Moving WEEKEND

What an incredible weekend. Did we ever get a lot done!
I didn't blog last night because we moved all day. We got our storage unit in Caledonia completely cleaned out.

When we got done, had eaten together, kids had all gone home, I was sitting, relaxing, the phone rang and our small group (having shown up at church for group) called asking if we were having group. We normally meet the first and third weeks of the month, this happened to be the fifth. But we said, "Come on over. We are in a mess since we just moved today, but come over and we'll visit anyway."
They did. We visited, had a nice time together.....but was too late to blog. I was too tired anyway!

We started the day meeting Dan's dad at 9:00 a.m. We drove separately....when I got to the unit Dan and his dad had already started. I felt so badly for his dad - Dan was getting boxes out of the unit and handing them to his dad who then packed them in his truck. He has an old bread truck that will hold an amazing amount of stuff!
We got all the boxes and some random other stuff in our car and van in that first load. By the time we drove it to the house, Mindi and the kids met us and helped empty it.

Dave and Gina live a mile or two from that unit, so they went over after we left and got his truck loaded. We all helped unload their truck when they arrived. It didn't take long with that many adults.

Dan and Dave drove back to the unit and met Daniel and Laina there and got the big items that were left, like the piano and cabinet...

While they were gone, a couple of us ran to the store and grabbed sandwich stuff and a few items for dinner. We were celebrating the Oct. birthdays with a Mexican dinner. We all contributed what we had on hand, then bought the few items that were missing.

The guys got back and we all helped unload the heavy stuff.
We then fixed dinner and set up a table in the pathway through the dining room.

Here are pictures of the day.















































































Today, we went to the 10:00 service....had a great sermon/worship. We came home and ate MEXICAN LEFTOVERS! We had asked all the kids to come back and help us get the second storage unit cleaned out. They all agreed to do so. The plan was to meet at our house around 1:00.

When we got out of church I checked my phone and noticed Daniel had called. I called him back and he told me he had car trouble. His car was in a bank parking lot not far from where he lives. It had thrown a tie rod - was his best guess. He called Dave and he was going to go help him. To make a long story short(er), Dave and Daniel worked ALL day on his car fixing one thing after another.

Mindi is the only one who showed up to help us move. But we got a lot out of her ;-)
She was awesome.
First though, I have to tell you what happened here!
When she got here, we decided to take the van and our car. She and I got in the car and Dan drove the van. We were starting to back out and looked over to see Dan frantically waving at us to wait. The van wouldn't start!
Well, after trying one thing after another, he pulled the cables off the battery and brushed off a bunch of corrosion and it started right up!

Off we went to the storage unit. We took three loads total....got all but a few filing cabinets, the chaise lounge, another cabinet and my sewing machine. Dave is coming over tomorrow morning to help Dan get them.

So, do you want to see what the house looks like now that all our stuff is here? We have paths everywhere! It's pretty funny. We tried to keep the family and living rooms fairly empty and just keep furniture in there. So the boxes are lined up in the dining room, entryway, landing and stairs....


















One spot in the house that doesn't have boxes or other stuff stacked in it, besides our bedroom - NO boxes allowed!




Well, our hours at the store have now been changed to Christmas season hours. I have to start an hour earlier - so I'm off!

Good Night!

Family and Living Rooms Carpeted

Tonight, let's let the pictures do the storytelling....and thanks to Hank for most of the pictures.

The carpet installers arrived a little ahead of schedule and we were at Menard's (surprise, surprise!) getting flooring for the laundry/bathroom. While we were gone, Hank got them started then took the pictures you see of them.
He had stayed at the house while we ran to Menard's and was doing leaves for us!
You all should have a Hank!













Watching someone else work!!






In our newly carpeted family room!






As soon as the carpeters left, we started putting up trim.





Whatchya think?






I think I'll sit down and enjoy it for a second...





Hmmmmmm....looks like more to be done.







Yep, Dan's already at it...putting up the blinds in the dining room window.









Then we had to run to the laundromat....no time this weekend to do wash, and the laundry room isn't quite up and running.

Tomorrow, we meet Dan's dad first thing and start getting stuff out of storage.
He has a very unique truck he is bringing to help move stuff. I'll try to remember to take pictures for tomorrow's blog.
We start with the storage unit in Caledonia, then Ionia.

The kids are all helping at different intervals throughout the day, and also Dan's brother Ben.
Then we are having an early dinner together - it was to celebrate our October birthdays - then we realized the dates and asked them to help us move. Some celebration, huh? They are awesome kids and are being flexible/helpful.

Gotta get up early, so talk tomorrow!

Harvest Festival

Oh, my goodness. We are two aching units over here!

We just got home from being down on Main St. for the Harvest Festival.
They closed down Main St. around noon and carnival games were set up, a stage was set up almost at the intersection of Main and 66. All the businesses were open and handing out candy.
We volunteered to do carnival games.
Maybe not the best choice for those of us in the over 50 category!

Dan got the Putt Putt game and I got the Tic Tac Toe. Ok, on both of those, guess what you are doing the WHOLE TIME YOU ARE THERE??!! Retrieving golf balls or bean bags. I feel like I've just done an extra long and difficult workout!

We had to man our stations for about 2 hours. When each kid (or adult) came up you gave them a chance to play and whether they were successful or not, they got candy. You should have seen the tub of candy each booth started out with! Incredible. We must have handed out 20lbs. of candy per booth.

At 6:00 we stopped doing games and everyone headed to the stage area. The Conquerors Power Team performed. They are body builders that do stuff like bend skillets, tear phone books, break blocks with their arms, hands, heads, break baseball bats, blow up hot water bottles until they pop.....all kinds of crazy feats. Then they give their testimony.

Tonight didn't start out too cold, but as the evening wore on, temperatures started to fall. By the time the Power Team was wrapping up it started to drizzle a little bit. We yelled, hollered and whistled so much our throats are all gravelly. Can just imagine what we'll sound like tomorrow!


#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#


Before we went to the Festival, we worked on the living room.
Before starting that, Mindi called and asked if Jaz could hang out with us while she did her shopping. (Jaz didn't want to go grocery shopping) So she played on the computer while we painted and 'mudded'. She also played photographer while we worked. She is pretty good at it!









While I broke out the primer and rollers and brushes, Dan spent some time on the phone. A bunch of shingles blew off the roof during the hurricane force winds we had the last couple of days, and he called the insurance company to see if it was covered. Fortunately it is, so he then spent more time talking to a roofer.

The roofer sent someone over while we were at the festival to put a tarp over the exposed areas. Not sure yet when they'll be back to fix it, or reroof it.


Meanwhile, here is what I did...starting with the primer.








The drywall dust from sanding in the living room was driving Dan crazy, so he busted out the shop vac and started sweeping around me.








The paint begins to go up!!




Before Mindi came back I called her to see if she'd stop and get Dan and I some coke from one of the fast food places she's pass. She willingly agreed to do so and brought each of us a large coke. Very nice, right?
Well, after she left, I got back up on the scaffold and continued to paint.
I put my coke on the scaffolding with me so I could drink without getting down.
When I needed to move, I simply rocked the scaffolding in the direction I wanted to go...it moves fairly easily.

You know where this is going, don't you?!

Yeah, well, I forgot the coke was on the thing with me and I started rocking it back and forth, not looking behind me. I was looking ahead where I wanted to go. Dan heard or saw what I was doing and asked if I wanted his help. I said no, I was doing fine. He started over towards me about the time I got some speed up, suddenly, and guess where the coke went?! Yeah, down. But not without a nice big splash! He kinda freaked out, I jumped down and grabbed a towel and sopped it up.

He still had a full one, so no problem, right?!

I went back to work and finished the primer then looked around at how it had changed the room. It was impressive. Then I noticed a brown spot at the ceiling over by the far window and exclaimed, "What is on the wall?" When I went over to it, it became abundantly clear what it was - COKE! We started looking around and coke had hit the ceiling in several places. None on the walls, just the ceiling! How does that happen?!


Here's the nice big spot the Coke left!





I didn't take any pictures of the spotted ceiling - I'm hoping Dan forgets that.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the yellow going up.











Want to know why we are painting the ceiling yellow like the walls?
We want to do a coffered ceiling and in our research on how to do it, saw the idea of painting the ceiling the same as the walls so the wood on the 'coffers' stands out. Like the pictures here:









Aren't those beautiful ceilings?!


Here is the room, now fully painted (YELLOW)







Almost looks like two different colors, doesn't it?

While I painted, Dan also worked on mudding the large space between the living room and entryway. Then he hung drywall around the front door and under the stairs.









Tomorrow the carpet installers are scheduled to be here around 2:30.
It's going to start feeling like a home instead of a construction zone around here! It's going to be awesome!
Then, Saturday the kids have all said they'd help us get the stuff out of our Caledonia storage unit.

Carpet?
Furniture?
You mean like a real house?
It's gonna be like Christmas around here this weekend!

Now taking these aching bones to a warmer place - I have no living room furniture, the dining room chairs are far too hard, so off to bed I go!