Saturday, March 7, 2009

Progress

The guys have made really good progress today! They have 4 cabinets done and are working on #5. They are waiting for Kay to bring down a special tool they need before they can finish but it looks like everything might be finished on the top half of the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. Hallelujah!


Ready to Install

Last night we began to prime and paint the kitchen. Look at the difference!

No Paint; Primer; Paint

No Paint; Paint

No Paint ; Primer; Paint


Primed; Painted

The best part of the painting was getting rid of that yucko cream/yellow/nicotine stained walls/ceilings! I loved the crisp, white look of the primer. I was ready to say just leave it with that...no not really...but I did love the clean white look! The green paint went on a little darker than I had thought, but I think it will be great once we get the light hickory cabinets in today! We do need another coat of green paint. We were falling asleep waiting for it to dry last night at 11:30. We'll do another coat soon.

This morning Travis' dad, Ben, came down to help in the kitchen. The guys went to Lowe's and picked up the cabinets to bring them home. Just as they were unloading the last cabinet from the van to the house the storm front came blowing in and it began to rain. I think that's the 2nd lucky thing that has happened today! 1st, they still had all the cabinets. 2nd, they got them in without rain. Now if they can put some up with out getting hurt we'll really be lucky! :)

Cabinets in the hallway, and dining room of our house.

We are finally READY TO INSTALL!
The best part for all people involved is I have to work from 10-5 today so I won't be underfoot bothering them with random questions and "concerns"
:)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Special Olympic Polar Plunge

Today was the special Olympic Polar Plunge. My mom is quite involved with Special Olympics and is always trying to get us to help out. Normally we are more than willing to help out and enjoy doing so. However, this event we have learned to stay away from. A few years ago Travis raised money and did the plunge.
The year Travis did the plunge was much different from this year. His year it was balmy, almost warm. I wore a long sleeve tee shirt with no coat and had a nice time. Today it was 20 degrees and windy. Who in their right mind would do this you ask? No one! Only foolish, crazy people. Enter my brother Justin.
Justin and one of his friends signed up to help. Then the fools didn't even wear a shirt in the water. They acted like it was the middle of June. They seemed to have a good time (after they warmed up) and even said they might do it again next year. Just so you know, Travis also said he "might" do it again after he got out of the water. He has yet to do it again, and I don't blame him in the least!

Here the divers, in full scuba gear, are chipping away ice in order to make a spot for the plungers.




Here is Justin going into the water. You can see his head in the right hand corner.




Here he is coming out of the water. A much different expression on his face. If you notice the picture above, he was a few steps behind the guy in the white tee shirt...in this picture he's many steps in front of the guy. I guess the water wasn't that balmy after all.

Special Olympics had 200 crazy people from the Galesburg area signed up to "plunge" today and raised a LOT of money to help out their athletes. I think the cold water was worth it. (as long as I don't have to participate! )
This is from the year Traivs did the plunge. He was just getting out of the water.