Finally the Flooring Post

I was waiting to post pics of the new floors until we got the baseboards in and the furniture back in place. That has all happened now for the most part (except for the huge hole in our sheetrock next to the fireplace, but more on that a little later). So, we finally were able to get everything together to have our existing wood floors re-finished, and to have them matched and extended through our living room and hallway. Those rooms get so much traffic that keeping the carpet looking nice was not happening, and I am just not much of a vacuumer... I prefer the broom :-)

Now, Noah and I are pretty ambitious DIYers, but this was a job that I just did not want to tackle ourselves. If we have learned anything in our short one year of home ownership it's the following:
1. Know your furthest limits of ability, then anything within those limits you should also seriously weigh the cost of hiring the job out to the amount of time, stress, and frustration of doing it yourself!
2. Then, if you do it yourself... buy or rent the RIGHT tools... the FIRST time!

At any rate, for the most part we are really pleased with the results. We went with a darker stain than what was originally on the wood, and it looks FANTASTIC. Especially now with our new white baseboards. The contrast is beautiful, and just makes my day (kinda nerdy, I know, but gotta appreciate these things that consume such a big part of our time and money nowadays)! We did the baseboards ourselves (and had to buy the miter saw to do it of course). It was also a lifesaver borrowing Rory and Cameron's paint sprayer...we had previously painted some baseboards by hand, and so with this big of a trim project, the sprayer literally saved our sanity. Our garage was covered in white paint spray by the end of it all, but oh well, we got most of it off with the pressure washer the next weekend (when we also cleaned and sealed the driveway... whoa buddy... that's another post in and of it self!).

So, here's a picture of the wood before - you can see the new wood installed in the living room before they sanded and stained:



Here it is with the new flooring laced into the existing:



And the final product!:





We love it, but at the same time it's one of those things that you want to stay perfect so we're always paranoid about scratching it or whatever. Even though it's inevitable it's almost comical how we are about things like little felt pads.

Oh, now back to the sheetrock hole... so, we removed the mantel from the fireplace before the floors went in. It just didn't reflect our style, and I want to build some built in bookshelves and surround for the fireplace to make it a little more cozy. So, when the mantel came off we discovered some water damage to the wallboard, and a bit of a musty smell. So, we let it dry out and eventually decided to cut out that section of the sheetrock. Well, once we did that, came to discover a gap between the house wall and the fireplace that went completely out to the outside! We could look directly outside from the inside.... NOT GOOD! Now I know that the older houses aren't as airtight and efficient as newer construction, but I think I'm safe to assume that this is a bit much! So at any rate, I guess in the end I'm glad that we discovered it so that we could take care of it. We caulked the crack from the outside... we just need to fix the inside now. So that will definitely be a future project.

Check it out:

Until Next Time Grams

This last week, I went down to Portland to attend the internment ceremony for my Grams who passed away this spring. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a touching small service as we gathered to remember my Grams. While it was a somber event, it was great to get to see and spend some time with family members that I don't see very often. We all had dinner at Macaroni Grill together, then went over to Uncle Bob's house. Uncle Bob is my Grams' brother, so really he's my great uncle, but we all call him Uncle Bob. He's quite the character, and just so much fun. Here is my cousin and I with him:



And another one of just my cousin Heather and I.




We'll always remember and love you Grams! I think this is the only digital picture I have of her, all of us at Heather's wedding... I'll have to get on scanning some others in:

Hallway Painting

A few weeks ago, we decided to tackle the hallway. I chose a light tan-ish color since I didn't want the small enclosed part of the hallway to feel too dark, and needed something pretty neutral to complement both the green in the living room and the buckskin yellow in the kitchen. The challenge with the hallway is the entrance where it is the full two stories tall. So, Noah was my brave hero and painted all of the high spots while I held the ladder for him praying that it would all go smoothly... and luckily it did! Now that it is all finished, definitely don't plan on re-doing it anytime soon!

Here is it before (sorry the pictures don't really accurately capture the colors, but it looks great!):























And the after:
























And Noah in progress:























Sorry the colors are hard to make out and that is only a piece of the full hallway, but it's kind of impossible to show the whole thing... so y'all will just have to come visit to see the rest :-)

Also, as my anniversary gift, Noah made me the entryway bench and cubby set that I have been drooling over. There's a blog that I read occasionally, and she posts plans to build different designer pieces of furniture. So Noah made this for me; it fits perfectly in our entryway... LOVE it! I wanted some baskets with cute colorful liners, but was having a terrible time finding any, much less some that would fit into the cubby spaces. So I found some baskets that would fit, and then went to JoAnn's Fabric and found some baskets that had plans to make your own liners. The sizing was a bit different for my baskets, so I took the basic idea and modified it to my baskets. I don't have a sewing machine, so I just bought some of that glue that bonds material and just used that to seam the fabric together. It worked fantastically since you don't really need the size or seams to be perfect for this project. Here is the whole thing:

Golf and Nature in Big Sky Country

Wow, so summer hit just after the 4th, and we have obviously been out enjoying it seeing as I haven't updated this in over a month! So, I'm just going to rewind, and catch up in a series of new entries.

The weekend after the 4th, we packed up and drove to Columbia Falls, MT and met up with my family to spend a week at the Meadowlake Golf Resort. My family has history in that area going way back before I was born. In fact, my Dad lived in Big Fork in the 70's after he graduated from college. One morning, we had breakfast at The Buffalo Cafe in Whitefish, owned by one of my dad's old buddies from back in the day. It was while we were there that Charlie (the owner) told dad that a bar in Big Fork still had a picture of their group of guys at the "Not Enough Chicks Party". The story goes that apparently it was only guys that stuck around for the winter, and all of Flathead Lake froze over that year. So the guys got together and had a huge party out on the frozen lake, but it was all dudes, so it is forever commemorated as the "Not Enough Chicks Party". So after breakfast, we all trekked down to the bar in Big Fork to take a look at the picture. Here it is:



















Dad is right smack dab in the middle, with a mustache, flannel shirt, and aviator shades. You sure were rockin' it Dad! :-)

A couple years after this picture was taken, dad left Montana and went up to Alaska to teach. Which is where he met my mom, and they got married 3 months later! They spent 10 years teaching in bush Alaska, but the year that I was born, they bought some land back in Montana on Swan Lake not far from Big Fork. That year they took sabbatical and built a cabin on the land. It was at this cabin that I spent many of my childhood summers when we came back from Alaska on summer break. On the trip this summer, we went back to the land, and much to our surprise it was still there! Here's what it looks like today:































At any rate, enough with memory lane... we also went up to the magnificent (there really isn't any other word to describe it) Glacier Park, golfed a lot, and even did a bit of fly fishing. Apparently that part of Montana isn't the greatest for fly fishing, but Noah and I at least got some expert instruction from my brother. So hopefully we can try our hand at it over here in Washington in the fall. Here are a few random other pictures from the rest of the vacation.

The 4th in Unincorporated Snohomish County

Wowza! The 4th of July in unincorporated Snohomish county is just bonkers! I'm almost at a loss for words to describe how crazy it was. It was definitely the craziest evening of fireworks I can remember. Also quite the change from living in Seattle, where fireworks are banned (except for maybe sparklers) unless they are a part of a big public show. Up here fireworks stands abound, and folks just go nuts.

Unfortunately it was freezing last night, but that didn't stop anyone. We just bundled up and lit up the fire pit. Instead of cold beer, we drank hot coffee with Bailey's and settled in on the front lawn for the show. Our culdesac has two boys of the perfect age, 11 and 13, for blowing stuff up. It's been quite a few years since Noah was able to light fireworks, so he had a blast as well. He got the big boy lighter, though... the blow torch. Ahhh! In the end though, everyone kept all of the their fingers, and no unintentional fires started, so all in all it was a success!

My contribution to the whole shebang was the cake. I saw this cake on another blog, and just HAD to try it. It seems making elaborate cakes is kind of a fad hobby right now, and I haven't really attempted it much myself... until now. It wasn't without its hiccups (like the cake sticking to the pan and ripping in half - wah wah), but I think it actually turned out pretty nice despite my novice cake baking. Here it is:















Haha, just kidding:

Early Anniversary

Since we will be traveling to Montana next Sunday on our actual anniversary, we went out this last Saturday night to celebrate our first anniversary. We had dinner at the top of the Columbia tower. It was beautiful and delicious, and they gave us a seat right in the corner overlooking the whole city and sound. For those of you not from Seattle, the Columbia towner is the tallest building in Seattle, and the top floor is the 76 stories high. The sunset was goooorgeous!

I got Noah a new driver for his golf set, and dropped it off early so they brought it out when we were having dinner. I actually surprised him, which is a hard thing to do! I love you, Honey! It's been an amazing first year as husband and wife, and I am looking forward to the many to come!

Hiking

Last weekend we tore ourselves away from housework and hiked Rattlesnake Ridge with some of the other employees at Noah's gym. It's not a terribly tough hike... 4 miles round trip, however, you are climbing a ridge, so the first half is completely uphill. Then you mix in a group of personal trainers and well, I'm sure you can imagine! :-) I did pretty well and was fairly pleased with my fitness at the end of it. However, the next morning I was so surprised to find I could barely make it DOWN the stairs. Apparently running down a mountain trail works all kinds of funny little muscles in your ankles and calves. Hmmm... not completely sure how to work those out in the gym. Anyway, there are some beautiful views from the top: