We're Alive!

OK. We know, we know. We're bad bloggers! Pictures are coming soon, but January and February have been a little busy with regards to the basement. Here are some things that have been accomplished:

-Moved all the furniture out of the basement.
-Had the drywall mudded and taped (OK, WE didn't do it, but we would have paid double what we did just to have to NOT do it!)
-Decided on paint colors
-Primed and painted the basement ceiling, walls and the stairwell (no more dark green wall)

The electrician is coming this Thursday to hook up electrical outlets and trim out the can lights in the ceiling. The TV comes this Sunday afternoon (FINALLY!!!! After rescheduling 3 times!)

Karen is leaving Thursday for a quilting weekend with her sister, her niece and a friend. Dustin took Friday off to get some stuff done - like make sure all the internet and coax hookups are ready for when they bring the TV. We'll have a TV, but no place comfy to sit (let alone any carpet). Oh well.

Next step: We have to finish the trim and install that. I'll add posting some pictures to my list of things to do this weekend!

Moving Weekend!

Let me explain... The guy that is gonig to mud and tape our basement is laid off!!! Yay! Oops, I mean, that's too bad for him. But good for us. He's ready to do our basement whenever we are ready. So, that means all that furniture and other stuff must be moved out! Moved UP, really. It mostly has to come up the stairs and into the spare bedrooms until the space is complete. Along with that, errands must be run this weekend. Here's an incomplete list of things to do:
--Gas up the Saab. It's dangerously low
--Dustin get's a haircut (shouldn't take too long)
--Update this very important blog (Check)
--Stop at Menards (CO detector and a line level that will fit in the 15% off bag)
--Office Max (Turbo Tax & printer ink that will fit in the 15% off bag)
--Sears to buy a Multi-Tool
--Move downstairs bed up to the back bedroom
--Move the office back upstairs
--Unassemble the downstairs table and move it and chairs up to the spare bedroom
--Figure out where to put the futon
--Roll up carpets and haul them through the snow to the shed
--Unload downstairs fridge and move to storeroom
--Take down 2 small pieces of drywall and add bracing (then reinstall the drywall)
--Finish off the transition from the wall to the ceiling above the stairs
--At least 2 loads of laundry
--Remove face frame from fireplace and seal the fireplace up with plastic so no drywall dust gets in
--Contact our designer and setup a meeting to talk about paint color

Best get going! We want the taper to come on Tuesday! Have a great weekend and stay warm! (It was -13 here this morning).

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!! Please stay safe and warm! I'm off to snowblow the driveway (including the 3 feet of Christmas present the snowplow left me at the end of our driveway this morning - I'll be sure to send him a thank you card). Then off to Karen's mom's for the day.

Christmas Snowstorm - Day 2

Day 2 of the Great Christmas Snowstorm brought... can you guess???... More snow. Looks like 3 1/2 more inches, but this stuff is wet, heavy and has partially melted, so we probably got more. I guess I'll call it 3 1/2, which brings the "storm" total to 8 3/4 inches. A couple more inches today and it should be over!

Christmas Snowstorm - Day 1

Day 1 of the Christmas snowstorm to end all Christmas snowstorms has come and gone. Below are some pics! Total so far: 5 1/4 inches. More on the way tonight although it's snowing big flakes right now.




This is a lawn ornament that didn't make it inside for winter. It normally looks like the planet Saturn.

The picnic table piled high.

Congratulations Jill & Josh!

We were fortunate enough to be able to attend Dustin's niece's wedding in Huntsville, TX on December 19th. Jill was a beautiful bride and Josh a handsome groom. Click here for my pictures. Congratulations Jill & Josh!!!

Monks Singing the Hallelujah Chorus

Click here for a funny video. make sure your speakers are turned on. This took some practice!

No Longer Puzzled

Karen and I finished the puzzle the family started when they were here over Thanksgiving. It was 1000 pieces "I Spy" puzzle that was a challenge down to the last 4 pieces! We aren't sure how many hours we spent on it, but we both worked on it several nights for a couple hours and quite a bit on Saturday.

Kuklenz Family Christmas 2009

Check out the pictures from the Kuklenz Family Christmas 2009! Click on on the link below!

Click here for the pics!

Siding Staining

Saturday, Karen and I both worked at North Memorial from 7:30am - 1pm as we prepare for next week's official launch of our new HR/Payroll/Benefits HRMS system. It was also the All-Church picnic later in the afternoon, which Karen, being the head of the Fellowship Team, is in charge of. I'm on the team by default. Before we were to leave for the picnic, she gave me the option of staying home and staining the front cedar siding instead of going to help with the picnic. It has needed it for a while it was on our fall 'to-do' list. "Seriously?" was my response. Based on where I'm at with a number of things church-related, this was a no-brainer. I stayed home! I started around 2:15pm and stopped at 7 (I was 2/3's done). It was actually really relaxing. I took my time, did a good job and really didn't have to think about whether employees life insurance premiums were going to calculate correctly and get sent to the plan administrator in a proper manor. It was kind of like a vacation!

Of course, the color of the stain we had put on before wasn't available anymore, so we (I) tried to get as close as I could using a 1 inch by 1 inch color swatch in the brochure. Instead of "Redwood", "New Redwood" looked close... Well, not really, but I actually like the color better. It's a little more brown and a little more red than what was on there before. I finished up today. Here are some pics.

Old color

New Color

Middle section was not done yet (it is now!)