And then there was one...

This is it folks, the last room of Blue in the house formerly known as Holiday Ridge, Lot 21. I've been bad about updates, but that is because we've been hard at work on projects that don't photograph well (winterizing, calking, etc). However, we end our first 6 months in the house with some real, noticeable progress. Our primary floor has been almost done for quite some time. We've recently added curtains and rearranged the furniture, which went a long way to making it more comfortable. On the first floor, we have finally made a ton of progress. Rich's "man town" is complete (as is the storage area that is in Man Town). The guest bedroom is painted and set up. Most important, the sitting room is now painted, set up, and ready for action! Having the downstairs in a usable condition makes a huge difference in how big the house feels. Our next project? Getting rid of the blue in the kids room. That may wait until after ski season.

For 2009, we have some grand plans to replace the flooring, re-hab the full bath, and do something about the spiral staircase. Once we get warm weather again, I'd also like to work on prettying up the yard. In the meantime, I am looking forward to actually relaxing in this vacation home, skiing, snowshoeing, and some sun and sand (can you say Umbrella Drinks and Bikinis for New Years, anyone?).

Happy New Year!

6 months later - Chandler Mountain Road

The seasonal views are here!

Yes, that means it's wicked cold up he-ah in N'ampsha. The fall leaves are past peak and I anticipate bare trees by the time I get back from the Marine Corps Marathon in two weeks. Last night's low in town was 28; our neighbors recorded 22 at their house (we share a driveway).

We've been pretty lax with updates. That is mostly due to the fact that we've been taking a bit of a break. Part of that was related to winery harvest season, part due to running (RTB 2008), and part was just being plain old tired. We did make some progress in winterizing but who wants to see a blog entry about insulated pipes?

The big news is that the exterior painting is almost done. We're having a more capable person paint the high ladder areas, but we (mostly Rich) have been able to make the sides visible the drive look much, much better. There is still some work to do, but the exterior should be ready for winter in a week or so! (which is just in time)

Move that bus!

Ladies and gentleman, we have a bathroom with laundry! Let's look at the before images:


Wow!
While I was hoping to leave this weekend with a relatively intact and functioning house, we are in pretty good shape. There's a bit a of work to do before my Reach the Beach team arrives in 1.5 weeks, but the basics are in place. We now have all of the bedrooms set up and ready to go. Also, we should be getting gas heat within the month (if everything goes right). The gas stove intallation provided us with the opportunity to expand the scope of our projects. The gas company rep recommended that we remove the side walls of the brick surround for the stove. The fun part is deciding what to do to finish the edges (I am voting for a mantle-like piece).

Yes, there were more bears, we are being swarmed by mosquitos, and we still have this nasty rug, but it's coming into place!

Labor Day 2008 Updates

I have to stop running at dusk

Or, My Relationship with my iPod

OK, so progress has been slow on the house, due mostly to the fact that I am spending half of each weekend running. However, we are in the middle of a big push and we should have some "gosh it's almost done" feelings by the end of Labor Day weekend. The revelation of the weekend (and there seems to be at least one each weekend) is that the new washer and dryer was lovingly installed by our contractor to a drain pipe that doesn't exist. It turns out we can't blame all this rain for our crawl space water problems (at least not all of them).

This weekend was actually light on running (and it's all relative). Today, instead of hitting the road first thing in the morning I opted to get some work done, spend some time with Rich hiking (gasp, relaxation and NOT RUNNING?), then run whatever miles were left on the schedule at the end of the day. I had sworn off running at the end of the day a couple of weeks ago. Let's just say that you don't want a fox darting out in front of you at the end of a long, hot run. I had some misgivings before I set out, but told myself I was silly because it was still plenty early (6 pm).

Fast forward a few miles: At the top of a hill I can see a wildlife jam. You know, cars stopped randomly on the road with cameras snapping. I assume it's a moose. Once it became obvious that the animal was on the same side of the road as me, I decide to look for opportunities to cross over (there are very few animals I wish to pass at close range). As I crest the hill, I see it is a black bear snacking on an overflowing dumpster about 20 feet from road (about 30 feet from me - and he was looking at the wack job running along the road with bottles of tasty gatorade). At that point, I decided to cross the road immediately; I figured I had a better chance against the cars.

I honestly don't know which is worse: the very close encounter with a bear or the realization that I became part of the show. Every car I passed had some snappy comment to the effect of "what's the matter? don't you want to run with the bears? huh huh huh". I am pretty sure that several people caught me in their photos and will show their coworkers tomorrow morning.

As this was happening, I wasn't paying much attention to the song currently playing on my iPod. However, as soon as I passed the last car in the traffic jam a new song started. I heard,"th-th-th-that that don't kill me will only me make me stronger".

There are many days I think my iPod hates me; today I think it might just have a very sick sense of humor.

Yes, Everything in this house needs to be replaced!

Or, What Would Yosemite Sam Say?
Yes kids, that is a stair tread from the much feared spiral staircase. It collapsed underneath Rich this past weekend. Fortunately, this DID NOT HAPPEN when our friend's Pete and Nora were visiting with their young daughter Laurel. Yikes.

I've been too busy to make posts, but suffice it to say that we have made a lot of progress but it just doesn't feel like it! Rich has procured a wet saw for tile and many other new toys to fill the shed. He also tiled the floor of the second bath!

The biggest news is that we were able to get things cleaned up and provide the appearance of control over chaos to have Pete, Nora, and Laurel visit this past weekend. We managed to secure the stairs using combinations of baby gates, shoes racks, and Wii boxes (that's right kids, the Wii is in the house!). Like any good toddler, Laurel figured out a way to find danger where the adults least expected it.

The Herrins helped us say good bye to Dotti for the last time. We took her ashes up a small mountain near the house and found a nice pre-existing memorial which marks the spot. The weather was a bit gray and rainy, but the Herrins survived their first hike with Laurel!

More photos:

Chandler Mountain July 2008 Updates

The third weekend

I am traveling with my family in the Pacific Northwest, but Rich kept up the fight. Here are his photos:

Chandler Mtn Week 3

Now might be a good time to revisit the before photos:

Chandler Mountain Road

We each have our own battles with wood

For our second weekend, we really rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Sharon painted from 8 am - midnight Saturday, then noon to early evening on Sunday. Rich replaced many light fixtures and started clearing the yard.

My paint frenzy was inpsired by the ladder left behind by the contractors. It was just tall enough to reach the highest areas of the ceiling!! I was driven to get all of that finished before the ladder disappeared. By about 11:30 at night, the combinations of paint fumes and exhaustion created some interesting effects. At one point, the large knot in the ceiling beam seemed to move, and perhaps to talk. Fortunately, I was close to acheiving my goal for the day.

Rich had his own wood issues. He improvised a tree removal system - the important parts were a hack saw and an extension cord. Let's just say it ended with a down tree, blood in the downstairs bath, and a big dent in our band-aid supply.

Unfortunately, I deleted some of the photos in a frenzy to free up space on my camera to take photos of my nephew dancing...but here is what is left:

52ChandlrMtnRoad - End of the Second Weekend