Still remodeling

We still have lots of remodeling to do in our house, and I've been trying to get all the walls painted. Before we moved in, I painted nearly every wall and ceiling in the place, but I used a white primer/sealer, and not a finish coat of paint. We decided to do it that way so that all the walls could be painted without cleaning the paint sprayer, and so that I could paint the ceilings as well, which were a little dingy.

Since then, we painted three bedrooms, and the two bathrooms. We also recently painted the kitchen ceiling, but only because I tore it up when I changed the light fixture. The biggest room in our house, and the one we spent the most time in, was still white, and the primer isn't as durable as a finish coat of paint, in case you didn't know.

So, a few weeks ago, we picked out a paint color, bought a few gallons, and I started painting. Most of the living/great room's walls are now painted the color of burnt almond, I think is the color's name (think of the inside of an almond, not the outside). But I was putting off doing the last wall. The last wall is covered by our bookshelves, which means we would have to move lots of books, and the lightswitch is weird.

In about 1984, the owner of the home added an overhead light, so a new switch was added, but it was a single switch, next to the original switch, for the plugs along that wall. And then the wall was patched poorly, and a crack was obvious. The two switches bothered me, so I wanted to fix it anyway, but the bad patch and the crack made tearing up the wall much easier to justify to Kelsea. So last night, I tore up the wall a little (maybe a one square foot whole). The newspaper inside the wall from 1984 let me know that's when the change was made. I'm looking forward to fixing the wires tonight, and hopefully closing up the wall, too. I'm not looking forward to moving the other bookshelves, but that's what I'll have to do to be able to finish painting, and that was the whole point, so I guess I have to. I'll try to remember to take some pictures, so you can see the difference, and I didn't take an immediately before picture, so you might have to trust me that it was a bad patch job.

Happy holiday weekend!

Isn't it great that we get an extra day to enjoy opening weekend of college football?

poll

Quick poll:

Who do you think looks younger: Dee; or Kelsea?

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Camping at Summit Mountain

For every year as long as I can remember (and probably the years I can't remember), my family has gone camping at least once a summer on Summit Mountain. It's land my great-grandparents owned, and I found out this year it used to belong to my great-grandma's father. We used to go over Labor day weekend, but since I've been able to go on my own, I've gone earlier in the year. There's a lake up there, it's very green, there's a raspberry patch, and lots of wildlife. Jay even got to go on a hike or two.

Holly and Mia had a great time on the hikes and wandering around following anyone they could keep up with.

This was our hike down the canyon to the raspberries. Holly and Mia really enjoyed picking and eating the wild raspberries.

See? Raspberries!

Just look at the size of that raspberry patch.

A nice meadow above the lake.

Sunset from the lake.

Sunset on the lake.

Jay had a good time, too, even though his walker didn't work out like we planned. (Mia is a ham).

Holly and Mia picked flowers on the way down to the raspberries, then left the flowers on this lovely tree.

And finally, Mia with her great-grandparents. Thanks for letting us visit your mountain.

Backpacking to Mummy Springs

On July 31, my brothers and I hiked to Mummy Springs, near Mount Charleston. We were planning to hike to the top of Mummy Mountain, but we were too slow and tired. We hiked three miles in three hours, the uphill part really slowing us down. We found a nice uneven hillside to camp on just past the spring, which actually had some running water. It was a terrible night sleep, but we had a good time hiking and talking together.