New Car!

Max has been talking new car for quite some time. We don't really need two 4x4 vehicles and are not in much need of a truck. She has been wanting a "trunk" and something that gets better gas mileage than the Xterra and the Frontier. She has said for years that she wanted a Lexus, but could afford a Saturn. We are now the proud owners of a grey with grey interior Saturn Ion. It gets 24 town and 32 highway and is a very comfortable and cool car. We chose the 4 cylinder engine for better response and better gas mileage. The cost of the car was $16k with a $1500 rebate. Nice car, good mileage and an affordable price. I even got the manager to "deal" a little and got an additional $400 knocked off (Saturn's have a set price).

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Weather

I am not even going to try to upload any pictures - and we did not take many today. We have had the most wide range of weather today. We had beautiful snow. We had lovely sunshine and warmth. We had heavy rain. We had pellet size hail. In spite of the weather, we had a great day! We messed around Sisters doing some shopping and then went out to the Metolius river. I even did some fly fishing and it was a kick in the butt. I want to do some more and we are planning to go back tomorrow. The lake that we wanted to go to is out - the ICE is just beginning to melt! I have no intention of getting out in a tube in that kind of water and they are really only catching bass and Max is not interested in catching bass.

The heavy rain hit us at the river and Max did not have her rain jacket and was soaked to the bone. Kathy and I messed around feeding the fish at the hatchery and they had some beauties. Everyone was pretty soaked except for Paul who had his rain jacket. After we left the river we headed back into Bend and hit an Italian place with EXCELLENT food.

Even though we have had some difficult weather, this has been a fun vacation. If we plan to come back (which is probably likely) we will make it a little later in the season and have more lakes open and not so much snow.

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Vacation in the snow

We are having a wonderful time, but did not think that we would be experiencing snow! Of course for dedicated fishing persons a little snow can't stop the fun. We actually took the float tubes out on the lake yesterday. The water was absolutely FREEZING, but with proper gear it was not so bad. Paul hooked up a couple fish (small), but Max and I had no luck.

It is snowing right now and we are planning a drive into Sisters and then Max and Paul are going to do some fly fishing on a river. Unfortunately, we are a little ahead of the fishing curve. Almost all the lakes are closed because of the altitude and snow and the rivers are all fly fish only, which is not really a problem cause Kathy and I read or iPod or whatever. This is a wonderful spot and we are having a good time (I love the big snow flakes and the cold weather).

The internet connection is sometimes snail slow and it is really hard to get connected and almost impossible to upload pictures.

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Check it out . . .

I picked out the counter top I wanted for my work space and it really looks nice and is VERY workable! I decided I wanted to have all three cabinets under the work top and took the one from the corner, which I will replace when I get a chance to go to OSH. I almost have everything moved into my new sewing room and hopefully will be sewing soon. I am getting the old sewing room in order and hopefully will be able to find the daybed I want in the near future. I am making a trip to the Grandkids to help out while Denise does the lazer surgery eye correction thing - so no working on the room until I get back. I will have a week to do things before taking off to Oregon for our fishing trip. By summer I should be ready to stay put with the air conditioning and sew and craft to my heart's content.

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Moving into the new sewing room

Have started to move into my new sewing room and finally moved my sewing machine and computer in. I was waiting for the window replacement, but they showed up today with the WRONG window. It will take another week to order the correct one and I told the guy I am going to go ahead with putting my desk, sewing machine and computer under the window and when they come out to replace it we will move the desk away from the window. I cannot believe how BIG the room is and how much extra space I have. Of course with all the shelves and cabinets I have abundant space for storage. I have not moved my material out of the closet in the other room and right now I plan to just leave it there. We are going to hang some additional wall cabinets and purchase a counter top to sit on the two short cabinets to give me a cool working space. I know that I will probably be changing and changing until I get things right, but I am loving it. I need to get a new chair and perhaps eventually get a different sewing table. I like the table I have, but it could use a bit more surface space to handle sewing and the computer. Pictures do not do it justice, but at least this gives everyone an idea of what I have and what we have done. I still have all my thread holders to hang on the wall to add that much needed color and find a place for my bulletin board.

Allmost back to normal

We received the final inspection on the addition (which was a piece of cake considering the inspector only looked at the stove and the back step). We have a couple of things that need to be replaced/fixed and then the final payment to the contractor. It will be nice not to have all the intrusion in our life. I have slowly been working on getting things put away, but it is no easy task. I have not moved anything into my new sewing room as we are still waiting for them to replace the window. If I put stuff in there under the window, I will just have to move it. I think I may go shopping for some cabinets or shelves to go on either side of the door. I would then at lease be able to start transfering some of the things I have on the shelves now. I would like to have most of what I put in there match, but I am moving my colored drawers in there cause I really like them. I actually was pretty happy with the way I had my room before, but was just to cramped for space.

I broke down and went to a beauty salon a couple of days ago and had my hair trimmed - AFTER I had a body perm. I think I am happy with it and it seems to be the easiest way to let my hair grow a little. I was at that point that it had to be CUT or CURLED to survive. I am not sure summer is the time to have longer hair, but at least if I keep letting it grow then it will be winter by the time it is actually heavy on my neck. I have not been in a beauty salon in years. but I think it was worth it.

I have not been taking any pictures, so there will be none uploaded tonight. Just thought I should at least make a posting.

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Back Step Completed

The brick guy finished the back step this afternoon. We still have to put some sand on it and water it to soak the sand in, but essentially we are DONE! I am assuming the contractor will call for a final inspection the beginning of the week.

We messed around in the back and cleaned things up a bit. I then decided it was time to give Kodi a good brushing. After getter a bag full of hair, he and Darci had fun running and playing. I think they are both very happy to have their complete backyard back! Needless to say, I am very happy to have our yard back. We have to do a dump run and some general clean up, but it is going to be very nice to get things back to normal.

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Reaching the end

We are reaching the end of the whole addition process. The last thing to be completed is the brick step at the sliding glass door. The brick layer positioned the bricks and is now in the process of doing the mortar/sand thing. Once that is completed, we can get the final inspection and finally be rid of people in and around our house. We will be able to start doing some work in the back yard (planting season is upon us) and the doors will be able to roam freely and not have to worry about someone leaving the gate open or Darci having a snack!

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Happy Dog

Now that is one HAPPY DOG!

Finished Floor

Kathy and I laid the LAST piece of the floor after which Kathy, Max and Paul cut and placed the molding. The room is great and the floor is awesome. Now I have to start the project of moving my stuff into the room and deciding how I want to arrange it.

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Coming together

The stove guy showed up on Saturday and we are very happy with the installation. I am pleased with the stove as I bought it sight unseen (I saw a picture, but I did not get to see the flame and sometimes the pictures lie). I did check out a stove made by the same people and the flame was nice - so I just took the chance. I now have clothes actually hanging in my closet, but I have more shelving that needs to be added. Kathy and Max almost finished the floor on Saturday, but lost the light to do cutting. They plan to finish it tonight - it is gorgeous! We are actually VERY close to getting the final inspection.

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Closer

They are still working on the closets and hopefully will finish with them tomorrow. At least the closet doors are on Max's closet. I made a major error when the carpet was being installed - I forgot to make sure they left an opening for the crawl space. Then to make matters worse we put up the shelves in Max's closet on top of the crawl space. Not really a big deal, but had to move everything in the closet and call the carpet guys back out. The stove was suppose to be installed today and that installation was canceled. Check out the picture of our imaginary stove. It will now be happening on Saturday afternoon. I am just so ready to not have people in my house and scheduled appointments. We have a puddle problem (which I am glad we had all the rain to so painfully point it out) that they have to address along with a gutter and down spout problem. It is all wonderful, but I am ready to be finished. We still have to get the back brick step put down. All should be right in a week or so (we still have to lay the floor in the sewing room. Cleaning the house is turning into a nightmare, but we are slowing getting there.

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Finally

Wow - I was beginning to think it was never going to happen. The carpet looks great and they did an excellent job of installation. Debby came by after work on Friday and helped move the furniture back into our NEW bedroom. The room is huge and now our furniture does not look so large. We have the room to actually use the armoire to put the TV in and it just gives the room a much cleaner look. We bought some shelving for our closets. Max's closet is done and waiting for the doors. We had to give much more thought to my closet and I think we have it figured out and need to buy a few more pieces of closetmaid.

The flooring for my sewing room requires 48 hours in the house to acclimate - so we plan to try to put it down on Tuesday. The stove is coming on Wednesday. Once they get the closet doors on and the step outside the slider, we will be close to being completely done. I am very anxious to get the sewing room finished and see how it will look!

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Nearing the finish line

Amazingly we are coming to a close with the addition. The carpet will be installed tomorrow morning! The addition is incredible and they did a wonderful job. I was pushing the contractor to be finished today so we had the painter, the roofer and the plumber here doing finishing. Roofer attached the down spouts, plumber connected the water faucet at the back of the house and painter guy is doing all the touch up and finishing work. All the doors are hung with the exception of the sliding closet doors (they need to wait until the carpet is installed). All the light fixtures are up and I am so excited to see what it is going to look like was the carpet is down and it is all tied together. It should not take too long to install the flooring in my new sewing room, which I totally love. The window in the sewing room is really great! It is completely mirrored so you cannot see in but I have great light and view of the back yard. Am I happy – OH YEAH!

They still have a lot of clean up to do and build our back step (we want it to be brick to match the other steps). The stove will be installed on Wednesday and then we can have our final inspection and final walk through. Even though I am going to have to clean the WHOLE house from top to bottom, the addition is completely worth it. It really does look awesome and blends with the house as if it had been built that way.

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Weekend

We headed down to the desert for another weekend - this time to celebrate Desirae’s birthday. Mainly her presents consisted of clothes except for some puzzles and blocks. She was very happy with the clothes and did a "Fashion Show" for everyone. Deanna seemed to truly enjoy the birthday cake (which was most excellent and homemade by Denise). We had a good time and had a sleep over with the kids in the trailer. These drive down late on Friday and come home on Sunday weekends are tough, but worth it for the grandkids. We have made a deal with Devin and Desirae that next year we will combine their birthdays and celebrate Devin’s late and Desirae’s early and do it the weekend in between.

We are getting so close to being finished with the addition. The projected finish is now this coming Thursday. We are trying to schedule the carpet to be laid on Friday and the stove to be installed on Saturday or Monday. I can’t actually schedule the stove until the carpet is scheduled and they will not give me an answer until Wednesday. I suppose it is not that big of a deal, but we need the carpet down to be able to move the furniture back in.

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Just for interest

Check this out - talk about a tree full of birds! Don't know where they all came from and don't know where they all went, but it was fun while it lasted.

Another Week Gone

Another week has passed and I have not posted anything. We went down for Devin’s birthday and neither of us remembered to bring a camera so the birthday pictures can be seen on Duane’s blog. It was a very fast, but low keyed weekend. We have no extra time due to need to be at the house while the workers are here to keep Darci from going ballistic when someone gets too close to “HER” fence or comes in “HER” house.

The progression is moving along much slower now that it involves detailed things and stuff that needs to dry. There was a lag due to the mud on the sheet rock would not dry because it has been so damp and cold. The texturing is done and the painter is making good progress. He has completed the primer both inside and out, painted the outside and is staring on the inside today. It is very close to being finished. We hope to be able to put the flooring in my new sewing room on Monday.

Most of the real dirty work is completed and I have been able to slowly start dusting and cleaning, but it is going to take some time to get things back to normal.

Later…

Robins

The most amazing thing happened on Monday. While I was standing at the kitchen window getting my coffee, I noticed a beautiful robin sitting on the fence. I bent down to get a better look and noticed MANY robins in the neighbor’s tree. At one time I counted 18 robins sitting in that bare tree. Some were more yellow, some orange and some really nice red. I stood drinking my coffee watching them and all the sudden they all flyew away at once and in their place was a big sparrow hawk! I could not get a picture of the hawk, but I did manage a picture of the robins.

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More Progress

The roofer completed his job by putting up the gutters. The stucco guys did their second coat. The tape is on and the mudding will start tomorrow. I talked to the contractor this morning and he thinks they will be completely finished with the inside by a week from this Thursday. The outside painting may get stalled because of the predicted rain. Can you believe it? Wow!

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Time is flying . . .

I cannot believe the difference one week can make. I did not have access to my computer for a couple of days while they were working on the wiring – did not want to fry anything (they worked on some hot wires, but I just didn’t want to take the chance). The last time I posted the stucco guys were here and put up some paper and wire. OMG since then we have all the electrical completed including they wired my cook top! I mentioned it as a side job and they just did it. We have the speaker wires in place and the cable and phone. The concrete is poured for the hot tub and around the new addition. They did an excellent job and when we do the extras that we want to do it is really going to look nice. The plumber ran the gas for the fireplace and everyone pitched in and moved the hot tub back on the pad. The new window was put in (although it was framed wrong and they had to fix that). The roof is on and the gutters will be on Monday. We have our first coat for the stucco and the sheet rock is hung! Now it is closed in and it really has taken shape.

We were headed to Home Depot to go ahead and buy our carpet when I decided we should stop by Lowes to compare prices AND we found the SAME carpet that we have in our house now. That is going to make things so much easier because we will just have them put the new carpet in the addition and the hallway. I am VERY happy about that.

On a positive note it would appear that Kodi is a bit more relaxed and kicked back as is depicted in the picture. Wish I could say the same for my stress level, but it will be over soon and oh so worth it!

Later . . .