Countdown to Completion at Gruhn's

Above: Sarah & Sam Janke clean the Gruhn's refrigerator. Below: Our crew residing the garage.

I looked Robert Gruhn in the eyes and mouthed, "Just seven more days until we move you in!" "Six!" he smiled and shot back at me in his hearing impaired voice. Okay, six, I conceded after seeing his ear-to-ear grin. The Gruhn's are no doubt exciting to finally be going home after a 14 month exodus into the wilderness of FEMA trailer 15 miles away in Marion.

Today we prepped the home for the arrival party next Saturday. The entire Janke clan joined Judy Johnson's "clean team" that windexed windows, vacuumed, and spruced up everything. Marvin Quaas made the bathroom sparkle. Dixie and Sarah Olmstead scrubbed and swept. Kris Cleveland touched up the paint. Julie Banker, Kia Gruhn, and Alex McDaniel tidied up here and there.

Meanwhile Lou Banker, Tom Olmstead, Mark Scheumann, Scott Gerhold, Larry Johnson, Jim Janke, and Robert Gruhn went to work on the garage. Mark Scheibe led the way as the team cleaned out the garage to use it as a staging area. They began by moving the furniture from the garage into the house and tossing a bunch of stuff to the curb. Menard's delivered the materials and our guys went to work. They replaced three of the walls' existing siding and spongeboard with brand new plywood. Next step will be to replace the fourth wall and begin putting up new siding. Mark wants to have the prep work done this week so siding can go up on Saturday. We figure some guys can work on the garage Saturday while they are waiting for the moving truck to arrive. Hopefully we have enough people to help to get it all done!

This week I'll be supervising some odds and ends to get the house ready for the big move. On Monday, the installer comes back to finish carpeting Kia's room (he was rained out on Friday). The plumber will call for his final inspection on Monday, which is our last hurdle before the overall inspection. We expect to pass. TV and phone arrive Friday to hook up the cable. The big move is on Saturday! Hope to see you there!