Hey, How About an Update Finally?

First things first, our sincere apologies for how lazy we've gotten with updating this poor blog!  We haven't done a lot to the house recently because most of our attention has been on our jobs and wedding planning.  Also, most of our finances have been focused on the wedding as well, which also puts a damper on working on the house.

However, you never got a decent update after I installed the hardwood floors last summer.  The last time you got a real update on the remodel was when the floors were halfway laid and we were still living in the basement.  Well, that was close to nine months ago now (my bad!).  Since then we've moved upstairs, gotten some furniture, done a little decorating and have just been enjoying actually living in our house.  For those who haven't been here to see the place yet, here are some pics of how it looks right now.

The first round of the remodel still isn't 100% done though; I'd say it's somewhere around 95%.  I still need to finish installing most of the floor and window trim and then paint it, lay new tile in the entry way and find some proper lights for the master bedroom.  And a few other things I'll find along the way I'm sure.

We'll begin out tour in the kitchen.  As you might recall from previous posts, I gave the kitchen a little weekend makeover about this time last year.  I painted the cabinets and added new hardware, redid the counter tops, installed a new sink and faucet, ran a waterline to the refrigerator for the ice maker, installed a garbage disposal, added under-cabinet lighting and updated the ceiling lights.

Looking from the kitchen to the living room:

From there, we'll move onto the dining area and the view of the living room from there:

Looking back from the living room to the kitchen and dining area:

And now we'll say hi to Sarah on the couch and head down the hall.

Here's a quick peek into the office.  Eventually we'll get some proper office furniture in here, but this setup will work for now.

As we walk into the master bedroom, on the right side of the room we have the bed.  I got bored today and decided to rotate the bed to butt up against the north wall too see how it looks.  It's usually between the curtains.  It also usually has a nice purple douvet on there as well, but the dogs got dirty and rolled all over it and got it filthy, so we have the backup quilt on the bed for now.

Looking from the bed across the room, you can see the french doors that lead out to the deck and some of the lake.  As you can see, we still have a lot of furniture to buy and decorating to do; but we're getting there slowly by surely.

From here you can see the walk-in closet I added and the purple accent wall Sarah added.  In case you hadn't noticed, Sarah got to pick the color scheme in the bedroom, which also happen to be our wedding colors (purple and gray).

Here's my side of the closet.  I built the closet organizer with the help of IKEA.  Sarah's side is almost the same, but she wanted more slide-out drawers.

And that door in the back of the closet leads my thinking room... which is still REALLY ugly.  Once the wedding is over, gutting this will be my next project.  We're sick of commuting downstairs to shower and get ready in the morning.

And now that I've shown you what's going on upstairs, I'll give you an update on what's going on downstairs.

But first, I should probably show you the stairs.  I think these turned out really well and I'm really proud of my canvas-wrapped riser idea.

Here's where we lived the first 9 months during the remodel upstairs.  Now it's a spare bedroom/workout/storage room.  And yes, we actually use our treadmill!  Eventually, this room will be getting split in half and made into two additional bedrooms and a dedicated laundry room.

The other half of the downstairs will eventually be my man cave/movie room.  For now, it's the big, ugly mostly empty room that the dogs get locked in when we're not home.  The old carpet was really gross, so I yanked that out awhile back and discovered that this room used to be two bedrooms!  I also discovered some fantastic 30-year-old vinyl flooring.  I also removed the awkward non-structural wall that was in the middle of the room not doing anything except taking up space.

And that's where we're at now!  Once the wedding is over and the weather gets better, we'll be turning our attention to the exterior of the house (and the upstairs bathroom).

And as usual, Lucy and Leroy say hi.

Hey, how about some photos?

Yeah, we're ultra lame and haven't updated this poor blog for way too long.  This summer has been INSANE with weddings, camping, work, and wedding planning and of course, house stuff.

However, we did have some free time the other weekend to meet up with my friend Mike Gilbert (http://www.mikegilbertphotography.com/) to shoot some engagement photos (a year after getting engaged...).

So enough with the words for now, here are some of the pictures:

This looks like it should be in a Starbucks ad or something. Ha.

Another Starbucks ad photo.  Or maybe a JC Penney catalogue.

My favorite photo from the set:

We're going to meet up again soon for "round 2" of photos.

What we do when we're not slaving away on the house

Sometimes you just need to take a break!  Sarah and I have been working out little butts off on the house for almost 9 months now, and frankly, we needed a rest.  And what's a better way to relax and blow off some steam than to go and beat the snot out of your car on the race track!?

The weekend of July 17-18 was one of my favorite summertime events: the WaterWerks German Car Show.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge car nerd, particularly when it comes to German cars; and especially when it comes to Volkswagens and Audis, which is what this show caters to.

Since I sold my red Audi a few months back, I had nothing to put in the show this year (it was time to give the other Audis a chance for 1st place anyway, hehehe).  So, instead of showing, I decided to put the S4 through its paces on the autocross course.  Lucky for me, I have a wonderful fiance who also shares my love of cars and Sarah said she wanted to race too.  So, bright and early Saturday morning we woke up, washed the cars and then hit the road to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.

For those not familiar with autocrossing, it's a form of racing that usually takes place in large, flat parking lots (like at stadiums or shopping malls).  Setup on the parking lot is a course--marked with cones--that is around 1/3 mile long full of sweeping turns, slaloms, hairpin turns and other "obstacles" that require a lot of technical driving skill.  There is a lot of throttle/brake/clutch action going on for the short time you're on the track.  In autocross you are racing against the clock, not other cars, so there's only one car on the track at a time trying to get the fastest time through the course.

This was my first time doing this kind of racing, and it was Sarah's first time doing any kind of racing at all, and by the time we were done with our first runs we were hooked!  We had a blast and we can't wait for our next track day!

Sarah looked like a pro by the end of the day:

Me waiting for my time slip after a run.  S4s are big, heavy cars and NOT made for autocrossing.  They are happier on larger, faster tracks where they can stretch their legs and let the turbos spool.  Sarah's car on the other hand, is very much at home on a small, technical course like this and ripping the course up (the hot chick driving it had something to do with that too!).

Sarah ripping through the cones in her M Roadster.

Sarah's BMW had some engine troubles after later in the day, so we had to park it (don't worry, nothing major!).  With her car out for the day, she hopped in my car with me for a few runs until the guy with the track-prepped 993 Porsche stole her from me. Luckily, he brought her back though.

Poor Blog =(

We're sorry everyone, we've been neglecting the blog this month.  Sarah's computer died and all of our photos and other house-related stuff are trapped on it currently.

There's a HUGE update coming soon though!

Halfway Home

I'm about halfway done laying the new floors now.  I've done the kitchen, living room and most of the hallway.  I just need to do the master bedroom, walk-in closet and the other bedroom/office.  The floors look AWESOME, we're super stoked.

Once I'm done laying the flooring, I just need to install the new electrical outlets/switches, install and paint the trim and do a few small things, then we're pretty much done with round 1 of the remodel...FINALLY.


My work area:

Looking down the hall towards the master bedroom:

Looking from the dining area to the living room (if you click on the picture you can see a bigger version):

The kitchen:

We can't wait to be done!

Sneak Peek

I've been working on getting the house ready to lay the new flooring this week in the evenings after work. I finally laid the first planks last night and I'm off to a good start.

So far, so good!

Excitement builds

Our flooring has finally arrived! We are now this close to being done with round 1 of the remodel. I'm hoping to be done installing it by the end of the week...

Not quite a putting green yet

The front yard is almost finished now.  The rock walls are built and filled with dirt, the sprinkler system is installed, Sarah planted the flowers and I've spread 4 yards of topsoil in the flower beds and where the lawn will.  Now all I have to do is lay the sod this weekend.

The wall turned out pretty well, I'm very pleased with it. I only ended up needing to buy about 20 bricks on top of the ones my neighbor gave me in order to finish it, so that worked out really well (thanks again Barry!).

The sod goes in this weekend, and once it's established I can pressure wash the walls to make the bricks look new again.

More pics soon!

May is such a TEASE!

Spring is here...I think. May is such a teaser month. Sun one minute, drizzle the next. As a Washingtonian, I can only dream of waking up in the morning and it is already 70 degrees out.

As a kid this happened a few times each Summer. My older sister Autumn, our neighbor Kim and I would throw on our swim suits at my parent's lake cabin and hop into the lake for a morning swim. Memories of this resurface when Darrick and I join our friends Chad and Stef at their lake cabin in the Summer. Hopefully July and August will provide us with these opportunities again.

BBQ'd breakfast sounds like a delicious alternative to cooking inside this summer as well. =) A friend just told me recently that even Pop Tarts can be BBQ'd. I think I will have to try that as I need no convincing that good old bacon and eggs is simply scrumptious from the grill.

Back to what I'm posting about...our garden. The rain and spontaneous spurts of sun have really boosted the growth so far. Along with a few doses of Miracle Grow, I can say most of the plants are looking quite green and bushy. This makes me happy. =)

The sweet peas have grown to about 5 inches tall. It is amazing how they wrap their tiny terminal tendrils ( I looked that up) around twine or anything supportive so that they may climb their way to creating a breadth of color and scent in the upcoming months. I am excited to open the door to the patio on a hot summer day and smell their wonderful scent.

The veggies all seems to have taken flight, but their engines have stalled. Lot's of leaves but not many signs of fruit to come. I think heat and sun in the next few months will allow them to really soar. Patience is a virtue.

Sadly, Leroy snapped my basil plant and killed it last week. Hot Fiance Darricko bought me a new plant yesterday and gave it a new home in the original spot of the deceased. A sweet present to a girl who had just gotten home from 36 hours of hospital work. Thanks Darrick. I will make you some kind of basil yumminess soon.

The corn has definitely taken a liking to the soil I prepared for it. At first the starts were looking spindly and sad, but over these last couple weeks they have perked up. Same for the raspberries and strawberries I was given by a few friends.

I would say the flowers are what I am enjoying the most right now since most of our plants haven't actually produced yet. The snapdragons are blooming and I officially love the look of them in a simple glass jar; see below. Notice that I just had to take a few shots of the dogs with the flowers...hehe! Bentley is the black lab in the pictures. He is our friend Austin's dog and has been staying with us for the past week. He makes me want to get a third dog. Maybe a yellow lab. D says "NO". We will see.

For those of you planning your own garden this year, check out my homemade signs. They were very simple to make and you can use any color of paint that you want. I chose to have Darrick cut up a board for me, spray paint the wood black and then we nailed the wood to stakes. Last, I wrote what kind of veggie the sign would represent with a pale purple paint pen. Easy as pie and it makes the garden look loved that much more.

The first pictures you will see are what the back yard looks like right now. All fill dirt. Sod to come.

TTFN, Sarah

Feel the Heat

I don't know what the codes were regarding attic insulation when our house was built in 1973, but I find it hard to believe that the codes called for, um, ZERO insulation back then. Okay, our house doesn't have zero insulation in the attic, but it might as well. The attic has 35-year-old cellulose blow-in insulation in it that doesn't even cover the 2x4 rafters. So, on a good day we have something along the lines of R-5 insulation up there. For reference, current code calls for R-49 in the attic. Because of this, the heatpump has been working overtime all winter (and the previous 35 winters before that I'd assume...). When the heater turns off, you can literally feel the heat moving upward and being sucked out of the house.

Since we're still waiting for the new flooring to arrive, we're taking care of some final projects that need to be addressed in the meantime. One of those projects is insulating the attic.

After doing some research about insulation options, we decided to go with the Owens-Corning AttiCat system. This is the one that you can rent at Home Depot. We originally were going to go with insulation that is made from recycled newspaper treated with a fire retardant since it's "green" and earth friendly and all that crap. But, after comparing the two, the paper-based insulation would have been a couple hundred dollars more expensive and weighed about twice as much as the fiberglass-based insulation.

So, this morning we went down to Home Depot and bought 23 packages of the AttiCat insulation and rented the special machine to blow it into the house. This stuff is pretty cool and it's really easy to do. All you do is plug in the machine and drag the hose up into the attic and have your lovely assistant (Sarah) feed the bricks of insulation into the machine. The bricks expand about 16 times in size when fed through the machine and then it pumps it through the hose and all you have to do is "spray" the insulation into the attic.

This was the attic before we started adding the extra insulation. The gray stuff on the bottom is the old insulation that's covered in 35 years of dust. It's maybe 3 inches thick.


And after two hours of crawling in the attic blowing insulation around, it looked like this:


It's kinda hard to tell when you compare the before and after pictures, but there's 18-24 inches of insulation filling the entire attic now, giving it an R-value of 50-60 or so (MUUUCH better!). The results could be felt right away. It's amazing how much warmer the house feels now and the heat has kicked on a lot less than usual this evening.

Another great thing about this product is the mess was pretty minimal. After blowing 2000 cubic feet of insulation into the attic, this was the mess that had to be cleaned up. And most of this mess was because I accidentally dropped the hose when it was on and blew a bunch of insulation around the place.


We should have done this months ago!