Temporary Kitchen

Gradually more and more of the kitchen moved from the inadequate RV to the house structure. For one thing the heat was too intense in the RV to cook any meal, and for another the counterspace in the RV was too tiny to prep family meals. Up at the house, we were running crockpots on heavy-duty extension cords and had set up a pantry of sorts. It was nice to work in the coolness of the house, but we still had a lot of leg-work as at this time I was washing ALL the dishes down at the RV. We made quite a parade after dinner, carrying all the pots, pans, bowls, dishes, cups, down the path. 

 Sometimes the meal was carried down to the RV, but sometimes we just ate on the porch, as the work table in the dining room had been moved away for other uses. 

"And why," you may ask, "didn't you just get take-out?" 

I still ask that question of myself... 

Speaking of the porch, I found this photo of how the boys managed to cut and fit the insulation around the porch rafters. It was somewhat like a puzzle but they made up their own system of which piece went where!

All in a couple of days work

 

Before the big smoky fire years shut us in, August was typically a month of progress for our house-building.

Note the shingles in the peak, top right. My husband and I both loved the look of shingled houses and thought a touch of it under the roofline was just right. 

While that was going on outside, WALLS were appearing inside!

Inside the house, any wall that was going to be laden with shelving and storage was covered in plywood before it was sheetrocked. This is the "mud room" wall that will someday have a beautiful cubby system on it. That is, if it doesn't get repurposed before then. 

The plywood on the laundry room wall made the living room (er, garage/shop room) look like a real room. 

Views changed. 

This was my beloved "library corner" with floor to ceiling shelving and a cute table in front of the windows, but we discovered some mistakes (sigh). First of all, going from 2-gang to 3-gang windows messed up the amount of space we could use for bookshelves. Secondly, note the round "boxes" for lights... they were 4" too close to the wall. We actually did not discover that until light fixtures were put in. The wall could have been scooted back 4" into the master bedroom, but if we had a discussion about that (can't remember) for some reason nothing happened. Note also that this is a wall with strong south-eastern light (not good for book spines). All this and yet there is still hope for a bookshelf of sorts there someday. I'm thinking maybe a map on the wall and short shelves underneath. Hard to face the facts sometimes isn't it?

Master walk-in-closet wall. Someday I will have to share our design for this space. 

Things look a little darker don't they?

Shingles almost done!

Maybe a storm on the horizon. Towards sunset in summertime we are in the shadow of the mountain to the northwest of us, but the valley is full of slanting evening light. 

A Quick Aside: A (non construction) "Kitchen" Renovation

 I recently found in my construction photos some pics of this little kitchen set (I can't remember if I blogged it already or not). Some of you like thrift store stories so here is one for you! It will be a nice break from construction posts!

I was in the Willamette Valley (probably escaping smoke) for a visit one summer during the house-build, and while I was there my mother found this well-loved Pottery Barn kitchen set at Goodwill. She asked me if I thought she ought to get it... what a question! With all her discounts and coupons it was too much of a deal to pass up, it was solid wood and PINK! We would never be able to afford a Pottery Barn Kids set new (actually, we will probably never be able to buy any Pottery Barn furniture for that matter). This was our chance! We went by the family motto: buy it now to save money and ask where you're going to put it later. 

The sponge-bob style stickers would not come off no matter how hard we scrubbed, and it was missing some curtains and knobs. So, armed with Dollar Store decals and some fancy drawer pulls, we renovated this set and it turned out so CUTE!

It probably needed some touch-up paint but actually the Pottery Barn paint job was so smooth, we might have messed it up with brush strokes. It fits in with "shabby chic" to have a few rubbed-out spots. 

The missing knobs were replaced with fancy drawer pulls, probably from Hobby Lobby. 

Sponge-Bob stickers were overcome with roses. 

 This wee kitchen coordinates with my mom's house and currently lives in her dining room. It gets a lot of use from even the boy grandchildren. 

Back at home, there was a huge, expensive, seemingly un-ending un-finished project called  housebuilding looming over my family's head all the time. A little quickie project like this, affordable and with smashing results, is what I needed to feel like goals really were attainable.

Hope you enjoyed that little aside! Back to construction next post!

Three Stories Up

Sometimes you have to be brave and go out and take a picture of what you really don't want to see.

But he hasn't fallen off yet. The foam insulation was all up on wall #2! That meant siding would follow soon after. 

Temporary footholds on the roof. Note the window trim was already going up!

We used a PVC trim for the fancy stuff (deep trim). The siding and trim on this one side of the house were up in about 2 weeks or so. That is with a DIY-er with a crew of teens working nights and weekends (all I did was provide clean laundry, meals, and watermelon breaks). 

But it was July, the thunder-stormy season, and it doesn't really feel good to be up on a metal ladder or scaffolding when lightning starts flashing in the distance. 

Sometimes we just quit work and sat out to watch the light show. Maybe it would bring rain our way. 

(did I mention before that most of the time rain gets "stuck" on that butte across the way?)