Beginning of the End

This past Monday marked the beginning of the end of our den-into-laundry/weaving room remodel.  On Monday morning, a technician from the granite company came to measure for the granite countertops.  Once the granite is installed next week Monday, the room will be complete.

All of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts are installed.
We cannot wait until this long wall of cabinets is topped
with our new granite countertops.

Rick was fascinated with the measuring for the granite since the technician used a laser measuring device rather than creating a wood and paper template.  Our granite will be cut based on the laser measurements, and we are excited to see the results.  The technician showed Rick how he measured the longest stretch of countertop so that the front edge would be straight while the back edge would follow the not-so-plumb-or-straight contours of the back wall.  Since we are not going to have a backsplash on any of the countertops, having the granite fit the back wall is critical to the overall appearance of the granite.

Last Friday we picked up the two "missing" drawer fronts for that same wall of cabinets.  Thankfully, they fit well; therefore, Rick did not have any trouble installing them.  The cabinets are now complete except for the afore-mentioned countertops. And once we have the countertops in place, I can officially move my office and my sewing room into the drawers and cabinets in the room.

We are very thankful that we spent from Wednesday of the previous week until Thursday of last week visiting our home in Florida.  We found that everything was working well, and other than record-breaking heat to deal with, we accomplished all that we wanted to do during the short visit.  Those tasks included getting our HVAC system inspected and approved, starting and driving the car around since it has sat idle since May, seeing old friends, and doing a bit of pruning and weeding in the gardens.

I was very surprised to see that the vegetation is growing well.  We only lost one small podocarpus tree in the 40 or so trees and bushes that we planted, and thanks to our lawn service who sprays for weeds, our gardens needed very little weeding.

The HVAC worked well, the refrigerator, dishwasher, and laundry units all worked as I had hoped they would, and we were able to run plenty of water through the drains to keep everything functioning for a while.

Little did we know that major Hurricane Michael was slowing churning at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico just as we flew home.  I am SO happy that we missed that excitement.  Reports from our southern neighbors, thankfully, reveal that Dunedin was spared from the worst of the storm.  We apparently received lots of rain and wind; however, nothing was strong enough to do major damage.  My heart goes out to the poor people on the Florida panhandle who received the brunt of this Category 4 hurricane.  Their lives have been totally disrupted with months if not years of rebuilding ahead of them.

Back here in Wisconsin, we have spent the week preparing for winter.  The rain this past weekend and Monday kept us mostly indoors, so I took the opportunity to get out to the garage.  I needed to take everything off the two shelving units, to clean the shelves, and then to reorganize the items on the shelves.  The paint and cleaning supplies are now stored in the house for the winter.  A few things ended in the garbage, and other items were stowed away in the shed until next summer.  Other than almost cutting off the tip of my finger on a sharp edge (thank God my tetanus vaccine is up to date), the job went smoothly.

Rick came out to hang some ladders and to help me get rid of part of our large ladder than has resided outside for the last month.  Our neighbor agreed to take the large half of the extension ladder leaving us to just store the smaller half.  It is still large enough to get to the roof, so we do not need any more than that. In the end, we have a clean, organized garage that needs only swapping out the rakes for shovels as the seasons change for us to be ready for winter.

Our neighbor's front yard tree displays the beauty
of autumn in Wisconsin. (I just hope that the leaves
stay in her yard when they fall!)

The sun finally came out on Tuesday, so we spent the day outside getting the yard somewhat prepped for winter.  Rick cut the overgrown lawn while I cut down perennials, cleaned leaves and debris out of the window wells, and removed leaves from the gardens next to the house.  The gardens in front are not ready to be trimmed just yet, and that is fine.  Their day will come.

I washed and brought in some of the porch furniture that will spend the winter in the basement.  The pieces that remain outside are now covered and secured on the covered back porch.  The grill still has to find a home in the shed for the season, but that has to wait until Rick puts down the winter grass fertilizer and cuts the grass for the last time this season.  That all probably will happen in a couple of weeks.

We are happily amazed at how FEW leaves we have in the back yard now that our three large trees are gone.  The birch trees have not dropped their leaves yet, but when they do, that should be a fairly easy raking job.  As long as all the leaves do not blow into our yard from our neighbor's trees, we should have an easier time this year.  In the past three years, we have lost four huge trees from our yard.  As we get older, having less yard work to do is fine with me.

We finally are to the point where we can start to relax and to enjoy some of our hobbies.  Rick wants to make a bobbin winding stand and reed storage stand for the loom room.  He is happy when he has something to build, so this is the perfect project for him.  We will use our rebates from Menards to purchase some of the wood for the stand.

The first warp is on the rigid heddle loom.  Soon the large loom
will hold a warp as well.  How wonderful to have natural light
flow into our weaving space!

The end of the remodel is in sight, and we both could not be happier. I actually spent time today to write this blog and to put a warp on the rigid heddle loom.  We both want to relax, to read, and to work on our hobbies rather than working on the house all of the time.