It has been way too long since I posted anything. I should have posted pictures from Ian, Mandy, and Ainsley's visit earlier this month. In regards to the house project I kept thinking I'd wait until some part of it was completely done. To date none is.

On July 3rd Dianne went to the Children's museum with the group.
I was able to join everyone on the 4th. We went over the Gwen and Kent's house on both the 4th and the 5th.

On the 4th we all went over to the pool.

















There's a story behind the above photo of Gwen and Kent. While Dianne was out of town helping Josie, I worked on building the frame for the deck. At some point my glasses got knocked off my face. I didn't think much of it, except that I kept noticing that I was fatigued. It turned out that my glasses frame was bent, and my focus was slightly off. So, I took all these picture with my dark glasses which are distance glasses.

Gwen asked me to take a picture of the family. Kent is holding Ellie, but later when looking at the pictures all you could see was the top of Ellie's head. I cropped the picture to get what is posted. Many of the pool pictures needed cropping.



This is proof that I was actually their, and since I didn't take the picture it didn't need cropping.
We went back to the house for dinner.

On the fifth we went back to Gwen and Kent's.


As I stated at the top, I kept waiting for some part of the remodel to get done. Instead I decided to brag about my work to date.

The medicine cabinet in this picture came from Habitat for Humanity. It was new, but the glass was chipped on the corner. I framed the glass to cover the chips and to make it fit the decor of the room.

There is a stacked washer and dryer visible behind the wall. It will have a curtain over it. There will be a pull out closet rod to hold the empty hangers, and provide a place to hang clothes as they are removed from the dryer.

The cupboards were used. We got two cupboards, each with two doors, and a cupboard half the size with drawers. We wanted the arrangement you see here; one cupboard with two doors, and one with a single door and drawers.
This picture shows the wide center board of the two-door cupboard.
To make the drawers fit I had to cut the center board in half without removing it from the cupboard. I did an almost perfect job. Unless you are looking for an indication that is was modified you wouldn't see anything.
On May 26th I posted a picture of our shower. It showed a glass brick window. This is the other side of the window. You can see the top of the toilet and an iron piece that will be hung above the toilet.
Denver Water has rebates for replacing old toilets with ones that use less water. The toilet we got was the cheapest to us because it uses only 1.28 gal. of water per flush. It came with a toilet seat. When it was installed we found out that it had one of the new slow closing toilet lids. You start it dropping, and walk away. In a few seconds the lid is closed. It sounds great. One reason it works is that the lid (and seat) are made of light weight plastic. So, you are sitting in meditation, and the seat shifts so that the feet drop off the rim. No damage done, except to your train of thought.

One time the toilet tried to kill me. I stood up and reach down for my pants. As my body went forwards to reach my pants my rear went back to balance me. But, the toilet lid closes slowly, and was at rear height, blocking my counter weight.

I almost didn't include this last picture. My fear is that someone reading this will tell me that the wood I used is environmentally unsound. So, do me a favor. Don't.

We used composite wood (recycled plastic and sawdust) next door. It gets very hot when the sun hits it, and is almost unusable. I wanted something for our deck that was nearly maintenance free and would last. My research led me to sustainable harvest hardwoods. Sustainable harvest woods do not restore previously cut forests. It creates tree farms on land that has already been cut. The company must be certified. The certification I used will decertify a company if they cut new roads into uncut forests. Every company that touches the wood from the grower to the retailer must have certification.

The wood I chose has a 30 to 40 year harvest cycle. It has several common names including champaign ipe, and blond tigerwood. Around the knots it has a 3-d look as if you can see into the wood.

This is our deck using the champaign ipe. Below this picture is a small 2-person hot tub. There will be curtains and railing eventually. The curtain will provide privacy when we want it, and block the view of the shed.