What Can Brown Do For You?

 

Here are a few more pictures of the project. Today we will return four boxes of the flooring leaving us with almost three full boxes to finish the dining room. We are coordinating with our chief carpenter/craftsman a date for him to return to lead us to the finish. The quarter round trim that we ordered is en route from Ontario, California on a brown UPS truck.

 

 

The new game with the cats, Sue tells me is called "Bowling Alley". You throw a cat toy and the cat, either Orange or Black rumbles after it like an orange or a black bowling ball. I put the closet door on with no trouble at all.

 

 

These are the new decorative air vents but unfortunately the one in the foyer is a smaller size that is not available in this design. 

 

 

I cut the grass for the first time last Thursday when it finally stopped raining. Long grass + wet grass + an electric mower  = a slow lawn mowing experience.

 

 

We've decided these guys are starting to look less kitten like and more like cats. Sue will perform a formal cat weigh-in today.

 

 

The cats like the floor but what don't they like? 

 

 

The piano is still sitting on those soft furniture sliding pads. We're waiting to install the quarter round behind the piano before we move it one more inch.

Later today when it warms up some we'll take our annual walk over to the General Lutheran cemetery to pay our respects to our local military heroes. We leave for Germany in six weeks!

Gemütlichkeit

 

We’re in planning mode for our Germany/Switzerland/Johanna tour that’s just around the corner.  We are staying with both Johannas families for a few days each but will spend some time on our own as well. 

We booked the Gastof zum Baren in Meersburg (pictured above) on the recommendation of the Pfeifer family who stayed here about 5 years ago.  If it’s good enough for Carla, it’s good enough for me!  It seems to ooze Gemütlichkeit which according to Wikipedia means “a situation that induces a cheerful mood, peace of mind, with connotation of belonging and social acceptance, coziness and unhurry”.  Put that one in Google Translate for a good laugh!  Love the German language!

When we were in Germany 11 years ago (11 years already…), we loved the German breakfasts.  Lots of delicious bread, cold meats, granola, yoghurt and all kinds of other tasty treats. 

This is where we are staying in Interlaken, Switzerland.  It’s called Post Hardermannli.  We don’t know anyone who has stayed there but how could it possibly be bad when they take such good care of their flowers.  We’ll do some hiking in Berner Oberland (aka “the Swiss Alps”).  It might be time to bring the braids back again. 

We (OK, maybe just I) am excited to fly on Air France.  They now fly almost daily non-stop to/from Paris and Minneapolis.  We were in Mendota Heights on Tuesday night and zipped across the Mendota Bridge to take a peek at the plane on its inaugural flight into Minneapolis.  We couldn’t see much from the Cell Phone Parking Lot but did get a good view of the only non-Delta Airlines tail at the “big boy” gates known to most as G1-10.  How’s that for travel geekiness??!!

Chair of Brotherly Love

And On The Seventh Day

 

We reached a natural stopping point in the floor project yesterday when we discovered we had to order a piece from The Home Despot to cap the top of the stairs--where the floor meets the top stair. It would have been nice of The Home Despot to warn us that they don't carry all of the trim pieces to finish the job.  Anyway, we have several square feet to finish off sometime this weekend or next week. In the mean time, the floor looks awesome and we've moved some furniture back into the rooms. Of course we still need to nail up the quarter round trim but we have Alyssa's miter saw and we'll order the quarter round from Home Depot and have it delivered for free to the house. Today I rest. I hope Mike Berg is resting some today after all of his hard work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Thanks Mike for your expertise, tools and energy.

 

OK, why is there a photo of

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

on the blog today? Sue is taking her 8th graders to the Chanhassen production of Joseph. I am waiting by the phone for the call that there is an extra ticket for me. Joseph is a really good show. I wait. . .

Incredible Progess

 

I went to work today and Doug & Dad got a ton done!  We’ve discovered the floor is the color of the orange cat.

This is where the project was at when I left for work this morning. 

Progress…

More progress…

Time for thinking, figuring, measuring and remeasuring…

The cats like it.

I came home just in time to help put in all these long, straight easy boards.

A big step – the piano is out of the kitchen! 

We’re down to just the closet and the dining room. 

And reinstalling the trim, adding quarter-round and figuring out what to do in the kitchen, the back hall and the back bathroom….

Progress

Getting Serious About This

 

While I was at work the last couple days, Doug tore out the carpet and quite a bit of the vinyl flooring in the foyer. 

When I got home last night, I took over while Doug went to trombone quartet rehearsal (performances at 9am outdoors & 10am at Augustana on Sunday)

After about 20 minutes, I realized why Doug said he was so sore he couldn’t hold up his trombone. 

Nigel has decided the boxes of flooring make a good look out for his brother who is going crazy running around on the bare floor.

Projector Inspector at work - Good Boy!

Tools and cat toys everywhere!

The last stubborn piece of vinyl subfloor in the closet

We pulled out about a million tacks and staples from the floor.  My PE Teacher colleague loaned me two scooters that proved helpful.

Nothing says fun like a piano in the kitchen!

Preparing to "git 'er done!"

 

Calling all carpenters: look at this! The linoleum area is 1/4 inch higher than the former carpet area. I can think of three solutions to this problem but what does someone with any carpentry experience think? My ideas are: 1) put down a 1/4 inch layer of sub floor in the former carpet area, 2) pull up the linoleum and the 1/4 inch of stuff underneath it. 3) I don't have third idea. . .

 

 

 I've been using a hedge trimmer device to cut the carpet into manageable and roll-able chunks. I'm trying to avoid an asthma attack from all the dust and other airborne crud.

 

 

 The cats are helping out in the best way they know how--by sniffing things and running away when there's a loud noise.

 

All told, we hauled in 27 boxes of this bamboo click-lock hard wood 3/8 inch flooring. We're hoping to return some of them at the end of the project.  That's the power of The Home Depot. Mike Berg is coming to town on Sunday with his saw and other useful tools. Allow me to quote Larry the Cable Guy in an Alabaman accent: "Let's git 'er done!

 

 

Is this a Humane Society-approved way to bath your cat?

 

 

Many Thanks to Judy for making our Tanzanian gift cloths into a double-sided duvet cover for Johanna's room. We're going to get a headboard, tan sheets and a bed skirt to match.  Mr. Nigel approves of the linens.

 

 

The cats have enjoyed having the furniture moved around and in different rooms. Ravel vigorously frolics in the space formerly occupied by the accent chair.

Ready for some fun

 

We've finally decided to go ahead with the new flooring we've been talking about for an embarrassingly long time.  We already had the wood (Bamboo - Natural finish) picked out so Doug went to Home Depot to pick it up yesterday.  We're happy that Dad & Mom Berg are going to come up over the weekend and show us how to install it. 

 

Much of the furniture has already been moved to other parts of the house so the cats are both interested and confused.  They are also interested and confused by the weather.  It snowed a little bit on Saturday and today is 93 degrees.  Crazy Minnesota weather!

 

On tonight's program - Doug's piece

On tonight's program - Doug's piece

One Doug-Width Wide

 

We’ve been talking about installing new flooring on our first floor.  This afternoon, we realized it’s pretty much either going to start next weekend or it has to wait until after we get back from Germany. 

We started to measuring and Doug realized the hallway is slightly less than one Doug-length wide.  Good to know…

Doug enjoys “creative” placement of furniture more than I do so he was excited to start moving furniture out of the living room.  I suspect I’ll come home from work tomorrow and there will be a big gash in the carpeting. 

Nigel was both helpful and worried. 

The chief engineer at work. 

The Norway of Central Europe

 

Here's Nigel being a good sport in one of our "cat in the crate for a road trip" practice runs. It was hard to get him in there but he settled down for the ride to the gas station. We're trying to get them used to traveling in the crates and the idea that the crate does not always lead to bad things like the vet office. Today we are headed to the Berg Estates Of Northwestern Wisconsin for a Mother's Day visit. The cats will have their first road trip across state lines. We borrowed a second crate from Leon and unfortunately for the more diminutive Nigel, he'll be riding in the smaller of the crates.

 

 

Sue put collars on the boys again and they've kept them on for about 12 hours now! We hope Tailwheel is resting up this morning.

 

 

Yesterday afternoon I took a nice 20 minute walk to the Black Sheep for a cup of Ethiopian brew. I started reading a Henry James novel set in Switzerland. We'll be visiting Switzerland for 1-4 days on our Germany trip this summer depending on how expensive Switzerland is. As far as costs go, Switzerland is the Norway of central Europe.

 

 

The trees are a bloomin'.

 

 

Here's our block--even the street sweeper did a sweep this week cleaning up the inches of muck in the gutters.

 

 

Nigel looks really put together in his light green collar. Ravel looked great with the red plaid bow tie collar but he squirmed out of it immediately.

Tonight we're going to Eleva-Strum High School's performance of Into The Woods.

*****

Happy Mother's Day to our mothers!