Rain, Cold and a Squirrel

The trip to and from Louisiana was a success. We were able to see all the family members in a drive by type visit.


We arrived at Zelda on Monday and stayed till Thursday. Our original intention was to stay and work till Friday afternoon, but the rain, cold and a work interview for Brent, had us leave on Thursday to head back to Tennessee.


Also, the girls were off for a mini-break at UT so their last class for the week was Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday night we received a frantic call from Jennifer and Jessica as a squirrel was running around in the house. After many phone calls and screams, Brent was able to talk the girls through a process of getting the squirrel out. After about one (1) hour we had success. We laughed at the similarity of the squirrel incident to the that of the movie Christmas Vacation.

We worked long hours and hard but it does not seem to feel like we got a lot accomplished. Brent did make repairs on the outside siding, including caulking and scraping one side of the house in preparation of painting. Then the rains and cold temperature arrived Wednesday morning and stayed until we departed. Brent really wanted to get some paint on the house this week, but instead, focused his attention on the master bedroom closet floor. We also prepped the downstairs floor around the edges for the hardwood floors, painted the crown molding and baseboards before installing ,caulked around the installed crown molding and removed old paint from the staircase. We also hung a cabinet over the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. I guess we did a lot of preparatory base work for the finish product to come.

The pictures are of the flooring installed in the master bedroom closet. We decided to use a lock and snap laminate flooring which was a first for us. Brent was very hesitant at first but then decided to use the product, because in was in a closet.

The first attempt to install on Wednesday night did not look good, so early Thursday morning, Brent pulled up the floor and reinstalled with a fantastic finish. His approach on the second attempt was to install just like a real hardwood floor by staggering and making sure no seems were together. This might have been in the instructions, but Brent is a typical guy and did not read. He did leave room for expansion which will be covered by the base boards. We will install a pre-fabricated fiberglass catch pan for the laundry area and pipe the overflow outside.

We expect to have the heat turned on to the house by this Tuesday. The gas line needed to be re-routed due to the cabinets and once the pressure test is performed, we ignite the heat. We have no wireless connection at Zelda so updates of the progress will be done on a weekly basis during the weekend.

Clean Bill of Health

We returned back home to Tennessee late Friday night. Brent's mom had a clean bill of health. The test showed no blockage and the doctor commented that she had the arteries of a twenty year old. She gives credit to eating Popeye's fried chicken at least twice a week.

We will be heading over to Zelda on Monday to work the entire week. If we have an internet connection, we should be able to update progress daily.

This picture of Brent's mom was taken during the visit after Greg and Renee's wedding in June of this year.

Back at Zelda

After one (1) week of cruising in the Caribbean, we made our way back to Zelda. We meet our electrician and yes, Zelda is electrified. We arrived on Friday and spent the night and returned back over the mountains on Saturday afternoon.

We will not be at Zelda this week as we are traveling down to Louisiana, as Brent's mom is having a probe of her heart being performed on Wednesday. There is no expectation of any problems, but it is an excuse to see family and our newest member Leyton.

This weekend, Brent installed a new pedestal sink in the downstairs bathroom and installed the hardware for the shower. Lynn caulked the shower on Saturday, so we now have a fully functional bathroom.

We are now down to the home stretch to finish out Zelda. There will be no more cutting, etc inside because of the dust. Brent expects to start laying down the finished hardwood floors soon and we will begin painting the outside. Look for a lot of progress to be made at Zelda this month.