Sunday, April 24, 2011

Week 7

Lots of changes this week as well as lots of decisions. We now have a third story floor and a couple of walls as well as an interior staircase from 2nd to 3rd floor. We moved the living room wall back into the office a foot and a half in order to increase that space somewhat. We removed the wall blocking off the laundry area so it is now one big mudroom/laundry space. The laundry chute was framed in and Ainsley thinks that it is the coolest thing! I'm sure we'll have much more than clothes making their way down the chute over the years! The radiant was laid in the basement and cement will be poured over it next week, weather permitting.


Dean and I traveled to Seattle with our contractor on Tuesday to pick out flooring, countertops, and back splashes. We STILL have not decided on a flooring - ahhhhh!!!!! We are down to engineered tigerwood vs stained engineered red oak. Oak can be stained to a similar color of tigerwood, is more stable esp over radiant, and is a third the cost. However, it's not as beautiful as tigerwood. We'll see how the quotes come in and make that decision soon. The countertop and tile shopping was so much fun! We went to Pental in Georgetown and they have this huge warehouse of granite/limestone/quartz/onyx, etc. slabs. You walk through the aisles and pick the style you like based on the one on top and then they pull out all of the slabs of the same style - different variations based on where from the rock they were sliced. We opted for a creamy color quartz for the perimeter kitchen counter and desk and picked a limestone slab that will be split between the master bath and the laundry counters. The nice thing about quartz is that it is very hard and nonporous and needs minimal to no maintenance - perfect for a kitchen. And the "awesomest" (as Ainsley says) piece is the granite slab we picked that will be our kitchen island and powder room countertops. We were walking the aisles and I saw it and said "ooooooh" and Dean came over and saw it and said the same - sold!!!! However, we are waiting final pricing as this slab of granite was in one of the priciest categories of course! Our framer lives in Bellevue and is currently living 4 days a week out here for the job. He had suggested that we call his wife who does interior design when we headed over. Heidi has worked with Dell and Paul (the floor guy) on numerous projects and was luckily available to help us - and did she ever!!!! It was so great having someone who knows how to coordinate things to assist us in picking! Dean & I would have been so lost! For example, our master bath will have espresso colored cabinetry. Heidi helped us pick a slate floor, limestone counter, marble bath tile, and glass backsplash! It all looks so great together but I never would have thought to combine so many mediums.


I had Friday off since Kelli was out of town so I spent a relaxing day with the kids - playdate with friends and lots of outdoor time. Saturday we went to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium as a family. It was a beautiful 65 and sunny and we had a great time! Afterwards we went to Erika's house and had dinner and hung out with Erika, my cousin Steffi, and her boyfriend Tom. All in all, a really great day. Today we have an egg hunt planned and more work to be done on the burn pile since it's pretty cloudy. Monday I again have the day off since I need to appear in traffic court in Port Townsend to try and defer a speeding ticket I got on our way to Mexico - yuck! I feel like such a criminal! At least it gives me a five day weekend!


Ian is either sick, teething, or growing or possibly all 3! He's not sleeping well at night, taking unusually long naps, snotty nose, drooling, and eating a TON! He's also started using his legs to crawl, though he's still faster with just his arms and his preferred method is walking! He's pulling himself up on everything and starting to get into the kitchen cabinets and go after electrical plugs - back to baby proofing again!


Ainsley and I got along great Friday and Saturday compared to the rest of the week. We've decided that she & I need some alone playtime together in order to keep our bond strong and prevent a lot of breakdowns. Tuesday we're headed to her preschool for an hour of play to introduce her to it. It will be interesting to see how she interacts with the new kids.


That's our week in review, here's a few pics...






First stairs Monday



Powder room door flipped





Living room wall expansion



Some Tuesday choices...

Kitchen tile backsplash



Our granite slab - looks very much like petrified wood. Picture does not do it justice - you all will just have to come see it!!!! The right 2 feet will be used for our powder room counter - see with sink below.



Mexican copper sink on granite for powder room




Third floor - looking at Master bed/bath/closet :) on other side of stairs




Basement radiant



From the front Thursday




Master bath walk-in shower - yes that is a huge window because we have no neighbors!


Get ready... tons of cute kiddo pictures coming up...



Dying & decorating Easter eggs



Bundle!




Ainsley's King of the Castle!



Ian LOVES the swing - one of our best investments! He spent an entire hour in it like this!




We went on a little hike on a logging trail behind our playground and about fifty yards off I saw what I thought was another dog. I called the dogs close and then the animal turned and trotted off - definately a young cougar! Good thing the dogs didn't see it! We turned around and came home!





Playing in the dirt of Erika's driveway
Crazy sugared up kid running laps around the car deck on the ferry at 9pm in her PJ's!



Little Engineer


That silly Easter bunny!


First ring pop thanks to the Easter bunny










Crazy and bluelipped after sugar rush of Easter candy and blue ring pop

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Week 6

By far the most changes this week - it's giving us house-fever!!!! Walls went up everywhere and we faced a lot of decisions. We have finally decided on unfinished, engineered Brazilian Tigerwood which will be site-finished with a penetrating oil finish - phew!!!! It's fabulously hard, the oil finish is VOC-free and makes scratches and dents fixable on an individual basis and not nearly as visible as a polyurethane finish. This particular brand (Real Wood) is warrantied to go over radiant, has a wear-layer as thick as hardwood, and is more stable. FINALLY!!!!! Monday we got the news that when Dell had gone to the city to discuss our basement plans he figured out we were not engineered for GypCrete. Since this is the material that the radiant was to be in and the dimensions of the floor were set to - problem. Resolved by doing a different form of radiant (actually the same kind as Erika and Mark - installed below the subfloor, from under the floor) and sloping the landing slightly at the top of our current stairs. The county also put some huge restrictions on our crawl space. Since pouring concrete under any wood floor will cause it to warp (which we didn't realize until last weekend), we need to get the concrete poured before. And since the radiant has to go in under the concrete, the county considers the heated space a finished space, so indeed we must finish the basement. That includes electrical, plumbing, AND dry wall - ugh! We're not finishing the bathroom or painting at this point. Now we are really overbudget! Thank goodness we paid less in taxes so we're still covered with our savings. Now that we're past that bump, we are getting really excited about having the extra space the basement offers. It will be great to get the exercise equipment out again and have a large, heated space for the kiddos to play when it's nasty outside (feels like all the time recently!). More house news... we have decided based on how the room looks that we will not put the tv over the fireplace. The funny thing is that Dean was the one to talk me into it (it took a lot of convincing and the whole mirror idea to do it), but then when we started to walk around our living room, he was the one too convince me otherwise! The fireplace will look so much better without the tv - really allow the stone to show and especially excited about our mantle - a huge chunk of beautiful cedar from the property. The wood just got out of the kiln and now is to undergo some finishing steps before being ready. After walking around the house with the walls in place, we've also opted to move a couple walls - make the office smaller and living room larger, no door on the laundry area of the mudroom, and put the door on the otherside of the powder room. Next week, it appears that our stairs and 3rd floor will be going in! The radiant in the basement and concrete will be poured at the end of next week. Dean, Dell, and I are headed to Georgetown (Seattle) on Tuesday to look at granite/quartz countertops, tile flooring, and carpeting. No decisions to be made yet, just need to start looking so we can make decisions and also get local bids for the work (not that any of those have panned out so far - pretty flaky really.). On the family front, Dean & I were both struck down with the cold from the kiddos. Neither of us were as sick as they were (maybe Airborne does help?) but it still made for a long week. Dean has scheduled his recertification test and a week-long class to prepare for it, all in August. We'll go as a family to Portland for the weekend before the class and then Dean will stay on by himself. Spring soccer started last week with a great win against long-time rival Bella Italia, however, some controversy over "stolen players" put a damper on it for Dean. Gotta love the small town politics! Ainsley's definately showing signs of being three - sweet and talkative and compliant one moment and stubborn and screaming the next. Only a couple of melt downs this week and mainly due to hunger or fatigue, however, when they happen - wow! Funny things with her this week - she's getting really excited whenever Ian babbles telling us how he's talking to her. She was coloring a princess and I asked which one it was and she told me it was "Sleeping Booty"!!! Ian's starting to use his legs to crawl instead of just dragging himself by his arms (not that he doesn't cruise that way!). He's able to pull himself to standing now and is walking using our furniture and walls. He's learned how to hit the floor with his bum versus his head, although has nailed his head often not paying attention to where he's going when crawling. He ate pasta for the first time this week and loved it. Not much going on with me - work is always busy. I started a monthly "health" competition between employees with prizes of healthy food, gym membership, or massage (what everyone will choose I'm sure!). Our river otter project is on hold until after the breeding season - will resume for July/August. And we've added a cougar project for the Skokomish tribe - although less likely to be intimately involved in that one due to the distance. Here's a few pics from the week... Basement Rec Room /Monday progress
Tuesday


Wednesday

Dancing in the fireplace
Thursday - yes, snow again! In fact, the framers showed up at 7am (no, we get no privacy in the mornings!) and then disappeared for a little while. Dean ran across them coming back when he was leaving for work and they told them that they had driven up the hill to see how pretty the snow looked in the trees!!!!

Friday
Laundry room/Mud room and where the connection to the current house will be
Pantry
Kitchen and breakfast nook
Dining room
Office off living room
Living room - fireplace between windows
Powder room (with door on wrong side)
Stairs (well, soon...)
Plumbing for basement bath (3/4 bath)

Lulled to sleep by the stroller

Girl on a mission
Spaghetti then blue jello makes a big mess!
"Helping" with dishes
Shoving pasta in as fast as I can make it!
On to the next burn pile

Watering a tree
Ainsley's new haircut (by me)