We're back......

It's been a while, I know, but we kind of ran out of umph!  It seems that our trip to the Oregon Coast was the beginning of the slow down, then family visits and the holidays kept us more than busy - and happy I might add.  Guilt for not working on the house was heavy, but not so much so to get us back to work.  And then, a few weeks ago, the sun started shining again and I accepted the fact that a sunny, swimming winter vacation wasn't in the picture this year, so it was time to get back to work.  We also reorganized our approach - including spending sometime on Sunday's planning out the week and giving ourselves permission to work on the house just a few days of the week.  It's worked well. So here we go.....  (Oh yeah, I went back to the old layout for this blog.  Let me know what you think.  Is the flip cards layout better?)

At last, artwork!  For several reasons we decided it was finally
time to unload the storage locker. The big bonus in doing so
was getting the art up on the walls again!  It sure helps
the place feel like home!

Even Sam likes it...  Okay, I may be stretching that a bit!

Our new entry lights!  We needed a little color (and light) in
the entry and since we could find a fixture we liked we decided
to go with these stars for the time being.  Knowing us they'll be
there until we decide to sell the house in 20 years! 

Well, the fireplace isn't done, but we did get in boxed in just in time to
decorate for the holidays!  We had a couple of gatherings here so it was nice
to have it look a little more finished.  Still trying to figure out that design.

The loft ended up being the location to finish the maple for the master
bathroom trim.  It was great for light, not so good for dust control.  We continue
to use water-based ZAR for the wood work and so far, so good.

One of the tasks that was so daunting that we didn't want to face it
was color sealing the grout in the master bath.  The grout was supposed
to be a Charcoal Grey, but cam out a mixture of light and dark. We purchased
a colored sealer to even out the color and while it is now even, it isn't
even close to the original grey.  Oh well, so much for color cards.  It
does look better overall and as my sister Pat said, I'll won't be able to
see the difference in a few years anyway, so......  Age has some advantages!

And the master bath with the trim and tub front all done!  Yahoo!  We're still
working on the perfect paint color for the room.  The reflection off the yellow
house next door really changes the apparent color of the paint!  We agree that
choosing paint colors isn't our strong point.

The "great" room with all of its furniture and natural light.  We
love the way the natural light floods the place.

After the loft experience we decided to try heating the garage and doing
the wood finishing work in there.  With a double heater system Bill rigged up
it worked great.  Here is the set up for the dining nook cabinets.

Here are the cabinets in the nook, waiting to be installed.

Here is the wall before the cabinets were installed (just the other day).... 

.... and what it looks like now.  The black thing is a TV that swings out
so the cook can watch  TV while he (sometimes she) is working. The funny
divider on the bottom of the right side is an angled "shelf" for paper recycling -
thanks again for the idea, Howie. The left side will eventually  have doors and
hold glassware and hooch.

The new addition to the powder room. We saw these
cows at a local shop and couldn't resist them.  Might be
our Wisconsin heritage. (Sorry for the open toilet, Erica!)

Billie's finishing the trim in the guest bath as I type this.  He even took out
some fir trim so that it would all be maple and look better.  He's  going to love
having it done.

A typical night - Billie with his book and Minnie taking it easy in his lap.
This is in the den - out next BIG project.  Lots of books shelves for all of those
books and space for the TV and games.  We have a could of little projects first -
the laundry room and the shelving for the office closet, so we'll be busy for a while.

One year!!! And counting......

So, we've had the place for a year and even though we've made a lot of progress, we're not as far as we hoped we would have been.  Oh well, that's life - especially at our age!  Ha!

So, to celebrate you'd think we'd do something special in the house, but instead we went on a little trip (funded by our recycling and garage sale efforts).  We visited Cannon Beach, OR, which after recalling all the places we've stayed there, seems to be one of our favorite places on earth.  It was a great trip.  The weather was divine - sunny and warm, not too windy.  The dogs LOVED running on the beach and hanging out with us all day - we LOVED walking on the beach and hanging with them.  We also napped, read books, ate well and just relaxed.  Under our friend Harriet's advice, we didn't talk about the project or it's to-do list.  It was great, albeit a bit short.

And now we're back, starting on the second year.  Fall is in full color. We had a garage sale just before we left so that was a good way to clear out some things.  After cleaning the garage, we may have a place to park at least one car in there.  We have to wait until the book shelves are done in the den (that's been moved to #1 on the cabinetry list) to have two spaces - the books are in the garage for the time being.  There's plenty more to be done, but it looks doable at this point, so.......

Love watching Bill and Minnie walk!  She prances and
I know he's smiling!

Ah, the ocean!  We all love it!

Our neighbors' Japanese Maple is perhaps the most beautiful tree I have ever
seen.  We get to walk under it every day when we walk the pups.

Okay here's the majority of leaves our neighborhood needs to
rake.  Ever tried to rake Doug Fir needles?  Now wonder those
leaf blowers have been going a lot lately.

This is the Japanese Maple just off our patio.  Last year it matched the
orange shag carpet that was in the house.  This year is it the focal point.
The picture doesn't do the color justice.

Bummer!  I love the looks of this shrub and thought about using it as a border
only to find out that it is considered a noxious weed!  And poisonous
to people, dogs and cats, as well as invasive, you get the picture!
It is call Spurge Laurel (Daphne laureola).

Red door, green door and more!

So, we've been busy with little jobs - getting the finishing touches on the outdoor work before it turns cold (okay, cool for all of you who live in Wisconsin, Idaho and Vermont) and the rains begin.  We have had a beautiful Autumn - lots of afternoon sun and the leaves are turning orange and yellow and red!  Oh yeah, red! We painted the front door red and it pulls the place together!  Whew!  The "walk in" door to the garage is now the same as the base color and I think our neighbors are thrilled that it is no longer bright white......

Well, for the time being the front door is red and the walk-in door to the
garage is 'Rockvalle' - whatever that is.  There is great discussion as to whether
it is brown or green.......

My sister, Pat, asked me to include a different view of the porch off the dining
nook and den. So, here it is.  It's a nice area and we hope to fix it up some
more next summer.

We planted our first trees and ground cover  - 2 hinoki cypress, a smoke bush and
some dogwood. The grass is starting to come up in the back.  The guy who sold
me the seed convinced me just to spread it by hand and NOT buy a "spreader."
Now I wishI had - it is pretty spotty, but, hey, it's grass, it will fill in.

Ah, to have the help of two 20-year olds who worked landscaping all summer
and have stamina!  Thank you, Madison, for spreading all the soil and bark,
and thank you, Patrick, for removing the sod.   We weren't planning on doing
anything with the front planting areas until next year, but we had to do
something with the piles (yes, 2) of extra bark we had in the
driveway and out back.

The planting beds along the edge of the property and to the north of the house
look better with the new bark also.....    Now to get some plants in place....

Minnie and Sam keeping an eye on us as we work... They are great
supervisors!

They are also great at taking us on two walks a day.  Ahhhhh, the colors
are starting to change.  Fall has arrived!

Yahooo!!!!  Okay, now I know most of you will look at this picture and go
"What the*#$&?", but you  have to understand this shows that one of the two
humungous piles of bark that we were left with when our regrading took place,
is GONE!  Yahoo!  The one out back is even larger!  Who knew what the
guy was thinking?!?!?

Today's work included sorting out stuff in the garage and getting ready for a
garage sale on Saturday and finishing the upstairs deck!  Well, almost,
the weather turned and we have a little more to do, but at least the beams
and big corner post got stained and one of the railings coated.
It looks much better than before.

Here's another exciting photo!  We are making lasagne in the upper garden!
Okay, we are trying to build up the soil and beat the weeds by covering
it with cardboard and then compost/bark.  We are going to cover the other 1/2
with a "winter crop" and then compare the two.....  Hopefully, we'll have some
veggies in there next year - if we can beat the deer to harvest!

The vanity is in!!!!

Yesterday was a great day inside, not so great out.  We finished and installed the Douglas Fir vanity for the powder room after a small length glitch we discovered the day before!  It looks great.  The doors still need to be made, but that will come with time.  Now for the plumber to come and hook up the sink.

Outside I discovered the topsoil that was supposed to be 4" deep is all of one in many places and that it is not the compost rich stuff we asked for.......  Big sigh, unhappiness and then time to pick up the rake and get to work fixing it.  I wasn't feeling up to the job (Bill's back is not doing so well so he was out of commission), but the time outside was good for me, so.......  Listening to the book The Crazy Ladies of Pearl Street - a semi-autobiographical book by Trevanian - helped pass the time.  Great read if you are looking for a book.

More outdoor good news - the grass seed started to sprout and peek its' tips up through the soil!  Maybe we'll have some after all!

The powder room as it has been operating as a water closet......

Bill placing the base of the vanity.... getting closer!

Yay!  It fits!  The vanity body just waiting for the top. We designed it, Bill built it and I
finished it.  It was made from a combination of Doug Fir recycled from the house
and a new board  - finished with ZAR!

And the top is in place!  Yahoo! The big opening is
waiting for doors, but......  that will come with time.

And the IKEA sink fits, just as it should.  Now we need
the plumber to come connect it, a mirror over the sink
 and some art work on that wall over the toilet!  Almost
ready for a party!

A new back yard, well sort of.......

Boy, this month, especially the last two weeks, have been crazy.  We are trying to get all the outdoor work done before the weather turns and we seem to be doing okay, but we hit the wall this morning.  I worked a little on cleaning the garage and Bill "rough" sanded the new vanity for the powder room, but other than that today was  a day to crash.

So, you ask, what have we been up to. Bill built the window for over the garage walk-in door, we worked with the "landshaper" to get the back/side yard in shape before the rainy season (boy, were our neighbors happy to see those blue tarps and pile of river rock disappear), we built a new entry landing between the garage and the house, the window company completed the 'lock & slide' service on the windows, and I even, get this, baked cookies.  (For those of you who know us well, you know what a odd thing that is.)

The walk-in door to the garage is in and now the window above
it is, too! It's great to have a little daylight in the garage.

That's Charles on the ladder finishing up the 'lock and slide' service on
the windows.  The windows all lock so easily and the sliding doors
glide so smoothly now - it great!  We have to say that Sierra Pacific
Windows has been great to work with and Charles is so helpful.

The beginning of the reshaping of the back/side yard.  The yard had been
destroyed by the construction of the addition and had been under tarps and
straw for erosion control since January.  We finally found someone to come do
the big work of reshaping the yard to keep water away from the foundation.

Things were moving along, then we had to find a home for all the extra soil
(fill) that the leveling close to the house created.

One of our friendly neighborhood deer checking out the work.  Evidenced by
several sets of foot prints, they have been doing a lot of inspecting!

It just happened to be one of the hottest two days of the year (okay, so 80°
isn't that hot, but for this part of the the country...) when we were
doing this.  It involved a lot of raking and moving of soil, bark, rocks, etc.
on our part as a followup to the BobCat work. We were more than a little warm.  

Bill with his hippie-dippie bandana to keep all the sweat out of his eyes!
Don't' worry, Maria, he won't wear it out in public......  Bwahahahah!

The entry to the back/side yard by the garage before it was rolled and planted with 

grass seed.  The area's covered in bark (red brown) will be planted with shrubs, etc.

The brown are will be grass, at least for the time being.

The new yard as seen from the porch off our bedroom.  I am hoping the upper
area (back of the picture) will be a great spot for a hammock!  We'll be planting
the berms with smaller trees and perennials - probably next year.

The Doug Fir vanity for the powder room sans top.  Bill's worked on it this past
week and I'll be finishing it this coming week, so before you know it we'll have
a working powder room!  Time for a party!

The new landing at the door between the garage and the house.  Soooo
much better than the two steps (still in use to the right) that were there
before.  We'll replace the old steps with new ones with longer treads shortly.
Along with the new walk in door provides us with a great doggie and shoe
clean off station before going into the house.  Just in time for the rainy season!!
It still needs some paint, but.......

Oh my!!! It's a bit bright!

Well, the painters left us today!  They were a great crew and so patient with our dogs who couldn't decide if they were friend or foe.  They did a great job - it was pretty amazing to watch them work.  They were precise and could paint with either hand when it came to trim.

Now the colors, well the red has toned down a bit since it was first applied.  It actually comes out of the can magenta!  Then it gradually darkens to a deep red.  Not as deep as I would like perhaps, but.......

And it's starting to get dark earlier!  Argh.  We're going to have to start using those lights more!!!!!  So much for the incredibly low power bills..........

This picture doesn't do it justice, but the paint comes out of the can pink!
Well, dark magenta!  Kind of a shock until it dries and darkens more with age!

All the green is on - now for the trim.  I almost changed my mind at this point
and went for black or brown/purple.  Bill said, "Nah!"

And so the red trim begins..........  Looked a bit like bright red lipstick
at this stage. (The photos dulls the colors some.)

And there you have it!  The front door needs work, but we are planning on
replacing it when we build a roof over the entry next spring, so for now I
think we'll just paint it red.  

Our dinner table looks like a library table with our library light and books
on it!  Why not, we always read when it is just the two of us eating!