Light in the Tunnel Getting Brighter!

We have every intention of baking our

2014 Thanksgiving turkey

in our brand-spanking-new

duel-fuel range

that has been sitting out in the garage for the last few weeks.

Yep.

But it'll be a lot like sliding into home base on our hips and
touching home plate with the tips of our toenails.

Foreman Dean has us scheduled down to the hour on the tasks

that must be done in order for that to happen.

For example: 12 allotted hours for laying and grouting

the tile in the master bath.

Yep.

And there's absolutely no time for recess.
NONE.

We can and we will do this.

I can smell that bird cookin' already!

Here are a few highlights of what we've been up to 

and a few pics of our cozy basement home.

An amusing side note before I get started...

we have been so happy and feel like we are living like

normal folks now since we moved into the basement.

We've joked with our friends and neighbors that we 

went from living in the Telestial kingdom and, despite moving down
("down" as in from our trailer parked on the backyard grade to the basement),
 we feel like we moved up to the Terrestrial kingdom.
Moving upstairs to the main level will definitely be a Celestial move.
Oh, if only attaining the highest kingdom were that easy to achieve...
you know...
as easy as tearing down a house by hand and
then building it again with our own hands.
Yeah. If only.

So, here we go with those few things.

On General Conference Saturday
Dean spent the entire day cutting, routing and grouping all the pieces
for the custom door and window headers.
There are four components for each.
There were 39 sets to be made.
39 x 4 = 156 pieces
As he cut, I sanded all the cut and routed edges.
I was still sanding when he left for Priesthood session.
We had all those groups of header components laid out on the driveway
and I'd mentioned to him earlier that I wanted to get a photo of all of them
 (it was an impressive sight, taking up most of the driveway),
so please just leave them there til I stopped to get that photo.
Well, I found myself sanding on into the dark and was so tired
that I never did take that photo.
I knew he was tired too and didn't want him to have to deal with
hauling them all inside when he got home, so went ahead and did it myself.
MAN, was I beat after that.
But his pleasant surprise and gratitude upon arriving home to find it was
all taken care of made it worth the effort.
Assembling and putting up all those headers took a while.
Spakling, sanding, spakling, sanding, caulking, brushing, wiping
and final inspection before priming and painting...
well, that took much longer.
But prime and paint, we did...
yesterday!

Unlike when we painted all the trim in the basement by hand,
we used an airless sprayer for upstairs.
It's an awesome way to go.
And let me just say that the folks at
Weber Paint, Glass & Flooring
have been FANTASTIC to work with.
They've been SO GOOD to us.
It might sound silly to say, but
I love 'em.

Dean had never prepped a shower floor and walls for tile before,
but he meticulously planned and executed that job and
did it like a pro in our master bathroom.
He's awesome like that -
always has been.

All I did was admire his work and slap on two coats of
Dragon Skin, which is an extra moisture barrier.

He also got the metal roofing material up on the gable brows
over the front porch and garage pop-out.

He'd never done that before either, but it turned out great too.

Now,
let me take you inside our little basement habitat.
I don't have photos of our awesome bathroom yet,
but I'll try to remember for the next post.
This post needs to end so I can move on to other things this evening.

This is a fun detail...
I chose EMTEK's Winchester knobs in medium bronze
on a simple rectangular plate for our basement door hardware.
I adore them!

And check this out...

I nailed the first picture hook into our lovely, virgin walls
to hang this framed 8 x 8 print of the original stairs
at the bottom of the new stairs.
Perfect tribute, if you ask me.
Gotta love it.

Welcome to our utility/storage/second laundry room.
Golly it's been a sweet deal to have our machines hooked up
again after 15 months without them.
And the freezer too!

Here's the other end of that room...

Oh, did I mention that Aubrey and Ryan
have moved "back home"?
Honestly, we love having them here.
It's good to have Ry around up until he and Abigail are married in December
and we are finally seeing more of our girl, Aubrey, too;
"more", being the key word here.
She's a full time student in a demanding program at the University
where she also teaches a lab in the cadaver lab.
She also works 42 hrs on/42 hrs off
in the lab at Ogden Regional Hospital.
So, having her live here, we actually do get to see her,
but usually when she's dragging herself in and on her way
to the shower and/or bed.

And finally, the piece de resistance...

our Bungalow basement kitchenette!
We've got everything but a dishwasher and range.
Dean ordered a hotplate that we're using for cooking and
we've got the microwave and crockpot too.
I've gone out to the trailer a few times and fired up its oven
to bake if I need to.
I chose a simple, shaker design in natural walnut for our cabinets.
The counter tops are "steel gray" granite.
The sink is a small, but very deep, single basin stainless steel.
For the floors I chose natural slate.
We are so pleased with how it all turned out.

That's all folks...
time to clean up after our Sunday pot roast with home grown potatoes supper
and then spend some quality time withe a book or two.

Thanks, as always, for stoppin' by.
Good night and God bless.

Sheri