The House of the Revolving Door has had to under go some changes.  This year John has started to work from home exclusively.  The pool table has outlived it's usefulness since it's main user went to boot camp last year.  The carpet is trashed.  Too many kids, a foursquare area taped out on the floor and too many stains to know what they are from.  Walls that have been beat upon and gouged were all part of the room John has been working in.  he finally had it and wanted to change out the carpet.  That wasn't my plan.  I wanted hardwood floors.  I researched and looked and dreamed and looked some more.  My Pinterest was starting to smoke from all the ideas I was generating from other pins. Finally we decided on hardwood after listening to a podcast from Clark Howard that we would recoup our money dollar for dollar by installing hardwood.  The catch was that John would pay for the one room but we couldn't do two types of hardwood in the house.  It would look strange, disjointed.  We also couldn't match the existing hardwood since it was 20 years old.  It also needed some major work done.  I would pay for the rooms that already had hardwood and John would pay for the one that had carpet.  Well, if we were going to do the floors why not redo the fireplace.  I mean it wasn't really my style and it was taller than me.  The mantle was this giant focal point to the room but it kind of floated.  It didn't have a hearth to anchor this ginormous mantel to the rest of the room.  It seems part modern part traditional.  Like it couldn't make up it's mind what style it should be.  So I did some more research and caught my Pinterest board on fire and came up with a solution that was more me. A cast stone fireplace mantel. However, since our other one wasn't broken I would pay for that.  My idea, my project, my money.  John of course would provided all the work.  I measured and sent in my payment.  We signed off on the design and went for it.  This meant that we needed to ripe out the existing mantel and move the fireplace from being two feet above the floor to being just about floor level.  That entailed taking the siding off the house, and cutting an new exhaust for the fireplace, working on the gas line to the fireplace and since we were already doing that might as well put an outlet above the fireplace in case we wanted to put a TV there.  John calls this scope creep.  We removed the carpet, ripped out the hardwood floors, removed all the baseboard trim, lowered the fireplace, patched the wall,  patched more holes in another spot, painted the room, gave away the pool table, installed the flooring and then waited for the fireplace mantel to show up.  Finally it did.  Just in time for Christmas.  It was a long haul but totally worth it.  I then started shopping for a couch for the room, and replaced John's 30 year old lazy boy. Little by little it started to come together.  There were a couple of people that were significant in this whole remodel.  Isaac's roommate helped with advice on the electrical.  Then there was Jake from work.  He helped to rip out the existing flooring and with the install of the new flooring.  I came home from work one day and 1/3 of the house was done. He also helped with moving the fireplace.    I was so grateful. John took a week off from work and knocked out the floor with Jakes help.  This whole project started in June and by December we had it done except for replacing the trim.  It felt so good.  One of the hardest parts was lining up the flooring.  In one room we needed it to flow around a partial wall and then have enough on the far facing wall in both rooms.  We also need them to line up so we could change direction in the hall way as well as change again in the dining room.  These guys were amazing.  All I needed to do was choose which board we were going to use next and put down a layer of glue.  They had the hard job of placing it just right, making sure to line it up correctly and nail it in.  John and I both agree that if we had to do it over we would have just used traditional hardwood since we installed it the same way.  However I am happy with how it turned out.

 

I pulled my visor down on my helmet and after making sure my camera backpack was securely and safely fastened to the back of the sissy bar I swung my leg over the bike and settled in.  John sat in the driver seat revving the engine. My body leaned into his as my arms encircled his waist. We pulled out of the driveway and onto the road ready to enjoy an adventure on this blue sky autumn day.  We were together yet alone on this adventure. Sitting next to each other and yet unable to say a word over the roar of the engine as we made our way down the highway.  I felt totally secure on the back and as we rode along.  I was utterly immersed in the experience.  A tap on the shoulder and he would pull over so that I could grab my camera and capture it on film knowing that it could only represent a small portion of this experience.  This ride was a bit of freedom, spontaneity, adventure, and also doing it together. A tap on my leg from him and I knew we would pull over.  The sign to other riders who were enjoying the same kind of adventure we were was a kind of comradery that I really didn't know even existed. These small quiet gestures spoke volumes. The leaves had mostly fallen and collected along side of the road. The sun that shone so bright and the chilly air quickly becoming colder the longer we were out. The beauty of a steel bridge across a shrub lined river, the sunlight streaming through a train tunnel decorated in crusty orange leaves painted the adventure in colors that I just couldn't quite capture. As we neared home I was a bit chilled and just longed for a good cup of chili and a nice warm shower; however my adventurous free spirit was already planning another ride down this little used bit of highway.







 

John first introduced me to Leavenworth when we were dating.  We had driven through here once and stopped at the river that meanders through the town.  There happened to be a forest fire at that time and the wildlife sought refuge in the town.  We were on a bridge over the river watching a group of kids playing in the water when a "small" black bear wandered out of the bushes and down to the water. It poked it's nose in the air and sniffed.  The kids were still splashing around not even noticing the bear.  it stood there for a bit sniffing and looking and then wandered back into the brush.  Every time we walk along that same path in Leavenworth, that scene comes right back to me.  it was too amazing to forget.  This day though there weren't any kids playing in the river.  The snow wasn't too high up on the mountain and the air was crisp. This little German style town is such a fun little stop along Highway 2.  With blue skies and the leaves glowing in full color we just had to pull over and browse the shops.  The streets full of people happily walking from shop to shop, we joined in as well.