the hole in the wall gang

At least that is what mom said she was going to call us, given how many holes we like to put in walls. Speaking of which, see below for pictures of our latest endeavor. We figured we ought to get the messy part of cutting the wall apart done before we have a floors replaced. And, we really wanted to open up our kitchen to the living area for entertaining etc. So here are some before and afters.

First set of three pictures below show the progression of the wall from the perspective of the living room.



We will be adding a bar to this side, and then some built-in shelves/cabinet to the left of the hole and bar area.

This set of 4 pictures shows the progression of our hole in the wall from the perspective inside the kitchen. We tore out those cabinets completely as you will see below.
This is the space that was above the stove before.
And here we are, as far as we are going to get for a few weeks. The plan is to finish out the living room side so it is a bar, with our new barstools.

I think it looks great. And while it means that right now we have less storage, once we get the built-ins on the other side, we'll be fine on storage.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Just for you I had them blow up this big balloon. I hope you have a great birthday! Enjoy those pre-30 years. You start to feel old when your body can't quite do as much as it used to!

do you tri?

That is, do you do triathlons? Well I haven't, but I'm going to. I've signed up for the Danskin sprint distance triathlon which happens in Seattle during August. This means I've really got to get my butt in gear and start training. I chose to be part of the mixed age group, which shouldn't be quite so competitive, but you still get an individual race time. However, I know that sometimes the competition is really what makes me motivated, so I guess I'll just have to see how I feel when I do it. Part of me wants to do it in as little time as I can, and the other part of me wants to just do it so I finish it.

Who am I kidding, I've never done something just to finish it. I'll be racing myself that day, I'm sure. Go Lizzy!

A better picture

Here is a much better picture of the wall remodeling we did this weekend. Looks much better without the stove in the way!
;-)

It is not a weekend

It is not a weekend without some good old fashioned wall demolishing! Yesterday, David and I decided we needed to open up a doorway a bit, so we tore open the wall. Here are the before and after pictures. We obviously still need to put on the drywall on the opening and then mud it, but we got pretty darn far in just one evening. Fun!


What used to be the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room....

The new door way between the two rooms. This will make entertaining so much easier. Of course, the stove needs to be put back in place before any entertaining might begin...

It's Birthday mania!

One more birthday to celebrate this week....Carolyn's!

Happy Birthday!

Hope you are having some fun today!

Happy V-Day

To all my loved ones, and especially my sweetie--Happy v-day!

Spread the love!

Happy Birthday and good news-we're going to Hawaii!

First and most importantly,

Happy Birthday Will! This is for the "old" Will, not the young Will ;-) Seriously, I hope you had a wonderful birthday and that the coming year is even more marvelous than the last.

Secondly,

I don't recall, but I think I mentioned somewhere along the line about submitting 3 papers to a conference in Hawaii. Well, two of those papers we've received notification on that they are accepted (with some revisions), and the last paper we haven't heard on yet, but I think even if they accept it, we will have to decline to present b/c the data we have in the paper is not correct, and there is not enough time to get the correct data in the paper. In any case, I'm going to Hawaii! (and so is David!) Yea!

a little late better than never

Seems like I'm always saying that. We got a letter in the mail this week with some photos from thanksgiving in KC, and I realized I never posted any of my pictures. (or did I? Now I'm doubting myself) Here are the four best ones that are representative of our time.

I really liked this statue at the Kemper Art Museum. I'm not sure I was supposed to go up there under it, but I never touched it which is what the sign says you are not allowed to do!

Here is Dad and Suzanne in Front of the Kemper. The spider is their "logo" you could say. In the top right corner you can see Jodi and David doing their own exploring.

David trying to figure out the spider. This image is kind of like a movie to me--like revenge of the spiders or something. It is about to jump down and attack! Yikes!

And here is jodi, david and me in the scuplture area of the more traditional art museum in KC. (I can't remember the name). David was tall enough to be able to fit his head over the top, but Jodi and I had to improvise. I have a picture of him straight on where you really just see the statue and his head. Funny! It is even darker than this picture, so I didn't want to post it.

decision made

Well, we finally made a decision. Thanks for everyone's support and advice on the floors. It has been a difficult process. The decision we made was to get a new floor. by the end of the first week of March (or so) we should be living with new floors. I think it will feel like a whole new house then. I've just got to get David in the habit of sweeping or vacuuming the floors. It feels kind of weird to vacuum a hardwood floor, but it seems to work pretty well, and our vacuum has a bare floor setting, so that probably helps.

Just wanted to let you know the decision. Now I guess our next step is to get in touch with a plumber for the bathroom.

more tests

So we decided to try a new spot with a lighter dye, same stain on top, and we bleached some of the spots and not others. So here we go....

Above you can see where the spots are.

After the sanding

Using the bleach. The people at the stain/paint store said to use oxalic acid on stains. So this is what we used above.

This is after bleaching. I'm not so sure that it looks that much lighter. Just slightly. I suppose we could have done another round of bleach, but we were so tired, we just wanted to get to the dye and stain.

The light/orangish brown is the lighter dye we decided on. The Stain is still the "Java Bean". It seems to have masked the stains pretty well. However, I'm not sure David is sold on the color. The big stain that we didn't bleach you can kind of see at the right angle with the right light, but probably wouldn't be visible otherwise.

So...some decisions to make...

oops here are the long promised bath photos

We tore down the tile wainscoat-- looks bad huh?



I'm sure it will look better when we mud it.

floor issues

So we decided to go buy a aniline dye and stain to see how well it would mask the stains.....

This is the spot as it originally looked before we sanded it all off.
After sanding, you could still see the stains, but they weren't as bad.
last night we put the water based aniline stain (dye) on it (above)

And this morning this is how it looked. Can still see the wood grain, but not really the stains. They said you are then supposed to put a coat of stain on it do deepen the color and complexity.

So this morning, we put the stain on (see above). I'll show you what it looks like after it dries. But this is definitely promising. It isn't black dye--so it still has warmth, but it seems to be covering the stains without losing the interest of the wood grain.

We are cautiously optimistic and may go back to the paint store and see what other colors they have and maybe do another test spot with a lighter dye/stain combo.

flip flopping

I am flip-flopping on the hardwood floor issue. I was so ready to just stain the heck out of it, but then someone else told us that the stains will still be obvious, not just to us, but to visitors also. We got a bid for new floors that is less than 6K (many of the others were around 10K), and the refinishing is going to cost easily half of that....

So now I'm thinking that new floors are probably the way to go. I just want to make a decision and schedule it, but we haven't made any progress on that end. One more person is going to come and take a look at them and give us an estimate.

Christmas in January

I got so busy after christmas I didn't have time to post some of the pictures of the fun we had over the holiday. So here they are, better late than never.

Me showing off a shirt I got from Em and Mel

Mom opening her necklace we got for her (we sent her on a wild goose chase /scavenger hunt just to find it!)

Jodi, ever the model, shows off a new shirt.

Em smiling big in her new fleece. She wouldn't take it off once she unwrapped it!

David and his favorite present of all--an ipod!

Mom and Jodi looking at pictures on jodi's computer. Nice fire, huh?

> Jodi enjoying our mimosa's on christmas day

< Another classic pose from Jodi. New shirt again.

The architects discussing very important stuff....like who gets to eat the oranges first =)

David and his new safety glasses. He looks smokin' in them--now I've just got to get him to wear them in his shop!


After christmas, we did some fun stuff like going to one of David's job sites to see what the house looked like in progress. Here is everyone poring over the site plan before going in the house.
We also went to the main Seattle public library. This is a cool building. This picture was taken from about 3 floors up.

It was a rainy day--so we were doing our best to keep dry. But now Em, Jodi and Mom know what a typical winter day is like in Seattle.

We had a great time. Em helped us fix the fence in places, Mom and I planted tulip bulbs outside (I can only hope they will come up in the spring since we planted them so late!), and Jodi showed us some funny emails.

The christmas crabcakes were good, but a pain in the *** to make. It will probably be awhile before I make them again. And mom made a big pot of chili before she left which we enjoyed for days afterward. It was so good. No one makes chili like mom! I felt so lucky to have family at our new house for this holiday. It really was special for me and David, and we thank everyone for helping to make it happen.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Today is David's birthday, and we have a special evening planned. We are going to go to our neighborhood italian place for dinner and then hopefully find a movie in the theatres that we want to see. Of course the day, will consist of letting him do whatever he wants. That includes sleeping in as late as he wants, and I plan to make some french toast when he gets up. Maybe go shopping for some birthday presents?







Here is one of my favorite pictures of David and me. It was on my birthday (hence the funny hat) in Florida. If only I had the photoshop skills to put the hat on his head! =)

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

just go google yourself!

I like to google my name occasionally to see what comes up. I'm getting much more popular lately. There were still links to things I've done on the third page of my search! that is crazy. I also saw that apparently a paper I co-wrote 3 years ago is under review at a journal. I guess the other author decided to submit it and not tell me. Odd. Or maybe she is lying on her CV? I certainly hope that if it gets accepted my name will be on it. Maybe I should contact her and see what the status is. Very weird. Try it- google yourself and see how out there you are on the internet. It is kind of scary to think that people could find me that easily.

I really want to rant

but since I would be ranting about work, I'm not going to do it here. If you want to hear it, you'll have to talk to me in person, I guess.

I'm just really frustrated right now--but I'm also being really productive. As a matter of fact, I've been really productive for about 6 straight months now. Maybe my body will shut down and get sick just so I can take a break? No--I don't want that to happen. I've been too lucky/good about not getting sick this winter. I don't want it to happen now!

floors

Well, friday we had the last two (of four) floor companies come to see what to do about our hardwood floors. Two of the guys said that we should just ditch them and get new floors, the other two said that they would probably be okay with a dark enough stain, like an espresso color. Well, we also found out that it is highly likely these floors have NEVER been refinished. They are about 60 years old--and all that good wood still on them! I think we almost got sucked into the idea of getting new floors, but the recyclers in us just get sick at the idea.

We've looked at some pictures of hardwood floors that have been ebonized or stained really dark, and we think that we would be okay with that. I think as long as it isn't just a black stain, but is something really dark with hints of brown, and maybe red in it, we'll be okay. The brown brick fireplace probably won't look great with the floor, but I guess that is the downside.

Of course, I got the bug to do some serious home improvements last night, and so David and I proceeded to tear down all the wainscoat tile around the bathroom. We tore the tile off and then scraped all the adhesive off the drywall. We thought we could maybe just put a coat (or two) of drywall on it and call it good. But david is afraid that won't do it and we may need some professional help. so, I guess I, unknowingly, got us jump-started on our bathroom remodel. Now that it looks a mess, David wants to move forward quickly to get it done. So, I guess that will be on the top of the list for the next few weeks.

Of course, we will have to make sure we do no home improvements this weekend on David's birthday. It is time for fun and celebration, not scraping, cleaning and that sort of yucky stuff!

week is over for me

and I am so excited.  I worked on monday while everyone else took the day off because I had a big deadline on wednesday--so I'm taking friday off.  And I'm going to go get a massage tomorrow.  I'm very much looking forward to it. 

We've had 2 people come and look at the floors re: refinishing, and we've got 2 more coming tomorrow.  If the two tomorrow are anything like the one this morning, I have a feeling, we'll be laying out a chunk of change to get new hardwood floors.  I'll write more later about what they said, once I have all 4 "expert" opinions and have some time to consider it all. 

The other thing I'm excited about (because I'm a geek) is doing some morningstar.com research this weekend.  I've been thinking alot about mutual funds (so dorky!), and reading about them and trying to make a good decision for our portfolios is just interesting to me.  So, that will be good too. 

snow again!

I can not believe how much snow we have gotten.  It is not like it has accumulated into snow drifts or anything, but just the fact that we have had snow on our yard for about a week is just an anomaly.  It was snowing again this morning when we woke up, and we chained up the car so we could get into work.  That is pretty hard core, in my opinion.  I didn't think we'd ever have to use chains except for maybe across the passes or something, but now we can say we've used them and they helped!   As you all to the east of me have found out these past few days, that just means that you are going to be getting some more snow soon.

It is pretty, but I've become accustomed to not having to deal with it, so it seems more like a chore than if I had to deal with it all the time during the winter.

snow day! and more

Look at that beautiful snow! And all ice underneath! I think we are going to work from home today, but I may need to go to work for a short while to pick up some stuff. I'll have to see if the buses are running--and how far behind schedule and how far re-routed they are.

Here is the living room floor...same as before. We removed carpet in the dining room last night, so the only room left to do is our bedroom.

the hall is just as bad

Well, Sunday night David and I pulled up the carpet in the hall, and the hardwoods there look just as bad. We have to assume they all look this way. But, I think we are going to try and get the rest of the carpet pulled up this week so we know for sure.

However, the one consolation is that we have YET to find the hardwood floors patched with plywood. Let's cross our fingers that never happens! That would definitely be worse than these spots and stains.

They said some stains..

Last night after watching "Scoop" the newest woody allen movie at home, we decided we would (at 10pm no less) tear up the carpet in the guest room to check out the hardwood floors. When we bought the place we were told there were hardwoods under the carpet, and when we asked why they were covered up with carpet, they told us there were some stains. Apparently the old renters had some dogs which weren't housetrained. Well, when they said "some" stains, we crossed our fingers that "some" meant "few". I guess our luck had just run out! See the sequence of pictures below to see what we are dealing with for our hardwood floors.

The carpet pad is ready for the unveiling.

Here is our first glimpse of some stains. The finish has been completely taken off in some of these places. We crossed our fingers that this would be all we would find.

However, then we found these bigger stains.

After pulling staples and prying off the tack strips, we are left with this mess...

We decided to go ahead and put the furniture back in the room, since there isn't much we can do with the floor at this point. If you squint and look at the picture you can kind of see how nice it will look eventually --when we get the floors refinished.

We have been thinking that if the stains are that bad in that room, odds are they are just as bad everywhere else. We are trying to decide if we want to just go ahead and rip up all the carpet, see what we have to work with, and just get the floors refinished before we get another dog. Of course, that means that our bathroom remodel will have to wait a little bit longer. David may wake up today with a new idea about what he wants to do about the floors, so we'll see.

we made a mistake

Unfortunately, we made a mistake with Zack and Luke. We are going to return them to the shelter. We both really want a big dog, and these 2 boys, while cute and funny, just didn't fulfill that need in us. And since this is a long term commitment, we wanted to make the decision to correct our mistake sooner rather than later. It is sad for me, but I know it is the best thing to do for them.

We'll eventually find the right dog for us.