Tape and Mud!

I'm finally making some real progress! Today, I taped and put the first coat of mud on the walls. Tomorrow, I'll put on a second coat, and then by Wednesday or Thursday I can sand and start thinking about painting the walls and ceiling.

This is where the bathtub was, and where the sink will be. The sink will be on the left side.

This is where the sink was, and where the shower will be.

More progress

I finally got all the sheetrock up, and am ready to start taping and mudding.

Pictures when it looks decent...

Bathroom Progress!

Saturday, I spent the day finalizing the plumbing and getting the floor screwed down (finally). It was a great feeling to put that first screw in the floor, and an even better feeling to put the last screw in!

My goal for today was to insulate and sheetrock the outside wall, and I managed to get that done before eating dinner. Fortunately, I had just enough screws to finish the wall, but not enough to move on to another wall. That'll have to wait for another day.

Below are a couple of progress pictures from today.

This is the left side of the bathroom. You can see the stubbed plumbing for the sink in front. The sink will be centered on the south wall of the bathroom. By the way, that partial piece of sheetrock isn't screwed in. I just put it there to get it out of the way.

This picture is looking past where the shower will be to the corner where the toilet goes. The toilet ring isn't actually installed yet. I'm going to have the linoleum put in before installing the toilet ring or shower. That way the whole bathroom floor will be one piece.

Memorial Hill

In Midway, Utah, there is a hill called Memorial Hill, which has been dedicated to those from Wasatch County who have served in wars as far back as the War of 1812.

You can see the hill sticking up in this picture.

On top of the hill is a war memorial with the name of everyone from the county who has served their country, including my father, one of my uncles, and my grandfather.







As part of our family reunion, we had a gathering on top of the hill, and listened to the four surviving original siblings talk about their experiences during the World War II years.

In this picture, members of the family are listing to my dad talk about serving during the Battle of the Bulge, in 1945. His younger brother spoke about their father's service in WWI, and his support of the troops during WWII. Their sisters spoke about their memories as children during the war years, and their mother's contributions.

Even though it got a bit warm up there, it was well worth the time to learn more about our family's heritage and service.

Vacation!

We just got back from a family reunion in Midway, Utah. I'm happy to report that we had an awesome time with all the cousins, and that it was great being up in the Utah mountains.

This is Trish enjoying the early morning. We set up a tent under a tree, and slept great every night!

I think there were about 50 of us there for the main event, and I'm pretty sure we all got along great. Lots of kids running around having fun, lots of food, and lots of sitting around playing games and visiting.

Of course we rode the Heber Valley Railroad, which was a lot of fun. We all piled on, with engineer hats, and rode out to Soldier Hollow.

Along the way, robbers showed up to rob the train and take hostages (people who had paid to go on a wagon ride). Unfortunately, no one told the engineer or conductor that the train was supposed to be "robbed" on this particular trip! To make things more interesting, the people who were to go on the ride were never given the special green wristbands, so didn't say anything when the robbers asked for those with wristbands to get off. It all got sorted out in the end, but sure made for an interesting ride!

Tomorrow (hopefully), I will talk about the main event of the weekend, which was a recognition of the military heritage in our family. This was conducted on top of Memorial Hill, in Midway, with our parents as speakers.