Raise High The Roofbeams

 

Pa loaded up his truck with just a little bit of the accumulated yard waste and took it to
the compost place.  He said it was fun.  Hmm.

One of the other piles might disappear if we leave it long enough.

Wednesday was clear enough to see Victoria and a small local cruise ship from our front porch.

This is how the living room ceiling looked this morning before I went to town with my errand list.
I'm standing at the edge of the kitchen.

 

This is how it looked when I returned.  Now it follows the line of the roof and makes the room feel much bigger.  Do you like any of the paint choices?  I'm very undecided so just keep buying more of the little sample jars.  I might have enough to do the entire room in quilt-like patches.  Would any of the decorating magazines want to feature my creativity?

Too bad my photography skills aren't as good as Peter's carpentry skills.   

Slow but Steady

Peter seems to really like being up in the crawl space, which will one day be the open ceiling.  He had to go work another job for a few days so we're patiently waiting.  I see it as a good excuse to avoid dusting.  There will just be more, right?   

Here is our new raised living room ceiling.  Yes, it is.
  Just that it's in pieces on the floor, but you just wait. 

Al continues to amaze me with his delight in destruction.  Yesterday he took his beloved crowbar to the spa tub.  It's so pretty, but we've come to the conclusion that a shower is much more practical for guests.  Will you be one of them?  Be sure to make reservations, but not for a while, okay?

 

This guy can make a mess from a perfectly fine room in just a couple of hours.
  Now we will wait for the shower contractor to show up. 

The weekend was fun because on Saturday we caught a local production of  "Dearly Departed" which is all about the family dynamics surrounding a funeral.  So much funnier when you're watching someone else get through it than being in the middle of it.  Sunday was a performance of Dallas Brass at the Port Angeles High School.  How can six guys (five horns and one drum) make so much fantastic music?  And teach kids at the same time, which makes it all the more significant.
Be sure to see them if they come to your town.

 

Beware a Man with a Crowbar

This is how our fireplace looked this morning.  The blue blob is the pellet stove insert, which we like, but Mr. Fixit decided that the bricks aren't quite what he has in mind.  I think it was all just an excuse to use another power tool.  Last night he reserved some chisel thing that was going to make it easy to finish the job of stripping off the bricks in less than a day. 

Before going to town to pick up that tool, he decided to give is a whack with the crowbar.
Turns out that the bricks were pretty easy to loosen and then just lifted right out. 

Where is Arnold when you need him?

Not bad for 70, huh.  Do you vision the same brick pizza oven that has been spinning in his head for a few years?  Now he has the bricks to recycle and a place to build it. 

The pellet stove does come out after all.

 

Lovely, isn't it?

Two guys and two hours later.
  So now we face another dilemma on how to refinish it.
  I hate that part.  Maybe the HGTV rescue squad will come screeching around the corner, lights flashing, sirens blaring, rush to the door with plans in hand, and save us from the dreaded
research and decision process.

Maybe chocolate will relieve the pressure.

Never leave a man alone with a reciprocating saw

How different this is from the suit and tie Full Petri look we used to know.

There goes the ceiling.

This morning we made our first trip to the big dump.  They were very kind to us and we were glad to get rid of 640 pounds of wallboard.

This is the insulation that came out of the ceiling.  Obviously, the carpet was pulled out and rolled up before this project began.  The camera and I stay safely behind the plastic curtain, but the little dust is everywhere.  Everywhere.  Did you get any of it there?

So the ceiling will be opened up to the roof (with proper finishing and new insulation, of course) because Al has visions of a mini vault.  That's really all we need, a mini vault.  

It's kind of clear over the water today.  At the bottom is the neighbor's roof, then that little strip of land is the Dungeness Spit, which, at 5 miles, is the largest natural sand hook in the nation.
On the other side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca is Canada.
I'm pretty sure some of the dust settled there.  

Caution - Men Working

Yesterday we went to Seattle - to drop Homer off at the shop to repair the Alaska ferry damage,
and to drop Gary and Helen at the airport.  The big airport.
  Mount Rainier was in a showy and proud Look At Me mood.

You might have known that food would be involved when we met Bob and Laurel at Bahama Breeze for Happy Hour.  But of course every hour with them is happy. 

Not white but worthy of a castle.

 

We could have driven the long way around but chose to enjoy sunset from the deck of a ferry. 

This morning Al decided to attack the trees on the right side of our acre. 

This is how it looked before.

Peter brought his own toys to get in on the fun.

Doesn't this look like a Darwin Award just waiting to happen?

 

Such skill involved that they managed to avoid hitting the house and aimed the tree to perfectly straddle the flag pole.  Makes you want to hire these guys, doesn't it?    They are very expensive.

 

Now we'll have a better view of the sunset, even though right now it's a better view of the fog hanging over the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  The remaining trees will have room to grow big and strong, but it's going to be several days of cutting all those branches and trees into manageable sections.
  Gee, too bad that I have so much work to do indoors.  Shucks.    

Dazzled

So here's what happened.  I thought I posted this on Monday for your enjoyment, but seems to have been sitting in the draft folder all this time.  Apparently it just wasn't quite ready for public viewing.  So I'll try it again.

Above is the Sequim airport, where Gary and Helen arrived on Sunday for some playtime.
Do you want to buy a lot for an airport home? 

George, their pilot, was very proud of his plane and who can blame him? 

Welcome!

Monday we went to view the Hurrican Ridge from yet another National Park.

 

How do they know?

Another glacier, very close to home.