Lattes and X-rays

Our crazy new dog

2009-02-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

So from my last post you all know we have a puppy. Her name is Roxie. House training is in full swing as well as the usual sit, stay, down etc. She is a work in progress but likes to please!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-18T21:05:00.001-08:00

It has been awhile since I posted so here are a few pictures of what has been going on for the last few months.

Here is our new dog. It is a boxer just like our last one. We liked her so much we went with the same breed again. Her name is not Maya that is just the name the breeder gave her till we pick one out. We get to pick her up on the 24th of Jan.

I went on a deer hunt the first part of Dec. The first few days were very foggy, then it cleared off and was too good of weather for hunting. (no snow)

Here I am waiting for that perfect shot opportunity....too bad I cant hit what I aim at!! Oh well more practice needed for next year.

We got a lot of snow the last few weeks of December. I didn't keep a running total but I know we got well over 2 feet total.

The kids loved it!

Halloween Neighborhood Kids Party

2008-11-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Hunter got the apple! After the kids were done that water was nasty looking!!!

Miranda being mummified!! Scary!!

Here's our play group! Very lucky to have so many kids in our neighborhood!

October Challenge Swim Meet at Aquatic Center

2008-11-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Best Buds Forever!!

Miranda on the block ready to dive

My cute pumpkins

2008-11-04T20:43:00.000-08:00

Tme for an update

2008-10-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

Most of the interior work is finally done and we can now park one car in the garage!! Just in time for the rainy season.

We decided to get a gas fire insert as opposed to a wood fireplace. It will be much easier to flip a switch instead of going out and cutting down a tree for heat! We plan on having that installed sometime next month.

This is our closet in the downstairs hallway.

Busy Days

2008-09-16T21:12:00.001-07:00

Finally, the painting is (mostly) done! Our garage door is in! And we don't live in the brown lincoln log house anymore......Thanks to wonderful family and friends who helped!!!

The only camping we got done this summer was on our back deck! And Mom thought it would get cold so we had every blanket and comforter from the house on us and we were hot all night!! But it was great fun and the kids had a ball! I went back in the house and snuck in my own bed at 7a.m.!!!

The only pic I got of Miranda not hiding under the covers!

Hunter is playing shy with a book while camping on our deck!

I am going to attempt to update our Blog and I am sure Joel will change it soon!!! Kids are off to their new school! Wade King Elementary!

Wow 2 posts in 2 weeks...a record!

2008-08-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

After many years this old house needed a face lift. We had all the paint ready but just needed some decent weather to finally paint.

Saturday morning started very grey with low overcast. I got out of bed at 7:00am thinking I was going to get a head start on painting...not so. I looked outside and promptly went back to bed. 9:00 came around and I tried it again. This time the weather looked a bit more promising. Dad showed up to help around 9:45 and by 1:30 I was spraying paint. (Notice the nice new garage door? This one actually goes up and down all by itself!)

By the look of me, the house wasn't the only thing getting painted!!

Ok another update.

2008-07-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to jackhammering my garage floor out so we can get a new door put in that actually works. What a job, 2 full days my neighboors really liked me I am sure. The people that poored the previous one made it about 10"-14" thick. That was a real pain.

Now is all in my front yard!!

What a lame blogger I am

2008-05-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well I signed in for the first time in just over a month. This is the first time I have been able to sit in my house at my computer and update everybody on what has been going on.

First things first. Yes we moved in to our house. I think it was mid march but it is all just a bit hazy now.

We went to Palm Springs for a well earned vacation for 11 days.

We finally got the downstairs carpet in so now the downstairs is livable.

Miranda has done so well in swimming lessons that she got a spot on the Bellingham Bay swim team. They are pretty hard core, 5 days a week 4:30 to 5:45 pm. She absolutely loves it. I was a nervous wreck when she had tryouts for the team. She had to swim 25 yards (the distance of the lap pool) without stopping doing the breast stroke, then again freestyle, and once again on her back. I must not have paid much attention to her in lessons because she did it like a pro!

And last but not least, Cheryls boss had to have a heart transplant after a major heart attack 3 weeks ago. This has kept her very busy at work trying to keep all the loose ends together.

Since no blog posting is really complete without a picture, this is a great shot of my family in the desert. I have no idea what we were looking for maybe a flower, a lost coin or perhaps a gold nugget. Who knows, but I thought is was a great random picture.

Fun in the sun

2008-03-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

We have finally taken a vacation!!!! 3 1/2 years of school followed by almost 10 months of remodel and we decided to go to Palm springs for 11 days. I will post pictures when we get home. We made it to Legoland, Seaworld and the San Diego Wild Animal Park with lots of relaxation in between.

Sorry for the delay...I'm just a little busy here...

2008-01-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our grand entry!!! The new front door and windows really helped out with looks as well as making that landing feel much bigger than it is. I no longer feel a draft when I walk by the front door!!

I ended up having to completely sheetrock the entire basement (many thanks to Mom, Dad and Cheryl who helped me get it all ready to texture!!)as well as plumb in a bathroom/laundry room and add 10 can lights. I have no idea why people 30 years ago thought a basement room only needed 2 lights. With 2 lights, a nice dark red shag carpet and cedar walls this basement was like a dungeon, the spiders loved it. Mice evidently did as well, we pulled 8 dead ones out of the walls as we cleaned it up.

We ended up going with a very similar setup downstairs as we did up stairs. French doors with windows on either side. This really added a lot more natural light in as well. After all this we now have a basement that I can live with. After all this we can possibly move in by mid February. Jason has offered to help me put the rest of the flooring down in the bedrooms. I am half way done with the slate entry and laundry room. Once all the flooring is down and the stair rail is complete we will get to move in!!!

UW vs. Cal State

2007-12-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

2007-12-09T22:22:00.000-08:00

Kitchen is almost done! Thanks to Steve who
hooked us up to gas!!

Living room with new stair rail

Guest bathroom that now has 7 different colors

underneath this beautiful color!!!

The basement with the new french doors!!

Thanks Gerald for all your help!!!

Trick or Treating in Fairhaven

2007-11-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

AArrrrrgggghhhhh, me matey.... watch out for these tricksters or you might get webbed or have to walk the plank...

WE'RE GETTING THERE....

2007-11-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

Look what my husband can do... The kids love skating on it and I just love looking at it!!!

Kids, Cabinets and Slate...check!!

2007-10-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Guess who is about sick of working on the house!?!

This is where the kids play & fight while we race to get the house done!

Finally!! It looks like we are actually making progress! We've got slate with lots of character!

This is the kind of thing my husband is capable of! Quite impressive! Maybe someday I will be able to use this kitchen....

Tme for Cabinets

2007-10-02T21:40:00.001-07:00

Well here they sit all ready to go. Unfortunately the corner base cabinet arrived broken so a new one is on its way. It wont be here till next wed. so I will have to work around that until the new one arrives. It is really too bad I cant just snap my fingers and have it all done.

I needed to lay some of them out and get a game plan for this little task.

Here is a look at the first 2 cabinets in place. Now just 14 more to go!!!

Happy B-day to ME!!!

2007-09-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I turned 36 on Saturday...wow, now I feel really OLD!! Cheryl got me an ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery and was that ever good. Of course as soon as the festivities were over we were back down to the house for more work. I think we just might be in by Christmas!!! On one good note the kitchen cabinets are going to be delivered on Friday. That will be a huge step towards moving. Cheryl and I both agreed that without a kitchen we are not going to move in!!!

Here is another shot of the living room all painted. The walls just need a little touching up by the ceiling and it will be done.

While I was gone hunting last week (I had a good time but didn't shoot anything) Cheryl cleaned the entire upstairs. Some how I have managed to cart all my tools and supplies back up stairs where they are all in the way again!

The Kitchen now just needs cabinets and a floor...OK counter tops and appliances would be nice as well

This is how the bathroom walls are shaping up. It might be a tad bit extreme but I really like it. It will be interesting how it looks with the floor and vanity in place.

finally time to paint.

2007-09-07T06:53:00.001-07:00

This is what the living room now looks like. I still need to paint the ceiling but the wall are done for the most part. It is finally starting to look like a house again!!

I had to replace the replaced sliding glass door that I installed on the back of the kitchen with another french door. The seal looked to have been broken and I didn't want to wait till this winter to find out for sure so we just replaced it.
And since this is a family blog and not just a house blog here is Miranda on her first day of school. Wow, she is already in the 3rd grade. Hunter's first day of kindergarten is today.

whew...a long weekend!!

2007-08-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

This picture is a bit splotchy w/ dust in the air but as you can see the dry wall is all up including the bathroom. There will be a few more areas that need some small pieces added but I can now start mudding and taping...did I ever say I hate mudding and taping? Let me just get this straight. It ranks right up there w/ pumping a septic tank! Oh the levels I will fall to to save a bit of $$!

Well after a full 7 hours of nonstop work Chery and I were able to close the door on our new french door. I must say this project really made a difference in how the living room feels. Having basically a wall of windows that looks out on Chuckanut Mt. is a definite bonus. It is kind of funny that it wasn't until after we closed on this house that I realized that it does have a view.

2007-08-03T07:04:00.001-07:00

I wasnt able to get any drywall up this weekend due to a 4 way light circut that just drove me crazy. Tuesday night on the other hand, I was off and running. Here I am making my first cut for the ceiling.

Thursday night I was able to get most of one wall done. I plan on having all the drywall done this weekend unless I decide to replace the sliding door and install the french door and windows. I started to get that all ready on thursday night as well.

This isnt a very good picture but I have to expose the header above the windows and door and tie them together w/ metal straping. Then I can center the french door and put the windows on each side. I think it will make that wall look way better.

House update.

2007-07-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

For those who have not had the privilege to see our house yet, I have finally got around to posting some pictures of what is going on. We signed papers on June 29 and by Friday night the house was already getting "cleaned out". We started by removing all the curtains and anything else that wasn't nailed down. We got a permit to remove the lovely popcorn ceiling which was a nasty job and then removed all the carpet. Next to go was the very low ceiling in the kitchen as well as the walls that separated the kitchen and the living room. That really opened things up!!! I will try and keep this up to date as to what I am doing on the house each week. I am hoping to drywall the kitchen this weekend. Time will tell!!!

Here is the new tub/shower combo we got. That old green/gold one just had to go!!! I had to take out a wall to get it in but I really think it was worth the work. I can already see the kids taking baths and getting water all over the place!

This is looking into the kitchen area. There will be an island just about where that middle ladder is sitting. The stove will be in the island with a drop down hood. You can get an idea of where the old walls were located by where the drywall stopped. The ceiling was all dropped down to just over the window in the kitchen. It was just over 7 feet high.

Here is a picture of how our house is right now I have added 12 can lights to the living room and kitchen. I also removed the walls that separated the living room from the kitchen. I am going to remove the sliding glass door, replace it with french doors that will be centered on that wall with 6 foot tall by 3 foot wide window on each side. That should dress it up a bit!!! The bamboo flooring from an earlier post will cover the entire living room and kitchen floors. As far as the brick fireplace goes...I will keep you posted!!! (just a hint...it isn't going to look like that forever!!!)

Floor for the new house!!!

2007-06-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

OK, so Cheryl and I are in the process of purchasing a new to us house. I dont have pictures of the house yet but I do have pictures of the flooring we are going to use. We are going w/ a bamboo floor in the hallway, kitchen,dining and living room. We got enough for the stairs and entry way if we decide to do that as well. I think it will look pretty good. Quite a stack of flooring if I do say so myself!!!

sorry for the delay!!!

2007-06-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

So I have not done my job I had planned on doing. That was to keep this blog updated. Sorry about that. So just a little of what we have been doing. Memorial day we went to my uncle Sids. We had a very good time. It was very relaxing. The kids had a great time playing w/ squirt guns and riding their bikes all over.

The trip from Denver

2007-05-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

After much looking and looking Cheryl and I were finally able to find a vehicle we could both agree on. It is a 1997 Lexus lx 450. It is really just a Toyota land cruiser w/ the lexus logo. I found it in Denver for a reasonable price (you would not believe how overpriced these things can be!!) It has 75K miles was owned by a Dr. who had no idea how to sell a vehicle and became a real pain to deal with. Oh well, I wanted his car and we got through it but I know it gave me some more gray hair!!! He never drove it in the winter, always kept it in the garage, and had a meticulous maintenance record. Because of its record I made the decision to fly out to Denver Sat. morning and drive it home by Sunday night. 1550 miles in about 20 hours made for a very long interesting weekend. I really wanted to stop in Boise to stay Hi to Shanna but she was in Sun. morning meeting so it felt very weird driving through and not saying hello.

This is the entrance to the Eisenhower tunnel. I thought it was very cool at 1.67 miles long, 11 thousand feet elevation and passes through the continental divide.

Here we saw a very long and lonely train. I really think the only other thing out in that area was a few antelope that we saw trotting along.

Some cool looking cliffs in Utah

New Fire pit

2007-05-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Dad got in trouble with the fire dept for burning so he had to build a fire pit. We thought it was a good idea to try it out and see how it worked for roasting hot dogs and making smores. The kids had a great time!!!(We parents did too!!)

introducing lattes and x-rays...

2007-05-05T15:19:00.000-07:00