"She's a Beaut' Clark" --Christmas Decorations

For those who don't know I can be a little bit of a Clark Griswold at Christmas time. I haven't got to decorate our house very often because we travel at Christmas time. No outdoor lights this year, but next year hopefully we can be seen from space.

Here are some pictures of our christmas decorations this year. Kelly and I both love to decorate for Christmas. Because we were traveling on thanksgiving and the first part of December we actually decorated before thanksgiving. Oh well, they will probably stay up past christmas too.

Here is our great room, we put up the tree and the christmas village in the windows.

We finally put up a mantle above the fireplace so we could decorate. We have our stockings by the fire, and even some presents under the tree already.









Here is a picture without the flash. My camera didn't do a great job with this because of the twinkle in the lights and the fireplace movement, but you can see how warm it feels with all the decorations up.

Here are the elves that Kelly bought at Real Deals. They are stringing lights on our little trees. I thought these were the highlight of the decorations this year.

Have a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hope your decorations were as much fun putting up as ours. No lights burnt out this year.

Christmas at the beach

Well December is here so I guess it is time to celebrate Christmas all month long.

We started this season at the beach with my mom. My sister Lori came over on the first day, with her kids, and my sister Beth came over on the second day with her husband and daugter. We had a nice place my mom rented and the weather cooperated for the most part. We did get some rain on the second day but that didn't stop true Oregonians from exploring the beach.

This was our view from the deck, some blue sky that day.

This is our view looking the other way. We tried to do a panorama pic but realized the waves probably would not hold still long enough for a second pic.

Here is the view straight out. At night it was really cool to see all the boats anchored out in the ocean, the kids kept counting them and keeping us up to date on how many there were.

My niece and nephew comparing the treasures they found on the beach.

My other nephew, the ham of the group, I think he has taken the title away from me.

And here is my mom, and Kelly, all bundled up. Can you tell if they were cold?

Here is the crew from the first day. I didn't get any of our other guests, maybe someone who did will send me a copy, hint, hint.

Here is Kelly, Will, and Baby 2009. Next year we will have to make room in the picture.

Well, one down and 3 more to go. Hope your Christmas Season is as busy and wonderful as ours.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

We're Pregnant!!!

Yes, for those who don't know we are pregnant. Kelly is about 13 weeks along and doing fine. For all of those horror stories you hear about pregnancy, I'm doing fine. Kelly has had tiredness, and some changes in her diet, but I am not phased in the least.

We have already begun the baby shopping process. We have purchased several things now and apparently we still have a lot to get. I have already started stockpiling baby camo. I will have to wait until January before I know if I need to add pink bows to the camo or not. Kelly pointed out to me that there are other colors out there besides camo, and I agreed, Pink Camo! Well for now shopping at Cabela'a and Sportsman's warehouse have been put on hold until later.

Thanks to Cheryl, Kelly's mother, for introducing me to the magic of Craigslist. I have already made my first purchase. Someone told me that you need more than one carseat base for multiple vehicles. I looked online and what do you know, someone had two of our same carseat bases and the only wanted $10. They are brand new and don't even look like they were used more than once. I promised Kelly I wouldn't shop exclusively from there, but some deals you just can't pass up.

Here are the pregnancy tests Kelly took. We only had the one kind with the lines, and me not understanding the ever so subtle line theory of these tests decided to go out and purchase something a little more high tech. That made me a believer. So we are pregnant and expecting a new little baby in our home.

On a sad note, we lost our dog Sinjhin about 2 weeks ago. He got out of the fence and ran off. We are not sure what happened to him. There are several other small dogs and cats missing in the area, so who knows. We have posted a lost dog notice at all the shelters and on street signs in the area. Hopefully someone will find him.

Well we finally got some landscaping in. Just before winter, that way if anything doesn't make it I can blame the weather. We bought some trees and plants during the fall and found some amazing deals. We are the type of people that like our trees to have a little character, so the ugly tree sale was right up our alley.

We got a combination of pines, hemlocks, and firs. We were also able to find some dwarf spruce and dwarf juniper trees, which were pretty cool. We also went into the forest and dug up several native plants, (yes, I got a permit) and trees.

We rented a tractor and moved a bunch of dirt and rocks around. We also got several yards of gravel delivered. Unfortunately, I did not know that there were so many shades of grey rock, so the rock doesn't match and now I have to order more next spring.

This is a picture of the front of the house, we planted several different deer resistant plants and grasses, hopefully they will remain that way. We also planted several pine trees and a fat albert spruce in the center island of the driveway.

Here is a close-up of the center island. We still have some blue fescue to plant around the island and this spring we hope to be able to mulch.

This is a close up of the front of the house. We have not decided on the rock layout yet. That is just where I dumped rocks while using the tractor. I probably hauled to many up there but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I took full advantage of having a tractor for the weekend. I hauled many more rocks up from the bottom of our property before my wife pointed out I was getting a little carried away.

Here is the entry way. The rock on the left is a petrified stump that we found on the property. It took all that little tractor had to haul it up there and when I tried to stand it up, that took all I had. It must weigh about 250-300 lbs (yes, I said hundreds, not 25-30 lbs). That is why it does not look like it is in the right place yet. I'm waiting for volunteers this spring to help me move it, any takers?

Where were you this morning?

Well we got to go for a ride today in the Remax Balloon this morning. It was a blast. We got to fly over our old home and see all the changes the new owner has already made. We floated over the south end of town and could see 4 golf courses. The pilot said he thought we made about 3000 feet above the ground. Here are a few of the pictures that turned out the best. Hope everyone is doing well, our day started off great.

Here is a shot of the balloon being inflated.

This is the balloon fully inflated. Kelly is standing to the right of the balloon in a red jacket.

This is the Fairgrounds, where we took off from.

Kelly and Will. don't we look good for 6:30 am. We don't even drink coffee.

Picture of the city and Smith Rocks

Here is our old house. It is the one in the middle with the gravel pit behind it. It looks like it has a new white garage door.

More scenery shots of the desert and the mountains.

Shot of Juniper golf club.

Kelly and Will again. We had a blast. I highly recommend this to everyone. Even if you don't like flying or heights, this is for you. There is hardly any feeling of motion, and very smooth gentle ride. The landing can be a little rough as the balloon bounces back up after the first touchdown. All in all a great experience and we can't wait to go again. We know the balloon master personally, so let us know and we can put you in touch. Have a great weekend all.

Exterior Paint/ Caribou & River Birch

My Wife the Carpenter !!!

Well, we made it through the doors and window trim before I broke the saw. After that Kelly had to take over with the trim. I have told her several times that I barely passed geometry and she didn't believe me until she saw me attempt to make miter cuts.

Here she is triming some window legs for our wood wrapped windows.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of her wearing my goggles that were

two sizes too big for her and my sweatshirt which is also way too big for her.

This is the fireplace which we covered in cultered stone. This is the

Scratch coat of the mortor mix that has too cure before you mortar the rock

to it. You can see some of the rock layed out on the floor.

Here I am laying the first few courses of rock on the hearth before we put on the

Hearth Stones.

Here is my lovely wife preping the mortar for the Hearth Stones. I think I was on a break.

This is the finished project. You can see the wood wrap on the windows that we did and the rock fireplace. We still have not decided on a mantle but will add that later. We finished the night before carpet was to be installed at about 11:00 pm. The windows have not been stained at this time and the baseboards only have a little on them.

Hello all. Here is our latest project. We installed Hickory hardwood floor in the kitchen and dining area. It was by far the most fun project so far. We now have lights, plumbing, and heat done so working at night has been much easier. The Hickory floors are quite complicated as we had to empty all the boxes and then make sure to vary the colors as we layed it down so you don't get dark or light patches. So now all we need on the floors are carpet, and we are not even going to attempt that. Too much surface area.

See Everyone, I do work also, I'm not just arm candy.

The wood slides together very easy, then you nail it along the grooves. I think it was easier than doing laminate flooring. It was a lot less stressfull and easier to cut. The pieces come in 3 1/2" pieces of varied lenght and color. This makes going around corners much easier.

This is a shot from the dining room into the kitchen. You can see part of the tile backsplash we put in also. The tape on the countertops is because we are waiting for some more material to come in and then the countertop guy can come in to sand and seal the edges. They are almost done.

Here is a shot of the kitchen from the entryway. You can really see the variances in the floor. Hickory and the knotty alder cabinets really go well together. It took us a long time to find the right flooring for in the kitchen. Everything that looked good in the store didn't look right when we got it next to cabinets. This one looks much better in person than in these pictures.

Can't wait for everyone to see the house. We are getting close. Paint, porches, trim, and carpet are all that is left. Hopefully they won't take long. More updates later.

You asked and we delivered!

Here is a sample of what we have been up to for the last month.

(and why we haven't been updating our blog)

We (by we I mean mostly Kelly) have been cutting and laying down about 1000 sft of tile throughout the house. This includes an entry way, tile floors and countertops in both bathrooms, tile shower and shower pan, tub deck, and backsplashes, also the laundry room floor and countertops. These pics are of the master bathroom. The other rooms went a little quicker but this room has been the bane of our existence. Hopefully there will be more pics of the rest of the tile soon. Thanks and Enjoy.

Here is Kelly hard at work laying out the floor tiles in the master bathroom. She did a modified versaille pattern for many of our rooms. She used stone tile which is heavy and fragile, she even let me break, oops, I mean cut a few tiles with the RotoZip tool for cutting around the vent and the toilet flange.

Here is Kelly again tiling the shower walls. We started with large tiles then went a different way as we approached the top. You'll see in the next pictures. We have seen several different designs for showers and we took elements from different ones to create our own. Hard to take a photo of the whole thing at once.

This is the tub deck. We used the same style of porcelin tile that we used in the shower. We used a different size tile on the tub deck but kept the same larger tiles on the tub face. Of course to make things difficult, I mean beautiful, Kelly turned them on their point like a diamond. Can you tell that she said "I love tile", right before I took the picture?

This is the upper portion of the Shower. We used subway style tiles to create a border, then went with smaller tiles and turned them on point the rest of the way up. I did not realize that 9 feet tall shower walls would feel so high up, until you are sticking little tiles all the way up to the top from a ladder. It felt like it would never end.

Last but not least, this is the finished tub deck. Everything came out great and we just finished the shower floor last night. So almost all the tile is complete we just have to grout everything now. We will update again later.

First Meal!

The first official meal in our new house, hopefully our next won't taste like Paint.

We don't need no stink'in scaffolding, just good insurance

3.5 days, 90 gallons of paint and primer, a frozen water hose, 4 trips to Sherwin Williams, next time we will have a BYOPB party. We have at least now been in every sq foot of our house twice.