House Updates!

Life has been ten kinds of crazy these past few days. I apologize for the lack of updates. It makes me so happy to know you guys enjoy seeing the pictures of our hard work though (Thanks Nathalee!) So here are some updates.

So we are still living without a proper kitchen, but the addition of the fridge has made life much more comfortable. I get to have instant breakfast again! But yes, this looks pretty much the same.

Here is our other "kitchen." This is our dining table, which is currently in the office, and stores all our pantry stuff. High class. We were also installing those roman shades in the foreground that day, so it doesn't usually look quite as construction zone-ish.

The kitchen. Still looks like this. But I cannot even begin to describe how much work has gone on in and under and above this room. We are done with all the plumbing and electrical, and we PASSED OUR INSPECTION! This is so so so exciting. I am so impressed that Trent managed to learn from a book what most people dedicate their careers to learn. The inspector was blown away that we did it all ourselves, and we were very proud of ourselves.

This is the future laundry closet. We are getting stackable ones and this will be completely closed off. Look at that beautiful plumbing. Gorgeous.

Trader Joe's has been an absolutely integral team player. You can pretty much buy any complete dinner, frozen and ready to go. And frozen bananas?!? My favorite. It has been fun being reintroduced to technology, you realize how much it really does improve our lives, and I definitely have much more respect for it.

Trent is the most naturally talented person I know. His soldering is a work of art. Mine.. gets the job done. Here he is doing as much soldering outside as he can to avoid doing it under the house. Which is a real treat. We had some awesome team work going on under there.

The BIGGEST success we've had was passing the inspection. Which means.. drumroll please....
WE HAVE HOT WATER!

This is such an accomplishment. We plugged this bad boy in and held our breaths and instantly had 107 degree water. It is SO amazing, that this water is running through pipes WE laid, being powered by cables WE installed, and totally totally works.

We have been showering like crazy, it never runs out of hot water, it us just plain fantastic.

And just in time, since our first houseguest Lesley, arrived yesterday.






I love this picture. There goes Trent up into the attic to vent the microwave!






























The bathroom is totally done, which is awesome. It turned out very nice, clean and crisp, lots of blue and chrome. And again, great to be done before Lesley arrived. It is starting to feel like a real house. And she has been great about being excited about what we are doing, and not minding sharing the guest room with 4 bikes and lots of boxes. She is here until next Wednesday, we are going up to the mountains on Saturday to watch Trent's crew team race against Ohio State, and then lots of antique shopping and showing her around. Trent's parents arrive the day she leaves, and we have big plans to perhaps get the fence up when they are here, but we will see. I don't want them to work the entire time they are here!

Otherwise, our "other" lives are keeping us quite busy as well too. I have been giving tons of presentations and have one more here before I leave for San Diego on the 2nd of April for a big conference. And then vacation! My parents rented a house in Coronado for the week following the conference and I am going to sleep, and read non-science stuff, eat lots of yummy food, and run like crazy for this upcoming marathon. I absolutely cannot wait. I also get to hang out with one of my best-est friends whose wedding I am in this summer, so there will be lots of shoe shopping and cake tasting. Sounds absolutely unbelievable.

Expect big changes in the house in the coming weeks as well, now that we passed inspection we are going to start putting the kitchen together. Drywall, tile, paint, install cabinets, move our appliances, and presto.. a real kitchen. I can't even imagine.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter!

House Updates!

I am slacking on posting lots of pictures of the remodel... it seems stranger to post pictures of where you are living for some reason, I believe. But fear not, we are trucking along in the journey to make this house a home. Por ejemplo:

1. After a brief stint with no running water, we are back to having water, and proud to say that the water is flowing through our lovingly soldered copper pipes beneath the house. We are solder champions!

2. So this means we are mere days away from actually having hot water. Get out. It will be unbelievable. The folks at the gym will miss us. I am SO excited. Not being able to immediately shower after spending a couple hours under the house soldering, is not so fun.

3. The electrical is nearly done, just need to get all the cables we artfully arranged under the house plugged into their respective breaker boxes.

4. The washer/dryer area is fully plumbed, even with the dryer vent, and Trent is building the walls to make it into it's own closet area.

5. Once items 2-4 are completely finished, we get to have the city inspector come out and make sure we did everything correctly. But so far not flooding/burning down/collapsing the house has been pretty good evidence that we are on track.

6. As soon as it passes inspections, we can slap up some drywall and start installing! We have most of the cabinets, all the appliances, even the countertops already purchased, so that will go quickly.

7. Speaking of appliances, we couldn't pass up the deal of the century and snagged this fridge at Lowes. It was a floor model that had just been reduced even further and it is ours. We had been planning to fix up the old beast, but with time constraints, energy concerns, and the hope to sell this house quickly someday, it was an easy decision to make. Fancy dancy fridge.. even has an icemaker (which I am probably most excited about).

This weekend was good, fairly well balanced between working our tails off Saturday, as well as managing to get in some long runs and lunches at Weaver Street. Sunday we had friends in town to visit, and helped other friends move, so we didn't get as much done, but it was a nice break.

The town is quiet, with students off for spring break, as well as the general sense of sadness for our communities loss. I only knew of Eve Carson, but her amazing reputation and ambitious nature makes this tragedy even more acute.

I read too much apartment therapy...

Urban Outfitters. Sometimes I forget that they do more then hipster paradise tight jeans.

Although I am rocking a fabulous Obama t-shirt from my Mom from there... but anyways.

I have been trying to scope the internet for good deals for furnishing and decorating the new house (Linens n' Things is having a great sale on lamps!), since that is way more important than the whole hot water heater thing, you know.

Some good finds:

1. This sofa/bed. I have been debating about the "spare" room. Never having had any room that didn't have a dedicated purpose (or three), this freedom is blowing my mind. I definitely want guest room capabilities, but I think it would be silly to have the room entirely dedicated to it, but having a full size bed. Futons are nice, but I want something a little classier. Room and Board has beautiful pull out sofas, for about $1,700. Not quite our budget. I wonder if this sofa/bed is actually comfortable though? Love the design/color/simplicity.

2. This little jewelry dish is just precious. And maybe would finally organize my earrings?

3. Love these hooks, but in the theme of this entire endeavor, I am pretty sure I could make them myself.

4. Not sure where it would go, but I kinda like this rug. Or this one. Totally different, I realize. But for that price.. why not?!

Anyways, fun to look. Good to remind myself in 6 months when buying a rug is actually a priority. We are on day two of showering at the gym. I am gonna be super buff!

Next Project

Perhaps once all this house restoration is a distant memory.. we'll tackle a project like restoring this awesome Airstream. It'd be perfect for escaping from our jobs as researcher at the Fred Hutchison Institute, and crew coach/furniture maker/public health researcher at University of Washington, for a long weekend in British Columbia, no?

I think so.

Updates

And we are in!

Man, moving is SO not fun. Not even the moving, really, but dealing with all the little loose ends and cleaning and realizing how much stuff you have accumulated and how dirty the little cottage was. Yuckers. Luckily we had a nice chat with our landlord Friday night and he gave us the entire weekend to move out, instead of having to be out by Friday, which was pretty absolutely necessary looking back on it. We even had some free time to hang out with our now "old" neighbor in the cottages Friday night, I went running Saturday morning and Trent went to crew practice, and we went to Weaver Street for breakfast and studying on Sunday morning.

But other than that, straight moving. And working on the house. I was utterly exhausted yesterday, after carrying lots of wood turning equipment and scrubbing walls. I had a particularly nasty spill involving an unsteady brick and a file cabinet full of tools, but all in all we survived.

And it is starting to look nice. Our bedroom looks AWESOME, even with the dining room table temporarily living in it. The guest room is stacked with boxes and bikes, and the office has a little functional area, but the rest is temporary kitchen. We mopped and arranged the living room furniture and it has the semblance of a home! I learned a ton about installing electrical and plumbing and the water heater should be functional in a couple days. Then we have to just get everything inspected to make sure we aren't about to flood or burn down the house, and we can start putting the kitchen back together.

My first bike ride this morning only took about 15 minutes, which seems reasonable. Nice and flat, not too much traffic. Our first night was quiet and I have enjoyed being woken up by the sun (not all the windows have curtains yet). Tonight I am expanding my microwave cooking skills. This house is really our home!

Dear Ed,

We were all so lucky to know you. You were such a lovely person.