Rich and Bette's News/Photos

 

 We have decided to tackle the living room remodel. Phase One-The ceiling is the first step. There is a texture effect we call popcorn. It's just drywall mud sprayed on, no asbestos. There's a nifty tool/scraper we found which makes the job less strenuous. It took us a full day. But not as messy as we expected. After Rich patched a few spots and re-sanded, we primered and painted the room and hallway ceilings. What an improvement. Phase Two will be demolishing the fireplace surround and hearth. We finished that today 10/22/09. The plan is to reduce the size of surround and hearth. Phase Three-There will be a tile surround, new mantel and tile hearth. Phase Four is putting up crown moulding in the living room and hallway. Next, we'll add a decorative trim to all the door frame tops. All the moulding and trim have to be painted and that's a big job.  This project should keep us pretty busy for a few months. We will pace ourselves, no need to rush.

     Check the photos here. Click on picture to get full size and descriptions. More added as the project coninues.

    

     Nick organized a cook-out last night. He and Kay provided the chicken and drinks. Everyone else brought a salad. After dinner and cake and ice cream, Kay opened cards and gifts. It was a coolish evening on the patio, we sang her the Birthday song and enjoyed a good visit. Lynn and Steve shared some of their memories and photos of their Mediterranean cruise just completed. Actually, they were still jet lagged since arriving two days ago. We called it an early evening since ALMOST everyone had to go to work on Friday.

     Spokane can finally say it's Spring. After a wicked heavy snow on the 17th of December (30+ inches in 18 hours) it seemed like the glacier in our yard would never melt! It didn't warm up for weeks. Finally, it began to thaw in March. We have had some warmer weather in the last few weeks.

     With the warmer weather comes the urge to garden. I don't think we'll do much except keep the grass green and maybe plant a few hanging planters for the deck. I have new roses to plant, too. The front lawn was edged with a cement curb border last fall. We have river rock borders surrounding the lawn. Really easy care. I planted the irises from Linda's yard and they are looking fine. I can't wait for blooms to show in June. Our new trees look OK, but time will tell. I think my desire for a weeping japanese maple will go unfulfilled. The one we have seems to be still in dormancy or dead. The neighbors' tree has leaf buds already, ours has none.  It's the second and final try at one. I'll have to figure out what to do in its place. Maybe a water feature. We kept the one from Seattle, and could use it there.

     We had a great weekend over April 25-26. Linda's brother David has two wineries. We went to the Maison de Padgett winery for Spring Barrel Tasting held annually in the Yakima Valley wine country.  Jerry and Janet Padgett (Linda's parents)let us park the motorhome at their house next to the winery. We had volunteered to help them at the winery with the expected crowds.  Rich handed out party beads, like Mardi Gras beads. I used the pipette to serve samples of the new Pleasure Point Peach dessert wine. Considering the record number of tasters, everything went pretty smoothly. There was a good band with good music. Stew and Linda were helping David at his Horizon's Edge winery. Sunday was not so hectic at either winery. We got to see the grandkids Saturday evening and for a little while Sunday. They are growing up so fast. I created an album of photos to go with this article. Click on the photo to see full size photo slide show and text description. 4/26/2009