Keeping busy indoors!

Bathroom - wall colors photographed lighter than they are.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

View of kitchen from dining area.

(Walls are darker than they appear in photo - a dark salmon.)

Kitchen

Kathy spent the day doing laundry, trying out the dishwasher, and picking up the cottage for a few photos. She touched up some walls with paint. We actually did very well moving things in and did very little damage to the walls and floors. The floors still need to be cleaned, especially the bamboo, but we are continuing to move things to the farm from The Fort, so won't do a thorough job of cleaning until we are completely done moving. Not to mention that it is silly to clean the bamboo when the basement steps are still so filthy. They will be washed down, sanded and painted.

Kathy programmed the water softener yesterday and it charged last night without a hitch.

The washer takes very little soap because of the soft water. We will need to remember that! Bonnie is enjoying the soft water...especially in the shower. Kathy is trying to find out how many ppm the iron content is in our water. She set the water softener hardness higher because of the iron content, but would like more accurate info. And she is thrilled to now have some clean undies to wear. Bonnie suggested she buy some more. What a novel idea!

The basement floor is holding up. It did need another coat of paint and is filthy from all the traffic. It will be difficult to keep it clean until the drainage tile work is completed and some gravel is put down at the walk-out. Right now, every time Kathy lets Millie and Gizmo out to answer the call of nature, she has to stick their feet in a pan of water to wash off the mud! That is only because it rained quite a bit yesterday. Today Gizmo took off while Kathy was cleaning the mud from Millie's feet. He found his way back to the basement, but not before Kathy was wet and muddy from trying to locate him!

The washer and dryer seem to be performing well. There was a question as to whether the washer would be able to push water up 8' or more to the drain that would remove it from the house. Kathy had checked the manual and it stated that the washer could do it...and it has so far today. We do need a longer drain hose. Rex had to extend the one we had for a temporary fix and it is leaking a little where two hoses are hooked together. We also neglected to bring the flexible dryer tubing from The Fort and we have a temporary fix there, too. Kathy will be picking that up tomorrow on her lunch break from work and Rex will be responsible for picking up a longer drain hose.

Kathy decided to test the dishwasher this evening and it seemed to do a good job and did not leak. No leaks is always a good thing.

Rex and Kathy worked on getting more hot water coming out of the shower head. The water was warm but was not hot. The hardware came shipped from the factory pre-set to save hot water, but it was too cool for us. Bonnie will be happy now because Kathy took a shower this afternoon and can attest to the fact that the water is now much hotter.

Kathy treated herself to a trip to town today and visited both Wal*Mart and Owen's. She got a few items and was delighted to see that Owen's carried some of her favorite Private Select items, including her favorite ice cream! That will please Marquette who gets a teaspoon or two of vanilla bean ice cream every night. Sometimes Possum joins him, but never Tacumwah. Marquette also gets a splash of skim milk in the morning too. He is the only cat of ours who seems to like milk.

All three cats ate well today. It is the first good meal Possum has eaten in almost a week.

Andy or his people were a no-show today so Kathy had no stove tonight. So with the microwave not working, it was sandwiches...again! Bonnie, on the other hand, met a friend at Casa's in The Fort for dinner. Maybe she will bring home a doggie bag? Kathy isn't too proud to accept leftovers from Casa's!