This was how his project for the day started out yesterday:
He really made it look pretty solid pretty soon:
Last of the prep work finished:
and we once again have a porch swing on the porch:
He bought this porch swing for me in 1997 in Perry, Iowa, and hung it up for me there. We moved it with us, and he hung it up on the screen porch at the old farmhouse when we bought it in 1998. It has not had a porch to hang on here since we bought this place in 2005. Sure looks good again, and it has a good view. We got to use it a little yesterday, but today it's been too hot to sit out there and admire the view much today.
We've had record-breaking heat in the month of June here. We went to town around 1 p.m. today after some ice cream, and the digital thermometer in the pickup said 106*F up at the black top on the way home. I figured it would get cooler as we came down the big hill into the shaded valley. It didn't. It went up to 107*F. As we came back up our hill and crossed the yard, it actually went up to 108*F. That was in the sun, but even the mercury thermometer on the porch in the shade read 104*F. It has been crazy hot and dry. We're behind 16 inches on rain over the last 12 months. There are heat advisories, heat warnings, and burn bans all over the Ozarks. They are advising on the news not to light off fireworks for the 4th of July, burn trash, or even make a campfire, as the woods are so dry. With the forest fires in Colorado, it sure makes sense.
Tropical Storm Debby dumped a lot of rain on Florida, and they have a big mess to clean up. We sure could have used some of that rain here. Praying that we get rain here soon. In the meantime, we'll sit on the porch swing with our coffee in the cool of the morning and our tea in the relatively cooler late evenings and admire the view.
This is what the front porch looked like as of 6/16/2012 with the new front porch railings:
Now, we don't have to worry about grand-kids falling off the porch, and he made it so beautiful besides!
and Papa gets a new chair for Father's Day!
It is an Ashley Signature design microfiber rocker recliner. I think he might like it a little.
Got some sad news yesterday, but then we got a new baby granddaughter today so some good news also!
Our new-to-us dining room set looks better and is built better than the brand-new Ashley set with the $1200 price tag that we saw yesterday. This set also included the china hutch, which the new set did not. We love it, and that's all that really counts.
We made a day of shopping yesterday. Went to the building supply store first, and he ordered all his lumber & stuff for the skirting on the post&beam foundation and the railings on the porches. They will deliver it sometime next week, they had to order some of the lattice in as they didn't have enough to fill our order. So, it'll be after they get that in that the delivery people will bring all of it.
We went through Mtn Grove & even wandered over to Cabool. Went to a couple of antique stores, 3 or 4 flea markets, and a few used/new furniture stores looking for a dining room set. We saw I don't know how many beat-up, chewed-up, used-up sets, or some with 3 chairs, 4 chairs, even 5 chairs... but nothing GOOD with 6 chairs. A couple of folks had told us about a used furniture store in Mtn Grove, though. There used to be one there but it closed down 6 years ago or so. One lady finally explained right where it was located, and we went to look there. Turns out the guy just had moved his store a few blocks & off the main hiway. Now it's in a place that has 2 garage doors.
He was open, and Drone walked in & asked how much for the table & chairs you're sitting on? I was still getting out of the truck, but I heard the guy say $225 and Drone asked, how much for the hutch? The guy said $200, and it matches. Drone said Yes, I can tell it's a set. Would you take $400 for the whole works? The guy said Why, sure. Drone said, Load it up. I hadn't even had a chance to get up to the door & get a good look at it before all this conversation took place. BUT, it IS a gorgeous set. China hutch is lighted with 3 leaded glass doors on top, 2 glass shelves with plate rails, and it's a 2-piece thing so the top sets on the bottom with 3 more doors & 2 big drawers in the bottom half of it. The table is really pretty too, rectangular with a leaf, 6 chairs, and chair cushions went with it. It sure fills out the dining area really nicely. The hutch fits right into the space between the corner of the room and the sliding glass doors and the table fits right under the ceiling fan like it was designed for our space. I'll get pictures later and post them. It's oak, so it matches all the cabinets.
At this point, the only room that really hasn't got oak in it is the guest room. We did look for a nice headboard for that bed yesterday too, but we haven't found anything that was nice enough yet. So far, we've really had good luck with finding just the right furniture at just the right time at our prices of what we can afford.
He has a guy coming after the box blade today, so then he can go get the Lexan for the greenhouse. Anyway, he has all the tractor implements listed for sale. We also ended up at Walmart for our shopping list, plus hit the $1.25 shop and Dollar General. We had a really fun day, and went out to eat dinner at the Mexican restaurant in Mtn Grove. He said he liked spoiling me.
So that's our adventures for yesterday. Hope everybody has a great day today and a great weekend too!
We have a back deck. AND I got to fire the nail gun. I did help him hold boards, but I put that top nail on the front left corner in with the nail gun. ;-)
All that's left for the back deck now is a ramp, some steps, and a railing. And the dogs have all checked out the doggy door too.
Had a long day today, but we've spent the last few days putting some finishing touches on the kitchen and unpacking some things that Mom sent from Florida with us last year. Shanny & Lexi came up to help with the border, and we had fun unpacking & arranging things after it was up.
and here's what it looked like after the unpacking:
and even a few for the dining room:
It was a fun day. Today, we spent trying to get our errands run and business done through a town full of city-wide yard sale! We managed not to stop at any of them, and I think we even stayed within the budget.
