Remodel Timing

Everyone always says how remodels take on a timing of their own. Our original goal was 5-6 weeks. We are now onto 8-9 weeks (we hope!).  If we were doing it, it would be even longer of course. But we feel ready for each next step, yet the people who have been contracted out, seem to work on their own time schedules, especially drywallers!  Our contractor is great so far, we did think he would do more than he is contracting out and so far they have done a great job, just a little slower.  

We were ready for the sheet rock a couple of weeks ago. We were told they would be there on Monday morning. The actual sheet rock got delivered at 7:30 am, waking me up with a HUGE truck in our yard. We then expected the guys to start shortly after. Nope, the first guy showed up at 2 pm! He worked until about 7pm but ran out of sheet rock. Again, the next day, 10 am... he came back and finished, working for 2 hrs. Then just left. No notice. No goodbye. No timeline for the next part. Next day, a different guy. Worked on taping for just a couple hours. It was just weird and disjointed. We know that you can't too everything with sheet rock without wait time but it felt like they were not working as much each day as they could have. We had planned to paint on Eliza's birthday but the sheetrock was not done... and we were leaving for the week. 

One guy did put all this on his own! 

We came home after camping to all the drywall being done. And started painting this past weekend. I am sick of painting and we didn't even have to paint the whole wall! 

The taping and new window that the stove will go under!

Pantry on the left, fridge will go on the right. 

We picked a really neutral beige (with a hint of green) in it for the walls. We are hoping that the cabinets, counter top, and back splash will be the focal points, so we thought, why not have 3 different beige's in our downstairs rooms! 

It looks more green here... it was fun to only paint parts of the walls. 

Our chalkboard wall is making another appearance!

New picture window that will go above the stove. It doesn't open and will be easy to clean!

arch matches the living room/dinning room arch. 

Painting on our anniversary! 

Again, we thought the tile would be installed today...but no, tomorrow. Hopefully before 10 am! 

We are excited to not be tracking sheet rock dust in all through the house. We are also hoping to paint the doors and the trim in the living room/dinning room to match.  The cabinets come next week... we shall see how then next steps go. 

The BIG 4!

Happy Happy Birthday Eliza Jolie! The BIG 4! How do I have a four year old and six year old! Crazy! Eliza is 4 going on 16... it's crazy. She is full of life, challenging, loving, singing, dressing up, playing dirty, jumping, running, bike riding, sassy, inquisitive, beauty, and AMAZING! 

If you had ever asked me if I would have a Princess party while I was studying Women's Studies in college, I would have said no way... we can always eat our words, right?!?!

Eliza wanted a Frozen Birthday....so in the midst of our kitchen remodel, Haggan came through again with another great cake, friends came and played, and we threw a 4 year old Princess party! 

Frozen accessories are rare to find these days, so Hello Kitty (another favorite) and general pink made appearances along with the Frozen cake. 

Olaf is melting... It was a hot day for Bham in the mid 80's!

Snow flakes flying through the trees...

Friends singing (to Corbin's friend Thomas too!).

Then we piled them all into the TV room to watch the movie and have popcorn. 

Eliza and her buddies Ella & Iona

The party finally died down around 8:45...who has a 4 year old birthday party that late...oh me! Eliza scored on her presents. More princess dolls, tea set, nail polish, fairy & swan, and cool sand & chalk! She awoke this morning having a slight melt down about her new princess's hair not working right... oh my! But was quickly soothed by fresh blueberry pancakes (from our garden!) and more gifts!  

Frozen book from Corbin!

Princesses playing in sand and drinking tea! Sounds good to me! 

Frozen toys are completely out of stock in all stores and online. Finally some Anna dolls are coming back on the market about $10 over regular price. Since Eliza is seriously obsessed, we went for an Anna doll.. maybe for Christmas someone can score her an Elsa. But she was pretty excited. She and Corbin played dolls all day. 

Happy Happy Birthday Eliza! We love you! Can't wait to see what's going to happen this year! 

Insulation!

When we were doing demolition our contractor asked over the phone, "What was the insulation like?". We said, "What insulation?", as there was absolutely NO insulation at all in the entire kitchen! Now we have insulation!!

Our electrical is all wired. Can lights are in, under the cabinet lights ready to go, new outlets, light switches on both sides of the kitchen, and an outside light for our back entry! Yahoo. And insulation, warmth, energy efficient! Our contractor said it was a greener insulation with lower or no formaldehyde. Next week the sheet rockers come in. 

Pantry will be on the left and fridge on the right. 

I am having the hardest time picking floor tile. Now the decisions to make. I thought we wanted grey tile that would tie in really nice with our white cabinets and black granite. We are hoping to do a green backsplash tile... but then if felt too cold with the grey. The rest of our house has really warm colors, especially with the wood floors. But we can't do wood right now with the dog. She is just trashing them. So now I can't decide. And of course the back splash that I like, is the most expensive...even though it's a small square footage.  So we are thinking of white subway tile with some green glass as part of it but not the whole thing. Advice welcome!!! 

104 Miles!

Sometime in January my girlfriends and I decided to do a century ride, 100 miles on our bikes.  Two of them had done it before, The Red-Bell 100. It raises money for World Bicycle Relief and Cascade Bicycle Club, two amazing organizations.  We also joined an awesome team, Team Nuu Muu (the AWESOME exercise dresses I love).  I have been wanting to do a longer ride since it's sometime I can do with my super fit friends :-)  So I did a little training; 20-50 mile bike rides. I am super slow on hills and still have a ways to go to consider myself fit but moving is always good.  We did a couple of almost 50 milers and then a 55 mile training ride...only half of what was going to be done! I felt like I might not make it.  I also asked my mom to do it with me. I ran a half marathon with my dad, why not bike 100 miles with my mom! 

At the start line in Marymoore Park, Redmond, WA. 

A text I sent Adam along the way. 

The ride was AWESOME. We rode 8 miles on a great trail before heading up one of our only big hills outside of Woodinville.  We stayed with the whole Nuu Muu group until the big hill when we lost them. Then we went along back roads till we go to Snohomish.  In Snohomish we got onto the Centennial Trail. What an amazing trail. Flat, smooth, wide, paved trail that goes for more than 30 miles.  Our first stop was at mile 28 for breakfast.  

Breakfast stop @ mile 28. 

My friends were still at breakfast and had only been there a little bit before us. So we were able to bike the whole rest of the trail with them. It was nice to be a part of the group, and with my mom!

Aimee and Jill @ breakfast stop

Some of the trail was in the forrest and some along roads.  

Outside of Arlington it started to pour down rain. We were wet! We had a snack break in Arlington @ mile 45.  We hopped on our bikes in the rain. The food was so good and the trails were so flat, that I was feeling good even at mile 45. 

Selfie on a bike. 

Outside of Arlington we went off the trail and back onto back roads. I lost the girls again on a few small rolling hills. I am SO slow on hills. My mom stayed with me, she is a power house! We crossed 

I-5 for the first time and rode along it until we dropped down into Skagit Valley. Our lunch stop was in Conway off the freeway @ mile 63.  I ate a bunch and even downed a Pepsi! The sun was trying to come out for us!

The gang of us that rode together for most of it. We lost a few much faster friends with the Nuu Muu group. Vicki, Jill, Aimee, mom, me, and Becky!

We wound our way through the fields of Skagit Valley. Never once was I feeling like I couldn't make it. We pretty much stayed together for most of the Skagit flats. I remember hitting the 75 mile mark and feeling really good! While training, I was thinking if I made it 75 miles, I would be good!

My dad biked down from Bellingham and met us around mile 80. He let us draft off of him, it was a nice welcome break! Aimee's husband met us shortly after. Again, nice to have some fresh legs! 

We had one last stop at the Allen County partk at mile 83 for some coconut water and another Pepsi to get me up the Chuckanut hills! 

@ mile 83. Feeling pretty good!

Chuckanut is @ mile 88...the first hills we have seen in a while. Wow! My legs were feeling it for the first time. I let everyone go ahead of me, even my mom, and my dad stayed with me until the very last hill right into Fairhaven. Never once did I feel like I couldn't make it. The hills were hard. I was tired. But each time you went up, there was a little down after to catch my breath. A couple of times as we neared the end, I caught myself getting a little choked up and a little teary. I couldn't believe I had done this. I had biked over 100 miles in one day! My dad went ahead to see if he could catch my mom and I came into Bham by myself. Ending at Boundary Bay Brewery, just like my half marathon. But I felt better, stronger, and less tired than in my half.  I went across the finish line at 5:13pm . I started the ride at 7:09am. 10 hrs and 4 minutes to go 104 miles! My phone had died at mile 84, so I am not sure of my total riding time vs. my total time but my guess is around 8 hrs. Wow! 

Pretty proud of both of us! My mom is almost 65! She rocks!!!

Glad to have these two amazing role models in my life to keep me going and moving! 

And lucky to have such wonderful women friends who encourage me to do fun things too. You guys are amazing too!!

My bottom was sore. My legs were tired. But I would do it again! The ride was beautiful and the company was GREAT. Thanks everyone who rode with me and who sponsored me to do this charity ride! I appreciate all of you! 

Kitchen update

Not too much to update you on, except that I feel like I am on one of those HGTV shows, where things are not quite as I expected and I could get all crazy kitchen redo lady but I don't :-) And that once you think you are done with one thing, it leads to another thing. 

Adam taking up the gross linoleum. 

It just came up in big wide sheets with only wood floor underneath! 

Fir floors underneath. Too bad our other ones are trashed and our dog would only trash these soft ones too... so in goes some tile. 

Here is an example of thinking one thing and then having to do another... we are cheap and good at destruction and taking things apart. We were just going to leave the wood floors in and tile over the top. Then our contractor saw that the subfloor looked pretty good and thought if we took the wood floors out, we could get the tile in better and have it be more flush with the other floors, so a couple days later, Adam takes out the wood floors, nails, and paper. Same thing with the ceiling tiles. We were going to just sheet rock over them, but decided take them out later... oh well! 

Our contractor is just one guy who contracts some of the more specific things out. Could we have done this ourselves, we are realizing, yes. But Oh well, he is a good guy and he will do some really nice finishing work. But right now he has just done a few little things while the plumber has been in and we are waiting for the electrician to work next.  

Again, we decided to move our water heater back about a foot to give us a bigger than normal pantry but not quite walk in... and well, the plumber could only move it 6 inches. So he worked ALL day and was only able to give us 6 inches, was it worth it. I am not sure... 

The space where the water heater came out of, moved slightly and went back in. 

water heater in the middle of the room. Also sings of the arch that will be between the dinning room and kitchen. 

Support Beam and Arch

Again, here I could have gone all HGTV crazy. The support beam was bigger than I thought it would be. And since we wanted to match the arch that is between the living room and dinning room, it had to be built under the support beam. So it's all lower than I thought it would be. But it's going to look great and we are not in the place to go changing and paying for changes like that... :-)  

Tomorrow the electrician comes back. We have to decide on tile and the place we want to get our counter tops. We are going with Absolute Black Granite. Then our contractor will put insulation in and next week they will probably start sheet rocking! Then it will feel more real! 

While some of this was happening, we headed to Birch Bay to camp and stay away from the chaos, that didn't seem to really happen. But again, oh well. Birch Bay with my parents was fun! 

S'mores!

Treats at the "C Store"

Eliza rode her bike on the "big" road. She was very careful and followed all biking road rules!