The Fence Begins...

The neighbors started building the fence between our yards on Monday. They are being totally cool about splitting the costs. They bought the 4x4 posts and concrete and got most of them set on Monday. Today Mike and my dad went out and picked up 2 pounds of nails, 38 fence clips, 19 8' 2x4s, and 110 6' 1x6s. Enough to get us about 2/3 of the way. Mike and dad worked a good part of the day today, and the neighbor (Kurt) will pick up where they left off on Saturday. We are all keeping our receipts and we'll compare at the end and settle up any differences.

There's a rock "retaining wall" here keeping the neighbors' yard and water from sliding into our yard. I am going to plant some of our veggies here. It's almost an instant raised garden bed. Yay!

And it's very long...

My hubby and dad hard at work. Mike is nailing the boards to the fence and dad is cutting the "dog ears"

This is how far they got today. Really, the important half is done. There is just a few gaps where we can see through the fence, but that is because we need to go back and cut some of the boards down to fit the smaller sections. But that is for another day. We ran out of nails and there a couple posts on the end that still need cemented in.

Mike's nail of shame. Dad will probably give him hell for this little guy forever. "No bent nails!" It'll get pulled out and replaced, but as Dad says "you're (Mike) probably not the first to do that..."

You can see how the gap at the top is wider than at the bottom. Apparently, the neighbor is a VERY amateur fence builder.... Those posts were not level, or lined up straight. Argh!

Another gorgeous sunset tonight.

There was quite a bit of confusion today regarding the design of the fence. Brandy had told me that they wanted a "good neighbor" fence, and that was great for us too. If you look it up on Google as I had, you would find that the "good neighbor" fence is commonly a "shadow box" fence with staggered 1x6s. From straight on, it looks solid, but at an angle you can see through it. This is what we planned on building and started building today. Brandy came over and told the guys that is not at all what they were talking about, but instead had meant a fence where the boards are solid facing one neighbor for 8 feet, then solid facing the other neighbor for 8 feet, etc., etc. This was completely foreign to all of us, but apparently where they come from in Califronia, that is totally normal. In the end, the solid side faced us. I was so frustrated today that I declared to Mike (over the phone, I was at work) that I was done and to just build it solid side towards them. I don't know how the rest of their conversations went. But everything seems OK now... They seem like OK people, I really don't want to ruin a good neighborly relationship over a fence.

Finally feeling like home

We're still not completely unpacked. I think it will be an eternity before we are finished. The neighbor, Brandy, said it takes about a year to really get unpacked. Yipes! That simply won't work for me. I had been trying to adhere to a all cardboard is to be gone by (last) weekend rule, but I faced a fierce bought of exhaustion and think I'll extend that rule out a week or two. Most of the stuff that isn't put away is decorating stuff. I don't want to put it all up, just to take it all down to paint, but who knows when I'll get around to that anyway. And I suppose, it's really not that big of deal to take down a picture and paint around the nail or over a nail hole...

I got things unpacked and cleaned up enough for some pictures the other day. Just the main areas, living room, kitchen, part of dining room, laundry room.... Hopefully, the rest will come this weekend.

Oh, the kitchen.... How I love the kitchen. Still, I have no desire to cook. I think it's because I am so caught up in unpacking. Also, I am lost at the grocery store. The last few weeks before the move, I didn't buy much for groceries since I wanted us to eat what we had so there was less to pack... and we were quite broke saving everything for the down payment. Now I don't know what to buy and I can't remember what we used to keep as staple and go-to foods. I've been slowly stocking up, but it seems like there is still so much missing in the pantry...

Of course this wasn't planned, but our old knife block and set of knives matches our new kitchen and stainless appliances PERFECTLY!

...as does the coffee pot. Not pictured is our "stainless steel" toaster that we bought about a year ago...

Very blurry picture of the laundry room. Fairly spacious. I like it. I also like that we have a place to drop our keys, purse, jacket and shoes before we enter the main living areas. Hooray for not cluttering up the kitchen counter witk keys and stuff! Although Mike still sometimes does.... He isn't quite trained all the way yet....

Oooh oooh oooh! This was a collaboration between my sister and I. I love the way the fireplace turned out. Before we moved in I really had no idea what to do with that space. We could have put the TV up there, but that's a little too high for a TV in my opinion.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, and more cherry blossoms!

The living room... Nothing fancy, but I do love the new drapes we got. That was a top priority. I couldn't stand not havin something to cover the front windows with at night. Every time I went in there when I was unpacking, I felt like I was on display. Not any more! They're fairly sheer, but they get the job done and cheaply too! The photo collage on the right still needs to be hung, but it has some tricky hangers on the back that I am not sure are level to begin with.

Side table grouping....

I got the bell from my Grandma. Supposedly (this is a Japanese legend) , you're supposed to ring it to get God's (or one of the 7 Japanese Gods') attention when you need to speak to him (or them).... Something like that. I like it because it's something I remember from my childhood. She has the neatest stuff.

The buffet I got from my mom. This will house all my entertaining platters, dishes, table cloths, and napkins. It also fills a great void that was in the dining room. Now if I could only find a nice china hutch on Craig's List...

The new curtains for the dining room. These were a steal. We already had the curtain rod, and the drapery panels were only $5 each at Wal-Mart. Originally, I paid $15 each, but a few days later when I was in there, I noticed that they had been reduced even further, so I went to Customer Service and got some money back. Yay! These are the only two pics of the dining room so far. Somehow, the dining room table has become half toolbox...Ugh...

Settling in...

Sorry about the lack of post during the last couple of weeks. We have been so busy packing, moving, and unpacking. I have been absolutely exhausted. I feel like I didn't stop working between Thursday the 16th through, well, I'm still working at unpacking....

We are still over-the-moon excited about our new house. Every day I find something new to love about it and pinch myself to make sure this is all real. I never dreamed that our first house would be so perfect. Mike says it doesn't feel like home yet. But there is still a lot to do to make it "ours". I want to put some paint on the walls and there are a lot of pictures and other miscellaneous decorations that need to be put up. Also, the dining room still feels big and empty. All we have is a table in the middle. It is a sizable table that fits the area well, but the space surrounding it is very empty. My mom is giving me an old buffet that I will put on one side of the dining room, then I hope to find a china hutch for the other side, or possible a corner unit. We also need to find some shelving units for the office and build Mike a desk. He's got it all designed in "Google". It's actually pretty neat. It will be made out of kitchen counter-top and will sort of "float". And it should cost under $200.

We're not unpacked to the point of reveal pictures, but I will tease you with a few pictures I've taken over the last week. Hopefully, I will have reveal pictures tomorrow. I have to work late tonght, but I think I'll take tomorrow off and unpack, unpack, unpack....

Kamron thought he could be sneaky and get moved into our house. ;) He was a great sport during the move and helped move all the things he could and even helped with bigger stuff too. The highlight of his day was running through the sprinklers!

We started transplanting our veggies earlier this week. I can't wait to get them in the ground. Only a couple more weeks until our frost threat is over. Here are the peas. Still doing great!

And here are some of the zucchini. Also doing very well. You can see they are developing their "true leaves". There was a small tragedy during a wicked wind storm last night when some of the plants were blown off the front porch. Luckily it was only a few of the pots. Most of them should be fine.

These are a couple of gnomes that my grandma's boyfriend, Bill gave us. He also bought us a girl and boy gnome sitting on a log bench that I don't have a picture of yet. They are so cute. Yesterday, I named them (lying down) Gnomie, (sitting) Gnomer, (boy on bench) Gnomad, (girl on bench) Gnomette. Hahahahahaha. I told Mike that I want to keep buying silly figurines and keep adding them to the front yard, just to see how far I can go before the HOA brings the hammer down. I don't think I actually will, mostly because those cheap little fugurines are actually quite expensive.

I took this picture of the sunset on Wednesday night. Isn't it beautiful?

Garden update

Our little babies are 11 days old today! They are growing so fast and I am convinced it is due to me talking to them and encouraging them to grow. Mike just thinks I'm crazy.

Left to right. 2 rows lavender, 2 rows peas, 1 row beets, 1 row carrots, 1 row basil, 1 row mesclun, 1 row zucchini, 1 row broccoli. It looks like pretty much everything has sprouted and is doing well. We'll need to get these into larger containers soon. Hopefully this weekend when we get moved into the house. Hopefully not long after that.

The majority of this tray is mesclun (left), then peas (the darker green plants), then lavender on the right (a very late bloomer).
The peas are doing great!

One freak pea plant is over 7" tall. Not much for leaves though.

The majority of the peas are 3" or taller

The zucchini is averaging 5" tall.

I can't wait to harvest. I also want to grow so much more, but that will have to wait til we get into the new house and settled in...

Happy Birthday Soren!

To celebrate his birthday, here is a photo journey of Soren's life...

Just a few days old
7 months old. Thanksgiving '07
December '07
February '08
June '08

December '08
April '09

Soren will be 2 on Friday! I made this afghan for him and mom is taking it to Seattle with her tomorrow. I'm very proud of the scalloped border. I did it without a pattern!

It's our yard and we'll do what we wanna

Gramma bought us this bush at Costco this weekend. It's a Dogwood Bush. The branches will be a deep red in the winter and in the spring there will be clusters of white flowers. It should grow to be 8' tall and 6' wide. We haven't decided where to plant it, but I'm thinking of putting it in the front corner of the lot by the utility things. We'll have to put in some edging and bark, but it would look nice there without blocking the view of the house. I've got spring fever big time. I can't wait to play in the garden.

Our bush.

This is what it should look like in bloom.

The icing on the cake

Today was our walk-through with the "builder", Mark, who was actually just a guy that was appointed by the builder. I think he's the designated inspector...

We didn't find much at all for them to touch-up or fix before move in. Here is what we did find:

• Secure "bollards". The things that go in front of the water heater/furnace to prevent us from crashing into them with our car.
• Stain front steps to match porch. Install toe-kick on bottom back step of deck. Paint toe-kicks.
• Replace a piece of siding on the side of the house.
• One electrical outlet is mounted funny.
• A couple of paint touch-ups
• The master bathroom counter was a little loose.
• Cut exposed wires from foundation.
• General perimeter clean-up.
• Replace damaged weather stripping on garage door.
• Install fan control knob on fireplace.
• Install new locks on exterior doors.

I think that's it for fixes. Really not much at all. Mark was telling us that we could probably start moving things in early, at least into the garage. I'm going to call Brad tomorrow to see if that can be arranged. I believe that all we need to do is make sure our insurance is in effect.

I am so excited, like over the moon excited. This house has turned out so much better than I ever would have expected our first home to be. I always thought we would end up buying a major "fixer-upper", in a bad neighborhood, no garage, 2 bedrooms, one bathroom. I never had very high expectations about our first house, and that's probably why we hadn't started looking until now. And we weren't even planning to buy a house now... Today, when we saw the house "finished", I was giddy like a school girl. I can't wait to move in. Even Mike was admittedly excited, which is EXTREMELY rare.

One of the great things about our meeting today, was learning all the ins and outs of owning a house. We now know how to:

• turn off the water to the house or between the street and house.
• turn off the A/C unit (also found out it's an energy efficient model. Yay!)
  
• turn the furnace off or on and change the filter
  
• operate the water heater (turn it off or on, change the temperature, or set it to "vacation") mode)
• open vents on the outside of the crawlspace
• turn fireplace on or off and light the pilot light
• operate the sprinkler system

The number one highlight of the day was seeing all of the appliances installed. We had seen the sexy refrigerator and the washer/dryer, but seeing everything in the kitchen was amazing. It looks so good. I am so happy with the way it turned out. It feels gourmet.

Naturally, I forgot the camera, so these pictures were taken with my phone.

Professional, gourmet looking kitchen:



The "bollards" that are being installed in the garage.

Kami, Kami, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

...with silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row. Isn't this a cute little retro picture. I was reading about this cute little nursery rhyme, and apparently it has some strange roots with the Catholic church and one line may be about a former Queen of Scotland whose husband cheated on her. Read about it here...

Tray 1 overview. Isn't it amazing what a difference a day makes?
(O=Organic)


Left to right: Lavender, Peas (O), Beets, Carrots (O)

Left to right: Carrots (O), Basil (O), Mesclun (mix of lettuces), Zucchini (O), Broccoli (O)


Tray 2.
Left to right: Mesclun (a little over half of the tray), peas (O), lavender
I am so excited to get this stuff planted in the ground at the house. We can't really plant until the middle of May, but at least we can start getting the ground ready when we move in. Then, by the time we're done preparing the soil, it will be time to plant. Yay!

We were supposed to do the walk-through with the builder today, but we had to reschedule because the plumbers couldn't get the sink in by this afternoon and the cleaners still need to do their thing. We'll do the walk-through on either Wednesday of Thursday.