Kurt masters "Beer can Chicken"

A successful BBQ dinner last night- two chickens cooked sitting upon cans of beer.  Very tasty......and not burned a bit.....which is a vast improvement over the last time Kurt tried this recipe....

The last time the birds were left unattended for only a short while- but during that time the BBQ kicked itself into high gear-- when Kurt returned there were flames shooting out of all sides of the BBQ lid and this was the condition of the poor birds........................needless to say, we had hamburgers that night

Eureka! We hit WATER!

We own 20 acres of wild hill side.  Last year Kurt took the excavator up the hill and dug a bunch of test holes in areas that looked like natural water-run-off areas, hoping to find some surface water.  NO luck last summer.  BUT this week we took our first Spring walk up the hill and discovered a GUSHER (or so it seems to us).  One of the test holes is filled with beautiful clear water seeping out of the hill side.  It is overflowing at a rate we estimate to be 6 or 7 gallons a minute.  This has created a new water course we have dubbed Matter Creek.

Another step in the kitchen upgrade

Kurt returned from a week of work in Denver and got right back to work on our kitchen.  Finishing the drywall--dusty and time comsuming.  By Thursday he was ready to spray on the texture--

 It was a lot of work to get everything taped off....

 Good bye  terra cotta

On Friday we were able to repaint......hello Pueblo Sand- a nice golden yellow.  It looks great with the new granite countertops

Our cute Josie

Here is Josie trying to take a bite out of Kurt's knuckle- she seemed to think his finger made the perfect size teething surface....

 It was chilly the whole time Lisa and Josie visited - so hats were required for afternoon walks.  But then, she is very cute in a hat......
 It took a dozen shots to catch a great smile---here is one.
 Josie was very interested in looking around during the walk-- SO MUCH to see....

 Turns out we didn't take that many pictures- but we got this one on the last morning.  Josie in her great-grandmothers bed.  Nice to see a 4th generation using the bed

Baby Josie comes to Kettle Falls

Lisa and Josie are paying us a visit.  Here they are arriving at Spokane airport- looks like the flight went ok!

Finally a look-see at Josie- whom we haven't seen since she was 10 days old

Josie was taking it all instride- especially when Grandpa was holding her

Soon we were home and after getting a roaring fire going Lisa had to strip down Josie because it was too hot!

Lisa and Josie will be here for a week- more pictures are sure to follow!

MORE progress in the kitchen :)

Kurt was quite busy while Joanie was out of town for 6 days.  He wasted no time taking out the old base cabinet......

and bringing in the new one.....

 Lots of leveling and adjusting and then he was able to put on the countertop undelayment........LOOK knobs and drawer handles!
Then he turned his attention to mudding the ceiling drywall- some of which has been up for over a year (and some was new last month)
 Seeing this picture- Joanie was really glad she was out of town during this stage!

Today he started laying out the granite tiles for the counter top.  It is going to be spectacular!!!

New base cabinet from start to finish in two weeks!

This base cabinet was stacked playwood and lumber on March 21st.

Here is Kurt with the nearly finished project on March 31st.

Notice all the features- 10 drawers! All with automatic closures....

this is before the final sanding and staining

 Pretty cool, huh?

the stain went on on april 1 and he did 3 coats of varathane on Satuday.
Next pictures will be after the installation

starting to look like a kitchen

Although it is still FAR from done- we can finally see how it is going to look with the new arrangement in the kitchen.  Here are the bones of the new arrangement...
Here is the master carpenter standing by his handywork

And guess what I am so happy about!!!  A dishwasher-- yippee!  And look at all that countertop space...

Another window to replace

The original goal for the day was to finish the drywall around the new window on the right-- and by 11 am it was done

Then one thing lead to another---and we decided to take out the other window today....as expected the old window was poorly supported --as you can see the header beam only went part way across the top of the window...

 Soon we had the window out- luckily the afternoon was relatively warm even though we had new snow on the ground this morning.

 Here is the new window in place- notice the nice header that goes all the way to each end of the window!  After getting this far we decided that was enough for today!

More window work

First job on Friday was to insulate around the new window.  We ended up taking the wall board off the little ceiling area--after noticing that there was no insulation in there either.

 Kurt moved the ceiling light fixture while he was at it, then he put up some insulation.  

New wallboard on the ceiling-before calling it a day and going fishing.  He came home with a fish too!

Out with the old....

The old sink cabinet came out on Thursday-- Here it is partially demolished.

 And now it is all removed.

 With time left in the day Kurt decided to change out the window on the right.  This was the last original window remaining in the house.  Here is the empty hole. 

 And now the new thermal pane slider window is in place.
 And a look at the window from the outside

Day 3-new beam in and drywalled!

Kurt is moving fast-  
Here is where we were 3 days ago

Tonight the new beam is in place and covered in drywall. We gained 6 inches of head room. It makes the room look much more open.

New kitchen means demolition first

Interior work started yesterday on the kitchen remodel. First day not too bad- Kurt 'just' took out the beam over the sink

Today it is a little more serious- cut the studs and insert a new beam- while holding up the wall with posts.  Note stove is moved and dust everywhere.  Dinner was take-out!