Homestead Vision

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. -- Jonathan Swift

We moved out of our apartment April 30th and are now staying in our friends' condo until our house is habitable. We're very appreciative of their hospitality and the view from their deck. . .

Finally, warm weather has arrived. Dennis took me to one of my favorite breakfast places for Mother's Day, the Meadow Mt Cafe in Allenspark. . .

Meadow Mt Cafe, the inspiration for the cafe in my novel, is a true neighborhood gathering place, where the patrons help serve coffee when the place gets busy. The food is great and the atmosphere is pure mountain rustic. 


My son called me in the afternoon for a nice, long chat, which made my Mother's Day perfect.


Work on our homestead continues. Although two weeks have passed since I last blogged about our home remodeling project, with all that's been going on in the world I doubt that anyone has really noticed. 


When last I posted, we had just demolished the bathroom walls. After that, Dennis took out the floor and began reframing. . . 

You can see the water heater in the back of the crawl space. More about that later.

We're holding off on the inspection and subsequent drywalling until we have more work done.


We've hired our friend Will to help us with the project. He climbed up on the roof and took down the useless chimney. . .

and helped Dennis frame and put down a new floor in the bathroom. . .

remove the north mudroom wall. . .

and put a new floor over the stairwell. . .

The stairwell leads to a very tiny basement that houses the water heater. We decided we needed storage space on the ground floor more than we needed a teeny basement, so we're eliminating the stairwell. Our new washer and dryer will be stacked on the left side in the photo, with a closet on the right. A small aisle will separate the two spaces. 


Today the plumbers are cutting the concrete wall between the crawl space and the basement to provide access to the water heater.


I cleaned the ceiling and painted the accent wall in the living room. . .

The color, Benjamin Moore Sedona Clay, reminds me of some of the red rocks I see between here and the front range. 


Most days we leave our homestead exhausted, but the vision of our completed home, along with a good night's rest, keeps our spirits up.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. -- Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) 

Nancy

Snow's Not the Only Thing that's Coming Down

The last two days we've awakened to snow-covered trees. . .

I just keep reminding myself that all this moisture makes for beautiful wildflowers.


This morning, in the lumber store, one of the clerks asked, "How's the project coming along?" (She was referring to our work on the homestead.) I answered, "Well. . .it's almost like building a new home." 


We've accomplished a lot this past week. I patched the paneling in the bedroom and living room, and put a coat of primer on the bedroom walls. Already the room looks brighter. . .

Dennis pulled all the lathe off the kitchen walls and added some supports for the over-the-range microwave. . .

The electricians put new outlets in the kitchen and living/dining room. Tomorrow we should have an inspection and then Dennis will install the drywall. 


Today we worked on the bathroom demo. All this debris . . .

came from this. . .

That photo was taken from the mudroom, which will become a sunroom. We'll have access to the bathroom from the bedroom and the sunroom. Behind the ladder is the wall to the bedroom closet, which will become the shower.

Yesterday we celebrated the Lord's resurrection. During the service we sang a song called "Creation Calls". It's such a beautiful tribute to the Lord and amazing message, that I wanted to share it here. . .

Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.

And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.

(Mark 16:5-6 NIV)

Nancy

We're Floored!

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them. -- Erma Bombeck

One thing's for sure, there will be no white carpet in our new home. In fact, there will be no carpet at all; just area rugs here and there. Our floor guy finished the refinishing on Wednesday. After he started working on the wood, he discovered it's not fir after all. It's all southern yellow pine, also known as heart pine, which according to him is a rare find here in Estes Park. I'm pretty happy with the way the floors turned out . . .

His team finished up on Wednesday, and on Thursday we placed Ram Board over the floors to protect them during the rest of the remodeling. . .

Ram Board is a heavy duty non-corrugated breathable fiber that allows the flooring to cure while protected. It took us about four hours to roll it out and tape it down over the three rooms: kitchen, living room/dining room and bedroom. It's worth the effort, though, when we consider the expense of refinishing the floors. And it's reusable.


Notice the ugly paneling? I'll start painting it this week. I'm looking forward to covering up those very unattractive walls.

A big snowstorm came through Wednesday night, with snow continuing through most of Thursday morning. I took this photo from the north window of our living room. . .

I love the way the snow covered the pines and the corral. It was beautiful. And the best thing about living here when it snows like this, is that within a day or two it's mostly gone. I snapped this photo yesterday (Saturday) of an elk in our yard. . .

We're waiting for the electrician to place the outlets in the kitchen, then Dennis will cover the walls and ceiling with drywall. That should happen sometime next week. 


In the meantime, he's begun the demo work on the porch. . .

Eventually this will accommodate a larger bathroom. 


I really appreciate my husband's hard work. The first meal I cook in our new kitchen is going to be whatever he wants.


But remember the root command: Love one another. (John 15:17 The Message)

Nancy