Stairs and water

Len designed our stairs and he and Jeff have been building them. They look good. There will be a shoe closet as you walk in the front the door and a coat closet off the office. Two closets under the stairs!

Some resent set backs. The meter box we bought at Home Depot was not put together correctly by the manufacturer and when the PUD came to install the meter it didn't fit. So we had to replace the box and now the state inspector has to approve it again.

Also our road is flooded, but I am sure it will stop raining soon.

A differant type of construction

We made gingerbread houses at my sister's place on Christmas Eve. Good times. Len's chocolate foundation worked wonders.

We partied until we fell down.

Back to work

Len and the boys have been working hard and the house is looking good. The siding is repaired from the storm, but we still need to replace the skylight, french door, and gutter.

I am trying to design the kitchen. If anyone has any ideas of things that work well and things that don't, please let me know. I plan to get the cabinets from Ikea and the counter top from Home Depot.

Also, I'd like to get going on designing the office soon. Any ideas there would be appreciated as well. Again, I found a lot of great stuff at Ikea. It is just a matter of laying it all out and choosing color. It is fun, but a bit overwhelming.

Len and The Don installed the frame for a pocket door for the powder room. The room was a little too big so we are taking some of the space and adding it to a coat closet under the stairs.

We finally got the window installed in the bonus room. All windows are now in. We just need a garage door, to replace the french door, and to finish the last bit of siding and we will be sealed to the weather.

No Beer and No TV make Homer Something Something

We are living in the dark, but we have the Internet again so all is well.

Here is the big tree that fell and missed Len's truck with the generator in it by about two feet. There was another smaller tree that I watched from my bedroom window fall and miss the northwest corner of our house by about six inches. Yikes!

It started on Sunday. We lost power from about 11 to 4, then it came back on for a couple of hours. The wind picked up again it went out that evening and hasn't come back yet. The worst of the storm was on Sunday night and Monday morning. It felt like it just kept going and going. We lost about eight trees at the place we are living. Three of them on the power line from the road to the house. Most of the Peninsula in up and running again, but not our little pocket. We had a line lying across our driveway until this evening. I think we are looking at a week or more without power. That's okay. We have a generator and now we have Internet! Being able to call long distance also just came back.

At the new house, we lost siding, the french doors, and a skylight in the covered porch. The french door was completely blown out of the frame. Half of it was inside the house the other half was lying outside. Oddly, despite the frame and door knob being in pieces, the glass didn't break. The skylight was broken by the siding flying off the east wall. I have not been able to call the insurance company yet, but am hopeful that they will be helpful. Also, one of the new gutters got smashed.

This is the power pole across the street from our house. You can't see the tangle of snapped lines next to it, but they are there.

So far this storm has been a strange and surreal experience. We will see how cranky I get with limited power for an extended period of time. Tomorrow we go back to school!

Cold Weather Progress

We have rain gutters and a ditch. Woo hoo! The ditch has a big power line in it. Hopefully we will pass inspection and have juice soon. It would save a lot of money on the gas for the generator we have been using to run tools. The siding is nearly up. There is so much to do. It is a little overwhelming. I want to start inside work ASAP. We will be planning a big trip to IKEA for design help soon. One set back this weekend was that we ran out of phone cable. Hopefully Mr. ShinyBeerDragon will be able to rescue us soon.
Stacey e Paco visited this weekend, but I forgot to get pictures. Paco finished his doctorate and Stacey is done with her Masters. I am very jelous. Six and a half more months for me. It feels like an eternity!

No. No. Bad Storm. Stop that.

Wow! We finally had the big wind storm the news had been talking about. It blew like crazy on Sunday night or Monday morning. We lost power about 5 AM. Up here in the OP we didn't get it back until Tuesday about 10 in the morning. It wasn't too bad. Last year we were out for four days. The huge gusts were not good for our house. The bottom of our french doors blew in and broke the dead blot. The damage was a little crazy. The door is completely ruined.

Mmm Butter

My house is getting all warm and buttery. It was a beautiful day. I had to work at the camp in the morning, but was out at the house in the afternoon. Even though the sun was out it was freaken cold.

I like my door knobs. They are pretty.