Scubaddict

This would be the number of days we’ve been living in our motor home while we build our new house. I probably shouldn’t be counting the days but every now and then curiosity gets the best of me and I can’t help but wonder how long it has been.

Our latest progress has been shifting Ben’s time over to finishing the shop so that we can move all of his woodworking tools home. It looks like insulation will go in the walls this week and we’ll start hanging drywall next week in the shop.

I’ve been spending my time sanding the post and beams in the house. The wood was exposed to sun and rain for about two months before the roof was installed leaving water marks and dirt behind. The douglas fir beams really glow after a good sanding. I’m also applying polyurethane to the clean wood to preserve the wood.

We have our slate tile for the entryway & half bath and it’s ready to be installed. I originally thought I would be doing the tile work but I’ve already got too much on my plate. I’m hoping I can get my brother-in-law Cal to start laying tile for me this week.  Also, our toilets are ready to be installed as soon as the floors are installed in the bathrooms.  Our interior doors arrived last week as well which will be my next big project ~ sanding and putting finish on the doors.  What I can’t seem to find is enough time to do all the things I need to do!   

Has it really been almost two months since my last post?  Bad, bad blogger….   For those of you following our home building adventure, please don’t think this is due to a lack of activity ~ We have been very busy!  In fact, I was told last night that our drywall crew will be doing the final sanding today inside the house and the walls will be ready for us to prime this weekend!  The inside of the house looks TOTALLY different now that the drywall is up.  Now more cutting corners by walking through walls to get into rooms!

Drywall has always seemed like the “home stretch” part of our previous remodeling projects so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we are in the final stages of buttoning things up.  We’ve been living in our motor home so long that I have to remind myself that there is this fabulous new house just steps away that we be able to live in some day very soon.  How cool will it be to wake up to the sounds of the lake right outside our bedroom window?  It seems like a crazy dream to us at the moment.  Our patience is wearing thin and the motor home seems to be extra small lately.  Each day this week I’ve been waking up early to stain pine ceiling boards before heading to the office and stain another set when I get home each evening.  I keep telling myself to just keep my head down and make some kind of progress everyday and eventually that “second wind” will kick in for both of us.  Once we have our Certificate of Occupancy we might just take 6 months off to recover from this home building grind and spend our days playing hide and go seek in our big house  

I can remember feeling this same “burnout” when I was just 600 ft away from the summit on Mt Rainier.  It would have been SO easy to just stop climbing and curl up to take a nap thinking that it might not be worth the effort to make that last final push to the top.   But reaching the summit was worth every labored breath and every step that it took in that last and final hour.  I had to reach deep into my soul to find the strength I needed to keep going.  And every clear sky day on my way home I am reminded of just how strong I really am when I see my mountain smiling back at me through the daffodil fields in Sumner.

Tools of the Trade

The Entryway Wall

The Stairwell heading down into the basement

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Jacob hard at work on the kitchen ceiling

My Inspiration!

We poured some more concrete last week! Our driveway approach is done and all of our neighbors think we’re in the final stages of our house build… NOT! From the outside we do look pretty close, but take one step inside and you’ll see that we still haven’t hung any sheetrock yet in the house. I’m determined to make March our Sheet Rock Month!  We also finished installing the wood flooring in the wood shop loft so we are moving all of our boxes that have been in our storage unit into this space.  This will save us a bunch of money each month as well as help us find all of the things we’ve been missing for the last 2 years.  Our Tacoma house sold so quickly that we didn’t have time to be as organized as we should have been.  Things were just thrown in boxes and put into storage.  So it’s like Christmas for us!  I DO already own a really kick-butt food processor ~ WOO HOO!! We’ve got to be out of our storage unit by Sunday so we don’t have much time to reminisce

Finished Wood Shop Loft

Concrete Driveway Approach

We’ve accomplished a lot over the last month, such as finishing the sheet rock in the attached garage and the loft above the shop and we finally have GARAGE DOORS!  Woo Hoo!

Our garage doors are painted and installed

I spent 2 weeks mudding and taping and mudding and sanding and mudding…. the shop loft in the early hours of the morning before heading to the office.  I’m glad to say that I’m getting better at it and learning a few tricks along the way.  It should make my job easier when we are ready to sheet rock Ben’s wood shop.

Mary taking a break from sanding the shop loft at 5:30 am ish

We were also the recipient of some reclaimed hardwood flooring from our most awesome friend Joey Decker ♥.  Ben and I don’t mind a little hard work if the materials are FREE!  We had to clip off the old nails and get them up into the loft and organized by length before we could start nailing them into their new home.  We need to make every inch count so that we have enough to cover the whole 504 sq ft of the loft.

Reclaimed mahogany hardwood flooring

Installing the reclaimed mahogany in the shop loft

The hardwood flooring is all organized by size

We had several offers to get out of town for a romantic weekend but Ben and I want to stay close to home and pour some more love into our new home ♥♥♥  I’ve got a lot of prep work to do so that we can move forward on the house and wood shop sheet rock.   It should be a good productive weekend for us!

Ben and David started laying the deck boards last week and I finally had a chance to see the deck in the daylight on Saturday morning.  I know that Trex and other manufactured woods are low maintenance but I sure do LOVE the look of real wood!  We prestained the deckboards using the same stain that is on the house siding.  Hopefully we won’t have to restain the deck every year.

Dining Room Deck

We also did a lot of painting this weekend.  The attached garage is now primed and painted!  One space done… many more to do.

I just got home from visiting with my best friend Jodi who is recently ENGAGED! :0)  As the “Matron of Honor” I have a lot of planning to do between now and September.   I’ve been to my fair share of weddings so I’ve got a lot of ideas to throw at the happy couple.  I told Jodi to watch “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” on YouTube for a little inspiration.  I think weddings NEED to be fun and reflect the personality of the couple and Todd & Jodi are very fun loving.  I’m SO glad that Jodi has found someone who keeps a “smile on her face” and keeps her laughing everyday…

Jodi's BEAUTIFUL Ring

As promised, I have some new photos of our house!  We have (some) drywall.   Don’t get too excited!  This drywall is only in our attached garage and the loft above Ben’s shop.  But it’s a really good start!

Attached Garage Sheetrock

I was also pleasantly surprised to see our NEW porch lights ON when I got home today:

Porch Lights! It almost looks like we might be "home"!!

As far as the baby goes for 2010… Our first Grandbaby is due at the end of May!  I’m completely excited and will be the first grandma with her hand up to babysit ~ “Pick ME, Pick ME!”   We might find out if it is a boy or girl next week as Kristi will be going in for her 20th week ultrasound on Tuesday.  The guys are all convinced that the baby will be a boy so Kristi and I are cheering for a girl.  I have a suspicion though, that the guys might be right….  So far, the baby is REALLY big and very active.

My son David & his lovely bride Kristi

I was reminiscing today about how far we’ve come on our new house in 448 days since we broke ground on October 14th 2008 at 6:49 am.  I wouldn’t actually know this information off hand except for the date stamp on the picture that Ben took of the first scoop of earth.  I remember Ben calling me at work with a “play by play” as the machine dipped over and over again into our rocky ground with so little effort.

The first scoop of earth on 10/14/2008 6:49 am

I realize that you probably visited my website today to see some new photos to ring in the New Year but I thought it would be more fitting to take a step back and be thankful for a moment.   I tend to get so wrapped up with what needs to be done today and worried about what will happen tomorrow until I stop myself to reflect.  We have come so far on this amazing this journey and I must thank Ben & David and all of our friends and family for coming along for the ride of our lives!  Thank you.     

I will post some new photos tomorrow… I promise :0)

I have to resist the urge to walk out onto the icy lake.  It still seems very frozen but the temperatures have been climbing up to the mid 30’s the last few nights. 

Our frozen little lake

I had some fun today shooting with my AF Fisheye 10.5mm lens today…

The Jackson Compound

Our Master Bathroom

Our cat Squeak

Something that I really LOVE about our property is that we have so many great trees.  It’s like our own little private forest.  And talk about low maintanence!  The ground is covered with needles and cones from the Douglas Fir and Cedar trees.  There are no weeds to pull, just a few stone steps to sweep from time to time.

Just a couple of the Cedar Trees in our mini forest

Sure it’s messy, is almost impossible to completely vacuum off of a flat surface and will really dry out your hands if you don’t wear gloves. But I’ve been looking forward to this day since we broke ground in 2008! There is something so WONDERFUL about seeing walls in our new home. Rooms start to take shape and my mind starts to race with visions of what pictures I will hang and what colors I will paint in each room.

So I don’t mind coming home from the office to spend a couple of hours with my trusty Shop Vac cleaning up the drywall debris from today. That “light at the end of the tunnel” is getting brighter!

The Wall is filled with blessings and warm wishes

Our Christmas party season is coming to an abrupt end which has been great for my insomnia.  The last two mornings I’ve actually slept in until 7:00 am ~ I KNOW… Shocking, Huh?  We’ve been insulating The Shop loft in preparation for drywall this week.  Now that we have permission to occupy the shop, our goal is to finish the loft and move all of belongings that are in our offsight storage units into the loft.  I think it’s going to be a long week…