Sunday, June 30, 2013

House update

In the midst of all our travels this summer, things are slowly getting done on the house.  
Kitchen countertops
We ended up going with granite, not our favorite environmental choice, but the most economic and long lasting.

 Ceder on the master bath wall.  it feels like a sauna

Monday, June 24, 2013

Holie's visit

Holie came back to Oregon for a visit and it was so much fun to see her again!  I do miss that girl and I am proud of her for surviving in the big city.  Go Holie!
Holie, Katherine and I

John and Holie and I took the girls to Gale's Creek.  Holie scrunched herself up into the tiny space between the carseats, that is serious dedication. 

Isabella is a great little budding scientist.

It's a pretty place
Ali is such a charmer!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

A kitchen!

Cabinets are installed!  Well, the kitchen and bathroom ones at least.  That's what our kitchen will look like space wise.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Traffic in Milwaukie




Classes Spring 2013

This is my UP Env 182 class.  My last for a while as they are hiring a new full time instructor and so part timers are out.  This was the best class.  So interested and engaged, even if they didn't laugh at my jokes.  Oddly enough, lots of the comments in my reviews said I was funny.  But I think they found my scrambling after no one laughed the most amusing.  We've actually been done for a month, but I am that far behind with posting if you can't tell.
 My B213 Cascade class.  I had them for lab, but then their lecture instructor had to have a baby, so I'm teaching the last section of lecture.  They are a really fun and engaging group!
 B212 lecture Cascade
They survived.  Nice group, the ones who showed up to class.
I've got one more, the best B101 ever

Dog stuff

Sam in a quiet moment with Eric.  He's getting really really big.
 Rin tired after a long hike
 and cuddly Rin
Row of cuteness

Table's in the house...

Not done and put together, but all the pieces are in the house.  
Here's the base.  Its being used as the work table now with some plywood on top.
 Here's the top.  I am doing some final sanding and then will finish it when I can clean up the room and close it off from all the dust.

Still not done, but progress

Back in March, they started putting the bats up on the inside.  This pic doesn't show it, but it makes the outside match the inside and that looks pretty cool
 The architect came up for a visit at the end of March.  It was fun to get his perspective on how the house is going.  He seemed very happy.  This is about what it looked like when he came.
That's the bamboo flooring in the boxes.
 We had fun hanging out with Doug and Maggie.  Maggie is the nicest woman ever and she helped talk me down from my panic about choosing all the fixtures (it's hard to make all these decisions, don't knock it till you've been through it)
 I think Doug likes this house because Eric let him do what ever he wanted architecturally.  Unfortunately, Doug is excited to submit this house for all sorts of awards (he normally designs for uber rich gigantic home people. This 'normal' house opens up all sorts of new categories of awards) Other than the craziness of living in an award winning home, this puts the pressure on the garden big time!
 By April, they started painting.  Then had to redo bit due to an issue with the drywall texture.  The drywall had a texture that didn't match the tape and mud texture at the seams.  When the sun shone through just right, and the sun always shines in that house, lines popped up everywhere.  Tom and Phil had to retexture everything.  It was very annoying, a case of not my fault or mine and poor Tom and Phil had to fix it. Another reason this place takes forever.
We mostly went neutral white (me purposely paint white?! I know, but it worked) to let the wood dominate the space.  The guest room got color though, and is green.  very green.  It actually looks amazing once the closet and floor go in.  But it was a bit intense at first.
 The bids for the floor were ridiculously high.  I volunteered to be the minion to whomever put them in to save money.  So Tom, Phil and I did the floors.  It was fun especially because I did all the easy stuff and let the boys do the difficult cutting ad stuff.  Lots of floors though, and the glue felt like nougat. 
 Upstairs is dark bamboo, downstairs light.  I didn't get pics of downstairs and it's covered with protective cardboard at the moment.
 The end of April they came and poured the patios.   
It looks really cool with lots of different layers and stuff.



 Distraction from house, dealing with weeds!  Eric's Parents got Serin and us a fancy riding mower.  The weeds were about 7 feet at this point, so it has been an adventure.  We still aren't done, but making progress.  Here is the easy side of Serin's place, her neighbors were complaining about all the potential seeds from the mass of blackberries and thistles and more... and Serin was out of town, so weeeeee
 Tom is currently working on the stair railings, not as easy as you might think.  Lots of notching and replacing rails over and over.  It will look great when done though.
 The tile guys started prepping for tile, but they cant do anything more until the cabinets come.  When are they coming? Oh, a month or two ago.  Or this week!  Or not.  Next week maybe.  Everything is waiting on cabinets now.  Argh.
 I got my Mediterranean garden water feature.  But the messed it up and it looked horrible.  So, here the guy is jackhammering it back out. 
 They repoured it last week, and set it up right.  
It looks much better



And then Friday, finally the cabinets got delivered.  I'm going up today between finals to watch them get installed.  I'm so excited!


My garden this spring

Early spring
A little bit later spring
 Rainbows!
 May is amazing in the front

 The back is pretty, but you might be able to tell I'm a bit overwhelmed with two gardens to weed
 It's June and I still haven't done a true weeding, but the back sure looks pretty, no?