Random Stuff

One of the many projects we wanted to get done this year was building a bed.  We used some of our tax return last year to get a nice, new, king size mattress.  This was great but we didn't have a frame for it.  We finally had some extra time at the beginning of this year to get it done so we just had to figure out what we wanted it to look like.  As we were looking through a bunch of different plans, I found a platform bead that had a headboard that I really liked.  I wasn't really a fan of the platform part of it so Ryan and Pat came up with the design for the rest of the bed.

The bed with the mattress in it
comes up to my belly button

Ryan and Pat did most of the construction in Pat's garage and then we brought it over to our house.  We put our mattress in Shelby's room for almost 2 weeks while we did some final sanding and then 2 coats of black stain.  The headboard is particularly glossy black.  I also have plenty of room for storage under the bed so I will eventually make custom curtains for around the bottom.  I also like that it matches the bedspread I made Ryan for Christmas.

In late April we had a crazy storm come through North Platte.  We had rain, hail, thunder, lightening, high winds, and at least 2 tornadoes that touched down outside of town by the interstate.  This was the first time that we've had hail during the day when Nolan was awake to see it and he thought it was pretty cool.  Some places got golf ball sized hail but the biggest we saw at our house was large marble sized.  After the storm passed we went to take a look outside and it almost looked like it had snowed.

Our front porch with all the hail in the yard

New pond under our swings

Our Garden Pond

Marble Sized Hail

Nolan collected several hands full
of hail to play with

Clouds moving off

Our neighbor around the corner's yard

Flooding on the street just south of us

 After the storm we realized that some water had gotten into the house through the window in our extra bedroom.  We found out that when they put in the storm windows they didn't put in any weep holes so the water would collect in the window and then rot out the wood.  This obviously led to us having a wet floor.  Most of the stuff in the room didn't get wet because it was in plastic containers or up off the floor.  However, I discovered that all the letters and cards that people had sent me over the years had been in a file folder on the floor and some of them were pretty wet.  I set up a clothesline through my house and dried them that way.  I think I filled the clothesline 4 times before I got everything dry.

Letters drying in the kitchen and into the dining room

Letters from dining room to living room

Living room to dining room on left and up the stair on the right

Up the stairs and into the master bedroom

In the master bedroom

  Fortunately everything dried fairly well and their were only one or two things that I can't completely read anymore.  As a result of the water damage we got a new window and new carpet in the extra bedroom.  It has since been converted into the guest room and library.

Entrance and bookshelves in library.
There is also a small bookshelf just to the left of the door.

Nolan relaxing on the guest bed

Pat and Bobbie gave us the bed so the bottom is a futon that can be pulled up into a little couch if we want. Nolan loves this room almost as much as I do.  I particularly enjoy sitting in the wing-back chair with just the lamp on and a good book to keep me company.  Nolan and Shelby both like to play on the top bunk and the fact that it has Cars bedding makes Nolan love it even more.  My only problem now is that I have a pile of books sitting on that granite coffee table and I'm all out of shelf space.  I'm gonna have to reorganize again or I might get a couple more bookends and leave them on the coffee table.