Holiday Wrapup....Well Into Winter...

Did everyone enjoy their Christmas card?
Oh wait, I didn't send any. And we didn't put up a tree or hang any lights. Was I a scrooge? No, we just didn't feel like doing any of that this year, and it came and went so fast.

But backing up to Thanksgiving. We had a grand ol time enjoying the sunny, dry days in Southern Utah. My parents were vacationing in St George for the month of November and house shopping for a snowbird place, so the kids decided to meet up there for Thanksgiving. Keith did not make the trip, as Thanksgiving is too big of a holiday for his family and he couldn't bear to miss it.

Our time there was spent in a very comfortable condo to relax and recoup from our daily outings. I flew into Salt Lake where my brother, Paul, picked me up at the airport in a fully loaded Subaru (kayak and 2 bikes on top, climbing gear, skis, and every other 'just in case' piece of outdoor equipment in the back). We made the long drive, getting to St George about 10:00PM to find my parents kicked back in the condo deliberating on a house. The anguish went on for a couple days, but by the end of the weekend, they signed acceptance papers!

The next day, Paul, Mom, Dad and I did a long hike in the Zion National Park to Observation Point. Gorgeous. Cool weather in the morning, but we were down to shorts and t-shirts and stunning views by the top.
Paul and I broke from my parents early and did a side hike up to Hidden Canyon which has a short stint along Zion's famous chain-trails (trails that have chains bolted into the canyon wall so that you don't fall down the vertical cliff to your left/right).

Paul coming back from Hidden Canyon:


Looking down towards Zion canyon - it's a relatively small park, but very dramatic. Paul climbed that steep wall on the left!


We didn't catch my parents until the very end of the hike where they were waiting for us with lunch and a view.


On the way down Paul and I meandered down a small slot canyon, while Dad looked on from above.


Late, late that night Carl and Tory showed up after a grueling 10 hour drive from Denver. But that didn't slow them down. They were rearing to go do some of the much anticipated mountain biking that is plentiful in this area. So while my parents did some last minute house business we took off on a trail that conveniently starts where our condo was and ends practically in the back yard of the house they are going to buy (we think, the deal is still in progress as I type this). I did my usual weenie riding, giving the brakes of my bike (well, actually it was Heidi's bike - she couldn't make the trip, but was kind enough to let me use her very nice ride) while the other three did things like this:


They spent about 45 minutes playing on and around the "Three Fingers of Death". Yeah, I took the 'green' route around that part. At the end of the trail we met our folks at "the house" and got to look around it for ourselves. Very nice. Needs a little bit of repair work, but its backyard is that bike trail and it sits in a very nice neighborhood and is roomy, comfortable and will make a great vacation home. And they got it for a good price. Well done guys!

Paul, Carl and Tory did a repeat of the ride the next day closer to dusk and were treated to some amazing colors.


The next day was Thanksgiving and we took off in the morning to do a little rock climbing. Paul is our expert climber and was kind enough to put up with us and show us the ropes. (Groan....sorry that wasn't intentional). I know how uninteresting (not to mention unflattering) climbing photos are, so I will spare you. But I will show you our expert belay techniques. You know. Belaying. Done by the one holding the rope (aka your life) so that you don't fall 20 feet and crack your head open.


In my defense, I swear I either only glanced away for a second, or else she was resting!


In Paul's defense, "this is how the pros do it".

One more picture to give you kind of an idea of how it feels when your climbing and why it is so much scarier when you are actually up on the rock.


Mom, bless her heart, went back to the condo to cook the turkey, while Dad and I rode from the climbing site through some other trails working our way back to the condo, and while Paul, Carl and Tory did the hard core trail again.

We spent our evenings relaxing at the condo - swimming, hot tubbing, playing pool, watching TV, and of course, some Boggle.

The next day I had to leave, but had time for a nice day hike with my folks before the drive to the Las Vegas airport (much closer than Salt Lake). The 'kids' did another big mountain bike ride and the next day they all did a small canoe trip. A well-rounded vacation if I do say so myself. I have a lot more pictures here if you are interested, including an action climbing shot of each person who climbed (woo-hoo!).

For a recap and pictures of Keith' s Thanksgiving, I suggest you just re-read last years entry (and I don't mean that in a flippant way - that's what tradition is all about!), but replace the miserable, constant rain, with bright, sunny, crisp days, add a cousin, a new boyfriend and 2 or 3 new dogs, take out the Bauers, and voila! Seriously, though, they did have a great time and a great turnout of faraway relatives.


Moving onto Christmas. A quiet one for sure. I ended up working 7 days straight (and picking up lots of overtime) including Christmas and Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Eve morning at John and Jenn's for a lovely brunch and Christmas morning at Keith's brothers place to watch excited kids open lots of presents. And that's about it - low key and quiet, but nice.


Next would be New Years. A bit more festive here, although I don't think we made it to midnight. I had that whole week off, so we spent three lovely, lazy days with Jenn and John at their beach house. Lots of walks on the beach, good meals, a nice hike through the woods, some football for the boys while the gals went walking, and game playing and good conversation at night. A very nice time as usual.
Looking back at their house:


Funny dogs.



Since then, it's been back to work. Keith's grinding away at Philomath. We keep saying we'll have it on the market by the end of the week. But the weeks keep ending and there isn't a for sale sign yet. We are getting closer though and hope to see the fruits of our labors soon. Nothing new on my job front. I am happy where I am and will probably just stay put for the next year or so before venturing into a new area. I toy with moving to day shift, but I haven't had to set an alarm clock for years, and I just can't imagine getting up at 5:30 (I know, most normal people do that every single day....), and I really like the people I work with on my shift.

We did get out for a day of recreating. I got new (sort of - long story there) snowshoes for Christmas and we had been itching to try them out, so we picked a clear, sunny Wednesday and took off for Willamette Pass. We stopped at the first Sno-Park we came to and climbed up an old forest service road to the top of Fuji Mountain where there was a shelter waiting as our destination. It was cold but clear and beautiful. Gracie did well, but was fed up with the snow balling up on her feet by the end of the hike. Next time, she'll have to wear booties.

Beginning of the trail.


Halfway up and nice views of Diamond Peak.


Finally, the shelter.


There has been so much snow this year, you have to climb down to get into the shelter. These shelters are pretty cool - completely stocked with firewood and a wood stove and a sleeping platform up above. We slept in one of these a few years back. It makes for a cold night (you know, missing the fourth wall and all), but is still kinda fun.
That is the roof Keith is holding onto.


Looking out from the shelter. Our view is majorly obstructed by the big snow drift.


We decided to break trail and take a "shortcut" down through this open forest for some adventure. We had a bet to see who would fall more. The results: Emily: 6. Keith: 0. Hmpf.




Which brings us to today. Melody and Dwayne are up here visiting (aka working) again. They like to come up and help us/Keith with the Philomath house. For some reason that we can't figure out, they just really enjoy working on it with him. No matter what the job or weather. So I went up with them yesterday and Melody and I spent the day out in some very cold rain screwing in fence boards and spreading bark, while the men worked inside on some electrical stuff for this separate outbuilding Keith's trying to fix up. Hmmmm. Granted we all were cold, but still. No matter, there help is much appreciated and will never be turned down.

And today we woke to this unexpected scene:


Check out my snowball-catching dog.




And us dorks. Yes, I have a big red dot on my big red, swollen nose, and yes, Keith has a red mark on his chin - we are pretty sure it is poison oak from his last wood-gathering excursion (I probably got some residual from his clothes) - aren't we cute. The tip of my nose?....come on...such bad reminders of the age of acne....


OK. We're caught up. To end I'm providing a link to an enlightening and funny video that I found kind of moving.

Flip This House, without the drama.

Sooo......it has been along time since I have done a blog....or wanted to. But, Philomath, which is a town and the sole term used to describe my life, and Em's heartburn, over the past few months is starting to come together. We bought the house in late August, but didn't really get moving on the renovation until John and Jenn came back and kicked us out of their house, where we were quite comfortable mind you, in early November.

Em and I, with the occasional help of my parents, who must be getting very bored at home to come up and scrub the grime off of cabinets, have spent most of November and December renovating the 1800 sq ft house. Here is the deal between Em and I: if Em works at the hospital, I go to Philomath. On her days off, I either stay in Eugene and we work on Mist, which is rare, or she gets the joy of working on philomath on her days off. Lucky her.

Here is a quick summary of the work we completed.

First, there was the 30 yard dumpster of stuff that had to be hauled out of the house. Being a foreclosure house, the previous owner didn't exactly steam clean the carpets for the new owners, rather he left his food in the fridge and drug razor next to the bed.

Then I demolished some outdoor structures that look horrible and unsafe and spent some time on the yard. This was still in August.

Then the real work got started. I fixed some ceiling and wall cracks, and then Em and I painted the entire house. Funny how it only took two sentences to describe, but two weeks to accomplish. We had carpet installed and added a gas fireplace.

Before:


After:


We tiled the kitchen counter and my mom scrubbed the grim from the cabinets and touched up the finish. I tiled the main bathroom (floor, tub, and countertop) and Em painted the vanity and added new hardware.

Main Bath Before:


Main Bath After:


We loved the bamboo in our Mist house, so my parents, Em and I added bamboo flooring to the dining room, kitchen, and breakfast area.

Kitchen Before:


Kitchen After:


There are, of course, more rooms and pics not to be included. Your welcome.

Ohh, my thoughts on working on houses. So far the worst day of working on house....out in the driving rain with one foot in a 3 foot deep trench full of mud was marginally better then the average day at the office. So for the most part, it is good.

Sooo....we are not done yet. I am still working on the Master Bath, more of the same there. And then, with the help of my father, we are tacking the dirty job of trying to add a foundation to a small "mom-in-law" unit on the property....then, we'll sell the SOB....we hope.

Quick Update

I bet everyone is anxious to know how the house is coming along (ummmm, yeah), so this entry will be mostly photos. Also, we haven't done anything else to really talk about. Work and home improvements. I guess it has been quite a long time, so I should at least preface the entry with a few bits of information. J&J came home, so we no longer have our flat-nosed, black, little side kick, and we have thus, moved into our house. Timing turned out pretty good even though John came back a few days early. The carpets got in just in time and the kitchen was almost done and fully functional. As of now, we still have lots of boxes to unpack and organizing to do, but we are warm, cozy and happy with our progress so far.

Not exactly sure where we left off, but the drain pipe eventually got done, and recently Keith installed a much needed sump pump in the back yard, which worked like a charm a week ago when we had 24 straight hours of rain. Here we are looking way too happy to be out in the weather fighting with drain pipe.


Painting the spare bedroom a very neutral color. This is what I spent most of my time doing - getting ready to paint and painting. I'm not fast, but I'm mostly happy with how things turned out.


Mid-stage of the shower. Keith spent lots of time in here, with a lot of time in particular spent working on the built-in shelf.


Kitchen counters done, and replacing the yellow sink with a white one.


My first stint at tiling.


Removing the popcorn ceiling. A messy job, but a surprisingly easy one. Thank you Melody!


We went with bamboo in the living room as well, after an excruciating decision-making hour spent at the discount carpet store.


Bamboo floor done. We like it!


The entryway.


The living room complete except for the couch we have yet to buy. The white area rug you see is a Merino wool carpet we got for a steal at that discount carpet store - the remnant wasn't enough to cover the whole room, so we had them turn it into an area rug. Now we can take it with us. It is so soft, but it is white, so it will be a challenge to keep it looking like this!


The living room before.


Master bathroom is almost done. We need to fix the window and change out that awful light, but at least we can shower in it!


Remember what it used to look like?

Keith installed our new wood stove in a day. We love wood heat, and it sure beats the existing ceiling heat.


The kitchen is mostly done. I have yet to figure out what to do with the cabinets. We don't want to spend the money on new ones (too late now anyway with the tile already in), but would like to modify these so that they look a bit more modern. We are toying around with a few ideas, but are in no hurry as everything is functional. Any ideas? Here's the before shot.


Another view including our new table.


Looking the other direction. Don't forget the before shot!


Enough house pictures. How about some pug pictures? We'll miss this little guy! He provided hours of entertainment for us!
Always looking for a lap.


No comment.


Again, no comment.


Cute kids and a strategically placed dog.


I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I had a fabulous week off and spent it in southern Utah recreating in the desert with my family. Keith spent it in Coos Bay for the traditional Coos Bay Thanksgiving activities. Pictures and narrative for both will be up soon.

House Rennovation Update

That has to be the title, since that is ALL we seem to do anymore. I'm not getting bitter, but I am getting a bit worn out. We are starting to feel the crunch, as we'll have to give J&J their house back when they get home in early November, and we will then need a place of our own to live in. So we have resigned the month of October to getting the place move-in-able. It will be a tough month, but it will be very rewarding to have it all done.

We did start last month with at least two fun activities....
We went down to Coos Bay to help Melody and Dwayne celebrate their 40th anniversary. Being from about as informal of a family as my own, it was pretty low key, filled with activities such as tearing off a roof, walking on the beach, getting back rubs from Melody (wait...wasn't it her anniversary?), and then a full day of fun spent south of Florence at Honeyman State Park where we had a scorcher of a day and got some good swimming and BBQ'ing in.

Go to our Flickr website to see more fun 'oldies' like this one:


They haven't changed a bit!


Then we had an anniversary of our own. Three years under our belts! It was funny getting dressed to go out to dinner, I realized it was the first time in a long time where I wasn't putting on either scrubs or my old work jeans and ratty old t-shirts. Kind of sad, but true.


So, onto the house. This will be really fascinating stuff, so hold onto your seats! There are always at least four different projects going on at once. No real new updates on the foundation. It's staying level, and Keith has got it pretty well secured. There are still jacks sticking out here and there, but that project got put on hold a bit so that we could get started on the ditch. We are digging a trench around the entire house and installing a french drain so that (hopefully) the house will not move anymore. In other words, this is how we hope to fix the fundamental problem that created all this work. And it has been a really fun project (interject sarcasm).

And I must disclose, that this is where I play the "I am working full time" card and let Keith do all the dirty work. First step was to deface the beautiful RV pad the previous owners had installed. In order to dig a ditch you have to get the concrete out of the way, so Keith spent the better part of a day bent over in a less than favorable position for the lower back, sawing through concrete.


Then he spent half a day with a jackhammer breaking up all the concrete and another day lifting all that broken concrete up out of there and into the trailer. Yep. Glad I had to work that day. Next machine to rent was the Ditch Witch. This "tiny" little thing would dig us a 3 foot trench all the way around the house in "four hours max" said the guy at Beehive Rental. Nine hours later we took our weary bodies home with the job completed.

The Ditch Witch.


It worked pretty well, but things that made it hard were stumps and chunks of concrete two feet down that would get in the way, and some very rocky soil under the driveway.


A look at the aftermath.


This was only about a week ago, and it was a gorgeous, sunny day when we did it. The very next day it rained like crazy - the first real rain of the fall, turning all these nice piles of dry dirt into mud. And if you know Eugene, you know that it is a clay-based soil. If you know clay, you can imagine how miserable it is to move around. You step on it and you are instantly an inch taller. You shovel it, and all but a teaspoon stays on your shovel. We didn't want to leave these piles around, so we (mostly Keith...remember,....I have to go to work!) set to the task of moving earth. The late fall rains turned a two hour job into a two day one. But it got done like things do when you keep at it, and we are now finally laying the drain pipe into the trench. Of course the Ditch Witch did not do a perfect job of getting all the dirt out, so we (Keith) have to spend a lot of time digging out more wet dirt/clay from the skinny trench to get to the right depth. I do help. Really I do, I just split my time between helping outside, and prepping walls inside for painting.

Look at our beautiful back yard. This is where all the dirt is getting moved to.


I spent a couple hours today spreading it out. We have hopes to get some seed planted soon so that maybe we'll get some grass before winter really sets in. Gracie might just have to turn into a full-time indoor dog this year. After getting the ditch to the right depth, we place a liner, then the pipe, fill it with a little gravel, get the right slope using a transit, then stabilize it all with more gravel. We are two-thirds of the way around the house as of today.

Moving inside....we have officially completed one room! The office is done. We laid bamboo floor without too much difficulty and painted it a fun color to match one of our paintings we bought in Indonesia. That's it. That's all we did to it, but it sure took a while to actually get it all said and done.


Now we can finally move some stuff in here and clear out a little space in the dining room which is jam packed tight with boxes.


Here's a look at the living room. If you remember from earlier photos, there used to be a fireplace here. Keith ripped that out (couldn't fix the settling problem around it) and then built this new wall.


And in the master bathroom, progress on the shower. After doing our shower in Lebanon Keith swore he'd never tile another shower floor again. Well, he changed his mind and has been making nice progress on getting the shower ready for tiling.
The hardibacker is all in now, but I figured you didn't need to see another picture of it here.


What do the dogs do all day? Well after getting reported to Animal Control (and getting a ticket!)by our neighbor (long story there) we have to keep both (especially Gracie) on a short leash. Wiley has to stay tied up anyway as he is a Houdini and can disappear on you in a second. He is getting used to the routine though, and spent the better part of yesterday watching the neighborhood go by from his perch (he likes to be on high things).


And Gracie literally spent eight hours yesterday doing this.


We decided we are going to get her a squirrel for Christmas.