Fun in the Sun

In between projects around the house, we went out to Golden Gardens yesterday to cool off at the beach.

Abe's first popsicle.

Apparently a few other Seattleites had the same idea.

 

We didn't bring any tools/toys for Abe so he was constantly 'borrowing' from the other beachgoers.

Abe was sure to point out every boat he saw....It was a long walk back to the car.

Don't Feed the Animals

This weekend, we worked around the house completing old projects and starting a new one.

 Abe enjoyed helping to collect building materials.

New fence at the west side of the house. Gus was blessed with a window to the outside world.

 Preparing for a new concrete porch in the back.

Start of Weekend.

                             End of Weekend.                                  



Happy Easter

Abe enjoyed some old school egg coloring last week, though he was more interested in the plastic eggs that Papa and Nana filled with M&M's and hid around their house on Easter morning.

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!

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... 

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.

The Monster in the Basement

Jeff has been hard at work on the heating system. We had a very ancient monster of a furnance in the basement that we pulled out. It was huge and it made very scary noises (hence the nickname) and when we discovered the original plumbing permit tucked behind it from 1936 it pretty much confirmed the reason our gas bill so high. Until we figure out if radiant heating is an option, we needed some kind of heat source so Jeff is also working to retrofit our fireplace to gas. Here are a few pics:

Before/In Progress

The Monster

Jeff working his magic!

In bloom

We have been so busy, but still trying to take some time to smell the roses! Our garden is so out of control, I can't keep up - I am pulling things up, and cutting things down (not necessarily the right things all of the time) but fun to see what pops up and what doesn't! All of the pictures below are really out of my garden...amazing!!

 

Camping...

The bedrooms are officially under construction so the 4 of us (Gus is loving it!) are camping out in the living room and dining room. The first night was so fun (a fort in our living room!) every 5 year olds dream...then I woke up the next morning - not so fun when you have to go to work and you are in your late 20s. (yes, late 20s!)

The original bedroom walls were lath and plaster with no insulation and layers of paint and wall paper, wall paper, wall paper, paint and more wall paper. So, we stripped the rooms, Jeff did some updated and fancy electrical work, we insulated the outside walls and then had both rooms dry walled. It was so fun to have someone eles to the dry wall! 15 drywallers showed up early Saturday morning and by 3:00 the mud was drying; on Sunday morning we started priming. Now the hardest part - picking paint colors**.

Jeff working on the lights

Bear loves to watch Jeff work

After we blew the inuslation beefore the dry wall 

The new dry wall

**I am 84% of the way through a breakdown on a kitchen paint catastrophe (honestly it has inspired me to make an eye doctor appt - I must be color blind). So while I am still shielding my eyes from the offending paint color and deciding if/how long I can live with it, we are finishing up a few misc fixes (just small stuff). Once half of my bedroom is moved out of the kitchen I promise to post pictures.

One crawl forward, two crawls back.

This weekend we strolled through one of our favorite neighborhoods filled with these:

Abe has now perfected the army crawl and has started teetering on all fours:

Abe is still not too interested in eating solids, so Uncle Jay came over as a guest presenter (it worked!) If you are interested in being a dinner or lunch presenter let us know!

This was the first oops, Jeff had ordered, cleaned, primed and painted our 4 glass backsplashes for the kitchen (kind of different, yes, but similar to what we did in our last house) but the color --- hmmm... it doesn't look bright turquoise below (but it was!!) and disney turquoise was not the color I was going for. Like most experienced do-it-your-selfers we skipped the screaming match and opted for the tense but rational "discussion" on the cost and time and effort and craziness and frustration of doing it all over again. In the end I decided that I was willing to burn my retinas every time I walked into the kitchen.

5 minutes later the second oops. With the largest of the 4 pieces out for the count, and another intense stare down, we "agreed" that if I couldn't live with the color then I would do the work. So I stripped the 3 remaining sheets, cleaned and primed them and oh..picked another color.

I can't even begin to bore you with how complicated it is to choose a color. The tempered glass and the primer distorts the color, so any color you paint on one of the glass will appear totally different on the other side - a yellow looks green and a grey color can look blue or a totally normal nice green can look turquoise. Let me complicate this a little more: we also have built-in shelves in the kitchen that I want to paint the same color as the backsplash, oh and I also blew my budget on the first round of paint and samples. So, I created my own color with all of our other cans of "oops" paint. It was so fun and not frustrating a bit...can't you tell?

Jeff took a little pity on me and put the last coat of paint on them so Round 2 is drying right now! Hopefully we will have pictures up of the final product soon.

Agreeing to Disagree

In the Christianson house there are a few (just a "few") things Jeff and I have agreed to disagree on. For example, we disagree on the number of pets we should own. [Note this disagreement includes the type of pets and the location of where those pets should sleep and eat - oh, and if said pets are allowed to wear what, if any, accessories.] When Jeff would talk about getting another dog, I would counter with talk about buying a fish, or a cat, and/or a bird. We have this unspoken/screamed agreement that basically means if one us acts first then that would be free reign for the other to buy their pet/pets of choice. Needless to say there have been no new pets in our family since the original disagreement. We have been at a stalemate.


For the past 4 years, Jeff and I have been in the same situation regarding appliances. I think we need a microwave. Jeff does not. Jeff thinks we need a 2nd freezer. I do not. Now, I do not need to go into detail about what happened to the original microwave in the first place - if you are reading this blog then you already know me and my "savvy" culinary skills. So...no microwave for 4 years, most of which I spent lusting over a microwave like a 1960's house wife, no popcorn (or least the good kind) no reheated left overs, no cups of tea/hot coco in a instant, no defrosting - it has been rough.

So what is big deal about having more freezer space? Good question and the rookie wife may be willing to trade the convenience of a microwave for more freezer space, but oh, oh, oh what the rookie wife has not factored in is that my husband is a year round hunting, costco shopping, deal seeking, large game eating husband. Living with a freezer full of stuff he would inevetiably force me to actually eat - uggh it just was not worth it.

When we started our kitchen remodel I began campaigning for a new microwave in earnest and it wasn't easy, I had to use all of my wifely powers and quote some stats on kitchen remodels courtesy of Consumer Reports. It worked and she's a beauty!

I have spent the last week basking in my hot cocoa's, making green tea in minutes and snacking on popcorn - when suddenly a thought hit me....without enough room for a another freezer...does Jeff think this gives him the green light for a new pet?!!??!!

Isn't she a beauty???

Bear has been enjoying his WARM cereal

One small step...

We installed cabinets this weekend and here is the fruit of our labor:

Before (south wall)

After (the wine rack was at Tiffany's request)

Before (east wall)

After

We get appliances this week so more changes to come soon.