Fall colors

 The backyard is full of color this fall.

  This photo shows the Hawthorne, Red Oak and Cottonwood.  The Red Oak seldom has this nice of color, another time was when we built the sun room on 17 years ago.  

 This might be the last year for the Hawthorne as half of it is dead.  I am in hopes it will come back, next spring will be the deciding factor.

  The Red Oak, again.  We also have Burr Oaks, but they generally have brown leaves.  There is a hint of color in them this fall, but a cold front is coming in next week so that will probably turn the leaves brown.  

  I feel like we didn't have much of a summer, dealing with all the building. And now we are half way through fall, speeding toward the cold months of winter. I am in hopes the windows will be fixed soon so that winter stays outside. 

 And on the window note, an engineer is coming all the way from Iowa next week to look at them. Some how I am suppose to be impressed with that "all the way from IA" part.  Heck, that was an easy drive last fall when we went to the quilt show in Des Moines.  All I have to say is that it is about time someone got out here.  

This last photo is of the Aspen.  I am the most thrilled to see it dressed in pale yellow as it is one of the two times they have been anything to look at in the fall.  Brown is their usual dress color.  

Hope to post a few photos of the studio this weekend.  It is finally coming together, I am hoping by the end of next week I have moved most everything from the studio and some of the items from the sewing room in the basement.    

New Windows

If I knew how to put a large red circle with a slash through it I would put it on these Eagle windows made by Andersen!  They are nothing but a piece of very expensive junk!!!!!  And if you are thinking of buying Andersen windows, think long and hard before throwing your money down the drain with all the dirt you will be cleaning out of them!!!

What you see on the INSIDE ledge of the window is dirt, not just dust, but dirt and other particles of debris and I cleaned it up once before this photo was taken.  And there was another one that was worse yet!!!

These windows are the brand new windows in the studio, office and bedroom.  There are twelve of them and every single one of them leaks air, therefore dirt, dust and whatever else is blowing around in the air, when the winds are blowing, comes right under the the window.  If we had a blizzard it would be snow coming in and ruining the windows.

We purchased them through our contractor who is building the studio from a local dealer here in town.  Of course I got the usual lip service of it being an easy fix with this and that, well guess what, that didn't work and it has been a couple of weeks now and the dirt has blown several more times since the initial big blow and there has been more dirt and dust.  

Andersen is suppose to be sending some replacement weather stripping.  If it is the same stuff that is in there now, it won't work.  It is a poorly designed window!!!!  That seems to be the name of the game these days, proclaim you have a high quality product and sell junk.  Two of the casements aren't even square.  One is over 3/8" out of square.  That is Eagle quality by Andersen!!!!  
We spent extra money on the insulation in order to help keep dirt and dust out of the studio, extra on the can lights to keep dirt and dust out of the studio to no avail because of the windows.  
  
The studio is coming along, but at this point in time, I wish we hadn't built it because of the issues with the windows.  

6.95" and Counting

 It is still raining this morning!!!  Not complaining, as we have been so dry, we were in dire need of rain.  I do not remember having this much rain over a 24 hour period ever and this time of the year!!!  We might get our wheat up, once it dries out and we can plant.
  This is Sandy Creek, which is south of us.  This one was running earlier this summer when we were all plastered with hail and rain about 5 weeks ago.  Normally this is a dry creek bed.    
  We brought the 'official' rain gauge in this morning and measured the rain in it.  We will have missed a little, as it was starting to rain hard again when we brought it in.  So we have received 6.95" of rain as of 8:45 this morning.  

The next photo is of the Smoky Hill River which is also a dry river bed the vast majority of the time.  Rivers and creeks around here are simply drainage areas when we do have large amounts of rain.  Like every river or creek in Colorado, it carries water out of the state to other states.  Even though it doesn't look very deep, it is probably 12' down to the river bed.  
  
 In the foreground is the Smoky River from another location.  In the background is a field, flooded with water.  I would say half of this field is flooded.  Hard to see how much water is actually out there, but there is a lot.  

  There is a small habitat area north of our home and draw is running through it.  Have no idea how long it has been since we saw that happen.  

  I hope friends and family along the Front Range are safe and their homes are safe.  Far worse up there than it is out here.  

I am finally back

I finally have my regular computer hooked back up to the internet.  I will have photos tomorrow of some interesting things with the studio and dragonflies.

Freedom and Chaos

 Thought I should update the blog.  It has been so hectic that I haven't had time or access to the computer most of the time to do any posting.   There has been some positive progress made with the studio.  We are finally to the painting stage!!!!

 We did take a few days off last week and went camping in the mountains.  Camped at a friend's ranch.  The weather was great, had a heck of a thunderstorm on Sunday though.  Nothing like being in the mountains with lightning all around. It was a very enjoyable trip, just too short.  

It was a bit depressing to come back home to the chaos.  There is not a room in the house that hasn't been touched by the addition in some way. Dust abounds everywhere!!!!!  We took up the sticky plastic that we have had down on the carpet and replaced it with some fresh.  There is a plastic curtain hanging in the hallway until the sheet rock and texturing is completed.   I will be thrilled when it comes down permanently.  


                                   

  It remains folded up to the ceiling unless the dust is flying.  We took the wall out that separated the new addition from the rest of the house Tuesday night.  We decided we had waited long enough and why leave it to those guys.  We left the messy part up on the ceiling for the guys though.
  We had already removed one ceiling from a closet in the house when we remodeled 17 years ago and had an idea it would be a very big mess as they didn't believe in putting anything up there to hold the sheet rock and insulation up if there weren't any walls doing the job when the original house was built.  And that is exactly the way this one was, too.  

dyeing room

 The walls in the dyeing room have been painted once, need to paint the dark one again.  I really liked using the dark paint as it widened out the room and didn't make it feel so long and narrow.  As soon as that wall is painted, there will be some cabinets going up on the wall to the right.  My cabinet builder is ready and waiting anxiously for the moment.  

south end of  studio area

They will start on the underlayment in the areas where there is vinyl either tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday.  That will be a big day when it is completed 
as well as the base  cabinets can be set.  I hope it will continue to come together each week and be in the studio in a month's time.

The beams are being prepped for what they will become.  Will post the end result.  I think they will look pretty darned good when completed.  

The bricks were delivered on Wednesday and we picked up tile and vinyl yesterday in Denver.  The doors, counter top, and large window, providing it was ordered weeks ago (no faith in the guy that was suppose to order it and it was a mystery to the one guy at the lumber yard the other day when checked on), all should be here sometime this week.  

The stucco guys were here yesterday and put some of the chicken wire on the outside so that should be underway tomorrow as well.

 Of course all is not well as the a/c is leaking on the floor in the furnace room. That took a few phone calls to convince the installer that we knew what the heck we were complaining about.  Always have to have some wrinkle in the plan.

  Picked up the barn door hangers the other day so we can start building the doors once the cabinets are out of the wood shop.

The project

The most exciting thing is that the new front door is now in, but it has clear glass in the top and the side lights instead of leaded glass.   Hopefully the correct glass has been ordered and hopefully it will take less than 2 months to get here.   Doubtful though, as it took that long for the door to get here to begin with and it really isn't anything that special.  I sure hope the guy at the hardware store can handle it and doesn't think it is more than we should be spending to replace the glass though, if he does he might cancel the order.  Love it when others know how we should be spending our money.  Great thing about living in a small town!!!!!

  

They did come and insulate the walls with the spray-on insulation the other day and now they are putting the batts in the ceiling.  The guys who will hang the sheet rock are scheduled to be here tomorrow and the new office window will be put in and the closet rebuilt on one end and maybe we can start putting our office back together. I live in hope!!!!  

The garden is starting to produce, I put up 7 qts. of dills yesterday, 6 pts. of tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and working on some salsa today.   The green beans have been delicious and we have been enjoying cabbage.  There are some that think they want to become kraut already so that is on the agenda tomorrow.

  

I also need to make the tissue holders for Guild.  They are to be favors for those attending the Quilt Show in Oct.  Have them cut out and ready to go.  Another project for tomorrow.  

Update on Studio

We received approval from the electrical inspector  to "close it up"!!!    That is a new term, which I have learned a few of on this project, new terms and new sayings that is.   Some more interesting than others.  We can now move forward.

The spray foam insulation guys are here this morning.  We are having the walls sprayed and the crawl space sprayed.   Hopefully it will  seal it up and stop the dirt and dust from penetrating the structure, as best one can prevent that from happening out here.
 
The guy who will bring the gas line to the outside of the building stopped by to see where he needed to bring it in and the carpenters are working on the soffit.  That is one time consuming and tedious job.

Everything is ordered and on its way, the vinyl, bricks, tile.  Hopefully the front door makes an appearance on Wednesday.  That will be the next big addition and then the sheet rocking might begin on Thurs. or the following Monday, along with the stucco on the outside.  So things will change quickly in the studio and I am ready for that next step!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I will have some new photos once my computer is set up and running again.  I need to work on perfecting my skills of getting photos from other areas and to the iPad.