Er... Happy Halloween!?

I'm so embarrassed I haven't posted since the end of August. Having joined Facebook, I've kept up with a lot of what everyone else is doing but haven't blogged much at all. Chris' folks sold their home in Juneau and moved here so that has shifted a lot of the focus for Chris over the last month or so, flying to Juneau to pack them out and then getting their new place here ready. They're here now and working on getting their household goods unpacked. As Chris says, they should be so lucky - we had to build the house first! Once they' settle in we can show them around much more.

We've had a couple of small things happening at our house, although they are major for us. One - we have interior doors - not installed yet - but they are here! The other thing, just yesterday - we got our propane permit completed and approved for our range! We can now cook, really cook! No more grilling unless we WANT to! Sauces and risottos and saute'!

We've allowed ourselves some fun too, going to see Steely Dan at the Paramount in Seattle. VERY good seats! They performed the entire album "Royal Scam" then another 12 songs. Tried out a new restaurant for us as well "Urbane." Very good happy hour bar menu and a block within the Paramount Theater and Roosevelt Hotel.

Going to see Steve Martin next at Benaroya Hall!

Welcome!

Thought I'd post a couple of pictures here of what we've been up to. We rented scaffolding and finished off the tall entryway hallway. That was a chore we had been dreading because it was just such a difficult area to paint. Chris then installed the pendant lights and it looks beautiful!

We had visitors! Lauren, Jerry and Hunter came down to Seattle and took a detour over to Sequim for a day. This is them at Black Rabbit Farm just outside of Sunland showing Hunter the animals. Hunter also took a liking to the tractor and as soon as he sat down asked for the keys!

We also finally figured out what do do about the entryway approach. We didn't want just a square pad in front of the front door with a straight sidewalk leading up to it. We also knew we didn't want any steps so there had to be enough of a sidewalk to allow for a gentle slope. This is the result! The concentric curves help soften the angles of the house and also complement the round windows. It also defines a couple of landscaping areas. Today, Chris was working on installing the post light in the front yard. It matches the lights next to the fron door and on the front of the garage.

I've got to admit it's getting better!

So the gods are smiling upon us and we found the range we'd been looking for used on Craigslist. We picked it up and rounded up some co-workers to offload it and its now sitting in ourkitchen waiting for a propane hook-up.

Meanwhile, we were able to get the scaffolding we needed and worked all the next weekend to get the high ceiling halway painted and the pendant lights installed. We should be able to get the small halls and living room finished this coming weekend and all that will be left for paint is the exterior trim!

Chris must love me especially because he knows I love the little creatures and he was outside clearing space to cut up our log pile and discovered a batch that he knew I'd be thrilled with. This picture is just of the ones that were still visible by the time I got home but he said there were twice as much beforehand! They must do good in the garden. I know the neighbor has garter snakes and they take care of slugs and such. These guys were so docile but I knew they wouldn't get along with my gecko so I released them back under a bush where they wouldn't be disturbed. Aren't they the cutest though!

Is that your FINAL answer?

We received our final inspection approval! We had all the neighbors in the cul-de-sac over for burgers to celebrate and finally got a group picture.Mom and Dad are in Alaska so we'll celebrate with them when they return. Here's our happy neighborhood family:

Alllllmmmmmooooosssttt there!

So we had our first call for final inspection. They gave us a list of items to fix and we will be done with that this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for our next call. Our neighbors are amazing - one of the items they wanted us to do was to paint the exterior! Our neighbors and Dad came out and painted the entire lower half of the house in one day!

I've been working on primering the inside - they also want that done since the primer is the vapor barrier. The 17 ft. high hallway has been an issue as nobody in the county rents scaffolding that can fit in the 4 and a half foot width of the front half of the hall. I finally tried to tackle it with a 20 ft extension handle and its going pretty well. We'll still have to get up on a tall ladder to do the corners and I'm not sure yet how we'll reach the wiring to put in the pendant lights.

Otherwise, we are looking forward to getting the final this week. We'll still have a long list of things we need to do but at least we can downshift and take a break finally. We hope to drive out to the coast finally. We're on the water here but it's like SE Alaska - no wave action. If we go out to the coast we can see waves crashing on the beaches and visit the rainforest and drive around Crescent Lake - all these things we've heard pictures about but have never seen yet. Oh and we want to brew, and clean up the garage, and and and....

Oh and for those of you who might be interested....look at your local PBS television schedules for July 1st - the Man in the Red Shoes documentary on Garrison Keillor is airing for the first time on television!

Driveway Moments

After mud-bogging through the driveway all winter while we waited for the clay to settle, we finally had the driveway poured! It's beautiful and really enhances the house. We knew it was time when a pair of ducks tried to take up residence in the driveway puddles. The same couple of crews that did the excavation and foundation also did the driveway.

Just in time to see it - Earl and Marilyn stopped by as they were in Seattle for some appointments. Al brought them over and so they were all able to see the progress on the house.

The weather has been amazing. We did take a break to attend the Irrigation Festival Parade - what a big parade for a small town! It had over 140 entries. Lots of detailed floats from other communities and several marching bands.

Spring is here and our new life is unfolding!

I am SO sorry that is has been a month since we have updated the blog. Part of it is that we have been doing a lot of things to the house that you wouldn't see, i.e. you wouldn't take a picture of it. If you REALLY wanted, I could take a picture of every outlet and lighting fixture that Chris has wired in - that's been all-consuming. I've continued to paint. The office, guest bath, laundry room, guest room, and pantry are all done, down to having the outlet and switch plates and lights installed. The living room/kitchen is primered on the walls and we'll be working on it this week. The radiant heat thermostats and zones have been isolated so we have been able to turn down the rooms we don't use.

We took one Saturday off and went to CatchCon 2009 which we had been fortunate enough to enter the lottery for tickets and won entrance. It was a limited entry and seemed to have about 500 - 600 attendees. This was a conference for fans of The Deadliest Catch. We've been watching it since the beginning but more for the appreciation of the work and the boats, having lived in Alaska and personal-use fished for King Crab ourselves. The event had all five captains, plus assorted crew and two of the boats - the Wizard and the Northwestern. There were crab pots for photo ops - to get a sense of scale. Lots of stuff to do and lunch! One of the reasons we are here is that we can drive to Seattle and take advantage of these opportunities so we went! The boats and the event were at Pier 66 in Seattle so it made for a great day trip since the Hood Canal Bridge is now closed for 6 weeks so we can't go over without driving around now. If you ask, we'll send you a link to our Catch Con photo album where you can see us touring the boats, and getting autographs from the captains!