We have walls!

Front entryway (front door is on the left), coat closet straight ahead on the left, space to the right of the coat closet will be a built in bookshelf, to the right of the bookshelf is the doorway for the new bedroom.

Looking into the bedroom from the doorway (cabinet in the middle of the room actually belongs in the bathroom)

Sarah's handywork to protect the bathtub during sheetrock installation. The sheetrock in the bathroom is a different color because it is a different kind so that tile will adhere to the surface.

Shower in the bathroom and on the right is the double vanity.

                      

Bathtub and halfwall between tub and toilet. The holes for the windows (above the tub) have not been cut in the sheetrock yet.

What do winemaking and sheetrocking have in common?

What do winemaking and sheet-rocking have in common? They both are happening at the  Gilstrap home this week! Chris has been reading online "how to" manuals all week on winemaking and is making progress, meanwhile, a mere 30 feet away, our hired workers are sheet-rocking the new addition! What an exciting week! (You may want to avoid this first batch of wine for concern for your health - there may be remnants of sheetrock dust.) Idea names for the first batch: "Sheetrock Dust Blend" or "Alleyhouse Vineyards"

Sheetrock goes up tomorrow!

Weekend Company

We were thrilled to have Katie and Jessica join us in Colorado for a fall-break visit! It's always nice to see family :)

Walk This Way

Chris and Dad built the new sidewalk in a Saturday - a big improvement from what we had! The front loader that parked in our front lawn when digging the hole for the foundation, annihilated our old sidewalk, giving us the opportunity to improve on what once was.

Before sidewalk - very awkwardly positioned down the middle of our front yard...

After sidewalk, down the side...

New Paint Job

Dad painted the house this week (in addition to lots of other things!!) and we want to show off our new paint job! On the addition, the bottom stucco is now a soft evergreen color, and the old house is stucco and painted this same color. The lap siding is still the khaki primer color, but we're going to get paint mixed in this color. What do you think?! It really pops from the street! He finished up paiting the white trim too about two weeks ago.

This big tree is killing the composition of my photography..... We're thinking about doing some landscaping on both sides of the deck, probably next spring. I like the idea of the tall whispy grass, or maybe some flowering bushes or something along those lines. Fortunately, we have a semi-professional landscaper in the family and I'm sure Mom will have a master plan drawn up in no time :)

Dad finished the insulation this week.... what do you think about keeping the pink walls?

Grandma J

My Grandma Jiles passed away last week. She lived a long, very full life with many happy memories with family and loved ones. She was a teacher for the majority of her life, and impacted the lives of many. We all went to Michigan for the funeral in celebration of her life. 

It's incredible the way that death gives you new perspective on life, and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my life, and our life as a family. We've been talking about what our priorities are in life and what means the most to us. All of these thoughts and conversations are good things, just a lot to process and at times difficult to continue on with daily life when your heart is so heavy processing the bigger picture. It's incredible to think how short life really is, and how important it is to cherish every day, every moment, every memory.

While in Michigan we grieved and mourned, celebrated and reminisced, smiled and enjoyed time with family and friends.

This is a photo of my mom and her two sisters, with their husbands. I like this photo because mom is looking up smiling at dad :)  37 years later, they are still in love!

Our family - we haven't done a family photo since our wedding 2 years ago!

Photo of the 13 grand children and 4 great grand children. My grandparents had 5 children (3 daughters and 2 sons). It was great to have all the grandchildren together, we haven't had everyone together in a long time! Before my grandma died, Mollie asked her what her favorite thing in life was. She said it was to have the entire family together. I can't help but to think she was smiling down on us from heaven, seeing her family together.

Alayna (my youngest niece) asked someone at the reception to get her Coke, and sure enough someone gave her some (without my sister knowing!). As you can see from the photos below, she was pretty excited about getting Coke!

Copper Pennies

Now is the time of year when the Aspen trees are changing from green to yellow to orange to red to brown... it's beautiful! For about two weeks, the trees are vibrant colors and everyone from Denver drives up into the mountains to see them. As stereotypical urbanites would, we too drove up and over Kenosha pass two weeks ago. Simply beautiful! When the wind rustles the leaves, they look like little copper pennies.

Mt. Elbert

Peer pressure can be a wonderfully powerful thing and this weekend it won over as I left my house at 2am on Saturday to head for Leadville will my "buddy" Chad (the persuader).  Our objective was to climb Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in the state of Colorado and the second tallest in the U.S.  

We embarked at approximately 4:15 and 10,200 ft, using headlamps to navigate what can best be described as a biking path.  Although no bikes were encountered for the entire day, it was nice to start the day with a decently sized path, albeit consistently uphill (who knew?).  The above picture is the view crossing tree line (according to our GPS 11,900 ft) just as the sun came up (approximately 6:00).  

If you are able to squint enough to focus on this picture, you can see the rough outline of what are biking trail quickly became after crossing treeline.  Although I never fell, the loose gravel and large rocks presented quite the challenge for the old size 14 shoe (it was a lot like skiing, I just didn't point them downhill).  Off in the distance is the first of three false peaks.

We arrived on top, 14,440 ft at 8:30.  That is Leadville off to the left. 

One of these two men has climbed 16 14,000 ft peaks.  The other has hiked one.  I am guessing you can figure out which is which. 

This is the drop off down the side of the peak.  No, we did not come up or (thankfully) go down this way.  But it does begin to put in perspective the heights as compared to the surrounding geography which is sitting at atleast 10,000 ft.  

Another view off in to the distance from the top. 

We were back in the car heading back east by noon.  This is a view from the road heading away.  That is Sir Elbert towering off in the distance.  Good day sir.  

Keystone Wedding

We had a wonderful weekend in Keystone celebrating the nuptuals of our supper club friends Dave and Kate. We had a condo for the weekend and the wedding was on the top of the mountain at Keystone resort! We rode 2 gondola's up to the spot for the wedding, and the ceremony was on the deck of a lodge at the top, overlooking 4 or 5 mountain peaks. It was so beautiful! This is us on the first gondola, approaching the hut where we got off to get on the next gondola.

This was on the deck where the ceremony was held.

This was the arbor the couple and minister stood in front of.

Our condo for the weekend!

Bricks!

Yesterday we came home to a pile of bricks next to the deck. Guess what? Dad is back!

The bricks are from the existing house, where the existing house connects to the new addition. Dad chisled out the hole around what previously was the front door.

Dad is keeping things clean for me.

And here is the Wednesday and Thursday pictures of the hole! Both pictures are from standing in the new addition front door entry way, looking into the living room.

This a picture of the hole, standing in the living room looking into front door entry way in the new addition.

Step up to the new addition - it will be stained to match the original hard wood floors.