54. Dad, smiling

/ Apple Hill Cottage / 169 Comments

March 10, 2012.

one year ago, Dad, Granddad, Pops, Sam died at the long old age of 90.

there are bad memories of that time between when his body no longer worked and when his journey here ended.

they are fading with time.

and today i’m choosing to remember him smiling.

Dad in his plane

His plane wrecked in training. Unconscious for many hours, he was never allowed to fly and given a desk job during the war. Not until I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand did I realize what a common occurence it was; pilot trainees died in crashes all the time.

Dad rowing

Yes, he was known to mug for the camera, especially if the photographer was someone he loved. Mom is in the boat with him snapping the photos; there are several of these “rowing the boat” pictures. They must have had fun on Lake Wallenpaupack in the Poconos where they went for their honeymoon.

Dad and Mom on New Year's Eve

It was the early sixties and they went out on the town, color co-ordinated on New Year’s Eve.

Dad and his new golf club

Golf always made him smile. He had trophies. He taught his wife and his daughters how to play (or tried to…) and shot his age when he was 82, and 84, and 85 and… He played once the summer he was 89, but could only manage 3 holes. He said he didn’t want to live if he couldn’t play golf.

Dad at Christmas

Years have gone by, daughters raised up, and grandchildren made him smile (probably more than his daughters ever did). That’s the way of grandchildren…

Dad getting his hair done

Donna did everyone’s hair for Nancy and Ron’s wedding, including Dad’s. It had been a crazy, emotional weekend with Pa dying just the day before. Everyone was missing Mom as well, though Aunt Ruth stood in for her with grace and class. We were all ready to laugh and cry.

Yes, everyone is smiling here; especially Daniel in the background. And this picture still does the trick — makes me smile every time.

Dad and RonDad and his newest son-in-law enjoy the ferry to Ocracoke Island. He was always a traveler, and he could remember the name and route number of every road he’d ever traveled.

Dad, Aunt Ruth, and Uncle B

Sister Ruth could always make him smile. What a wonderful time we all had this weekend as the family gathered to celebrate life in the house where we all grew up. Grandchildren came for miles and we all took our favorite treasures before the house was sold. The last of many summer picnics on R.D.#5.

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Yep, grandchildren always made him smile. Well…almost always. As long as they were using their dinner utensils correctly. The girls always knew how to use their forks and spoons; Casey and Daniel, not so much…

Carol and dad

…and he finally got to have his oldest daughter married in a church wedding.

Dad's 89th

Lots of us showed up for his 89th birthday party and had the weekend on the town in Pittsburgh — the Ducky tour, the Crab Shack, the inclines, Mt. Washington, Oakmont Bakery, and carrot cake.

Dad surrounded The whole clan surrounded Dad as we had a ninetieth birthday party for him over Labor Day weekend here at Apple Hill. Friends and relatives came long distances to celebrate his life.

Dad smiling

We picked this picture for his obituary, and one of his friends wrote us a note-to-make-us-cry saying how glad she was that we picked that photo. “You know,” she wrote, “he just had a wonderful smile, and I’ll always remember him smiling.”

and that’s what i’m remembering today… See ya later, alligator.

the regular Apple Hill Cottage posts will be back next week. This one just had to be written today…

53. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

/ Apple Hill Cottage / 9 Comments


The Good:

    Kitchen countertop and sink laid out on paper and ordered  √
    Dishwasher ordered and ready for pickup at Sears  √
    Black and white VCT flooring tile ordered  √
    Old linoleum and tar paper scraped off the kitchen floor  √
    Sliding glass door frame and surrounding wall demoed   √
    French doors framed in  √
    The kitchen subfloor discovered to be 5/4″ thick. √
    Subway tile for behind sink purchased and waiting  √
    Two new electrical outlets installed (ahead of schedule)  √
    A renovation calendar with projects clearly scheduled  √
    A yellow bedroom that will soon have to be renamed the White Bedroom  √
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Subway tile, $120, American Olean Biscuit from off the shelf at Lowe’s.
Two new outlets
Priming the Yellow Bedroom
Renovation calendar
Where the French doors will go…

Oh my! There is so much good progress, I hardly want to show you the bad and the ugly.

But for the sake of truth in blogdom, I will.

The Bad:

    It was really hard work taking up the linoleum. I might have whined several times. Our backs and our knees reminded us that we are OLD…
    I don’t understand why 18″ dishwashers are more expensive than 24″ dishwashers. Less parts, smaller = bigger price. Totally unfair!
    We found another mummified mouse — this one was under the refrigerator when we moved it to pull up the tile. (At least they all have been dead a long time…)
    When Mr. H. C. was taking up the tile under the refrigerator, he discovered the floor had been patched there because of termite damage. (But see Good list above — the reason it didn’t cave in was the solid five-quarters subfloor.)
    The kitchen is now shrouded in plastic drop cloths and sheets while the work gets messy, dusty, and serious. Which means I have just a small temporary kitchen in the living room.

Which leads us to … The Ugly:

This is actually the subfloor.
Michael cut out the damaged subfloor and fixed it with plywood temporarily.
Old kitchen floor
We worked just as hard, but Mr. H.C. covered 3 times the territory…
The semi-functional kitchen is now shrouded in plastic and drop cloths while we do serious messy work

Which means this is what we get to have for dinner most nights:

Domino's and Black & Tans

Domino’s and Black & Tans

Wait! Is that good? Or bad? I’m not sure… But we certainly are glad to be making good progress finally. Bad knees, aching backs, sore muscles, and the ugly of it all.

52. Now that we’ve seen the worst…*

/ Apple Hill Cottage / 15 Comments

We’ve been working on this little cottage every weekend for almost a year now.

We are no longer under any illusions. We know that the wiring is haphazard, the upkeep has been minimal, and it was built in fits and starts without much planning. (This is not to cast aspersions on previous owners and builders — they were our grandfathers and great uncles; they were our fathers and mothers, and we loved them.)

IMG_1366

Checking to see how easy it will be to disconnect the sink faucets and drain…

We thought we were prepared for what we were going to see when we took out the cabinets.

We were wrong. WAY wrong. We were not prepared.

We were both so appalled that I only took one small picture, and that was AFTER we cleaned up the floor of insulation, mouse nests, hickory nuts, dead bugs, a mummified mouse, and an inch of mouse droppings. There was no photo of that, because, quite frankly, I don’t want to remember it.

But that wasn’t the worst.

IMG_1367

Yes, in the picture above those ARE holes in the walls. See how the wall doesn’t appear to meet the floor? It doesn’t!

Yes, in the picture above, you can see mouse-chewed wire through the holes in the wall.

And yes, in the picture above, that IS a hole in the floor. Under the cabinet were three pieces of plywood about 8×12″ just sitting on the joists. Not nailed down. Of course, those boards moved when the cabinet was pulled out and dropped into the crawl space below. Basically, there was not a nailed down floor under the cabinets. We spent seven minutes staring aghast at the ground; we spent three minutes wondering if Gus the groundhog (see post 21. Apple Picking Time. ) would poke his nose into the kitchen; and we spent eighteen minutes scurrying around fixing it temporarily, so we could sleep at night. While I guarded the kitchen from Gus, raccoons, snakes, bears, or any other critter that could possibly make their way up that hole, Mr. H.C. found enough boards to cover the floor for now while we try to figure out what’s next. We are not wimps here; we’ve seen holes in the floor before…

Just one more polite rant: These cabinets were installed by a Professional Cabinet Company. What kind of professional would leave holes in the floors and walls and shrug and say, “Oh just leave it, the cabinets are going there anyway!”???

Right. A cabinet company that is still in business! Admittedly these cabinets were installed 35+years ago; but thirty-five years ago, did they still leave holes in floors? Now, we’ve all seen or heard horror stories of Professional Remodelers who have done irreparable damage to houses. Any stories out there? C’mon, the worst remodel saga you’ve ever seen — in 100 words or less. Let’s hear those stories!

Plans seem to change daily around here… And it’s not usually boring (unless you’re sanding windows…) So we’re off to buy metal lath, plaster, and some floor boards.

Let’s hear those stories…

*Mr. H. C. reminds me that this, very likely, is NOT YET the worst…