Subfloors and soap

This was one of those weekends where I feel I was busy but don't feel I accomplished much. Oh, I know that's wrong, actually a lot got done- but I just don't feel very satisfied- probably because there is still so much to do.

J16 and I went out yesterday and obtained V's gift. We had to haul it in the house and wrap it quickly because there is no way I can hide something that big. I'll let you know what it is sometime. It's been fun seeing him look and say "those are BIG boxes". I don't think he has a clue what I got for him- it's not what he was expecting me to get. We were fortunate that he was busy when we got home to carry it in. He was working on replacing the subfloor on the landing by the new South door. This is the place where there was all that water damage and we ended up rebuilding the exterior wall. As expected, the subfloor was a mess:

Splintered subfloor with a hole going all the way through.

You could look down and see the washer and dryer through the floor.

This afternoon, J16 and I took a little time to try something new:

We made soap.

Of course, we cheated and didn't REALLY make soap. We got some pre-made goat's milk soap, melted it and added our own fragrance and color. We got quite a few molds along the way and J16 plans to make a number of bars for holiday gifts. The celtic knot molds were our favorites so we tried those first. The pink ones are a vanilla- clove mix and the pale green ones are rosemary-mint with ground apricot shells for scrubbies. They smell divine.

Someday we'll try REAL soap making- I've seen some great posts on how to do it. But we figured this is a safe place to start.