Rebuilt Fireplace

The original fireplace was built out of a steel box. The box had rusted though. We had two choices, wall up the fireplace and use a gas fireplace, or rebuild the firebox in the fireplace. The mason finished rebuilding the fireplace last week and it looks great.

Floors installed in kitchen.

I have completed the installation of the hardwood floors in the kitchen. I just need to complete the floors in the big room.

Still working on hardwood floors.

Here is Will helping Grandpa install the wood floors.


I hope to get the kitchen done by the end of this weekend
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Testing the new floors.

Will stopped in this morning to visit for the day. He tried his wagon on the new floors, and the floors and the wagon worked well together. I still have about 40 bundles of hardwood flooring to install, some of the bundles will go into the old section of the house. Dick would like to have the kitchen completed so he can finish with the cabinets. I think I'm a little ahead of Dick, but not much.

Front Entrance

The front entrance and walkway are done. We also have grass planted in the front and side yards. Before this work was done we would get water in the new basement where the new basement joins the old basement. After the grading was completed, we did not get any water in the basement during the last big rainstorm (8 inches of rain).

We still need to clean up the side yard, and the lake side of the house.

Bathroom vanity.

The work has started on the bathroom vanity. The inside of the vanity has been primed and will be painted a light yellow color. The front of the vanity will have white oak doors and drawers, and we still need to pick a counter. Dick wanted a two sink vanity with a window between the sinks. Linda wanted a single sink, so Dick put in two windows around a single sink. The vanity will have draws on either side of the sink. Linda will get a set of draws and I'll get a set (I may only get one). Dick has started a build-in a cabinet over the sink. The outlet below the sink will be used to power a pump to circulate the hot water. The hot water heater is at the other end of the house in the old basement. The pump moves the hot water into the cold water pipe when the hot water cools. This is supposed to stop you from wasting water waiting for the shower to heat up.

Getting a new walk.

The husband of one of Linda's friends at work is a landscape designer. We had him come in to clean up the front yard. We are getting a brick front walk. He will also do work on the lake side of the house, but we have too much mud to do any work for a while.

The kitchen is taking shape.

Dick started to build the kitchen cabinets. Dick would like Linda to get a refrigerator. He needs the measurements for the refrigerator to build the cabinets, and if we get the refrigerator then the measurements will not change.

Ongoing fireplace story.

If you recall, a while back, we discovered that the metal box that created our fireplace was bad. The plan at that point (plan "B" ) was to get a gas fireplace insert. Today the mason came over and said that he could rebuild the fireplace. The mason removed the old metal box, and has started to rebuild the fireplace. This picture shows the fireplace with a view into the new kitchen. The only problem we have run into is the cold breeze that comes into the TV room from the unheated addition.

Art in the garage.

We have art in our garage. Linda will not let me hang this picture in the house. It looks really good here.

Finishing off the siding on the addition.

Dick has been finishing off the siding on the addition. He installed board and batten on the basement walls. The siding will be stained to that it will fade from view. Next the inside of the house. 

Looks like the garage is almost done.

Dick added the molding on the inside of the garage. All that is needed to complete the garage is the electric, garage doors and a door knob on the storage space.

Dick thinks we should hang paintings in the garage.

The Vacuum is in the boat cave.

I installed the central vac in the boat cave. The exhaust is out the side of the house through the foundation. Currently the vac is plugged into an outlet outside of the boat cave, because there is no power in the cave.
The next thing to install in the cave will be compressed air for the garage and workshop.

The Breakfast Table.

On Sunday, the breakfast table from the big house arrived. This table is temporally living in the three season's porch. The table will go to Laurens new condo some time in May, but it looks really good on the porch for now.