Jelly Belly Train Tour in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

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 Who doesn't love a road trip. My son had off work last week, so we all piled in the mini-van and took my son, daughter-in-law, and the grand on a road trip to Wisconsin. Pleasant Prairie is really just over the border and the weather has been so rotten in Chicagoland, a road trip somewhere sounded great.

 All cinched into the mini van...hands up for getting on our way.

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Jelly Belly Candy Company is a 5th generation family owned candy company originally started by two emigrant brothers from Germany, Gustav and Albert Goelitz.

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 You can see how miserable the day was. Cheers when we arrived at the Warehouse parking lot.

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Grandpa and Daddy and the grand, walkiing to the entrance. Usually the parking lot was full, but thankfully not today. (I used to drive past here when taking care of my parents, all the time.)

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 Inside was a display and staging line for the tour, the grand was very excited. The candy company celebrated 100 years in 1969.

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 Overhead in the foyer were huge Jelly Belly placards, I mean HUGE!

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One wall of the foyer had historical photos of the candy company and family. Jelly Belly has an interesting history. You can find out more history HERE.

Did you know that Governor Ronald Reagan wrote, "We can hardly start a meeting or make a decision without passing a jar of jelly beans," in a letter to the Goelitz manufacturer in 1973.

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We all got hats to wear in the warehouse, a health rule, and another chance to sport the JellyBelly logo. The train ride is described here with pictures, Train Warehouse Tour. This was a perfect train ride for the grand, lots of Whooowhooooo!

They would not let us take pictures on the tour or in the train. The tour was reasonably short, the warehouse is huge and we skirted the outside edge. Great displays of vintage candy making and large video screens telling the story of Goelitz family and making of Jelly Bellys.

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Last stop was the snack shop and the candy and merchandise store. Which was packed with two tours of people. I had a hard time taking any pictures at all. Most impressive was all the flavors lined up on one wall to be purchased by the pound.

 I was on the lookout for Strawberry Jam and the Red/White/Blue mixture for a friend. I also bought a licorice mixture for my friend E. Good licorice assorteds are kinda rare. There was every kind of merchandise for sale besides candy: tee-shirts, sweats, shoes, toys, desk items, mugs, and bags and bags and cartons of candy

I was very excited to find small bags of Belly Flops---failures in size or shape in sugar-free. And I must say they are delicious. I'm nibbling as I'm writing this, I think my favorites are cinnamon and buttered-popcorn.

It was a fun trip ---perfect for a three-year old to some 60-somethings, lol. 

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 I'll say one thing...Jelly Belly has no problem with their branding---it was everywhere. This car is parked at the exit---great photo op. The grand is pouting because she did not want to leave. My son was happy to get candy---reasonable to send to my daughter-in-law's family in the Phillipines.

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Wow, thats a lot of candy in there. LOL, the grand has lots of cousins! The sun came out---to finish a great day. Tours are available in California and Wisconsin, check it out!

Thanks always for stopping by, I will be happy to answer any questions or comments.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless noted.  I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions of products or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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Sandi  

Master Bedroom or What's stays behind walls...shouldn't!

 Do you know what's behind YOUR WALLS?

The second part of our whole house redo was the masterbedroom. Pretty good size for a small ranch the bedroom measures 11x14 feet. Here was the bedwall with the wall lamps inplace for next to the bed.

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 The carpet and wall paper are old. We have had issues with cold spot in this wall. Part of the redo will be finding out why. Cold as in frosty and sweating? on a half/interior/exterior wall. About dead center is where the exterior window wall in the living room ends at the edge of the buffet. To the left the jog is where the furnace exhaust pipes go to the roof.

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Opposite wall is our closets, which we did quite sometime ago, but never finished that little nook above the far left bathroom door. The doors were a splurge they were custom and solid wood, after some homemade ones didn't succeed.

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 Hardest part was removing all the furniture and finding a place for it in the dead of winter. Most ended in the extra bedroom, on the screened porch and the living room. My trunk from when I was a kid, somewhere down the line ---will be a redo. Don't you think the decals are so 50's adorable.

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 My bed wall---before---really was the country look of the late 80's. The carpet was pale peach and I was really glad to see it ripped up and gone. But on the sub-floor were water marks along the wall.

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Ripping out drywall wasn't hard, just messy. Here is a problem....behind that patchy spot in the middle is a void area betweent he 2"x4" a 3"x3" hole floor to ceiling uninsulated. The insulation to the right is only rated an 8...so Hubby planned on replacing it all.

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 I'm going to miss the wallpaper---I still love it.

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The uninsulated area actually backs up to the buffet in the living room. That all seemed okay. But there were stains on the subfloor indicating water issues(sweating?) around the furnace corner.

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 Hubby braved the small walls around the furnace. When the dust cleared, this is what we found.

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The furnace flue was askew and not connected to the furnace...merrily pumping hot air into the uninsulated space that went directly to the 20 degree attic. This created our own little weather system. Very hot meets very cold equals condensation, not too mention carbon monoxide? Which apparently escaped through the well ventilated attic.

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When did this happen? 2008 or so we had a near miss with a tornado and roof damage---which could have lifted all the connected pipes...? Or it wasn't properly installed when we got a new furnace a year or so before that.

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This took three of us with straps to lift the insulated pipes, juggle a flash light and get the stack reset.  Hubby contacted our furnace maintenance guy (not the original furnace installer) to find instructions on what to do and what not to do.

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With the exhaust pipe reset and properly taped, and the go-ahead to insulate the space with foam between the studs. Hubby began the overall insulation project. I wasn't any help here. He did the complete wall as we saw other water marks along that wall from condensation.

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Canned expansion foam was used to fill  the exterior corner to the far right. Too many cans though---because most oozed out onto the floor.

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Around the furnace corner thick foam insulation was carefull cut and fitted between the studs.

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Hubby's plan was to make access doors on the one side...so if anyother problems occur with the flue...we can check on it.

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 Next Hubby and a friend applied drywall, and screwed it in.

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The foam insulation took a bit of jiggering before measurements for the access doors could be made.
Next came taping and plastering.

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Hubby is a super plaster man---with the proper corner tools he made short work of the three coats necessary to get a smooth surface. Forgot to mention the electrical was all updated and moved before the drywall went up. The outlets are now in the far corners and an original in the lower center of the wall.

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With the furnace wall and the old bedwall being a new surface...we decided to remove the rest of the paper. It was expensive paper---highly washable, but with a flat finish. Turned out not easy to remove.

Removing Wallpaper

I tried scoring the surface, even beat it with the needle sharp paddles of my antique wool carders. Nothing really saturated the smooth but tight surface of this washable paper. Finally by saturating the edges of the paper, we peeled the top layer off when you could get an edge. The under paper (the dark tan you see), came off with multiple soakings and lots of scraping.

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 Hubby did above and I did below...working in about two square foot areas at a time.

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I was successful at getting the initial peel off and he was better at scraping. So we worked together, but this wall took about three hours.

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Finally all the paper was scraped off  and then I had two scrubbings, and a vinegar rinse to finish it off.

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 Here is the patched bare wall---with the peach original paint ala 1988 maybe?

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 And the window wall.... another day and lots of team work.

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 The wallpaper bagged up for the garbage men. Six bags of gooey wet mess.

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While hubby painted the blue, I painted white trim...everywhere---everything needed new paint. The blue---is Flemish Blue from Pittsburgh Paints. We use satin as I really like being able to wash my walls. The blue and peach had me wondering if I would like it...cause together they were YUGH!

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And, then there was all the unfinished moldings, trims, etc. Here Hubby frames out the trouble spot over the door.

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 More painting, eventhough there was primer in the paint most areas took two coats.

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More molding and trim. One day I painted all the pre-primed baseboards, and primed framing trim that were new. LOTS of trims and they all took at least two coats.

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When the windows were finally all completely white I was ecstatic. LOVE the blue---it changes so depending on the light. This is a south facing window and is 86" wide, so there is plenty of light in this room.

This part of the redo---took about three weeks, because of all the waiting time between coats of plaster and paint. Curing paint between coats is a very good idea.  The fitting of all the pieces, cutting the trim, and painting multiple coats everywhere.

Next....the flooring, furniture, and hopefully the chandelier. I'm still playing with accessories and moving things around, but later this week!

Thanks always for stopping by. I'll be happy to answer any questions or comments.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless noted.  I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions of products or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

I'll be sharing at these fine blog parties:
Tweak it Tuesday
Show and Tell Link Party
Tuesdays with a Twist
Let's Talk Vintage
Talk of the Town
Share Your Cup Thursday
Share Your Style
Best of the Weekend
DIY Sunday Showcase

Sandi