House Moat

A storm drain got clogged yesterday morning during heavy rain, and our house was about 1/2" of water away from getting flooded inside.  Shit.  When you have to say "Keep the kids away from anything electronic,  unplug everything!" you know you're in trouble.

Water was on both sides of the house, washing out dirt and gravel everywhere, out onto the front lawn, in the garage, down the driveway, carving a gully in the hillside, putting an inch of mud on the deck.

There's a storm drain in the upper hillside that feeds into a buried pipe, but if it fails, this is what it looks like.  I think we'll just have to hire an intern to stand by the drain night and day to keep it clear.  However, even when the drain was cleared, water still shot over the drain and came down the hill.

Bathroom is done!!!!!

Forgot to post the final-final-final pictures.  Thanksgiving was the first day we could use the shower, and boy was I thankful!!!!

Hall Closet Project Done

The hall closet was out of control.  We've restored a bit of sanity there.  Sorry, the pictures were really hard to take since the closet is smack dab in the middle of a dark entryway.  But hopefully you get the idea.

The idea is everyone has one two-prong hook, to hold one jacket, one coat.  Everyone has two "cubbies", one with a bin for shoes, one cubby to put your bag, scarf, whatever.  Backpacks go on the floor when the child comes home from school.  And that's it.  

The upper shelf is currently pretty bare, but I imagine it'll contain "ready-to-go" items like the summer swim bag. We'll see how well we can keep it up, but for now every one seems to be much, much, MUCH better about not leaving shoes/jackets/bags everywhere (and I'm totally guilty of this too).  

Bathroom - Nearly done

So close to having the Bathroom done!  It's hard to tell, but the wall color is more of a blue-gray rather than just gray.  The tilework was meticulous, exact and looks fantastic!  Just a little more touch up, and we're set.  Oh, and the shower glass, which will be installed on Tuesday, and a little touch-up here and there.  But other than that it's pretty much in the bag! 

Entry closet project

Thanks to Pinterest, I've realized every nook of my home could be *just that more* neat, organized, functional and beautiful.  Martha is being given a run for her money.

So after inspiration from here, here, and here, we've started to attack the entryway closet.

Some "before" pictures:

Before removing the shutter doors:

After removing everything from the closet:

 kind of love the blank slate. Kinda hate the 100000 jackets and shoes now piled in the living room.  But hopefully we'll come up with some easy, creative ways to make it functional.

Bathroom Week 2

OK, so all this work really finished on Friday, which would be 2 weeks, 2 days.  But it's starting to come back together!  This week: insulation, repairs to the sub floor, some sheet rock, roughing in of the tub/shower plumbing. Then on Friday, the cabinets, sinks and countertops!!!  (sinks not functional yet).

New Tub

Just out of the box, still in the garage. 

Brian and the girls explore:

Brian and the girls pretend to be bath tub Zombies: 

Bathroom Remodel Week 1

The bathroom is gutted, the wall by the sink has been moved to be flush with the wall behind it. 

The ceiling is opened up. 

The last bubble bath in the old tub. 

Here's where the bathroom went: 

Say Goodbye, Bathroom

Today is the last day of our old bathroom.  Hopefully today and the rest of the week it will be torn out, to be expertly reassembled into a more functional, less dry-rotty one.

Official "before" pictures:

Back Yard Project Update: SLAB

Today the slab was poured for the new office shed.  It was quite exciting. 

Mixer truck and everything.

The girls watched and ate strawberry and orange juice popsicles. 

MUD!

Our back yard is filled with mud in preparation for the concrete slab to be poured. The girls took every advantage of it. 

The clean up had to be strategic. Thank goodness for oversized beach towels.

Backyard project progress

The work in the back yard is going smoothly so far (knock on wood) and there's been a ton of progress in 3 days.  

The new terraces: 

The bobcat (just cool.  Wish I had the keys):

The office shed area:

Did I mention we're redoing our back yard?

Well, half of our back yard.  We have a large space behind our garage that currently is the digging play area for our kids. Don't get me wrong, we've loved having over 1000 square feet of dirt to play pirate, build fairy houses, throw the frisbee, and the like.  But Brian really could use a quieter, more removed, more productive work space, and I could use a vegetable garden.

So, ground broke a few days ago on turning the dirt patch into three outdoor "rooms". Brian's office, a small crushed-gravel patio, and a terraced veggie bed.  So exciting.

Before pictures: looking North from the far south corner:

Looking the opposite way.

We were told the project was to last 9 days.  They've been working hard, but we'll see.  Also, the shed (ahem - outdoor home office) manufacture can't even get the structure to us till end of October, but beginning a project is so much more exciting than mulling over the logistics of finishing it.


 

Inspecting the basement. . .

. . . always goes more smoothly when done upside-down and held by the ankles:

Cleaning helper

Recpie for awesome, chemical-free, kid-friendly all purpose cleaner (thank you, Pinterest)

1. Fill mason jar with citrus peel
2. Cover with white vinegar
3. Steep for 2 weeks
4. Strain and dilute 50/50 with water.
5. Give to 4.5 year old to use at-will

I swear, she spent 1/2 hour cleaning the countertops.  They will never shine as well as they do here.

Kitchen remodel: Week 7

It's down to the nitty gritty.  The floors took a lot longer than expected.  The workers even came on Sunday, in hopes to have the project wrapped up by Tues or Wed.  No dice.  It took them until Tuesday to get all the flooring done.  Fridge is in, trim is done, still need some touch-up on painting. And the punch list.  The contractor's list was minor: change a shelf out here, fix a hole here.  Ours is about 1 1/2 pages and includes things like: dishwasher door only opens half-way, 1/8" fine dust coats everything, pocket door no longer closes, and exhaust fan does not work.  But, fingers crossed, it will be done tomorrow and we can move back in this weekend.

Pictures taken with iPhone!

Kitchen Remodel Week 6

Yesterday morning, a truck pulled up with two slabs of granite.  I had no idea these things were so big and so heavy.  With all these 6 men, they could barely inch it onto the ground: 

They quickly set up shop in our driveway and made all the cuts on-site, measuring, trimming, polishing as they went.

This is the piece for the island.  It's nearly the entire slab, and actually we have a much shorter overhang on the breakfast bar because the stone was not as big as we thought. It took every ounce of strength these guys had to move it.

 And they CAAAAARRRRREEEEEFFFFFUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLY placed it.

How it looks now:

Getting there.  We haven't really seen how the colors look yet because all the power tools the men used burnt out a circuit in our house.  The lights don't work in the kitchen, laundry, bathroom, and each bedroom.  But the plugs do so we still have some light.  That will be fixed tomorrow.

You  can note that the cooktop is in, as is the microwave, although the microwave must be chinched about 1/8 inch to the left as the right side cabinets cannot open without crashing into it.

Still left: a dab of painting, appliances, faucet, flooring, baseboard. They are hoping to be done on Friday, but we'll see.  It is close.