Day 307 – “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 3/03/2022. We headed to Lowes first thing this morning. We were short one breaker.
Steve worked all day on the electrical panels.
I went for a long walk, then swept and cleaned out the cardboard from the new house. As I was enjoying my walk, I was really bothered by the roadside litter. So, I decided I needed to clean up the road between our house and the neighbors on each side. It is amazing how much garbage I picked up.
It looks so nice now.
I challenge you to do the same on your street. I have 5,000 friends and it would be great if all my friends would go out and clean up the roadsides from their house to their neighbor’s house. Then post and challenge others to do the same. Think of how much cleaner we could make our environment. That means cleaning up where there is vacant land next to you also. Do it right up to your neighbor’s house. You will feel good. Flowers are starting to pop here. Feeling like spring!
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 306 – “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 3/02/2022. There is just a small amount of insulation and Sheetrocking that needs to be completed in the utility room. Steve is working on getting the electrical panel completed.
He needs to do that before he can finish the insulation and Sheetrocking. It is a beautiful sunny 69 degrees. Spring is here!!!!!@!!!!@@@@
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 305 – “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 3/01/2022. Sheet rocking continues today.
Even the utility/storage room needs to be sheet rocked. Getting shelves ready for storage.
Working in the tornado shelter area.
So, I was really curious why everyone seems to be buying appliances lately are getting GE. Why are GE appliance available in a timely matter. Well, I found out that GE brought back all production from overseas to the United States in 2021. It appears their largest manufacturing facility is now located in KY. Now I wish we had bought all GE appliances. We bought a GE cooktop, wall oven microwave combination unit, and a trash compactor. Other appliances are different. Heading to Lowes for more sheetrock tomorrow morning. It is cold, but comfortable under the electric blanket in our recliner.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 304 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 2/28/2022. Today is a nice warm day and we are back to doing dishes on the picnic table.
We spent the last two days doing our taxes. Tomorrow we are back to Sheetrocking.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 303 – “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 2/27/2022. Our normal Sunday. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel, laundry, and then Lowes. The employees are no longer wearing masks at Cracker Barrel. To us it seems really strange since we had to wear masks everywhere for the last two weeks, even walking down the street. Went to Lowes and took care of our appliances. We now are getting GE appliances. Although, the only cooktop is black that we can get delivered on 3/18/2022. We will see. Fingers crossed. We cannot get our final electrical approval without them. OMG, we are back to walking the planks.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 302 – “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 2/26/2022. We are back to construction and a lot of paperwork. Actually, just getting back into setting a new schedule up. I checked on our kitchen appliances. We paid for and ordered them 7/8/2021 from Lowes. They’re now scheduled to be delivered 7/30/2022. Over a year to get kitchen appliances. So unacceptable. We cannot wait that long. We ordered Kichenaide. We are now looking at GE and are told they can be delivered 3/18/2022. All other brands take a lot longer to get delivered. Tomorrow we will head to Lowes and see what they say.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 301 – “Living the Dream”. Friday, 2/25/2022. On the road by 7am this morning and by 1pm it is 50. The farther north we go, the colder it is getting.
The traffic got really bad on interstate 75 and we took some back roads to get around the traffic jam.
We got home at 5pm and it was 30. Take me back to the tropical island warmth
and cruise ship breezes.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 300 – “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 2/24/2022. At 7am we are sitting and eating our last cruise breakfast.
It is time to head home and hit finishing the house up hard. The line for customs is huge. We grabbed a porter and said we will give you $20.00 to take our luggage to the parking garage. He took us through with a handicapped group. We were through in about 15 minutes. People waited over an hour to get through customs. The long time was due to the heightened security because of the Ukraine issue. It cost $242.00 for 11 days of parking at the Miami cruise port parking garage.
It is nice to be back in the USA.
Our first stop was a rest area for lunch.
No one was saying put your mask on in the parking lot. The only problem is we had to buy our coffee and lunch. MSC coffee was much better than Dunkin Donuts. It was a fairly uneventful drive to Tifton, Georgia Hilton Garden Inn mostly. We always get hit up at rest areas or service areas for money. It must be Steve’s gray hair. He wants to know is he really that friendly looking. So, it happens on every road trip. Today we were hit up by a woman who needed a new battery and was $60.00 short of buying one. Okay we gave her the money and our card. She said she will mail us the money. It will be interesting to see if we get the money back or not. We figure we won money at the casino for some reason. That reason may have been to help this woman out.
I had a lot of time sitting in the car, so I decided to do a review of our MSC Divina 11-night Caribbean cruise (2/13/2022 – 2/24/23).
Here is our final review with 1 to 10 ratings. 1 is the lowest rating and 10 is the highest.
Overall rating: 6 There were not nearly enough general bathrooms on the ship, and they smelled a lot sometimes. Our cabin bathroom was excellent, and we found we just made our way back there and stopped using the ships general bathrooms. The evening meal in the dining room was not really that good and the setup of the server’s stations had us and others seated where you were watching the servers scurry around and scrapping plates. It was not very appetizing. The servers had way too many tables. They served you but did not develop any relationship. They were just too busy. The buffet was excellent. The cleanliness of the ship other than the well-used general bathrooms was excellent. There was great bar service and overall, the employees were wonderful.
1) Embarkation: 7 rating. This would be a 10, except this was a covid cruise. Omicron numbers are on the way down from the peak. The luggage drop off was quick and easy. The parking garage was a far walk. For older people or people with disabilities this would be an issue. It took about 2 1/2 hours to board from the time we dropped off our luggage. That included MSC doing covid testing. When we got on the ship we could immediately go to our room.
2) Cabin: 9 rating. We had a super clean spacious large room, and the bed was very comfortable. I gave it a 9 because of the way deck 14 came out over the balcony. It was hard to take pictures without the roof in the way.
3) Employees: 10 rating. The employees are all super friendly and went out of their way to do extras for you. The jewelry store clerk even fixed an old watch for me. They do not fix watches.
4) Food: 6 rating. The buffet food was excellent, but the dining room food was not good at all. The coffee was really good in the buffet, horrendous in the dining room. Other ships we have been on the coffee is just yucky. The pizza was fantastic. You will want to eat it every day.
5) Casino: 7 rating. The casino had good machines and we did walk away winning. The casino was very clean. I loved the nonsmoking atmosphere.
6) Excursions: 8 rating. They offered a lot of excursions, but they were very expensive. We only did one in Roatan, Honduras. It was good, but the boat we went on had no life jackets. We were in the ocean with no life jackets. The driver had one. Shame on MSC.
7) Entertainment: 5 rating. We didn’t go to any shows. We felt the seating was too close during covid time. The violin player in the sixth-floor courtyard was excellent.
8) Internet: 9 rating. There was excellent internet connection. I was disappointed that once you set a device up, you could not move the connection to another device. We both bought the internet for our phones. But on cruises I usually like to use my laptop in the cabin. I would have had to pay for another internet connection for my laptop.
9) Kids water activities: 4 rating. There was basically none. They had a really nice slide for older kids. I didn’t see anything for younger children.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 299 – “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 2/23/2022. Today is the last day and night of our cruise. The last of seeing some great employees. The Calumet buffet greeter and temperature taker, The tray provider, the coffee and water server,
the bar tenders, our cabin attendant,
the waiters,
and the store personnel. Such wonderful employees. The employees go out of their way to make your experience the best. The jewelry store lady even fixed an old watch for me, and they don’t do repairs. We are at Ocean Cay today. We have a perfect view from our Starboard balcony room.
Ocean Cay is MSC’s 95-acre man made private island in the Bahamas located 65 miles from Miami. It is a marine protected reserve. There are no plastic bottles of anything sold on the island. The island was originally built in the 1960’s for mining Aegonite sand. MSC spent 200 million rehabilitating the island. 7,500 tons of scrap metal was removed, and 75,000 plants and shrubs were brought in. The island officially opened December 5, 2019, for its first ship. Every day of our 11-night cruise vacation we have had gorgeous weather We went out and explored their island real early. We sat on the beach for a while. It was cool with the winds blowing. The shops on the island had really nice items but were expensive.
The rest rooms were very clean.
The vegetation was so gorgeous. Don’t these flowers look fake.
We were back on the ship by 11:30am. Steve did the water slide and did a video of it. He absolutely loved it. The first attempt he sat down and had to push himself all the way through. The second time he laid down and flew down it.
Slide assistant Stephen was one of the many outstanding employees we met this trip. He is from Kenya and has been on the ship 8 months. This is his first cruise contract. He helped clean the ship up and get it back into the tiptop clean ship it is after the covid stagnant days. He told us that employees get time off today and are able to get off the ship since it is their private island.
The Ship was empty and really nice by the bar and infinity pool. The live cactus plants are a great idea. Look nice, don’t take a lot of care, and guests will not be breaking off the plants.
We heard banging this morning from our room. We didn’t realize that our room was right under the main pool. They were working on the pool today. Maintenance work is a constant on a cruise ship.
Hey, we ended the cruise with more money than we spent in the casino. Woohoo!
I won’t miss the desserts; I need to move away from eating them. They are lovely to look at – Look how artistic they are. Another piece of art. Reminds me of a Panda Bear. I will miss nighttime meals bring served to me.
We stayed at Ocean Cay to watch the light house show. It was beautiful! The video just does not capture it from the dining room.
Our luggage tags are attached to a butterfly. I guess we are flying away tomorrow onto land like a butterfly set free.
Till next time towel animal zoo – Bye
The last little nighttime walk around the ship. Now this is sad!
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 298 – “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 2/22/2022. Last week “MOUNTAIN WOMAN” and this week “SEA WOMAN”.
Today was a sea day. We spent some time at the casino and got most of our money back.
You can spend days looking at different posters and artwork on these ships.
If you sit in the back of the Calumet Buffet, the ride is very bumpy. Steve says he thinks they have a bad bearing in the engine. The ride is not smooth. Older ships seem to have this issue. We are surprised to read that this ship was in dry dock in 2020. An interesting thing happened yesterday in Roatan. A man approached us with a ripped $20.00 bill. He said that the resort would not take it. He wanted to know if we would give him a $20.00 bill for the ripped $20.00 bill. Ah – no. What do you think? Was he trying to give us a counterfeit bill? It seems as though the ship is running out of things as we near the end of our 11-night trip. There are no individual cartons of milk, no cans of Diet Coke, and no Coors Lite. I wonder if there is an issue with getting supplies due to covid. Only one more night of towels animals. Going to miss these little surprises in the evening. Think Steve will make them and put them on my bed at home.
I know he can’t give me these sea day sunsets.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 297 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 2/21/2022. This is day nine of our 11-day cruise on the MSC Divina. We are at the Isla de Roatan, Honduras from 7am to 3pm today.
“A good day is waking up”. This morning a really small cruise ship anchored off the pier of Isla de Roatan after we docked. It was the World Voyager. A Nikos cruise ship that holds a maximum of 300 passengers and 100 crew members. It is a Portuguese cruise line.
We ate breakfast
and then headed to wait in the Pantheon theater on deck 6 for our excursion group to gather. The Pantheon theater holds 1,603 guests.
We went on an excursion called Snapshot of Roatan. We walked about 5 minutes at a fairly fast pace to get to the bus. I learned so much about the area. Here are some of the things that I remember. Roatan Island is one of 18 Honduras islands and is forty miles off the northern coast of Honduras. It is 33 miles long and four miles wide. You can see the Caribbean Ocean from both sides. The first language is English, the second is Spanish. The island and Port have gone and are going through major renovations. The island has a small international Airport which has daily flights to Miami, Atlanta, Dallas and a few other US cities. First stop on our tour was a panoramic view on the east side of the island. Of course, it was really a stop to buy souvenirs from local people. One of the local vendors took our picture. Lokk at that scenery!
We switched busses here. Our first bus had bad air conditioning. There was no automatic transmission on the bus and fairly steep hills. There is a daily ferry to mainland Honduras. A lot of people commute to the mainland daily for work. The cost is $75.00 a day. There is a lot of gated communities on this island where United States retirees live. Covid closed the island down for two years. The kids have just returned to school. Gasoline is imported and is currently $6.00 a gallon. Most homes on the island don’t have central air. Their electric bill for twenty days is 200.00 with no central air. If you have central air, it is about four times that amount. A lot of the homes are built on piers. This keeps them high for the trade winds to blow through them. It also allows for heavy rainwater to accumulate under them. The school year runs from February to November with no breaks. Most children walk or ride bicycles to school. Some families hire people to transport their children to school and back. There is no public-school transportation. The children either go early morning or afternoon into night. They have private schools also. We passed a beautiful Clarion suites called Pineapple villas. The resort looked like it would be a great place to stay. The island is clean. Two ships go to United States and bring all the supplies in. The Mesoamerican Barrier reef is the second largest in the world. It is visible from the island and almost entirely surrounds the island. You can walk out to it in many places. This reef along with the Turtle grass, and Mangrove protect the island.
The turtle grass is also used to make tea given to people with asthma and emphysema. The water temperature is inviting every day. In 2021 the island was hit by two cat 5 hurricanes within two weeks. First time in history. Climate is definitely changing. Trash is building in the oceans. No plastic bags are allowed on the island. Plastic can take up to 5 years to disintegrate. Our number two stop was Arch’s Iguana Reserve. Some people eat iguanas. They can grow to 7 feet long. Their tail is their weapon. At this reserve they capture baby iguanas and put them in a cage until they are two. They are then released back into the wild. This farm had 5,000 uncaged iguanas. They were all over the pathways.
We walked through all the iguanas
to a long dock into the ocean. The fish by the dock were huge.
When we left the ship at 8:45 am the traffic was light. At 1 pm leaving the iguana farm the traffic is very heavy. Steps to some of the stores are a test in balance for sure.
There are very few lawn mowers. They use like an electric weed Wacker. Cashews grow abundantly on the island along with all types of mangos.
Our last stop was Las Palmas where we saw this little show.
The resort property and views were wonderful.
We took a thirty-minute boat tour with no life jackets. The boat was full.
After we are out in the water, Steve says, “Where are the life jackets?”. There were none. Oh, but the driver had one sitting by his backpack.
We then had some free time at the resort. The beach and tables out in the water were very nice.
Our towel animal farm is growing.
It was a really nice tour and day because of Jazzy our tour guide. She was excellent.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 296 – “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 2/20/2022. This is day eight of our 11-day cruise on the MSC Divina. Today was an at sea day. We walked the track in the morning. it is a really nice day with a little bit of wind, but a gorgeous day. The sea looks so blue here. We left Costa Rica yesterday and will be in Honduras tomorrow. We are eating way too much food and have to burn it off. I like to try different foods, and a cruise is a good chance to do that. We ate lunch in the main dining room. Here’s the lunch time dining room menu.
Today is elegant night. Hope my dress zips up. The water slide was very busy today. I wish I wasn’t a chicken. I would love to go down the slide and video it. It really looks like fun.
We went and viewed the professional photos we have had taken so far. We are gold members in the MSC Voyagers Club so we each get a free dinner photo. We had some evening pictures taken and they definitely have more of a flamboyant European flair to them. Much different style of photography than Royal Caribbean. Spent some time in the casino and we didn’t lose our shirts this time. We will be in Roatan, Honduras tomorrow. The ocean has lots of lines of seaweed floating around in the afternoon.
And at home the security cameras are very active with animals frolicking in our yard. The one video shows a large cat, I think. The cat is huge though and its legs and hind quarters are very muscular.
Walking around the ship you see lots of really cool statues. Everyone should spend a day just walking every deck on the MSC cruise ships. You won’t be disappointed in the wonderful artwork. It is like spending the day at an art museum.
MSC ships are gorgeously decorated if you like lots of sparkle and glitz. I love their ships.
We have not seen the whole ship. We are not allowed in the yacht club. We are the steerage compared to them. They have their own private part of the ship. We are enjoying our nightly dinners with new friends. It is so much fun to go back and talk with others about what you did for the day. One of my favorite things about cruising is meeting new friends.
So, we are now cold at 72.7 in our room. Wait till we get home next Friday. We are going to be cold.
Here’s a video of our dining room.
Grazie e Ciao. Buona notte!
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 279 – “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 2/3/2022. It was one year ago, January 28, 2021, that we closed on our Pennsylvania home and started on this journey. We sold or gave away most of our stuff. What we kept, we put in storage. Last year this week we were in Kentucky looking at property for sale. We saw this property and decided no way we are not interested. We decided we didn’t want to build a home in Kentucky. So, we headed to Florida for vacation time, theme parks, and relaxing at resort pools. Little did we know that we would be back at this old shack.
The icy weather projected for today has not happened but has been delayed and the new forecast is for it to start icing at 7pm and end 10am tomorrow. It did rain on and off all day but was in the 50’s the first part of the day and after 1pm has been consistently dropping. It is in the 30’s at 4pm. Steve finished drywalling the middle level closet under the stairs and around the bottom of the stairs.
Two levels are now fully sheet rocked. Tomorrow will begin the lower-level insulation and Sheetrocking. Today, we brought the microwave up from the old house and put in the wall oven spot. We want to start eating in the new house.
After vacation we are moving the gas grill to the deck. One step closer! Everyday UPS, USPS, FedEx, or a freight company delivers something for the house. Today, our whole house water filter arrived. We have town water. but still want a filter to filter out the chlorine and sediment.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 278 – “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 2/2/2022. Middle level is sheet rocked except for under the stairs. The living area wall is set up for a wall mount TV.
The refrigerator is now where it is going to live its entire life.
We are SO SO looking forward to the big bad ice storm headed our way. WE ARE NOT!! Today was a yucky rainy day.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 277 – “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 2/1/2022. Sheetrock, sheetrock, sheetrock, and more sheetrock. It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day and it hit sixty-one degrees. Such a nice day. We are officially worn out and tired of being cold. Really soon we will be in that house. We now are enjoying a few hours every evening after work relaxing in her. We are hoping our appliances arrive soon. We ordered them five months ago at the end of June. Please enjoy this new video tour of the Williamsburg with her inner skin almost complete. We are stopping the bleeding.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 276 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 1/31/2022. Foyer is insulated and Sheetrocking is going well.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 275 – “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 1/30/2022. Steve is back to building homemade scaffolding. I blame the Hill Brothers for this.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 274 – “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 1/29/2022. A very cold day today. There was some snow overnight and we woke up to seven degrees.
The high for the day was twenty-three with lots of sun and no wind. The snow was melting pretty quick in the hot sun.
It is very hard to work when it is so cold. Steve worked in the refrigerator, wall oven area in the morning and then took the afternoon off.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 273 – “Living the Dream”. Friday, 1/28/2022. The rest of the hallway drywall and the drywall around the kitchen slider was hung.
An access panel to the washer/dryer electrical connections and vent was built through back of the kitchen pantry.
Then more framing was completed in kitchen for refrigerator and built in oven.
Some of Steve’s tools are really old. The square he has used to build every house was his grandfathers and the stepstool was my mom’s.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 272 – “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 1/27/2022. We kept blowing the circuit breakers with everything we are trying to run off the old house. So, we bought new led work lights. There are pros and cons to them. They use a lot less power and they are really bright, but the halogen lights give off heat. We used our surface thermometer on the halogen lights and the surface of each light was 730 degrees. The LED light surface is 64 degrees.
Another cold morning 12 degrees at 8am outside and almost 42 degrees in the old house kitchen. Our little electric heater is working hard. Love the Alexa jokes. She keeps me entertained.
The electrical heated water hose to our cabin works great. It works so great that new spring grass is growing along the hose. We are fooling mother nature.
When you hear water running in the middle level bedroom closet, you know that bodily waste is headed swiftly to the septic. You won’t hear it unless you have the closet door open, or you are in the closet. We are calling it the musical closet. At the end of the day, we moved the bedroom furniture, kitchen cabinets and washer and dryer into the sheet rocked middle level bedroom.
I know everyone is looking at the closet ceiling and saying, “why purple sheetrock?”.
No reason except we had extra. After a little work tomorrow around the pantry and sliding glass door it is on to the hardest part of the Sheetrocking – the foyer.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 271 – “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 1/26/2022. Every other day we have to fill up the propane cylinders at Tractor supply. Tractor supply charges $3.89 a gallon for propane. It is the only place we know that they actually measure the gallons they put in the tanks, and you actually pay for what you get. Most places charge for the full tank no matter how many Gallons you actually get.
It is really cold here. 19 degrees at 11am. Can’t wait for my dishwasher. I feel like I am living in a cabin in the wild west in the 1800’s with the way we are washing dishes.
Although we use an immersible water heater, and plastic dish pans. The immersible water heater works great. You just plug it in and drop in a Lowes bucket full of ice-cold water.
In 30 minutes, it is super-hot for dish washing. Middle level bedroom closet is now insulated.
It is getting warmer in the house. Showered outside today in 30 degrees. No wind and sunny so it was a good day for showering.
Some days it is cloudy and windy. No showering then. Washing my hair in the bathroom sink is really difficult.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 270 – “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 1/25/2022. First floor bedroom is insulated and sheetrocked.
The closet will be worked on tomorrow. We are hoping that the big fat Robin on the wire is a sign of fast approaching spring.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 269 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 1/24/2022. The middle level bathroom is fully sheet rocked. I love the shelf/seat around the tub. That is a signature feature in all of Steve’s bathrooms.
The sheetrock garbage pile is certainly growing.
We moved the furniture and kitchen cabinets from the middle level bedroom to the kitchen area.
We are all set up and ready for tomorrow morning to insulate and sheetrock the bedroom and closet.
We are trying to use the drywall that is leaning on the outside wall of the kitchen. After the bedroom and closet are done that wall can then be completed.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 268 – “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 1/23/2022. Look at the below pictures of the three houses. The size of the cabin we are living in, the old house we are cooking in, and the new house we are building. Wow, what a difference.
Pantry
and middle level linen closet are looking great.
Time for a little break. Feeling good about the progress!
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 267 – “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 1/22/2022. Today, is a bright sunny much warmer new day. It is 60 in the house with the heater on. So warm. Last night I had a breakdown lol at 5pm. I started crying like a big baby. ” I am going to the cabin and going to bed. I am bored and cold. I am not cooking, and I don’t want anything to eat.” I was done with being Hero support aka the cheerleader. Steve made hot soup and brought it into the cabin. The laundry room,
hall off the kitchen,
and the linen closet
are now sheet rocked. Getting their step by step. This is a picture of the middle level bathroom wall where the sink and toilet are going to sit.
Each piece screwed in gets us a little closer. Every night we have to pull little metal splinters out of Steve’s fingers from the drywall screws. What the heck? Never have we seen anything like this before.
We just realized that we bought our scaffolding in Branchville, NJ years ago. It came from Louisville, Kentucky and we brought it back home to Kentucky. Pretty funny. It will be warmer tomorrow and Monday. Hopefully, all the ice on the hill will melt.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 266 – “Living the Dream”. Friday, 1/21/2022. Sheetrocking continues. Worked on the middle level closets and bathroom. It is getting warmer in the house. The middle level bathroom is now insulated and partially sheetrocked.
Steve replaced the bathroom fan vent duct that the HVAC contractor had installed. He said in NJ the duct work they installed was not up to code.
Steve drives me crazy. I depend on my Alexa for my shopping list. So, I am saying to Alexa add something to my shopping list and she is not responding. Usually there is blue light on the bottom of the echo show screen when she hears her name. OMG – Steve decided to change her name to Computer. I finally realized it when I saw the screen with Computer on it.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 265 – “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 1/20/2022. A very cold day today in Kentucky. It was a high of 25 and mostly cloudy with snow showers. I broke down and sat under an electric blanket to keep warm.
Yesterday it rained so hard it drove the mice back up into the old house. Sitting eating dinner Steve saw one sneaking around behind the refrigerator. Set one trap last night and caught one mouse overnight. They love peanut butter.
Steve worked on drywalling the middle level area and you now can see where the peninsula is going to be. In fact, we ate our first meal on the peninsula today.
The house is getting warmer.
We have so many wires in the old house office space that we set up a new surge protector strip with eighteen outlets and four USB ports.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 264 – “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 1/19/2022. Middle level kitchen and living area ceiling is almost sheet rocked.
I helped for a little bit and then headed to get a mani-pedi at Somerset Nails.
Poor Steve just kept working putting up fourteen-foot sheets of drywall. I keep telling him you need to come get a pedicure with me. He is stubborn.
I was gone only a few hours. It is amazing how much work was completed during that time.
I then headed to the upper level and swept it clean.
Tonight, is another snowstorm and then we are in for a cold week. The more the house gets insulated, and sheet rocked the warmer it will stay with the propane work heater. Tomorrow is a video tour day.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 263 – “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 1/18/2022. All day I was doing the sun dance. Needing that sun to come out to get in the shower.
Yea it finally did, and the shower was wonderful. It didn’t even matter that I had to walk through snow and mud to the shower.
Once the sun came out the snow started melting quickly. The garbage company called and said they could not get to our house because the roads were too icy. The mail was delivered though.
We went out to get propane in the afternoon and the roads were okay. The propane work heater uses a tank of propane each day. It does heat up the house nicely.
The stairwell to the upper level is now sheet rocked. Steve had to use smaller pieces of drywall. He was unable to lift larger pieces by himself and I am useless with real physical labor. It means that he will have to do more taping and spackling.
We are looking at using gray wall to wall carpeting for the upstairs.
We kept going back and forth with hardwood or carpeting. We have decided we like the coziness, warmth, and soundproofing that carpeting has to offer for the bedroom area.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
Day 262 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 1/17/2022. I knew that having a tv would make us lazy or is it the snowy cold day. We binge watched the Squid Game in two nights. Now we are having difficulty getting up and motivated in the morning. Getting up out of the warm covers in our cozy cabin and trudging through four inches of snow for fifty feet to a cold old house for coffee is not so inviting.
Loaded up the beverage fridge to warm our drinks up.
Upper level is totally sheet rocked, except for the corner beads. There are many angles in the upper level and lots of corner bead needs to go up. The shower area has a nice built in seat on two walls. Lots of detail work in the upper-level bath, but detail work makes a nice home.
The stairway to the upper level is being worked on now. Another high dangerous job being done.
Today’s product recommendation is for the Rev-A-Shelf. I love this for my pots, pans and lids. The one we recently installed is the 21 inches with a spot on the top shelf for the lids. We will also be installing a smaller one for baking dishes. These are awesome. https://amzn.to/3CzOwwqhttps://amzn.to/3ZcBuyq
