Happy New Year

The end of another year, quite a few changes this year: 

Nellie our 54 Airstream Cruiser has made a lot of progress this year and if all goes as planned will be on the road next year!

Our son Ben turned 18, graduated high school, got his first full time job, and purchased a new mountain bike he has been dreaming of for quite some time!

Our Daughter Ellie and Son in law Isaac purchased there first home and now live 2 miles away, it is great to have them close by!

Jan and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!  Woo Hoo, I hope we have 50 more!

We addded 2 new family members this year Henrieta and Jake, a schnauzer and golden retriever.

Built the new loft in the barn and finally have steps to the top of the barn, now I can move all the extra stuff upstairs and have more room for working on Nellie!  Now the barn has 3 floors and the copula, lots of room to collect good stuff!

 The tree that Ben picked out this year, a 12footer!

 Jake above and Henri below.

 Grand Marais, Family shot!

 This will be Nellie next year!

Ben's new bike

 Above the new loft and steps to the top, the beams are from a couple 100 year old barns that came down near us, I've had the beams stored for 15yrs. nice to finally use them!

IT WAS A GOOD YEAR!

firewood, Airstream, Ellie and Isaac's

It's been a busy fall but it always is! Seems like there is always to much to do in the fall but somehow it all gets done. The last 2 months we have been working on my daughter and son in law's new home. They purchased the home at a house auction and were the only bidders. One other person showed up and after he heard it was to be there first home he left. The auction was not advertised very well, so they got a fantastic deal. A little paint and some remodeling and it is starting to come around pretty good .

Finished getting our winter firewood supply this weekend also, bring on the snow!

And then I got a day in on the Airstream, installed a new 2" coupler and the lp gas tanks/regulator, the front end is looking a little more complete.

Also got the side walls cut out for the bathroom inside, so it has been a good weekend but weekends are always good. Actually most days are good!!

Also received our new rv frig a couple weeks back. Piece by piece it all is coming together.

Interior Cabinets

I managed to get a few hours in here and there to work on the interior cabinets.

 I used some scrap lumber and did a mock up of the counters on both sides.

It is good to get a feel for the stove and sink.

The frig will sit on the curb side. Still looking for that and hoping for a good deal.

 I finished polishing the upper cabinets today and temporarily mounted them.

We decided to reduce the bathroom back to a wet bath which makes room for the pantry cabinet by the stove. So really the only change from original in the kitchen is the curb side where the cook top and big frig were. The new counter top really opens things up.

 In the rear we got rid of the twins and built a full size bed in the center, the picture does not show it but there is room to get around the end of the bed so there will be access to three sides.

There will be cabinets in both corners in the back also.

The front of the bed has storage with access from the top and both sides. The rear third has access from the rear trunk door and for now holds the spare tire.

Weight check

I brought the Cruiser over to a neighbors farm to check the weight before anything was added inside.

Great to have  neighbors with handy things like this.

Interior paint

Had a great weekend working on Nellie! Finished patching a few holes inside, installed all the window frames, Primed and painted the interior and stripped and polished the upper cabinets, I am beat!

It is hard to put this picture up and hard to paint Nellie pink but it was fun to see the reaction everyone had!

This is just the primer, I had the store tint it as much as they could to help with the final color of dark red.

I was very happy to get the top coat on to cover the primer, also temporarily installed the power converter to try out the fantastic fans and some of the interior lights, fun to watch things to come together.

Nellie's guard dog Cooper, she loves working on Nellie as much as I do. We have a lot of chipmunks and she lives for chasing them. Even catches one sometimes!

Interior skins and paint

It has been a busy few weeks installing the interior skins, I was very surprised at how easy it was to re-install the liner and line up all the old rivet holes. It did take a lot of rivets about 900, that's been quite a workout for my hands. It has been more of a challenge trying to decide on a color for inside.I think we have settled on dark red but also considered a vintage looking mustard yellow and chrome aluminum.

The red you see in the pictures still needs a couple coats to darken it up.Hope to have the painting done this weekend. Then we will be done for about a month.

It sure is great to see some big changes, I was getting a little discouraged.

Ben's Grad Party

Lot's of fun

Proud of ya Ben, We are very fortunate to have such a terrific son!

                                                                                                                                          Lot's of good friends!

A little too much fun with the goats but happy again 5 minutes later.

Jan, All ready for the fun to start.

Dad and my long time friend DJ and Cooper, she got a lot of attention and probably plenty to eat!

Lots

and Lots

of rain but it didn't slow any body done from coming.

We had lots of help from Jan's sisters who kept the tables full so we could visit with everyone. This trading works well, all of their kids are younger then ours so we owe them some time. Great to have family close by!

Then comes the clean up, 150 people through the house, pouring rain outside and everyone having a good time, so we had a bit of cleanup at the end. Hours and hours to clean the house, 5 minutes for the garage. By the way all the food was wiped out, I was bummed, no left overs and there was a lot on the table. We had a great time visiting with everyone, lots of great friends, family and neighbors, we are very lucky to live in such a great area.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

25 years ago today I married my best friend.

Jan was 19 and I was 22, I had to marry her quick before she new better.

Lucky if we had a few dollars in the bank but we had it all figured out, well it turns out that we didn't really have to much figured out but we are still having fun with the game of life.  

 I am not sure what Jan got out of deal but my life has been great!

We have experienced so much,

I always liked this picture.We have enjoyed a lot of canoeing, kayaking and outdoor activities.

Our big camping trip to the west coast, this was in a little county campground in Sisters, Oregon. We had the place almost to our selves. This was our first hard sided camper, cost us a small fortune in gas but so glad that we did it, great trip!

We've lived in four homes,

Our first Apartment, we had the 2nd floor, $300/month included everything, should have stayed there, maybe we didn't know everything?

The first home we purchased 6 months later and lived here fore 1 1/2 years

 18 months later we found this gem, there were a few tears over this 100 year old beauty, it needed a lot of clean-up. Ten years later, Ellie and Ben now completing our family, we decided to move to the country but we hated to leave.

 We purchased 9 acres in the country from Jan's parents.

Our new home, it takes a long time to make a house a home, it doesn't mater if it is new or old.
It is the love inside that brings it all together.
We've had countless pets and cars and campers, raised 2 fabulous kids and traveled a lot.

We had a great addition 2 years ago, Isaac, top center, he chased and caught our daughter, actually not sure who chased who but 
we are very happy for them.

I can't imagine having a better life with anyone else!

Jan has taken such good care of  all of us, home schooling Ellie and Ben and supporting me with all my ambitions.  Most of the time you had a smile for me.

Jan has kept me on a good coarse though life and I pray the next 25  years don't go buy as fast as 

the last 25. Jan recently came up with our plan on marriage"She is right and I am happy", I am ok with this plan, except when she needs a hew plan?

I am so excited to get Nellie finished and travel the country with you!

I  hope that god blesses us with a long life because I 

think there is much to be done yet.

Who knows what life will throw at us next (grand kids)??? I look forward to our next chapter together. 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JAN

Love Doug