Detour

We took Abe down to Westlake Center this morning for a quick Christmas Eve detour.

All I want for Christmas

Abe had a visit with Santa today, we are pretty sure he asked Santa for 3 things:

1. a central heating system
2. the ability to reason
3. a tape measure

The BIG One

Little known fact about me: I am a firm believer that "the big one" is coming. In fact, I am a little crazy about it, I subscribe to a ENS (Earthquake Notification System) all of our bookshelves are bolted, and I am stocked up on emergency mountain climbing meals, water and first aid kits.

Basically, Jeff didn't stand a chance when we discovered our house was eligible for a standard seismic upgrade. So by the magic of an amazing husband, some long waits at the DPD, some strategic demolition, a LOT of dust and some extremely loud drilling, we passed our seismic upgrade inspection today!

Here is a peak at one of the anchor plates in our crawl space - isn't she a beauty?

Abe did some work/damage at his Grandma's on Thanksgiving! (Thanks Mom!)

Happy Holloween

This skeleton had a blast!

Oregon Coast

Future Coug

We finally got back to Pullman this past weekend for the Homecoming football game.  We also discoverd Cougar Football Saturdays in Pullman are a lot more work with an extra set of legs to keep track of.

Abe enjoying the largest stuffed animal he has ever laid eyes on.

Happy Birthday James

A few weeks ago we celebrated a very important 90th Birthday with the oldest, wisest, and some would say most handsome James. I couldn't let the big day pass without a bit of documentation. 

Mr J James, Mr. A James and Mr. James

The Mr. J James Family

Party Animals

Buzz cut

The Ferguson family has been visiting from Australia and we have been having a grand old time! While Kelly & Mark were off gallivanting in NYC last weekend, Jeff and I spent did some buzz cutting:

The before.

The after.

The front yard after.

It is pretty bare...landscaping is next!

Sneak Peak

We have been hard at work the last 2 weeks. The house was naked for almost a week, while we replaced the last of the windows and spent an exciting Saturday insulating and prepping for the siding. The siders came last week and the painters came Saturday. At first Jeff and I were feeling a little guilty that we didn't do the siding and painting ourselves..but when the siders finished in 3 days and the painters finished in 1 day the guilt...well that pretty much disappeared right along with a lot of cash! Below is a sneak peak of the not so finished product, we are still hunting for some lighting, house numbers and have a ton of little things to still finish (mail slot, doorbells, electrical light cover, etc) oh and we are gearing up for some serious landscaping. 

Jeff replacing a window..that is what I mean by a naked house.

The house after the siders finished.

The entry

Rain or Shine

So 2 weekends ago (you know that one when it was pouring down rain?) Bear, Jon, Em and I were off meeting Aksel but Jeff was hard at work. We (and I say "we" here because even though I was not up there in the rain, I did put my time in - ie 10:00pm stapling paper the Thursday night prior and who do you think picked up every single one of the old shingles?). Anyway, "we" put up a new roof. The roof was in OK shape...but it would probably be something to haggle over if we were to sell in the next few years. Honestly, my husband amazes me, he works so hard and it constantly surprises me that not only does he actually know what he is doing, but he does it all really, really well. Anyway, the "we" above also includes more that just Jeff and me. The brothers pitched in to help - thanks Jay and Eric!

The "we" also includes Kyle...I don't even pretend to understand the weird and complex friendship between those two and why Kyle would voluntarily subject himself to roofing on a rainy Saturday with Jeff. After subjecting Jeff to an urban study on Kyle's amazing friendship, I remain just as confused as ever (men!) there was no exchange of labor, cash, wrestling singlets circa new years eve 2004, or even deep conversation, just beer and really, really hard work - in the rain. Regardless, I am so grateful and my 'ode to Kyle and his pumpkin moving, self portrait snapping, ultimate wrestling, clean house keeping, dirty story telling, cougar loving, and now roofing continues...Thanks Kyle!

Ladies...did I mention he is really funny?

Aksel

Last weekend Bear and I got to meet the very beautiful, gorgeous and sweet Aksel Emil. Aksel his and proud parents were all smiles. Congrats Annika & Chet!

Isn't he adorable?

The proud mommy

Honestly...adorable!!

Evolution

Bear spent a few months doing the what we referred to as the Army Crawl

He graduated to the Wounded Soldier for a few weeks

Then went on to All 4's

Shortly after that he started The Proposer

Now...he walks! Well kind of... It has taken me a few weeks

just to snap a socially acceptable pic because so far

Bear is only trying to walk in very dangerous places

and of course, he refuses to walk on command.

Entry

After a super busy weekend we spent part of Sunday hard at work adding a little charm to the front of the house. This project has including a lot of pointing, laughing, drawing, "discussions" oh, and one fall off the roof. It also included a lot of learning. Jeff designed and had the Corbels custom made. You can't tell yet, but they are going to look great!

Abe and Gus were pretty entertained by all of the commotion.

Front Entry before (you can't really tell but the

original overhang is this odd metal contraption)

In progress

Calling it a day, the front entry for now.

We snap quick pick tonight, while chatting about all

of the work still yet to be started!

Rock the Vote

It's time for a a little audience participation! Jeff and I are tyring to narrow down some house colors and we are taking your votes! The three choices are: Restful, Simply Sage and Beach Glass.

See poll on the right side of this page or post a comment below, send me an email, a text or give me a ring.

EVERYONE is welcome to participate, you know who you are...yes, you! Vote!

Let there be light!

We spent part of Saturday working to install french doors in the master bedroom. We are still working on some other big projects so once the doors were on we hit pause and moved on to some serious planning. Below are a few pics I snapped on Saturday.

The (inside) before shot

The (outside) before shot

Bear had a great view of the action.

Jeff worked so hard in the HOT sun!

And inside the HOT room.

In progress (outside). Look at that mess!

Outside - for now... 

Abe's 1st Birthday

A very belated post and not related to the disaster we are calling home these days but SO worth a mention! We had a small family lunch to celebrate Abe's first birthday.

Friends mark your calendar - we will celebrate year number two with a big party (without a sea of rusty nails littering the lawn, in a painted house, with absolutely no hazardous tools or dust bunnies in sight)!

The Birthday Boy

You call that scaffolding??

We had a very busy weekend! One of the highlights today (?) was the start of our siding project. Jeff is a siding snob (yes, there is such a thing) so we are removing the vinyl siding and will either replace with all new, or try to salvage (that's the technical term - see post on our newly accredited LEED professional) what is underneath. Things got a little tense when Jeff was trying to convince me that working 15 feet above the ground on a wacky jerky herky (a technical term, coined by accredited wives in distress) was safe and sane. Note he said it was both safe AND sane. Any way, after he broke out the climbing equipment and roped up, I felt better and the neighbors stopped staring. We still have a ton of work to do! Stay tuned for some more paint trauma...

I took a photo just in case I had to explain it to the life insurance agent.

This little guy sporting his safety glasses cheered us on.

2 down 12 to go

Our most recent house project has been to replace our windows. We have started just in time for the sunny weather and while we may have lost a little bit of charm, there were only two windows in the house that would actually open! So we have two out of the twelve installed and so far only minimal broken glass.

The handy man hard at work on the windows before.

The semi finished windows. Still working on the trim

and a bit of cleaning.

Savannah, Charleston & Hilton Head

We are back from a quick trip to Savannah for my step sister Jessica's wedding. It was a perfectly southern wedding and of course I forgot my camera and have not one picture of the beautiful bride or the gorgeous setting and the food (the reception was held at the Pink House - delicious!). We also spent a few days in Charleston (L-O-V-E-D it!), then ended the trip at Hilton Head to visit my Mom and Phil (a perfect ending because they spoiled us). Below are a few random pics of our trip. Enjoy!

We were able to catch some of the World Cup games, however the viewing experience was very different with a baby in tow

The heat was a bit much for Bear the first day, but he was such a trooper.

I could fill pages with random architecture, house pics and us lounging in the shady squares - I didn't want to bore you but still had to squeeze in one

We ate some fabulous food...again the experience was just very different with Abe along for the ride

Bear spent most of his time in restaurants flirting with the waitresses and other diners, which would have been great but he discovered his tongue...it was boarder line obscene.

The obligatory family pic

I was running out of sun light so these pics don't do it justice, but Bear LOVED the ocean.

Neither one of them wanted to get out of the water.