a long overdue update....

I'm just seeing now how very long it has been since our last posting.... It's embarrassing really. (sigh) Such is life and it goes on. Perhaps it's needless to say, but I haven't been posting because I thought their wasn't really much happening on the house. However, I am now looking back at the months of photos since the last post and realizing that there are quite a few things that I could have added. So here's a big apology from us to all the 'crew' that came over to help. I'll be better in the future :)

The big news for us is that we just got our permit!!!! Now, we can finally get going full-steam ahead with no more excuses. It is very exciting for us. We have already started - last weekend we knocked out a few walls in one of the bedrooms and framed the new bedroom closet and half of the laundry closet. (I can't wait to have a laundry room!)

The bad news in all of this is that our camera seems to have called it quits recently. Pictures may be sporadic until we get it replaced, but here are a few to share until then.....

Francesca and Stephanie prepping for new vines.

Ben and Francesca digging holes.

Eleanor "planted".

The New Vines

Leif and Bernard build a new deck at the back door.

Eleanor builds a 'castle'.


Francesca seals the new deck.

And so does Bernard.

Thanks Gang!!

The Finished Deck!


These are two Star Pines from Leif's Mom that lived in our back yard in pots for a long time. We finally decided that it was time to plant them:

They look good here, but they haven't weathered the move that well in the meantime. We're not sure if it was the frost or the soil quality or the amount of watering or...? Anybody know how to heal trees?


My first time using my Architect's stamp!



This is the new opening for the bathroom door. The old door was 24" and the new one is 36". We had to remove the old header, take out a few studs in the existing wall and install this new header.


This is the same thing from the other side....


...and here is the door installed.


At about the same time, we also finally got around to installing the doors on our bathroom cabinets. They are made of solid bamboo plywood - very pretty!


This used to be the wall of the bedroom closet. We're making the opening wider and going to make a spot for our new laundry room.


Here's Leif removing plaster from the wall.


We're going to be doing a lot of wall framing in the future, so we went and got a new toy! This is our new air-powered framing nailer. It's like the ones you see people shoot nails across a room with in the movies. It's kind of scary, but it make the job go super fast!


Here is the new framed opening for the bedroom closet.



Next week: drywall and a new bedroom door!