My left knee update

My knee replacement appears to have been successful and I seem to be progressing satisfactorily (at least that's what they tell me).
These x-ray photos show how the titanium knee joint is attached to the leg bone. It appears that they actually seat the new joint into a drilled out a cavity.
With both knees now looking like this I am truly a bionic man. Ain't science wonderful?

It has now been four weeks since the surgery and as this pict shows the incision has healed nicely. I am now walking sans cane, albeit with a bit of a limp. The home visits from the therapist have run out as have the weekly visits by a nurse/phlebotomist to draw blood. Since my pacemaker was installed in February I have been on a daily dose of Coumadin  taken as a precautionary measure to prevent blood clots. Normally it is checked once a month but after surgery they check once a week.

So...I appear to have survived another of life's little traumas and am ready once again to do battle against the world.
Now, it's back to the kitchen remodeling of which my only involvement thus far has been with my checkbook. We are hoping to wind that up by next weekend just in time for the 4th of July and my 73rd birthday.

Kitchen Progress Report. (the build - part 2)

Today, Teddy got an early start on the painting. She was wielding brush and roller well before 8 o'clock and was finished by 10. Since the appliances are going to be black we decided that a light grey would be a good color for the kitchen. Last week with that thought in mind Teddy went to Lowe's and bought paint, however something got lost in translation and when she started today it turned out to be a light lilac. Actually we like it so it turned out to be a non issue.

Then at about 4 pm two stout fellows in a large delivery truck arrived with the cabinetry and countertops which they proceeded to load into our entry/utility room.
The poor room is so stuffed that we couldn't get at anything if we wanted.

It's hard to believe that all of this will fit into the new kitchen.
Tomorrow our builder will start installing them.

Kitchen Progress Report. (the build - part 1)

Drywalling & seaming

The teardown complete, Gerard, Jim & Jason undertook to drywall the walls and ceiling of the entire kitchen.

Following that came the seaming & taping which turned out to be a three day job, a primary application, the next day a reapplication and then after drying, a final sanding.

Following that Jason installed new Pergo laminate flooring.

Then today, June 23 Teddy applied the primer as a prelude to the final painting which she will  do tomorrow.

Tomorrow will also be a big day for us as the cabinet company in Indiania  emailed me yesterday that they have shipped the cabinetry and countertops.  Delivery here to "The Farm" is scheduled for sometime tomorrow.

We are beginning to see the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel". Barring any unforeseen delays, by sometime next week, we just might have our kitchen back.
Happy happy joy joy!    ;-)

Kitchen Progress report (the teardown).

Here are some before and after picts of the kitchen progress.

Teddy grew up in this house as did her father.

This is the old cast iron and porcelain sink. Teddy can remember that it was a wonderful upgrade when it was installed. Before that there was no indoor running water. Water had to be hand carried into the house from the cistern which was filled from a well powered by the windmill.

Needless to say the bathroom was an outdoor outhouse.

The refrigerator stood next to the left end of the sink next to a narrow steel cabinet, taking up most of the space to the front wall.

This shows part of the steel cabinet set which was a wedding gift to Teddy's parents.

There were three six foot tall cabinets, the short cabinet shown suspended over a metal countertop.

Across from the steel cabinets was this electric cookstove nestled between the back wall and the chimney.

As there wasn't room in the kitchen, Teddy's mom had a small microwave sitting on an end table in the dining room.

Last summer I built the shelf over the stove, shown in this pict. for a full size microwave. We soon found out that because of electrical inadequacys we could not microwave and make toast at the same time without blowing a fuse.

So, this summer we decided that it was time to bite the bullet and bring the kitchen and electric service up to modern standards as this is going to be our summer home for the foreseeable future and most likely our permanent home when we can no longer RV.

This is the NE corner after the sink and plywood walls were removed. Also shown here is a new window already installed where the new sink will be. 

Note the paper glued to the old framing boards, apparently to stifle wind drafts. Teddy found that some were old newspapers dated in 1906.

This part of the house is purported to be comprised of an original "log cabin" with the present structure built around it.

The far wall appears to have been the north end of the house and you can see an old boarded up window. The other side of the wall is now the south end of the living room.

This is the south end of the kitchen. 

The chimney has been removed. It was unused as we now have a modern direct vent propane furnace.

The stove stood on the far end of the right wall. The new stove will be installed against the far wall facing this way.

The little alcove on the left will be boarded up. It is a small crawl space about four foot high at the highest under the stair. Teddy's grandmother kept her pickle crocks there and her mom kept an assortment of kitchen paraphernalia and supplies in there as she was cramped for storage space.

We also enlarged the kitchen entrance from an ordinary doorway to a larger kitchen entrance. That should open up the kitchen and make it a more welcome adjunct to the dining room.

Next step: Drywall

My left knee

Well I had to take some time off of my remodeling activities and check into the  Munson Medical Center here in Traverse City to get my left knee replaced. , "Take some time off", isn't exactly right as the remodeling is continuing right along without my valuable assistance.
But I digress, my knee has been progressively getting worse since I had the other knee done three years ago. The doctors then said that I should have the other one replaced as well so I think that I did well holding out this long. As my friends in Lake Havasu will attest it was giving me a lot of trouble while we were there last winter. The reason for the procrastination is that although the surgery isn't so bad, the therapy afterward is quite a long ordeal. The surgery was two weeks ago on Tuesday June 1st. and I am coming along quite nicely. This time my surgeon was Dr. Andrew S. Boyce from the same clinic as Dr. Peters who did the other knee. I now have a hospital therapist, Rod Ranger that comes out to the farm three times a week and puts me through a regimen of exercises to get the knee moving again. I am now to the point that I can walk without the walker, using only the cane and can bend the knee about 80 degrees; my goal is 110 degrees which I finally reached on the other knee. I had the staples out last Friday and the scar already looks better than the other one looked at this stage.
Meanwhile, the rehabbing of the farmhouse is coming along quite nicely. We decided to go ahead and gut the whole kitchen and replace it with a modern kitchen. Our builder/contractor, Gerard Belanger has been hard at it and as of now the entire kitchen is down to the bare walls with new cabinetry set to arrive around June 25th. We have already purchased a new refrigerator, range and microwave but are cooking on a hotplate. The fridge is temporarily sitting in the dining room, plugged in and running.