She asked "Are you sure you need to hang that last gutter today." He replied, "I just need to get it done."

Saturday Mark hung the last of the gutter's. Yes - in the freezing cold and swirling winds Mark is up on a ladder hanging gutters! But now they are all up! I worked at insulating the area's around our new french door in the living room and front door area. Our front door is still "plywood" - Yes, Fancy. But it is now insulated. I thought it was funny on Monday watching Mark shovel the path to our front steps - which is currently not an entrance. Guess he's just trying to see what friends of our are really reading the blog!

Tuesday we were judges for a Northwestern College event - hallway decorating - very intense. And afterwards Mark said, "I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all the things we need to do before New Years." I (in the nicest way) replied, "Just starting! I've been concerned about that for months!" Good thing we both have some time off around the Holidays to you know - cover up insulation, fix the hanging electrical, insulate the basement, fix some tile. All the normal party prep stuff. And yes, if you are reading this you are invited to the New Year's Party.

He said "What are you going to do when you are done with those books?" she said "talk to you again."

The painter's officially had their last day last Wednesday! (To view larger photo's scroll to the end) This morning Mark was playing frisbee with the dogs and I was getting ready to leave. He turned with a huge smile and said look at how happy we are! I think it's the week off of having to come home from work to start working on the house more than anything. But it is good! The stucco has been added around the doors - so we will paint that this summer. Mark ordered the gutters to arrive today so he can install this weekend. Once the gutter's are on we will take down the scaffolding that has been up since June. That should make the neighbor's happy! I have been completely useless with this Twilight book series that I'm reading. Maybe that's why "we" are so happy right now?! All in all the house is buttoned up well and we are enjoying coming home to it. Soon it's on to the interior!

She said: One of the best sounds ever is the sound of a running furnace!

Last Saturday Mark, Paul, Jae and my Dad put in two French Doors and the last window! All in a days work. I helped put the piping (foam tube) around the doors and window, Mark sprayed the insulation, and we were officially "closed up" for winter. Tuesday came and the furnace was turned on-works beautifully. Oh so nice to feel warmth when entering your home!

This week we had our first real frost and the roof looked great! No obvious loss of heat areas so another huge win for the Stankey renovation project.

This week has been mostly rainy and the contractor's have only put in 2 days of work. Maybe 3 if today starts shaping up. But they need to be done next week - it's just getting too cold for painting. Another bonus is the stucco guys are coming next week and will re-dash everything before winter so the only thing we'll be missing is a front door. And who does that really affect? Trick-or-Treaters maybe...

"We've got Glass, not class, glass" - He said.

Wahoo! Two windows in! Hey it's a start! Thanks Kevin for the help today. Mark and Kevin put in 2 windows while I finished burning the paint off the bedroom windows. Absolutely beautiful day! The plan is to have all the windows in this weekend and then both the doors next weekend. Pray for warm weather...then the furnace will be in full swing!

He said: Did you just get the butter out of the fridge?" She said, "Nope""

Last Sunday, after a long weekend of smelling paint fumes and bondo we sat down for dinner. Sat at the dining room table for a good hearty dinner of stew that had been simmering in the crockpot all day, french bread and a glass of wine. That is when Mark asked the titled question. Now, you have all probably noticed that it has been getting down into the 40's at night and with plywood for windows it's kind of frivolous to turn on the furnace. But man-if my mom hadn't brought over a space heater and an electric blanket last weekend I may have moved back in with the rents! It's 5:45 and my body is already frozen for the evening so this is going to be a rough one.

The good thing is the windows and doors will be delivered tomorrow!!! Yay! My father-in-law, Doug, and possibly our friend Kevin are going to help Mark put in windows this weekend.

The paint crew is making huge strides and will actually paint the front of the house tomorrow. This weekend I will finish burning the paint off the bedroom windows for the crew to sand and paint next week. Wow! 3 weeks has gone by fast! Once the doors are in place, I'm gonna crank the heat to 110 to make up for all the shivering I've done!

He said "We got 40 pallets for the cabin, how was your weekend?" She said, "Fantastic!"

While I'd love to tell you about my fun weekend with the girls - Pizza Nea, Nye's for Karaoke, Golf, Antiquing in Stillwater, dinner on the Freighthouse Patio - I know you aren't really looking for those details. So while I was playing, Mark took off for the cabin with Paul and Sara. Mark's Dad, Doug, surprised them all with a visit and helped them get the 2nd load of pallets for our eventual Pallet Cabin. Thanks Paul and Doug for helping!

Many of you get a glazed look in your eye's when I mention a "Pallet Cabin" so I'll attach photo's of the Pallet Barn (Scott and Paul's).

They drove into Duluth to loll furniture where they picked up the 40 pallets. Just a couple heavy loads! The pallet size is 5' x 12' so they are not light. And since Mark has been home he is realizing how "not light" they were with a decent amount of kidney pain lately-aghhh, kidney pain.

He said, "I know I have a lot to do here but the pallets are ready." She is thankful for a weekend with out loud noises!

The last 2 days have been wonderful. No more holes, no loud hammers or saws making the dogs anxious, but tonight that ends once again. Paul (Mark's cousin and pretty amazing all around guy) is coming over to help Mark remove the last window, at least in this phase. Then the waiting game for the windows really begins - should be soon. Yay!

This weekend I will have some more quiet time as craziness part 2 begins. This summer Paul came up with an idea to build a Pallet Barn on the Stankey family land south of Duluth. Check out the Pallet Barn at http://hivemodular.terapad.com. It went up really quickly this summer and Paul offered Mark his Pallet connection - loll furniture, so they are going up to Duluth this weekend to get 36 pallets that will eventually be a cabin for us. In our spare time...

On the link you will also be able to view Paul & Sara's and Scott, Krista and Aaron's cabin-you've never seen more beautiful storage containers than what they designed.

Well the noise has begun so I'll keep you posted.

He said, "Do you think we should measure that?"

Wow, First off I have to say that my husband is pretty ambitious. Some may say crazy (some of those being me) but even with the rain this weekend. Mark removed: 1 window in our stairwell, 1 window in the living room, 7 foot section of plaster, 4 foot section of stucco, re framed the opening for the new patio door off the living room, removed the plaster from below the kitchen window (that will be the next and dare I say last window removed) at least for now. Everything has been boarded back up and waiting the arrival of the new windows and doors. My Dad, Paul, and Ben all helped through out the weekend - Thanks guys! And yes-we currently have red carpet, pink counter tops and red /white floral wall paper. Surprisingly, the wall paper I will miss. Did I mention that our oven finally bit the dust this weekend. It's a bummer - vintage 60's, very cool.

He said, "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

If you have never been to a recycling yard-you need to go at least once in your life! It's a whole other world and every time I go I learn something new. Every time-is six times since the renovation began. I'm partial to Re-Alliance Steel in Minneapolis but I know other's who like Scrappy's.

And this is ridiculous to say but ladies if you feel comfortable going - go! Everyone there is much nicer to me than they have been to Mark and my Dad.

Our pile of aluminum in the photos started as the trim on our house. We (Mark did go twice today) hauled 3 truck loads to Re-Alliance that was worth roughly $350. Not bad for a day off-too bad it needs to go back into the renovation...bummer.

She said, "Will you let me in Please?"

Straight from work I met up with the girls for dinner at Koi in Minneapolis. I arrived home to have our front door gone and wall replaced. From the inside I can see where eventually our new door will go. But to get inside was a bit of a challenge :) My car was missing our garage door opener and we no longer had a front door-good thing Mark answered the phone and let me in. What a trooper-working so hard and his wife goes out to dinner with the girls. Thanks ladies "(Sara, Heather, Anna & Suz) great night - lot's of laughter and even some heated politics! Yay for Madison!

He said "I'm going to tip out the front wall" She said "What?!"

I arrived home today expecting to have a 10 x 10 foot whole in the front of my house where the front door used to be. I am actually pleasantly surprised that I can't see through my house. Granted, it's plywood obstructing my view but it's much better than a wide open hole.

But the best was the phone call I received at work today.
"Lindy, you must answer your phone anytime I call today. What if I am injured?" - Mark
Lindy's thoughts: what?! Call 911!

He said: "We're going to re-roof our house in one weekend." She said, "What is Wakeen's (roofer) number just in case?"

Everything started out really well. Mark took 3 days off work to prepare, everything was ordered ahead of time and at the house, there was food to feed an army and we were ready to start ripping the shingles off. Mark enlisted all of our friends and family and everyone came to help-pretty amazing. Ripping the shingles went pretty quickly it was ripping the sheathing and removing 4,000+ nails from our middle roof section that slowed everyone down a bit. At the beginning of the weekend the goal was to have the front side of the middle section completed by noon and the back side done by nightfall- including tear off, re insulate, re sheath, ice & water and shingled.

By the end of day one the front side was insulated with the spray polyurethane. Who did this you ask? That would be us. It's amazing to have people in your life that you invite over for a weekend of horrible work and then ask them to wear a haz mat suit and face mask to spray poly and they accept the challenge. Huge Kudos to Adam, Paul, Scott and Mark!

By end of day Saturday our team was pretty defeated. We were getting offers from our friends to pay us if they did not have to return the next day.

A slimmer group arrived Sunday morning but still everyone was working their tails off. It was 90 degrees all weekend and everyone was exhausted. There were a few rain showers that slowed the process but at 7:00 p.m. we once again began the spray poly insulation.

Around 7:45p.m. there was a commotion on the roof-yelling and some loud thuds. Lisa and I were terrified and ran to the back of the house in search of whoever fell off. Thankfully, it was one of the propane tanks that held one of the chemicals to create the poly! On the flip side it was dangling from it's hose and spraying all the chemical on the back side of our white house.

8:30 p.m. Lisa and I are at the store getting kitty litter (absorbs liquid), 24' x 60' tarps (3 of them) and rubber gloves. It looks like we just offed an entire family and are going back to clean up the scene.

I think I forgot to mention that at 2:00 on Sunday I called Wakeem - our soon to be roofer and asked him to come out and give us a bid. He said he would come out the next day - Perfect!

Going to bed on Sunday evening we had 3/4 of an insulated roof, 1/2 was sheathed, 1/2 was not but everything was covered with blue tarps (nothing but class). Not exactly the weekend we had planned but oh my goodness, what an adventure!

Wakeem not only showed up Monday morning he brought his entire crew! They re roofed the other two sections that day - it was pretty amazing to watch. But I must preface that they did not have to rip off sheathing, only shingles and re shingle, so a much easier job.

We had to wait a couple days for the insulation to arrive - because it is hazardous it can not be flown. And the roofer's came back Friday to finish the job-then it rained and the job was finished on Saturday.

Thank you to everyone that helped and allowed your loved ones to put their lives in danger to try and keep us dry!