setting an intention...

it's 9:30 in the morning, and my plan for the day is to clean the house and snap some photos. it has been months and months, and i want to document the process & the project, that is our house. so, i have to go get to it!

UPDATE:

i seriously don't know why this has been so hard. i am guessing that it is just a combination of being busy, and maybe the other part is that the house doesn't really feel finished... cozy... done yet? i don't know. i tried to do some shooting last weekend after i cleaned the house, and i just wasn't feeling it. i was also having trouble getting the right light, by the time i stated shooting, it was getting late in the day, so... i offer you a glimpse, a peek... at the few pictures that turned out decent. one of these days i'll get some proper pictures taken. if you would like to compare the old kitchen to the new kitchen, have a look here.

here is the right side of the kitchen facing toward the back of the house. the drawers & the upper cabinets we acquired from architectural salvage, they where actually salvaged from the middle school that i went to. jak and i lovingly stripped. sanded and refinshed them. they are beautiful.

a close up of the drawers

the view through the kitchen to the back door which leads to the back deck.

there is a very pretty hydrangea in our front yard.

this is part of the living room/dining room

see? not very inspired...

late august

i really meant to snap some pictures of the beautiful floors after they were finished, but shortly thereafter they were covered up with paper so the painters could come in and paint... jak calls it the monochromtization of our house. yes we are going with all white. white makes it feel bigger. white goes with everything. white picks up light and shadows and makes pretty. the painters started on monday, and will hopefully be done by wednesday of of next week.

we are familiar with the everything takes at least 3 times longer as you think it will, aspect of remodeling, but we are cutting it really tight with house guests arriving in less than 4 weeks! i am SO excited about moving in though. i can hardly stand it, and the idea that the whole house will be freshly painted a nice crisp white, makes me giddy. it's so hard for me to go up there and look around, the fumes and stuff make it uncomfortable to breathe, so when the painters pack up and leave it will be thrilling for me to go up there and see it for the first time!

this weekend jak and i are going to try and refinish our architectural salvage cabinets so we are ready for the install when the painters are d-o-n-e.

and last but not least: i'm sorry but this IS the best thing on the internet right now! i "heart" chromeo allot.

defining insanity

before:

after:

things are a little hectic around here right now. when the dust (literally) settles, i will attempt a proper update.

life in the basement

we are living in the basement, and it feels really strange because, you know what? there's a whole house up there we're not using! it feels really funny to go up there and wander around the emptiness, and then come back down to the basement which is crammed full of stuff.

the basement
we moved the stove down and got rid of the mini stove that was down here. i went through all the kitchen boxes and attempted to assemble reasonable facsimile of our kitchen: dishes, glasses, serving stuff, tools, etc. the one thing that i can't find that is completely maddening is our salad spinner. it's making me really mad. it apparently made it's way into either an unmarked box, or a box that is not a kitchen box, and its a pretty big thing and there aren't that many big boxes. i should be able to locate it, and it's just making me SO mad. this may seem like a silly thing to be obsessing on, but we like our salad greens, spinach, chard, and the like around here, and a salad spinner makes quick easy work of the prep. i miss my salad spinner.

the house
i/we have sanded/patched/re sanded/patched/sanded again the walls and woodwork in the bedrooms. last night after i had pulled up all the plastic and shopvac-ed up all the dust and debris and started to tape up the windows i realized that we hadn't taken the window hardware off, so i/we need to go in there and sand/patch/sand that and then we will be ready to put fresh plastic down and start the first coat of primer. very exciting! my goal is to have both rooms painted by next weekend.

also, we have made our final decision about the flooring vendor and the electrician. we still need to decide on the plumber. everything hinges on getting the new water heater installed so we can take the chimney down and make the kitchen bigger. it's crazy making trying to keep track of ALL the details. it's overwhelming.

cooking, eating, grocery shopping
we are starting to get the hang of cooking here (in our compromised circumstances), in fact we have been eating quite well. we bought a grill, and that has been a lifesaver. the local farmers markets are bountiful right now. on sunday i went to our west seattle market for the first time. i got some beautiful tomatoes, spinach, sorrel, baby turnips, hazelnuts, and cherries. then yesterday we both went to check out the one in columbia city, where we got some pickled asparagus, squash, fresh salmon, french radishes, spinach, strawberries, raspberries and some locally made quark. i thought it would be a hop and a skip from here to columbia city, but it's pretty far and probably not worth the travel time, on friday's there is one near my mom, so i might try to make it to that one once in awhile. so the food/cooking thing is sorting itself out. we were really missing that.

the weather
the weather has been spectacular. days upon days in a row of sunny clear warm weather. the locals would probably complain that it is too hot, but it hasn't even hit 80 degrees yet. it has been amazing, and i am so glad that we chose this time of year for our move.

plants and things
i bought and planted some herbs in containers for our deck. right now we have mint, hot and spicy oregano, lemon thyme, thyme and tarragon. i want to add some sage, italian parsley, parsley and cilantro. it's really hard not to lose my mind when i go to the plant store. everything lawn and garden is a next summer project, but we do have to do some maintenance.

in other news
last but not least: josh and i are uncle and auntie to one brand new eliana sophie davis who was born this afternoon, weighing in at 6 pounds and 11 ounces , and measuring 19 inches. mother and daughter are reported to be resting comfortably.

i really wanted to take some photos for this post, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

what's up:

over the past week or so we closed on our house and had all of our belongings delivered to our new home. the contents of 6 door to door containers fit in to our garage with plenty of room to spare. we moved the bed and couches and clothing into the basement, but DAMN that garage is HUGE.

our house its really nice. even with nothing in it, it is a nice place to be. it feel like us. it feels like ours. i spent the last couple days ripping up all the carpets in the two bedrooms and the hallway. this was no small task. i may be strong but i'm not very big, and i was trying to keep the rug in one big piece so that it could be re-used by us or someone else. suffice it to say that it was not unlike wrestling an octopus and my arms are covered with scrapes and bruises. the floors underneath are fir, they are in pretty good shape and with a light sanding, and a coat of finish they will be beautiful.

my next project is the prep and paint the two bedrooms. i covered the floor in one of the rooms, and took off all the hardware and face plates, that is as far as i got before we called it a day.

we have appointments with a plumber and an electrician tomorrow morning. we are hoping that the plumber will be able to answer some questions that will help us figure out how to proceed with the whole kitchen redo project. we have decided to move into the basement and buy a grill and just camp at the house while we work on the rest of it. we still have the apartment until september in case we need it... but we really want to be at the house.