This is what is keeping Dave busy in between bus routes this week. We hauled this 51 Ford truck home from my folks and he is working on getting it running. I don't know how far we will take the restoration - our purpose is to be able to use it to haul things around here. But wouldn't it be cute to get it all painted up and looking new again? We will have to see about that later!

Just a few pictures of a get-together at Jeff & Lisa's last week.

Our next project is going to be refurbishing this building in Lusk. It was a church, built in 1900 according to the information we were given (we don't know if this is accurate though). We plan to redo it into a house. So far we have done nothing to it - just closed on the deal last week. Dave wanted to get the old truck running first so we could use it to haul all the trash to the dump as we take the old walls, ceiling, flooring, etc. out. We also have to see about getting it rezoned and permits, etc. before we can get started. Mostly we are doing a lot of brainstorming about how and what we should do with it. If anyone has any ideas, we are open to them right now!

This is what the inside looks like. Mostly there are no walls on the main floor except for the stairwell. All the windows up stairs are glass-block - we plan to change them as you can't see out and that bothers me! Yes, the piano was included in the deal! It is a neat old piano and doesn't have bad tone (to my untrained ear!). However, someone had written the names of the notes on the ivory keys with red magic marker - which lessens the beauty somewhat! I don't know if any thing will take that off... we haven't worked at it yet.

It also has a full basement. All the wiring, plumbing, etc. will have to be replaced as there isn't much there in the first place, and all of it is extremely old. The good thing is that there isn't as much to tear down. It is about 1000 square feet on each floor. It seems to have a good roof as we have seen no evidence of recent leaks, although some of the stucco is gone on the entry area room and it has leaked there. It will be a big job but we are looking forward to working on it.