Murphy Bed for 2nd Guest Room

I was in Anchorage for few hours on Memorial Day. I stopped in at Scan Home to take a look at their Murphy Beds and decided I really liked this one. The price was pretty good with the sale that day, so I bought one and had it shipped.

Then it sat around the house for a week while I tried to figure out how to put it together. The instructions weren't very helpful and this sucker is HEAVY. On Tue Lynn was in town, so she helped me figure it ou and get it bolted together, laying on the floor.

So Wed night Marge & Carol came over for dinner. After dinner they help me get the Murphy bed standing up, and Marge screwed it into the studs behind the wall. It's pretty solid. The lift mechcanism is going to need a bit of adjusting once I get the mattress for it. But, it's 90% ready to go.

I'm really glad I decided to put a Murphy Bed in this room. When it's unfolded, it really fills up the room. So when it's not in use it can be tucked up, out of the way.

Platform Beds Started

As most of you know, patience is NOT my middle name. So spending a day with power tools usually entails much cussing, an injury or 2 and a broken power tool. I'm happy to say, that I only broke one drill bit and the power tools are all intact. Maybe I am learning a little patience. This project did go much better after I decided to actually use the drill bit instead of trying to screw the wood together skipping that step.


This is actually all Carols fault. A couple of months ago, she said she wanted to build a platform bed for her new house. She made is sound so easy, so I looked around on line and found a few web sites showing how to build different kinds of platforms for beds. This one looked easy so I decided to give it a try.
http://www.myfamilylovesit.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/21/how-to-build-a-platform-bed/
I don't like the metal frames with wheels that I have in the back guest room.

So after much considering, I stopped at Home Depot last week and ordered the 2x10's and 2x4's. They'll cut them to specific sizes. I tried Lowes first but they said they could only cut pieces in half, not to specific sizes.

Today I got to spend a couple of hours working on this project. Boy is it nice to have concrete floors and no furniture. I just put everything on a piece of cardboard in the living room and got started. It actually went pretty well.

Since the back guest room has 2 twin beds, I need 2 platforms. I got both the 2x10 bases screwed together, and one of the 2x4 tops. I also got the 2 headboard pieces sanded and the corners rounded off. Everything is stacked around the living room, waiting until I get home at the end of June. I'm hoping to get it all put together and painted and finished in about 3 days.

Yard work....yuck.

I'm home but it's too wet to do any yard work at my house. So I spent most of the day in town, working around my 6 plex. The yard is in pretty good shape, and there wasn't a lot of garbage to pick up. But I had lots of weeding to do. A couple of years back I had the sod cut back from the sides of the building, and 6 inches of washed gravel added. So when water runs off the roof it doesn't splash mud up on the siding. I know, I tried gutters for 4 years and gave up. Every winter they get pulled off with the sliding snow & ice from my metal roof. Really got tired of having them put back up.

Anyway, the grass won't grow in the yard where I want it too. But it will infiltrate the gravel after a while. At least its fairly easy to clean out. Just use the little hand hoe and dig into the gravel next to the cut sod line. The grass and the roots pull out really easy and then smooth the gravel back. Looks nice now that I have it done. But 3 hours crawling around on my hands & knees wasn't much fun. Wonder how stiff I'm going to be in the AM? Here is a before and after next to the shed.

Another Retirement

Another one of our helicopter pilots is retiring this week. Larry has been working on our project since the island was under construction. I'll miss him and his stories. And I hope he loves being retired!

Snow Stops Installed

Here is a pic Paul sent me of the snow stops he installed on my roof. We had so much snow then rain that I got a lot of ice build up this winter. It slid down and pushed off the back side of the roof and bent the flashing. Paul got that fixed last week, but we decided to install the snow stops to hold the snow/ice in place. So next winter we probably won't get any ice :-)


Anyway, it makes the roof look kind of wavy. I like it.

Spring in Deadhorse

When I look out my window, all I see is blowing snow. But it must be spring because the bears are out of hibernation and roaming around. I guess there was a polar bear in the gravel pit on Friday, though I didn't see it. And Roger sent me this video and pic of a grizzly that hung around their shop all day, earlier this week. He's looking for something to eat but can't get into the dumpster.

New Perspective

I walked over to my neighbors today to take a few pics of her new deck. She wanted them e-mailed to her. Walking down her driveway I got a bit of a different view of the front of my house. You can see right through the front door, entryway and out through the doors on the deck.

And there is still a lot of snow.

Next door - new steps & cable rail deck.

Pantry Cabinets

Here are some pics of my pantry cabinets. Finally got the insides built and installed.

Now I need to get them lined and stocked up :-)

First Deck Party of 2010

Well, I've had spring fever all day. Was up and moving by 7 am. Sunny day, turned just beautiful. I spent the whole day cleaning and organizing 'stuff'. Then about 6:30 pm Chris & Valda came over to have a glass of wine. We decided to sit on the deck. This pic was taken about 6:45 pm.

And here is an earlied picture of Stella. Paul came buy to put the door handles on my pantry cabinets and Stella took decided a nap was in order for her :-)

Kitchen Cabinet Door Glass

I got home yesterday and got to see my kitchen cabinet doors finished. Paul got the glass installed last week.
Yay!
It was a great Easter present :-)

March Photos

We got a bunch of snow last week, here are a few pictures.

And, I got my window seat cushions in. I had the folks at Nomar make them for me, they really came out nice.

Travel & Web Cams

I found a very interesting web site today. It's called Webcams.travel. It combines maps from Google Earth, with web cams. If you're familiar with Google Earth, it's pretty easy to use. You can zoom in and out, looking at detailed maps of the area. Little squares show up every place there is a linked web cam. I love it. Check it out when you have a chance.

http://www.webcams.travel/

January Update

I haven't been blogging this R&R, so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of tonights sunset. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The dusting of snow on my front deck melted. It really felt like mid March this afternoon, not mid January.

These 2 were taken at 4:18 pm. Just starting to get dark. Lots of fog drifting out over the bay. The moon is up but it's high.

This one was taken at 4:56 pm. No flash so it really shows the color in the clouds.

I got a few things done around the house. Placed an order for seat cushions for the window seat with Nomar. I'll stop there tomorrow on my way north and verify the details. They should be ready in about 6 weeks. I'll post some pictures when I get them home.

And Paul finished up the aluminum frames for the kitchen cabinet doors. I have price quotes coming from a glass place here in Homer, and one in Soldotna. So hopefully I can get that finalized tomorrow. Then Paul can get the glass installed and that part of the kitchen project will be done.

I also picked up some 1 x 1 x 1/16 aluminum angle at SBS today. I think it's going to work out just fine as my light valance. Right now I have a piece duct taped to the bottom of the kitchen cabinets, but I like how it looks. I also tried a piece of the 3/4 inch but it was just too small. It matches the door pulls and the aluminum frames. Boy this picture shows I need to wash the cabinet doors :-)

More Bar Stool

I got a set of folding IKEA Barstools for Christmas from Shari. Finally got home with them last night. Put them together this morning. They're great! Nice & sturdy too. I like them better than the expensive ones I looked at when I was in Anchorage last month. ScanHome wanted $200 each for something similar and they were pretty wobbly.

Happy New Years Eve

Here I am in Deadhorse for another New Years Eve. Missed seeing the lunar elicpse because it got cloudy about 9 am. That was a bummer, it had been really clear and the full moon was beautful when I came into work a little before 6 am.

Though the days are getting longer, it's still dark all the time. We don't get a sunrise for another month or so.

Virg sent met his photo of our jet on the tarmac over at Kuparuk today. I don't know who took it, but it's a nice shot showing the full moon. That flight departed at 2:30 pm, so this had to be taken some time close to then. -27 over there when it was taken.

Early Christmas

I had an early Christmas today.

First, my new washer & dryer were delivered.

Then my bar stools arrived. They got shipped into Kenai this morning and mom & dad brought them down. They are molded alumuinum. Very light weight. I like how the look against my dark floor and island counter top.

And, after dinner we decorated sugar cookes. It's after 11 pm, I'm ready for bed, but it's been a great day.

Heifer International

Here is a link to Heifer International. They are one of my favorite charities. I think what got me interested was their "Passing on the Gift" requirement. I think it's really import for the people who receive help from any charity, to be able to eventually, pay it back, in one way or another. And giving the gift of breeding pairs of animals, to others in a poor community, just strengthens the entier community.

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201549/

And then, here are a couple of sunset pics from the past few day. The one with the airplane in it was Monday afternoon, around 1 pm and this other one was taken Wed around 3 pm.

A few new house pics

Well, this 2 weeks has gone by way too fast. I got a fe more things done around the house. The guest bathroom is now finished. AND, I managed to get the settling tank for my cistern cleaned out. Boy was that a task. I'm glad I only have to do it once a year.

And Paul got some time to work on the upper cabinet doors. The aluminum frames are going together quite nicely. Once we get them sized correctly, I can order the frosted glass to go inside them.

Sunday night and Monday morning we got some snow. Then Monday afternoon there was rain, followed by more snow over night. YUCK. Though the roads aren't as bad as I'd feared.

Saturday Sunrise

From my bedroom window...its warming up a bit. Might get some snow but it will probably be mixed with rain.

Guest Rooms & Guest Bathroom

OK, today I finally got the guest bathroom finished, which meant getting the glass block wall caulked. It's done and cleaned & the shower curtain is hung.

So, who is coming to visit and when?

This is sunset tonight, taken through the window in the guest bathroom.

Winter Sunrise over Kachemak Bay

I'm at home this week, still organizing and enjoying my new house. I'm about finished with the guest bathroom and should get some pictures posted of it tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I'd post these pictures I took yesterday. It's was clear & cold (today is partly cloudy, but still cold). I didn't think my camera would take a very good scenery pictures, but these came out pretty well. I took them from my deck. You can see how cold the water looks.

Getting Ready for Winter

I managed to get my icicle lights up. It's kind of a grainy picture, but it was pretty dark when I took this on Wed night.

House Update

Here is a quick update. I've been doing a lot of unpacking and putting stuff away. In fact I got the file cabinets installed under my counter/desk and spent an entire day sorting paperwork, setting up files and filling up the file cabinets. I also took several boxes of old paperwork to the dump :-).

And this is a milestone. Paul got the block wall at the end of the guest shower put together yesterday. It still needs to be caulked, but I'll do that when I'm home next R&R. This has been a real pain, I started ordering the parts back in April. But the glass place in Anchorage I ordered the supplies through, didn't talk with the manufacturer and after 3 more orders, and getting the wrong materials, the manufacturer finally told me they would not sell me the right boarder to use the blocks in a wet environment. They only installed that themselves, and not in AK. So Paul took all the wrong parts we'd recieved over the past few months and modified some of them to make it work. Thanks Paul!

Penny & Carol came over for dinner.

And I found some of my Halloween decorations.