfortunately, the rain began just as we returned to have the fish weighed and collect prizes and hotdogs. But, a little rain didn't dampen our spirits too much.

The rest of June was rather uneventful as we enjoyed beautiful summer weather and continued to work on all the remodeling. After several weeks the "home brew" was ready to sample. Here Poppy sits back to relax with a taste of his own refreshing wheat beer. He was quite proud!

Now tomorrow night I will try to summarize July!

A Day We Have Been Anticipating!

I can't tell you how proud I am of all the hard work Poppy has put in to this project. I know I have helped, and many times my help was essential, but all-in-all, he was the one who has accomplished all that we have done in the past year. A year ago he was just finishing up all the electrical wiring. On Memorial Day we began insulating. Now, here we are the week before Memorial Day and we are ready to set the beds back up and have FINISHED space!! The last room to finish was this one, the room for our darling little grand daughters. I say this, as their twin beds will occupy this space with new bright comforters and eventually bright wall art and window treatments. Here Poppy was finalizing the trim work in the closet. But, this is more than a normal closet. It will have sliding doors to hide the contents, but inside you can go back in this nice big storage area too. It has been stuffed with the beds and boxes all winter. After Christmas we took all the beds down and stored them away for the drywall finishing. Now this evening we began to pull them back out of storage. Hopefully by Friday evening they will all be made up and ready for the family to arrive for the holiday weekend!

We especially loved the color we chose for the girls' room once we had it on the walls. It is called Tropical Mist and just looks "yummy" with a bit of almost a florescent glow.

The really exciting part of today was the arrival of the carpet for upstairs! We are thrilled with our choice and love the coordination with wall colors.

Here is the carpet going up the stairwell, although it may not look that much different than the OSB and bare wood steps. It now is so soft and nice to walk on

Here is the hallway looking down into the back bedroom, where the girls' Mommy, Daddy and baby Jillian will sleep.

We were really happy when we were in Menards last weekend and found the perfect ceiling fans and lights. We had purchased two at Lowes, but they ended up being way too big and hanging down too low. So, they went back and we lucked into a great bargain on these. They are perfect and have completed the whole package. Now tomorrow we will be setting up beds and getting them made up. Over the coming weeks we will have the new space full. This is just what we designed the upstairs for, specifically for sharing our Loon Lake Lodge, our very own paradise.

Closer Still

Well, these past couple weeks have seen Poppy VERY busy with hanging doors and getting everything trimmed out. (I help hold as we hang doors, but I am not much help with the trim.) Here you see the closet doors in the back bedroom, which will be VALUABLE extra storage space!

The upstairs bathroom is taking shape too. We have the linen closet door in place and my little washer I will use for "felting" knitted projects installed. We have looked high and low for just the right mirror and this week when he is in town he is going to City Glass for the right size to just frame white himself. I also want a cabinet above the washer for storage space too.

Another encouraging feature in this bathroom is now some privacy for using the toilet or taking a shower, as there is now a door! This was the door that has been separating the old section from the new, so that was progress in itself to be able to remove that door and put it where it belonged. Hopefully he will get this door trimmed out, the rest of the baseboard in this bath and we can call it done!

We still need to find and hang towel bars/rings and TP holders in both baths, but that will come eventually. Here you see the almost finished half bath, also complete with a door for privacy!!

One big project the past couple days was getting the stair skirting on. These trim boards had to be special ordered after finding none of the "big box" home improvement stores carried them in stock. Poppy worked hard on Thurs. & Friday to get them cut just right, primed and installed.

Here is from the top looking down

and here is from the bottom looking up. Once all the baseboard trim is down, we can get the carpet layers in, which will almost signal completion! Then we will get all the beds back out of storage and set things up for our family to invade us for Memorial Day weekend. Eventually then we will tackle our master bath and be able to move down into our new first floor master bedroom. Maybe by the fall...time will tell. There is so much to do and seems like we keep checking things off the list, but the list is unending.

Poppy is just itching to do more landscaping, but fall is the best time for planting bushes and trees. This area off the driveway was where we took down a big maple tree and a small ash tree. The ground is a mass of roots and tree residue, so we mounded up dirt and added some large bolders Poppy got at the store quarry. Here we work on that, just a tiny start to beautify the yard too. We planted three day lilies among the rocks and will eventually add maybe a bush or two and some ground cover to complete this area. Watch for a photo of the finished affect eventually. Stay tuned for more progress! Ya'll come see us, ya hear?

A Busy Month of Progress with a CAPTIAL P

Progress...that is what we have made this past month or so!

Here is Poppy laying the Pergo flooring in the upstairs bathroom. There were a few issues to make it a challenge, but we were very pleased with the finished outcome. We also put the same floor in the half bath downstairs. It look great and we have those two rooms almost finished completely.

You can see here he has begun to trim out the baseboards and what a wonderful finished look it gives.

The vanity is all set and we are looking for the perfect mirror for above the sink. The area to the left of the vanity will hold my little top-load washer for felting all my wonderful knitted projects. To the right of the sink is a nice linen closet for some great storage space.

Poppy was relieved as all the electrical wiring is now proving accurate and working fine!

We even have the shower rod installed, making us that much closer to using this new room!

We took a break last weekend to go help out and babysit our three adorable grand daughters for Mike and Amanda. They had a weekend get-away and we stayed Friday and Saturday nights with the girls. Whew, that was exhausting!

Here Poppy models the neat beads Libbers strung for him to wear. How charming! At 4 and a half she is really growing up!

Here I am loving on all three of them! Kate loves her thumb and is fully entrenched in the "terrible 2's" giving us all a run for our money with patience. She is a loving, adorable little gal though and this too shall pass.

Little Jillian was where we saw the biggest growth. She is now 8 months old and can get anywhere she wants as quickly as ever. A happier baby I have never seen and she is the greatest little sleeper! Even plagued by serious teething and fever, she was a joy to be with. Can't wait to get them all up here to Loon Lake Lodge to stay in their newly finished rooms.

After a snafu with the paint tinting, we finally got our master bedroom painted completely. After doing two walls, Poppy went for a 3rd gallon of the "lunar eclipse" color we had chosen. The new gallon was not tinted at all the same and we had to end up repainting the entire room with the correct color. We love the finished color and he now has the windows trimmed out and I have done my simple little task of putting the cover plates on plugs and switches. Before we relinquished the borrowed scaffolding we got the new ceiling fan hung on Tues. evening. It IS coming together.

Today while I slept, Poppy worked on trimming out more windows and putting on baseboards. Then, after I woke up, we set the first door. It is exciting to know we will actually have bedrooms that can be closed off for privacy.

Above is from the hallway view.

Here you see the beautiful paint color and finished dormer window, as well as the newly hung door. YEAH! Progress with a CAPITAL P!!

A Night with a Legend

You may have read in last night's post that we were unable to see Willie Nelson when we were visiting our daughter because of the weather. Well, tonight we got the job done! Along with six other Loonies, we took off for the big city, a wonderful dinner and a night with a legend.

Here we are after a yummy dinner with lively conversation over food and drink with good friends. Carol, Marlene, Patty, Walt, Chris & Tim, as well as Poppy and myself.

Then it was on downtown to the historic theater to await the concert. As you can see, Carol and Mar were right in fashion with their hats and "Willie" outfits. Mar's kelly green hat actually had lights with the flip of a switch and fuzzy trim around the brim. We could not lose her in the crowd.

Hopefully you can appreciate some of the intricate design and detail in this beautiful historic theater venue. The stage sat awaiting the arrival of our anticipated star. No one could quite imagine the sound Willie could get from that worn out old guitar that stood waiting silently to be secured around his neck with his trusty red,white and blue macrame strap.

He came out in the black hat and started out a bit slow, but before long was in the typical rare Willie form, belting out song after song for a solid 90 minutes non-stop. Although photography was prohibited, Poppy got a few shots from our vantage point in the forth row of the front balcony, perfect seats right in the center of the theater.

He did eventually trade in the black hat for his trademark bandanna, three of which he took off and threw to the crowd in the front row. At the end of the concert he went along and shook hands the entire length of the stage with eager, appreciative fans.

We did notice he seems a bit heavier than in the past, but still able to wow the crowds only as Willie can. Here he is walking off the stage before the house lights came up. A legend in his own right for sure. We were just sorry Shell and Richard could not be here to enjoy it with us.

By the time we had exited the theater and were heading towards the parking garage, here came Willie's bus around the corner and down the street, all to the cheers of fans walking away quite satisfied.

No, we have not fallen off the earth!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted anything on here! It isn't that the winter has been that busy, just haven't been too motivated to sit down and add progress. At times it seemed progress was just creeping along and it was just a bit frustrating coupled with the dead of a nasty winter keeping us inside so much. Let's see, I left off with New Years, so what kept us going the month of January? We muddled through lots of snow and very cold temps. We continued to hang drywall until we finally had it all up. Poppy got the full bath upstairs and the half bath downstairs, as well as the utility room drywall all taped and mudded, finishing it himself. Then, we finally found a guy who gave us a great quote to come in and finish all the rest! This was very encouraging. The last week of January we flew to Florida, where we helped pack up much of my mom's condo of things she wanted back here in her apartment. The weather wasn't too bad and we enjoyed a little reprieve from winter. She flew back home and we took off the last Friday in January driving her van home loaded to the hilt with lots of stuff. We took a slight detour to go visit Shell & Richard in NC. We drove 12 hours that day and drove right into the "triple threat" as the weather channel called it. The area was being blanketed with snow and ice, as well as wind. We were lucky to even get their home, which is up half way on a mountain highway.

Here you see us the next day driving back towards their place after lunch out for Shell's birthday. There are two good sized hills on this mountain road and they have NO idea what to do with the snow on the roads and have doubly NO idea how to drive on it. Cars littered the roadsides because when they encounter the hills, they STOP at the bottom, allowing no momentum to get up to the top! We had no problem other than the local drivers. Poppy used his typical expertise in driving abilities and we had no problems, but there were quite a few "close calls" and tense moments. It was beautiful once the snow stopped and the sun came out and we had a wonderful visit with the kids, although way too short. We had been scheduled to go see Willie Nelson on Saturday night, but the concert was canceled due to weather, a big disappointment.

This photo shows the hills, which the day before were totally covered with snow and ice...and creeping southerners who can't drive in it!

Once home we geared up to host a Super Bowl party a week later. It was fun, especially watching every one's reaction to the Who's half-time show. You can see above how Carol, a favorite neighbor friend really got into the music! We were disappointed that our Colts did not play well, but it was a great excuse for another party!

The greatest part of February was having Mike come in and finish the drywall. He spent long days taping and mudding all the seams and screw holes. He made it all look so easy and we could quickly tell he was a pro. Poppy picked up quite a few tips that he now uses when finishing drywall. It took three weeks, but there were a few days of heavy snow when he could not come. But, eventually had had it all ready for the Spanish lace ceiling texture. This was quite a process.

In order to protect all the walls from the over-spray, he draped plastic throughout the area where ceilings would be sprayed. This took him one entire day! Looks really funny when he left, sort of like living with the "boy in the plastic bubble" affect.

It took him two days to complete all of this process and each day he left looking like a spotted creature. Here you see him spraying the master bedroom ceiling. This sloppy drywall mud mixture sprayed on to the ceiling and EVERYWHERE else.

When he realized I was taking his photo he stopped long enough to smile and pose. If anyone needs a great drywall man, we can give you Mike's number!

Once he had sprayed on the mud, then he used a big squeegee to knock it down and create the texture. Here he was in the utility room the 2nd day, the last area he had to do. Once he sprayed it he left it sit for a little while. I could hear it "plopping" on the floor and top of covered washer/dryer like big glops. I did not dare enter that room or I would have been covered too.

Mid-February our wonderful neighbors had their annual Caribbean Party one Sat. night. They turned up the heat to high 70's and had island decorations and told all of us to come dressed for the warm "weather." It was a blast as usual and here you see Poppy with Tom & Kent enjoying the freedom of their shorts.

We enjoyed lots of euchre, great food and pina coladas. But, there was not a lot of time for playing and relaxing. Soon it was our turn to get in the new section and resume our progress.

Here was Poppy about a week ago as we began priming the new drywall. We were blessed by some friends who loaned us great scaffolding. Add the 18" roller he bought, it made fairly quick work out of a huge job.

After an entire Friday of painting ceilings, here you see the affect it had on Poppy. Not only his face, but his hands and clothes were covered with paint spots. But, it was a very satisfying evening to see all the progress that was made.

By the end of the weekend, we had all the walls done too. Here he comes downstairs to take a much needed break.

Now we just need to decide on paint colors for all the walls so we can do it all over again with the finish colors. That means we will be setting the scaffolding up one more time in the stairwell for that final coat. Did I mention the ceilings have one coat of primer, then the ceiling white, so he has done them two times! Can you imagine what a pooped Poppy I had on my hands after all of this work? Plus, I do not do much painting. I did help a bit the first day, but after that I was simply the "go for" which has always been my expertise. Now, this weekend he made HUGE progress. Yesterday while I slept all day (me weekend to work 3rd shift) he got the upstairs bath painted the final color! It looks so nice!

Today we hung the light above the vanity and are now ready to find the perfect mirror.

He also got the shower rod up. Things are going to actually be usable!! He has installed the smoke detectors, put trim rings in the can lights and duct grids on the registers and cold air returns of the upstairs ceiling. We will get to laying the Pergo floor in this bathroom soon and it will be about done. It is all so exciting.

One last photo I had to share tonight. We have battled this pesky squirrel all winter as he tried to steal the bird seed from both our feeders. We did everything to prevent him from accessing the feeders. He would even climb the nearby tree, go out on the longest limb and jump on to the top of the other feeder to get his fill. We did a lot of shooing him off when we found him there. But, the other day when all our snow had about melted off I figured he would be back to digging up his nuts in the ground. But, no, he had other ideas. He climbed up the shepherd hook and hung over from the top to pry the seeds out of the little holes in this feeder. What a crazy, hungry and persistent squirrel we have. Yes, winter is about over here on Loon Lake. We had a very early ice off and water is again flowing, bringing the return of the water fowl that we enjoy so much this time of year. We are eagerly awaiting the first sighting of a loon or two. In the mean time, we will continue to finish the new space and plan for changes here in the existing part of the house. Will we ever, ever be totally done??