Curry, Supports, Babies, Etc.

Last night was pretty good. I think we all had fun. Jon and I got the kitchen remodel project unstuck and moving along and the girls all seemed to have some fun too.

We started out with dinner. Heath was home first and got potatoes pealed then I joined and cut up deer steak and Amanda and Jon came over and got rice cooking and we got vegetables and everything went into a big pan with some curry crayons. It took a while for the rice to cook and everything to be ready so Jon and I headed downstairs and started some planning while it was cooking.

I’ll try to keep this kitchen remodel description simple. We are going to make one big room by taking out more walls. There are a couple of braces in the roof that put some weight on the existing walls. The roof braces will be moved to put their weight on a large beam(s) we will build. The large beam(s) will put the weight on existing walls. Since these walls will take on additional weight we want to make sure they can handle the extra load.

We got started in the basement as all the weight is going to be eventually pushing into the basement floor. One side will be on top of a cement wall, the other side ends up right above the door between the storage area and the bar.

This was not ideal as we would have liked to have been able to just add a post or something but I don’t want to block my door so we got creative.

We cut some boards out and grinded some nails down and then built a super strong support. Above the door we added 4 pieces 3/4 of plywood on end. Those rest on 2×4 studs that bring all the weight to the floor.

Then we added a new 2×8 header above the door and attached it to the support we already added.

We rested the header on additional 2×4 studs.

This is where we ran out of time so I need to add some support above the door frame and then we can move up to the wall on the first floor.

Before dinner all Jon and I really did was measure and figure out where the beam needed to be and figured out where the weight would be from the attic to the basement. Then the girls called us in for dinner.

The curry was really good and all of us ate a bunch, even the babies.

After dinner Jon and I were working in the basement and the girls got all the dishes and kitchen clean and then stuck the babies in the tub.

After bath time they put on pajamas, I heard about some sort of diaper explosion, then it looks like Pumpkin read Alli a scary story.

Then Amanda cheered them up with another story.

Then Pumpkin went to bed and Jon and figured we better call it a night so he could get Alli in bed. They left and Heath and I messed around the house a bit then built up the fire and went to bed. The opportunity to build up the fire is almost over for the year. My wood shed started out with 4.5 rows of wood packed really tight into the shed.

And now there is just a little pile of scraps in the corner. I think it will be gone in a few days and we will rely on gas until it gets warm out.