6 months since the last post...

Pretty pathetic how current we are keeping this blog. A lot has happened in the last six months, but rather than recap right now... I will update on what is happening today. Ben and Mike (Ben's dad) have been busy this holiday season at our house. Mike graciously offered to help work on the house during his visit, and we thought since the most fun thing to do is DEMO... we would start a demo project just for him.

Seriously though, we have been planning on this project for awhile. Two days later and one full dumpster, we have the following to show for it. For those of you who have stayed in our guest room in the basement, it may look a little different than last time you were here.

View of the bedroom from the previous hallway....

And the new view from the laundry to the backdoor....

Stayed tuned for the "after" photos.... but knowing us, it may be awhile.

Playa del Carmen

We took a much needed break from the patio project to head to Mexico to celebrate the wedding of a friend of Ben's from Colorado. Travis and Stephanie were married on June 5 in a beautiful setting. We had a great time seeing alot of people we haven't seen in awhile (or ever, in my case) and enjoying the sites.

We spent most of the time relaxing and hanging out at the beach with friends, but took a day trip to the Tulum Ruins of the Mayan People, which was really neat.

A Very Large Puzzle

Continuing on from our backyard project from last summer... the flagstone patio. Yes, we decided to upgrade from the beautiful concrete patio we poured last year (See post August 2008). Happy to report that we didn't have any cracks in the concrete despite the cold winter.


We picked out 3 tons of Pennsylvania blue flagstone from Marenokos Rock Center in Issaquah and had it delivered to our house... unfortunately they had to put it in the parking strip, which just added to the distance we had to move it, including up our driveway. We are getting a little smarter with experience, and we decided to employ a dolly.



Following step-by-step instructions someone posted on the web (thank you internet), we started the process of dry fitting the stones. I guess it would have helped our moral if we had noticed that the patio described in the instructions was for a 10x10 patio compared to the 300 sq ft patio we were creating. Needless to say, it took a lot longer than we anticipated.


After a whole of moving and cutting, we had a dry fit for the patio.... 89 stones. All we had to do was remove and mortar them (of course, keeping a slope to the drain). That also took awhile and alot of patience. In the end, we are loving the new look...though we are only still part of the way there, and have a ways to go.

Trip to Alaska for the Iditarod

Ben and I ventured to Alaska last month to watch part of the Iditarod Dog Sled (http://www.iditarod.com/). I can't really say what sparked our interest in watching part of the race, but we have been thinking about going for the last few years. It is an amazing event to watch, as the dogs are just fantastic.

We spent approximately a week in Anchorage, enjoying a lot of sun and temperature between 10 and 30 degrees. We attended the ceremonial start in Anchorage where the 68 teams of dogs begin their 1,049 mile adventure to Nome. The next day, we headed to Willow Lake (North of Wasilla) to see the real start. We were able to see more of the action up close than in Anchorage, and hang out on a frozen lake all afternoon.

The last of our Iditarod activities, besides constantly checking in on the online standings of the mushers, was a bush flight to

the checkpoint Rainy Pass, which is located on Puntilla Lake. The plane was pretty small and was flying approximately 500 feet above the ground. It was quite an adventure to get there. We met a few of the mushers who were resting at the checkpoint and were able to interact with several of the dogs.

In addition to the Iditarod, we were able to experience alot of the other wonderful activities Alaska has to offer in the wintertime. Other highlights included a day trip to the Mount Alyeska ski resort and our sidetrip to Fairbanks, where we got to see the ice sculptures from the World Ice Carving Championships and took a dog mushing class. Despite the cool temperatures, it was a great time to visit and we had a ton of fun. Hopefully, I will get some more photos compiled to share online soon.

Bathroom Nearly Complete....

We are nearly done with the upstairs bathroom remodel (and have been for a few months now - just in case anyone is wondering why we are so slow). We are really happy with the way that it turned out. Our main goal was to try to update within the time period of our house... 100 years old this year!


We installed raised panel wainscotting around the room perimeter and detailed crown molding. It involved alot of detailed painting, which I do not care to repeat anytime soon. We have also included a new built-in cabinet that is a great storage addition.



Check out http://www.rejuvenation.com/advice_ideas/contest/index.html to vote for our bathroom, or any other person's project, in their "Make it your Own" Contest. Voting starts May 5 and ends May 31.