Trunk Monkey 2

The long awaited and highly anticipated sequel to the Trunk Monkey video is finally here. Have a great day!

Thanksgiving debrief

This Thanksgiving we celebrated at my parents house in Medina. Amber was supposed to work so we couldn't go to my aunt and uncle's lake house with the rest of the Bauman family, but on Thursday morning her shift was cancelled so we got to spend the whole day as the 6 of us (and Bella, their dog.. but she had to stay in the garage. We still visited her a lot!).

It was a fun day of eating appetizers, mixing the cookie dough, reading the paper to find the best deals for Friday's shopping trip, and of course the big Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we finalized our plans for Friday and Dan headed home (he had to work the next day). On the way he saw Best Buy's parking lot was already FULL of cars ready for them to open at 5 a.m.!! He tipped of my dad and Brent so they weren't disappointed when they went at the planned time of 6 a.m.

The next morning Brent, Amber, and my mom went to Target across the street from my parents house before the doors opened at 6 a.m. but didn't get the tv they were hoping for. I joined them around 6:45 and we stopped at a couple of other home improvement/sports stores and ended the day at the Ridgedale mall. I was very proud of my successful shopping trip and was all done before 10. Brent and my dad were done earlier around 8:30 and my mom and sister wrapped up around 1. That afternoon we were all exhausted and took naps before making cookies. Dan got done with work and we celebrated with a birthday dinner and cake. He was excited to get gift cards from everyone towards a Wii, and a rice cooker. Now if they are ever available in the stores we'll see if he can actually get one!

Brent and Amber bought a projector to use as their tv at their house for Christmas so we tried it out that night on my parents basement wall by watching Oceans 13.

It was a fun Thanksgiving and it was also fun to spend the rest of the weekend with Dan's family. The Vikings game was actually entertaining! Good thing I had a bet with my NY co-workers that the Vikings would cover the spread. It looked like Eli played for our team....

Happy Birthday Dan!

Yesterday was Dan's birthday and he decided he wanted to spend it working at the lake. Dan's parents came up from Mankato to help, and it was a great day of progress. Dan and Roger finally found the right consistency of mortar and the rocks stayed on the fireplace wall! It is completely finished now and looks great. Next weekend we'll put the finishing touches on it, lay the limestone hearth, and clean it up before we post a final picture. Monica and I painted the hallway, master closet and closet in the living room that Becky and I had primed last week. It went very fast so we also got the third stack of trim boards stained and ready for their 2nd coat next weekend.

On the way to Mankato after we finished working yesterday we stopped in Hutchinson for dinner at Pizza Hut and Dan got to sit in the hot tub at his parents house. All in all it was a good day he said.

I love you Dan! Thanks for being a great husband and my best friend :)

Fireplace - watch out for falling rocks!

Yesterday we went out to the lake with our friends Tom and Becky to work on the cabin. Becky and I tackled priming the master closet, hallway and living room closet and then painting the ceilings in those rooms too. Tom and Dan worked on the fireplace and it was a lot of work. Apparently the wire mesh that we put up worked in most areas but there were a few problem spots where there weren't enough studs behind the walls to nail the mesh into. Every so often we heard a crash and a rock that was so beautifully placed on the wall came tumbling down onto the floor. Luckily they didn't hit anyone, but it was still scary and of course a few broke. They ended up getting about 1/2 of it done and put a layer of mortar on the areas that were difficult. We're hoping the next time we go out there it will be hard enough that it will hold the rocks better. I am very impressed with what was done though, I really like the wall.

We were also out at the lake on Friday night and had the carpet guy measure. The sheetrock should have been up before he measured but we didn't find out until Friday morning that our builder hadn't gotten it done yet. The measuring guy was nice so hopefully it wasn't too big of a problem. We got another layer of finishing done on the 2nd pile of trim, so I'm hoping we are 1/2 done with that now. The guys were out there on Friday putting up the soffit along the roof. With the holiday next week they are targeting the end of November to be done with the exterior. There were a few guys working and they stayed pretty late when we were there. It was nice to see the exterior start to look finished!

With Thanksgiving this week and Dan's birthday on Saturday we may take a break from working out at the lake. Or, Dan might have a fun birthday working out there on Saturday :) We'll have to see how we feel a little later on this week.

Our class is going well, and tonight we're debriefing with the professor on the first section and finishing up the second. This week is the finance area so Dan is going to be working hard on that. It feels like we're a little ahead of schedule which is nice. That will make it easier as we get closer to the end if we have to redo anything or spend time on something we weren't expecting.

Downstairs bathroom sheetrocked

Downstairs bedroom sheetrocked (still needs to cut out the rest of the window)

Dan and Tom working on the rocks

Becky priming

Entryway primed and ceiling painted

Fireplace rock 1/2 done

Trunk Monkey - First Installment

Here is a new segment to our blog that we would like to call "Trunk Monkey". Enjoy!!!

P. S. Tom if you are reading this look who has the first video.

The stairs are finally in!

Yesterday we went out to the lake and the stairs and final octagon window were finally in! This has been a challenging week as we've had some difficulty getting in contact with our builder. But, progress was made and we are no longer going to stick to a schedule - we are just going to let things happen when they do and not worry so much about it. I know if things were different we'd like to enforce a few rules about timing, but that hasn't worked so well so far so we are just going to relax about it and enjoy the last few weeks of the process.

So, the good news is that the upstairs is all done and now that the window and stairs are done the downstairs is now being sheetrocked. We had fun building a hearth for the fireplace and getting it all ready to be rocked yesterday. It was a lot of work putting up a vapor barrier and then this wire mesh, but it is better to do the work now to ensure the rocks don't fall down once we put them up :)

We also continued finishing the trim pieces. I think we've split it into 4 piles - we finished one last weekend (both coats) and started on the 2nd pile yesterday. Next weekend we're going to do the second coat on the 2nd pile and finish the fireplace. This week our builder is having some other guys put on the siding so he can focus on the basement sheetrock. Next weekend we'll post pictures of that progress too.

A note on our class: we're turning in the first draft of the marketing section next week. I have a lot of PTO days to use up before the end of the year or I'll lose them, so I'm planning to take every Friday off until the end of the year. It is nice to have a day off of work to work on the project and still have time to go to the lake on Saturday and/or Sunday too.

Here is a picture of the fireplace from Dan's phone (the quality isn't the best and it was dark out but you get the point). It will be fun to put up the rock next weekend!

Finishing trim pieces

This weekend Amber and Brent came out to the lake to help us with some projects and we were met with a stack of trim boards to be finished! We started out the day by painting the ceiling in the family room and two bathrooms. Amber and Brent sealed the tile in the two bathrooms and then we laid out trim pieces in the family room so we could seal them. We could only fit about a fourth of the wood trim on the floor, so we'll have a few more days of sealing before we're done. The smell was really strong so Amber and I had to take lots of breaks to get fresh air outside! It was fun to spend the day with my sister and her husband - thank you both for your help!!

Today Dan and I took advantage of daylight savings time and went to an early church service and then headed out to the lake again. We did a second coat of stain on the trim and put in the speakers and tv plate on the wall above the fireplace. It was a very profitable day. When we got home we got some school work done and met with our group on our bi-weekly conference call.

Dan putting in the speakers

We brought out the vanity for the upstairs bathroom - one more thing out of our basement!

Cabinets are in!

Yesterday we took the day off to order our carpet in St. Cloud and go out to the lake to put on the 2nd coat of paint on the living room. We brought the stove out too and it was fun to be able to put it in its place since the rest of the cabinets were in! I love the variations of color in the hickory. Tomorrow the granite people are coming out for measurements and Amber and Brent are bringing their truck with the washing machine. Since we have all the hardwood sitting in our basement for the floors, we might be able to squeeze in a few boxes to take advantage of them having the truck. We'll post more pictures after our day tomorrow painting and finishing the trim.