Repairing the kitchen wall

Remember this post about tearing apart the kitchen wall?

Well, our buddy Coop came and helped us to put a header in so it will look like the opening from the dining room to the kitchen.


Jeff started to saw open the wall to make room for the new header .... and there went the dust ... UGGGGGGH! I totally thought I was done with the dust of this. Grrrrrrrrrrr........



Check this action out!!!!!!!


Oh ... but look at where things were placed on our dining room table ....


Initially, I had hoped to have the dining room painted, but we'll just have to settle for having corners on the opening and it mudded.

So let's see the progress








I still need to do a few more coats of mudding and sanding, but it's SO much more livable now! :)

Wine Tour III

Last stop: Smoky Hill Vineyard + Winery here in Salina. :)


They have tasting all the time, so people who come to visit me, we'll go here!!!!


I think the lady told us one vine of grapes makes between 5-8 bottles of wine. Yummie! I even hear they have volunteers pick grapes, so if you're interested, lemme know! :)








Afterwards, we came back to the house and chilled. The hammock swing in the backyard is a popular spot!

Wine Tour II

We next headed to the Vin Vivante Winery in Wamego. The place was OK. They had one really good wine, the Party Line. But we only were able to sample 3 wines, so we didn't get a full feel for what they offer. Since it's just down the street, if you're in town, stop there, but don't make a special trip to go to this place.


They had a really humorous line of wine, though!


Next stop: the place on I-70!


They had 51 wines, and allowed each guest to sample 5. But we did a lot of passing glasses around, so we all had a taste of many different wines here!


Back: me, Jennifer, Kristine, Mary
Front: Cecelia, Susie, Jackie, Robin

NOTE: You need to order wine online from Vin Vivante, but you can pick up Field of Fair in many wine stores around Kansas.

Wine Tour I

Well, last week, we girls had a party. It was to celebrate the upcoming wedding of our friend, Kristine, but let's be real: I've been looking for an excuse to have a winery/wine tasting road trip for quite some time.

We started out at the Oz Winery in Wamego:


Believe me, this place is WORTH the drive!!!!!!!!!!


See these? The person there told me they ordered these online .... and now I have a vision for our storage room in the basement. I think it could be a wine cellar! ;)




I LOVED the clever names for some of these wines!


A bottle of this Yellow Brick Road came home with me!


Some people didn't get the name until I started singing the song the flying monkies sang in the actual movie. :)


Detail shot.


Robin, Kristine and Mary.


Which witch am I? ;)


Um, I thought everyone else would be "swigging" out of their bottles too. Evidently not and I'm the only one who looks like a wine-O in this photo!

This tour included 4 wineries, and I'm going to break it up into several posts so they don't get too long!

NOTE: beginning July 1, wineries can now ship wine within Kansas. There are discounts for cases of wine, and since you can't get Oz wine anywhere BUT their winery, lemme know if you're interested in splitting an order/shipping!

# 99 — Build a patio with the limestone; eat a dinner al fresco.

...... CHEEEEEEEEEECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is probably the item on my 101 in 1001 list I've been looking forward to the most .... well, aside from marrying Erik of course!

BEFORE:


AFTER:



Now, in case you are wondering why the heck I put some lattice up, it's to hide the stuff circled in red:


I plan to continue improvements, and eventually hang some gutter gardens there as well. I'll keep ya posted!

One of Erik's constant comments about the space was "the air conditioner is loud" .... which I do not deny .... but if it's spring or fall and we have the windows open ... it won't matter. I just wanted to high that unsightly group of stuuuuuuff.


And yes, the night we finishesd it, we ate dinner outside. :)

We have since added a new table and have been waiting for cooler weather to enjoy more dinners outside!

I'll also be moving the rain barrels onto the space ... and we'll just see how this evolves.

# 88 — Put the odometer on my bicycle

.... CHEEEEEEECK!


I actually installed it in June, but didn't have a photo to go with this post until today. What a slacker!

The benefit (to me) of having this on my bike is now I know how far I've biked. I love to just putz around and see what's going on around town. But now I know exactly how far I've ridden. :)

About 6 weeks left of this 101 in 1001 project!

Note: The dust on the previous post is from construction! Our house isn't normally that dusty/dirty.

It starts NOW!

Ok, so #92 of my 101 in 1001 list started Saturday: 92. Keep the dining room table clutter free (i.e. no Karen piles) for one month.

The dining room table is home to ... well ... my piles. I'm a piler. So is Erik. We organize things in piles. Around the house. On the bedroom floor. On the dining room table. It's just our nature. But I have to admit my dining room table piling can get out of control, so I decided to put it on the list.

After our kitchen project, you can see where my piles live:



So, if it started Saturday, then it's over Sept. 19. I think I can do it! And hopefully it will give me a new habit of not piling my junk on the table!

Cuzzzzzzins

As you can see, I'm beginning to catch up on blogging. :)


A few weeks ago, we got together in western Kansas to celebrate Grandpa John's b-day. When we were there, we were able to see cousin Jen + her cute little boy, J-Bob. Errrrr ... Jackson. :)

Laundry line = $$$$ savings?

Last year, our July energy consumption was 31.6 KWH/day.

This year, it was 23.1 KWH/day.


Could our laundry line have something to do with it? I don't see why not! Although Erik is quick to point out it's cooler this year than it was last year .... so I concede that point, but to reduce our energy use by about 25% is fantastic!

I was reading in Real Simple magazine that a laundry line can save an average of $10 a month. Now, this is based on a family doing 7 loads of laundry/week. I'd bet we do about half of that .... so our savings is less. I'm guessing it will take us 2.5 years to break even with this laundry line, but I have to admit I'm happy to live in a house with one of these (again).

Patio Process V

Remember when I talked about installing a new window well?

Basically, since we were tearing apart the entire area and knew at some point we'd want access to under the addition of our house, we decided to exchange the old one for something more appropriate in size.




Yeah, this new one is huge ... but now we can open the access window. :)


Tool items acquired during this project:
- a pry bar
- a drill bit that goes through cement (cool stuff!!!!)

I have to hand it to Erik, he did all of the heavy lifting on this one .. he was the muscle behind the replacement ... thanks honey! :)

AAAAAAAAAAND, yes the patio is finally DONE! But ... I have a ton of cleaning to do and so those of you who will be at the open house/house blessing Sunday will see it then. The rest of you will just have to hold on to your shorts and wait till I have some time to blog on it. Oh I'm soooooo meeeeeeaaaaaaaan.

Patio Process IV (rockin' out)

Here we go!!!!!! It was a BIUUUUUSY weekend. But we had some awesome help to get our patio finished!!!!!

Before:


After: 6 tons of AB3 on our driveway. Oh JOY!!!!!! ;)


I owned you, AB3.


Or not ....


It was all hands on deck ... but not all paws. Esse thinks because she doesn't have opposable thumbs that she was off the hook. Booger.





It compacted down nicely, though!

Geeking out :)

When Robin and Chris' wedding album came in .... Robin wanted to fly up here and pick it up ..... but I told her NOOOOOOOOO. Amy had to see it first.


See how EXCITED she was, Robin?


Thanks for being so patient, baby sis!