Don't Listen To Me

Because I have to tell you to go to Princess Kat's place to win a fabulous family night prize. But don't listen to me.

Out With A Fizzle...

No, big plans-yet. Except to wake up tomorrow in the year 2009. Unless the Lord should return. Which I would be fine with. Really.

I'll have to let you know next year if our fizzle turned into a bang. Or not.

*** So, we ended up having a lot of fun. We had a bunco party- and an 11 year old walked away with the $30 grand prize. I'm not bitter. Really. The house was empty by 11:00- and the house guests cleaned too- so we were in bed by 11:45. That's what I call a good party!

I hope you all had a great time ringing in the new year.

A New Contest You Shouldn't Enter

The Secret is in the Sauce: Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K-cups  

I want it.  So don't enter.

Just Keepin' It Real

Well, That Was, Um...Interesting.

No matter how you chose to celebrate your Christmas, I'll bet you ours was more, um...interesting.

Not having anything else to do on Christmas eve day, we took off to Leavenworth to go sledding. The drive is about 3 hours- without potty stops.

Once we got there, the girls and I decided to check out the few shops that were still open, and when we had seen what we wanted we joined the boys for sledding. The town hill is actually pretty fun-except I don't sled. I can't see throwing myseld down a hill at break neck speed anymore. Anyway, my family can't afford to have me laid up. I sure have become a fuddy-duddy in my not-so-old-age.

After sledding, my husband hijacked us- and we went to the yurt. Which I have mentioned is like sleeping in a glorified shopping bag. He said it was not premeditated, but I don't know- he was awfully prepared....

Any way, it was about 15 degrees when we got there- but we managed to warm it up to about 50 degrees for the night. Sebastian was nice enough to let me sleep with the heating blanket, and I think I would have slept OK except that I also slept with Jonah- who is all knees and elbows at night. Despite all of that, I think I got more sleep than Sebastian, who was up feeding the fire everytime I woke up.

We went out to Brunch at Shari's in Wenatchee and then back to Leavenworth for more sledding. I did get some great sled pictures.

I hope you had a fun time on your special day!

Fully Evolved

Just to recap:

We went from this

To thisAnd Finally, to this

We ripped the old kitchen down to the studs- if you need to refresh yourself, click on the Construction label- took out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, reconfigured the powder room, moved the door to the garage, changed the opening to the entry/ mudroom, took out the laundry room and moved it upstairs, took out a defunct chimney and incorporated those two areas into the new and better kitchen. Sebastian built the cabinets based on my specifications. I asked for, and received, a whole lot of drawers- even behind doors- on full extension glides. I asked for, and received, white cabinets with bin pulls on the drawers and glass panels on the upper cabinets. I didn't ask for a hardwood floor, but I got it anyway and I really like it. we still have to hang the picture moulding and put the stainless steel on the edges of the slate (How cool is that?) Counter tops, but other than that, we are done! And it only took 6 months! Which is short around here- because my fabulous husband doesn't get paid to remodel his own house.

And just because I am a stinker, you have to click here to see the pictures!

Evolution 2

If you recall, we started with this:

So, from phase 1 we went to phase 2. As part of a whole house remodel we got an attached 2 car garage, moved the powder room, we gained a large entry (originally we conceived this as a breakfast room, but we just didn't live that way, so the table became the dumping ground for all our junk as we came and went.), and a family room that can double as a MIL apartment with it's kitchenette and 3/4 bath. Also in this remodel I gained a master bath off of my monstrously huge bedroom.


The kitchen stayed almost the same. We took the large bank of cabinets from one side and turned the bottom unit around to the other side of the room. The cabinets stayed the same, but we did discover the original fir floors under the hideous peal and stick tiles. The fir only ran part of the way through the kitchen. That bump out in the last post was added some time later, and the addition was camouflaged by hideous tile. Badly, I might add.


With a little creativity and some fir we salvaged from the laundry room (that had to be leveled- and took 6 bags of leveling compound) we put together a wood/tile combo kitchen that didn't look too weird. And we lived with it. For a LONG time.


In 2003, Sebastian went to Argentina to climb Mt. Aconcagua. Sine I don't sleep well when he is gone, I had a month of late evenings on my hands. I went to visit all of my sisters, and then I refinished my kitchen cabinets and put new hardware on them.





This is a blue print for #2

And it got ugly in that remodel...that took about 3 years to finish...

Gone, baby gone. Goodbye you hideous waste of space!

Off came the roof of the bad bump out to make way for my master bathroom.

Here is the new garage entrance, the new powder room, and off to the left, the stairs to the new family room.

The new entry and deck, and Jesse looks like he's about 5 here.

This is how the addition ties into our old house. Right above the door is my master bath.

And then this was what we had.

Stay tuned for the big reveal tomorrow- assuming the 1 1/2 feet of snow here doesn't put the power out again.

And keep looking at the first post and trying to be sharp! I fully expect one of my family members to figure it out- but I may just tell you if someone doesn't get it soon!

And then I'll have to eat that Symphony bar myself.