Boppin' with Rachel and Matt!

More Friends arrived on Friday! Another SOS. Rachel and Matt pulled in early afternoon and within an hour were already working to help us finish the house. We are blessed for sure. By the time they left on Sunday, four important jobs were undertaken and three are finished and one off to a great start.
1. Matt and Rachel measured all of our tile and carpet square footage. Done. A huge step toward one of the last jobs we will need to do before we move in.
2. Masking and taping all the window frames so Mark and Morgan can jump in and finish the interior plaster/stucco. Done.
3. Pocket doors installed. Done.
4. Texturing the walls. Matt showed us a cool way to texture a wall and we dove in..... we call it "Boppin'" - ball up a plastic bag, get some taping compound, get some compound on the plastic bag and "bop" it on the wall..... followed by a sweep of the trowel and it looks great.

Mark told us not to focus on the little things.... just look at the big picture and all will be well. He was right. Rachel and Matt did the basement hallway, and Deb and I did the rest of the basement, came up the stairs, did the foyer, guest bedroom and the long wall in the loft. Will do more of that tomorrow. Major accomplishment and a stress release since we were worried if we were going to be able to do the work.
Hated to see Rachel and Matt leave. They are so nice and a lot of fun!
Getting late..... all for now.

SOS 2

Time to catch up on all that has happened over the past week or so. Wow, where to start.? Maybe I’ll try to just give some bullet statements for a change….
- Dick arrives from Colorado for the THIRD time to help work on the house, and we begin to work on window sills.

- Mother's Day was great. Mom "shmeared" Dick and Don in Scrabble Game!
- Can’t find the wood we want anywhere, but called Mike, our new neighbor who gives us a tip to call a friend of his. Sure enough, we can get hard maple sills at a great price.
- Drive out to a farm/sawmill. Buy raw boards, get them planed, use John Penny’s joiner to get boards in shape.
- Dick sands boards to perfection and we install sills.
- Mark and Morgan come out and start "texturing" our living area walls.
- Walls look great! More to come shortly.
- Dick and Don take the rough spruce tree post that we had milled by Mike Bridgeman to another new neighbor named Jim. Joanne Welling finds this neighbor for us so we can get the job done in a jiffy. Joanne and Rich know everyone!
- Lisa and Dick Norris come up from Portland to help (again). Dick and Dick spend all day staining our tongue and groove cedar boards, while Lisa and Debbie do endless amounts of cleaning up and go to the dump!
-Don "benites" the upper level windows using the scaffolding and gets the scene ready to install the new stairwell post.
- Kevin comes over and we remove the temporary post for the stairway and replace it with our new post that came from the spruce tree. Kevin works wonders again. Post looks great.
- Lisa and Dick drive to where Dick and I got our window sill boards and buy a beautiful mantle for their new fireplace. Dick helps out by sanding and finishing the mantle.
- Dick, Debbie and Don install the tongue and groove cedar in the ceiling of the awning in front of the front door. Then, finish the ceiling for the loft porch. Looks great!
- Photos not in order. Deb, Lisa and Dick shot reminds me of Wizard of Oz...

-Deb and I celebrate again for having such wonderful friends!

The Slot

For about six years, Deb and I have noticed that the sun sets right between Orcas and Lummi Islands on May 5. We started calling the spot between the islands the "Slot." And for about six years Don, much more than Deb, goes wild when the sun sets in the slot..... it is beautiful. So, as you might guess, we have been waiting a long time to be able to see the slot sunset from the house. Best day is May 5 but it has been cloudy and rainy so sure enough, today, May 7, we got a beauty.....

And, this is not the only reason to celebrate..... Our friend Dick, has returned for his third SOS tour of helping work on the house! Yep, although the last time he was out in October he said he wasn't coming back till the house was done, he must have felt sorry for us and came back out to help out. He will be invaluable. And it will be fun. Best of both worlds. So, enjoy the slot sunset... It will actually be back in the slot around Aug 7..... Mmmm that is the day Deb broke her back last year..... We'll have to wait on that one....

Goodnight!