Friday, March 30, 2012

Nighthawk - Bubbye trees

We were finally able to get the City coordinated with the tree service so that we could have everything removed. They started bright and early (7am, sorry neighbors) and were cleaned up by noon. It's going to be nice to have a blank yard to play with, but still have some existing trees for privacy.

Some of the pictures you've seen, but I'm using them to show the before/after.

The best part about getting the big trees on the side removed is that we'll have a beautiful view now from our bedroom. We didn't know that we could see Mt Hood from there and from our deck.

Still hoping for dry weather so that we can paint the exterior...

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Nighthawk - A new roof

The roof was being replaced over the weekend as well. It was amazing to see how much better the house looked without all the moss covered wood shingles.

Before:
During:
It was nice to have a couple of sunny days for the roofers to get things going. Now if we could only get a couple more so that the exterior could get painted... That's asking quite a lot in Oregon right now.

Damn Blackberries

We met with the tree service guy on Saturday morning to go back over everything we wanted to have removed from the yard. Unfortunately, he told us that he wouldn't be removing the blackberry bushes. He said it would take his guys too long and that it was too much of a hassle. So, because it needed to be done, and the sun was out, Jamie figured that "we" would do it.

I normally don't like projects that involve "we" as that means manual labor for "me". And I get enough of that at the lake. But, Jamie figured that "we" could save $500 to remove them ourselves. (Spend the money people...)

We didn't have tools and weren't dressed to remove blackberries, but we did it anyways. We picked up a few things from Home Depot and got started.

Some areas were taller than I am.

Jamie watched me clear the blackberries with hand clippers for about 10 minutes before he decided to run to Sears for different tools. Thankfully he did.

But, that left me hauling everything up the hill afterwards. {sigh...}

We discovered a few more shrubs, and we able to clean up the trees we intended to keep.

And it looked so much better when we were done!

Thankfully our friends Steve & Nikki stopped by to see if we needed anything, and boy did we. Nikki returned with lunch, drinks and rakes just in time for us to relax.

We returned on Sunday morning to do some final clean up and to haul everything away.

We were sore and tired when we got back home. And those damn blackberries put up a fight, leaving us with all kinds of scratches. I knew there was a reason I didn't like "we" projects.

Nighthawk - Stage 1 updates

We recently found out that the new/old house was a rental in the past as well as a group home. The neighbors say that no one really wanted to take care of the house. Yes, we could tell... And they were excited to hear that we were going to be moving in to the house and that we want to take care of it. (They may not have been excited when the roofers started working before 8am, but it's all good, right?)

The basic things inside have been repaired.



We are replacing these floors with linoleum until the second inspection goes through. Then everything will be torn up and the hardwood will be placed. Can't wait!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Why I don't sleep

I've been tired for the past few months. Like I just want to take a nap every day. (Not that that's a bad thing!) And I feel like I'm dragging.

I bought a Philips goLITE hoping that it would help during our dreary Oregon months. Not much of a change in my energy, but it may be helping with my mood.

I started walking on the treadmill from 6am to 7am as often as I could. Not much of a change in my energy, but it may be helping with my big 'ol belly.

We even bought a new mattress. (Which has been fabulous by the way!) The Tempur-Pedic was worth every penny, and does help me sleep because I can't tell when Jamie is moving. And, my body is so very comfortable when I'm in bed.

Then Jamie says he thinks it's because I just don't sleep through the night very often. hmmmm...

11:00pm - fall asleep
2:45am - text message received (from someone who sleeps even less than I do...)
3:20am - Maddie up and needs to go out
4:15am - train goes by (while using it's horn most of the journey)
5:30am - Maddie up and thinks she needs to go out, but I convince her how warm and comfy bed is
6:00am - when my internal alarm clock goes off

Don't tell him, but Jamie may be on to something. Between all these times, I don't sleep because I'm thinking of 900 other things. That's just how my brain works. I keep a notepad by my bed so that I can write things down when I need to. That sometimes helps. I do take medication for my crazy brain. That sometimes helps. But I think I just need sleep!

Thankfully I don't have an infant or toddler that I need to get up with at night, I'd be even worse off. But, I already did that and I'm sure I'll have just as many sleepless night with her being a teenager. {sigh...}

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Nighthawk - Stage 1, Day 1 & 2

Work officially began on Nighthawk Dr. on Tuesday, March 20th. First things first, Stage 1 projects have a timeline and need to be done.

A leaky roof in Makena's bedroom.

We thought it was a leaky roof anyways. Come to find out, a squirrel has been living up there and had eaten through the roof to make himself comfortable. So now the hole is fixed and the wall is being repaired. (Don't worry Makena, we don't think the squirrel will come back...)

Flooding from a pipe in the kitchen and dining area created rot.

Flooding from a pipe in the laundry also created rot.

The decks were unsafe to use. They were not built with flashing, which created rot in the siding and the boards, and there were no posts to stabilize the deck. There was also no top-railing and several of the bottom boards had rotted.

So far, so good. Now if we could only get the rain (and March snow!) to settle down a bit so that the roof can be replaced and the exterior can be painted...

Nighthawk House - Kitchen Design

When we built the house we're in now, we started by picking out the layout of the home. We still had a lot of decisions to make regarding fixtures, colors, design etc, but the layout was set. We picked the house we liked.

The new/old house has a lot of great space, but much of it is unused space or does not work well. We hired a designer to walk the house with us and walk through some changes that we could make. The kitchen is the room I am most excited (and stressed) out about. I have a vision, Jamie has a budget...

The designer drew a rough sketch for us. We used that as a basic design when we had contractors in for bidding purposes and when we went to do our own pricing at Home Depot.

Things have already progressed beautifully! We have things to finalize but my vision is getting closer to becoming real.