True love

True love is...
Your husband making a water line to the coffee maker.

Water line to the refrigerator

I swear I will stop getting excited about the little things eventually, but I am not there yet. Eric is currently making a water line to the refrigerator so we can have the ice maker and chilled water again. Pretty exciting stuff especially considering it is a balmy 26 degrees outside right now. Do not ask why we have not had it previously!

Murphy and his sister Amanda

Murphy

Murphy - I am completely crazy about you. You are an amazing baby. Your mama

"Strong affections have always appeared to me, the most noble part of a man’s character and the absence of them an irreparable failure; you ought to console yourself with thinking that your grief is the necessary price for having been born with (for I am convinced they are not to be acquired) such feelings.” Charles Darwin - That is, grief is the price we pay for friendship.

A whole new year!

A year ago tomorrow we started on this crazy adventure.

Here are some photos of the day.



We have come a long way baby!!!

This one is for you Judy Lock!

No words necessary - it looks great!

Weekend progress - October 16, 2011

Eric got the hot tub working. He really can't wait to get in. It is currently a balmy 65 degrees so I am pretty sure it won't be today! We have not enjoyed the hot tub in a super long time because we did not have it at all last winter).

Eric also hooked up the gas line to the grill. I used it last night to cook the beef for green chile stew. Yummy! I love having a gas line to the grill so I never have to worry about running out of propane.

We installed a new light fixture in the laundry room. It looks nice, and it matches the future backsplash really well. But it is a little bit of a dark (rather than light). Not sure if this will last. I am really worried about 1) a light fixture that is too tall because the ceiling is low in there and 2) a light fixture that gets too hot. No need to add heat to laundry room that is already a hot job. We will see.

Safety first - with a little kitty therapy

Eric has just installed fire and carbon monoxide alarms. Yes, I know this should have been done long ago, but if you choice is between a towel bar and a fire alarm, I chose towel bar. Eric has set it up to work with his bed shaker. Also the bed shaker now works with the doorbell. All of this had to be tested. You can imagine how the cats have felt about the doorbell ringing and alarm chiming. Not good!

Carousel horse spot is filled!!

I have the most amazing husband ever!

Eric worked hard on the house this weekend, and I am so thankful for him.

He finished up the last of the electrical upstairs. We finally have electrical outlets in the kitchen island. Fixing those outlets actually fixed two other outlets that were not working. So everything works now. And we need to make a map of what items go to what circuit. I never did that in Eric's farmhouse, and I would have saved so much time if I had. Now that I am in my forever house it is worth a little effort.

He mowed for the last time this season (hopefully!) and worked on the trench from the electrical burial. That is nearly done now. And he pulled off all the yucky dead ivy off the side of the house. We had a woodpecker (so annoying really) on that side of the house, and so we have hopefully deterred it with CDs. Hopefully that is not an old wives tale!

The overhang

For all of you who hate it (Judy Lock!), the front overhang will be going too. One more before picture of it!

Taking out garage "windows"

Our designer called our windows Beverly Hillbillies. I am pretty sure that is not a complement! Anyway, we are going to fill in the three "windows" in preparation for house painting. Eventually the front part of the garage will be changed with a bump out in half of it, but in the mean time we will have a little more weather protection. I should say though that the carport is surprisingly dry. Still want the garage!!

Before


After - hehe. In the dusk light the before picture looks better. I promise it will get better. This is just step one. Wait until we paint!

Electrical panel: This morning and this afternoon

This is what our electrical panel looked like this morning.

And this is what it looks like now.

In the middle we had no power. Which means no internet. It was very traumatic but worth it.

Second first shower

We were out of the new shower for 5 days while we re caulked the shower. Long story - either we got bad caulk or we did not let it dry long enough. Or both! Anyway, we were going to go camping for Labor Day, and we decided to borrow the RV and do this home improvement project.

First let me say: the RV was not too bad for showering. I think it is a psychological thing. If you are showering in the RV, it is the only option so it feels really refreshing even though it is not a nice shower.

Second, being back in the house showering is nearly as good as the first time!

Google maps has our new house!

Eric was playing around with Google maps this morning, and he discovered that they have updated our house picture in about April/May this year. I have a before picture and now the new after picture. You may be asking - how can we tell the difference?
1. In the former sunroom (now living room and dining room) there used to be two "dog ears". Strange skylights one on each side. In the new living room, there is now 2 skylights with none in the dining room. That other hole in the back room is for the future fireplace between the living room and dining room.
2. In the after picture, the roof looks like swiss cheese from all the vents etc. coming out of the roof. In the old, well, we did not have any vents before.

Before: the previous owners left their RV parked in the driveway year round. You can see it in this picture. We have had the RV there for 2 weeks and it is driving me nuts. I don't know how they did that! Of course, they had a hot pink sponged bathroom so anything is possible!


After

Pictures up!

I finally hung some pictures on the walls today. This was very traumatic for me because our drywall is so beautiful, and I did not want to put any holes in it. That said, it is nice to have pictures up. Every little bit helps it feel like home.

This weekend was also spent redoing the caulk in the shower. Either we got bad caulk or we did not let it dry long enough. In the mean time, we are showering in the motorhome. Let's just say that is great motivation for completing the project!

Oh yeah baby - we have a sink in the master bathroom!

Yes, I need to stop getting so excited about these things! Eric just installed the vanity that we got last weekend in the master bathroom.

We had a lovely visit with my first cousin once removed (thanks Wikipedia!), Daniel, and his friend Isaac. After they left, I also had the pleasure of talking with my cousin Doug. We talked about our grandparents, which was just great. So in honor of Gramps, I give you the action shot - Eric installing the faucet.


Then the finished product!!

Abby, my little water loving cat

We got a temporary vanity to put in the master bathroom last week. Eric took it out of the box last night, and Abby jumped up on it immediately. She looked at me in horror saying "I know this is a sink. How come there is no water???" Poor baby. I am sure we will install this weekend, and then I will put up some pictures. Maybe she can get some water then.

California

I will be in California again this week for a work meeting. Turns out that close to that meeting time, I will be getting an award for the WISE mission. So I extended my trip so I could go to JPL for the ceremony (hopefully!).

Here are the details:
Award Category: Public Service Group Achievement Award
Team Name: WISE Project Spacecraft Team
Citation: For exceptional accomplishment of designing and testing the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft, meeting or exceeding all on-orbit performance requirements.

I am pretty excited about how well WISE performed so this is pretty cool.

Front outside lights

Yes, it might appear we are on a lighting kick. You would be correct!

Front outside light is installed at the front door. When we installed that light, we magically also got the two old lights at the front of the carport. It feels so great to have some more lighting!

Eric also installed the foyer light (only one that is not a can light of some kind).

Foyer lights

So last weekend we installed some lights, and it was really nice. After that, we realized that we really need to address the foyer. The lights were mostly installed. The switches were all installed. And yet, no lights. It was very sad. We have four 3-way switches in the foyer, and there was just something wrong. Today since I am not completely bogged down with school, we just did it. It was not too painful. Thankfully we have ohmmeters and power indicators (like Mike Holmes - even though I am not allowed to watch him any more!).

Here is the foyer all lit up!


Lights are out again because it is too darn hot in the house to have lights on.

P.S. I know you are all jealous of my stair railing!

The long awaited bathroom pictures

I took them over the weekend, but our Internet stopped working on Sunday afternoon for 2 whole days. It was dreadful especially since I am doing online school. Anyway, here they are of the finished product!

Soap dish: of course you know I am excited about that (see towel bars and knobs!)






Abby checking out the action. She is really looking to get a drink from the faucet - her favorite activity.

Cabinet knobs are also really nice

We did a whole bunch of little chores around the house this weekend, which have added up to much better living conditions. Remember how excited I was about towel bars??

I have just finished up two weeks off from school. Last weekend we went to Steamboat Springs with Kris, Kelly and Lori. This weekend we worked on the house.

Tasks accomplished:

Ceiling fan up in the master bedroom. It is hot in our house (generally about 80 from the heat of the day until dark cooling off slowly until morning). The fan will help a lot.
Ceiling lights in both upstairs bedrooms
In ceiling speakers in master bedroom (not currently connected to anything, but at least no more holes in the ceiling).
Knobs installed on all the bathroom and kitchen cabinets. Love knobs. I don't know why builders never put them in.
Soap dish installed in shower. This means the bathroom is done!! (Except for moulding which was not be done anywhere).

Towel bars are also glorious

Eric installed the bathroom towel bars over the weekend. I know no else is excited about it, and I also know that this is probably the last time I will be excited about it too, but right it is fantastic!! Last step in the bathroom is knobs on the cabinetry.

Yes, I know I owe pictures of the bathroom too. It is really nice and now super functional!

New car

Eric and I have been talking about getting a new car for awhile. We have grown tired of getting stuck in the snow in our neighborhood every winter. And it seems that the car that we decided on, Toyota Venza, would start having availability issues this fall due to the earthquake in Japan. Anyway, I used the Internet to help find the right car, and Eric used it to negotiate a great deal.I am pretty sure that I am cut off the Internet forever now though. I also found our house on the Internet. Whenever Eric hears the words "I have been looking on the Internet", he has a little heart attack!

Vacation to the glorious spot in the picture not included. And we got the green one.

I heart my negotiating husband

Eric is currently negotiating a new car deal for us over the phone with 4 different dealerships while I am able to get some of my hideous amount of work done (instead of being holed up in a car dealership). I completely love that!

Eric keeps telling me that I keep surprising him about different things. Now I can say I had no idea he was such the negotiator. My dad would be so proud!

Everyone loves the heated floor

I have been an awful blogger of late. Some of that is that Eric and I just needed a break from house work and some is work/school. We took last weekend nearly completely off, which was really fantastic and much needed. I even stopped thinking about work problems by about noon on Saturday. This is a great achievement on Eric's part!

However, while I was doing school work on Sunday (darn!), Eric hooked up the floor heat in the bathroom. Let me just say everyone loves a heated floor. Right now as Eric is in the shower, all the cats are snoozing on the floor living it up. The genesis of my fear of cold floors was my master bathroom in my Lafayette condo. It was directly over garages, and in the winter, I could often been seen running across the cold tile to get to the little rug. I even considered getting a custom-shaped rug in there so that I did not have to walk on any cold floor.

Of course, this summer when we are boiling in our house, you will find Eric and I sitting on the cold tile floor with a passion fruit lemonade ice tea trying to cool off. Yes, I have very specific dreams!

Things left in the bathroom: towel bars, cabinet knobs, and a little touch up paint. Last item to be completed will be molding, but I expect we will wait for that until we do it everywhere in the house.

Ryan loves the floor:

Weekend progress

We had a fantastic weekend with my parents coming up to see the new house for the first time. We had a great time! It was so nice to see them after a very abbreviated Christmas visit with just me. Remodeling really does take over your life.

My dad and Eric got the sprinklers working, and they started the sump pump installation. We were not sure we would need the pump - I will just say we do. The sprinklers had to be completely hooked up again so it involved making another trench in my yard. Luckily it was filled in promptly. We still have the trench in the back from the utility burial. Not as much of a hazard as the deck beam though!

My mom and I painted the laundry room a very nice soft blue. It is very pretty. We have picked out tile for the floor, but I really need to give Eric a break. He has worked so hard, and he is definitely out of steam.

Rainbow spiral

We had our first sighting of my favorite balloon, which I call rainbow spiral. My feeling is that to be a really good balloon you need some yellow and lots of color. Rainbow spiral fits the bill.

A fully functional bathroom!!!!!

The 4 (or maybe 5) functions of a bathroom are all done:
Toilet
SInk
Shower
Mirror
Outlet (that is the maybe one - we had an old house before and one of the bathrooms did not have an outlet in it)

Pictures to come later - work and school are kicking my butt right now.

First balloon in the new house

Yes, I know the pictures are horrible. My camera zoom is quite dreadful. But we are so excited to see the first balloon since returning home. Checking out the balloons every morning is my favorite morning activity!

A lot less like camping here

Eric got the microwave and stove installed and working today. This is another huge step. I guess when your big goal is having a stove every step is big! Tomorrow I looking forward to preparing dinner. Seriously this seems like a crazy situation to me that I am excited about cooking.

We tried again to pass our dryer vent inspection. Still not there but we have a plan that I think will work. Inspections seem so random right now, which is frustrating. On the other hand, I am in my beautiful house, and so I don't care!

P.S. I have an amazing husband. He has worked so hard for our house, and I am so lucky to have him. I am always ready to tell him this, but he should know that I want to broadcast it to the Internet too. Thanks for taking care of me - I love you so much Eric!

First shower

It was glorious!

It is a little like camping here

With a really, really nice bed.

Well, we had an interesting first night. It is always hard to sleep the first night in a new place, and even though I have tried to convince the cats that this is a place they have been before, it is a new place for everyone. We will get used to it. The cats checked out everything last night - literally going into every room in the entire house. In the basement that is just framed, they had no issue going through the walls. I always yell at people who go through the walls because we have doorways people. Don't go through the walls!

Eric is working on the shower right now so that hopefully we can shower tomorrow. We are together in our stinkiness today! Luckily we had to get our hair cut this morning so we both have freshly cleaned hair. Stove and microwave are next. Then the washer and dryer. Then I will be satisfied for this weekend. Poor Eric is really wiped out - he has been working so hard for our house.

Special thank you to Mom and Dad (Marquardt)

Our remodeling blog would not be complete without a heartfelt thank you to Mom and Dad who have long suffered us living in the basement. Thank you so much for taking us - we had a wonderful time. It is just different to see people every day and live with them, and it was a delight to have the time together. It was really nice to have someone take care of us during the mess that is remodeling.

We love you both! And we will see you for dinner on Sunday.
Love,
Jen and Eric

Live blogging the people move

5:23 PM
We are completely in the house now - cats included. Now sadly I have to do homework.

2:15 PM
People moving is much better than stuff moving! All the furniture is at our house now - 2:15 on Friday. We have to go back to Dave and! Audrey's to pick up the cats.

Blog worthy events

Shower has grout. The kitchen sink and dishwasher work. Which means I ran a load of dishes and if I go potty, I can wash my hands on the same floor as the toilet. I know that does not seem like a big deal, but it is huge!

The home stretch

We are in the home stretch now - for this phase of the project anyway! Eric and I decided that it was very good for us to set a move in date (3 days away!) to push us even though it is going to be rough in the beginning.

Big weekend news - Eric finished the shower tile installation. He worked really, really hard on it this weekend, and it paid off. Last tile to be installed is the backsplash tile. I am not fretting about that too much although it will be nice to eventually have a fully functional bathroom.

I did a lot of little tasks over the weekend. Filled up both compost bins for compost day. They are 2 96-gallon cans so that is a big job. Painted the floor in Murphy's room (AKA guest room upstairs). Finished some more electrical work - I am close to finishing there. Painted the front wall. The new front door was bigger than the original (another reason to hate the Crayola crayon door), and so the drywall had to be altered when the door was installed. I had to paint that whole wall. Started to set up Murphy's room with a little unpacking action there. I am having trouble with unpacking especially in the kitchen. I have to separate stuff that will go in very limited cabinet space from stuff to go in the pantry for now to stuff that will remain packed for the time being (until kitchen is done). Not easy to make those decisions.

The house is going to be rough for a bit when we move in. But I am hoping that with less commuting time, we can get some more little chores done to make the house livable.

Kitchen sink faucet

For my mom since I am not good at descriptions

Shower tile is in and sealed

Eric finished installing the shower tile on Sunday. Last night he sealed all of it. It looks beautiful.


P.S. The blue tape in the shower is to protect the metal piece while sealing.

Bathroom progress

A big work victory

The hardware that Eric has been working so hard on was shipped today. I can't tell you how exciting this is for everyone on the team.

My sweet husband will be modest about his part in this hardware delivery. But I will tell you that he did a completely fantastic job as systems engineer and that there is no way this day would have happened without him. The other part of his modesty would be that he has never done this job especially with flight hardware and so there was a lot to be learned in a very high pressure environment. He did a great job.

You can take tonight off honey - then you need to go work on my bathroom.

Bye, bye truck - BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!

Strange smells

That strange smell you smelled in the house today - it is called clean. It might happen again some time! Yes, I actually did a little cleaning today, which I always like. Also I set up Eric's closet. A very minor victory, but I will take it!

4/3/11 Bathroom pictures

3 rows baby - including the most difficult one!

Kitchen installed (mostly!)

Elliott and Timmy installed the kitchen cabinets yesterday. Surprisingly this goes a long way to making it feel like home.









You can't read the writing in this picture, but it says Silver Contracting Custom Cabinet. It is a 2x4.

I-beam for the master bedroom deck

The i-beam has been place for the deck off the master bedroom. Some day it will have a hot tub. In the mean time we have another backyard hazard.

First box unpacked

Yes, our stuff has been at the house for over a month, and I unpacked the first box on Thursday. We needed TV cables so I did one box. It also had the popcorn stuff in it. Eric is thrilled about that!

TV set up

We had the satellite reinstalled on Thursday. I love DVRs, and I can't wait to use it again. I feel ridiculous about that. Eric and I usually have about 10 minutes of time each day to watch TV. If we had something recorded, we could watch that. But we don't so we watch some more HGTV. Even I am so sick of HGTV that I can hardly stand it.

First two courses done in the shower

The shower looks beautiful.

Eric is at work now. His big (BIG) hardware delivery meeting is on Wednesday/Thursday. After that, I hope things will ease up a bit at work. This meeting will be a very big load off his shoulders.

First flower

"I don't care about seeing you, but I am dying to see your house"

Ouch. It is never good when your mama tells you this! So you might be able to guess what I did today. Electirical! I am so excited by more electrical work. I think Eric told me that a professional can install an outlet in a minute. I am definitely not a professional then!

We have decided we are moving back home on April 15 no matter what. That is a Friday so the cats can have some adjustment to being in a new house. It is strange for your home to feel both old and new at the same time.

And for all the people out there who think Eric is working on your bathroom, we have decided if you want it to be your bathroom you will have to pay for it. Like at a college when they name the business school after a major donor. I think this might be a good money making scheme, which we really need right now. :)

Eric is finishing up the first row of shower tiles. I will post pictures later.

Bathroom progress

We had some great progress on the bathroom this week. Eric finished laying the tile floor on Friday night. He finished the shower waterproofing today, and we have determined the desired tile pattern in the shower. And he installed the light over the sink. The excitement grows with every new light and every new outlet added as it makes our home so much easier to use. Enjoy the latest bathroom pictures!

A glorious spring day

Both days were just lovely this weekend. The beginning of spring always feels fantastic.

Here are some flowers coming up in spite of my care and all the remodeling hell around our house.

Guest bathroom sink

The sink has not been installed yet (because backsplash is not in yet), but here are some pictures of the sink sitting in the counter. Also you can see faucet and backsplash tile too.