We work a bit on aesthetics, inside and out.

[04.03.07- I'd been working on this post when I chose to not blog for a while. I'm not going to fix it, or finish it. Instead I'm going to start a new one. Although I haven't been blogging, Sam has been house-building, so I'm behind. Again. I'll probably do another 'picture dump' post or two, to attempt to catch up.]


The following four pictures really don't do the job justice: by the end of last week Dale had (re)texturized the wall beneath and around the new countertop, as well as the new wall in the office (that filled in where the door used to be). They look fantastic- utterly undistinguishable from the walls adjacent to them.





... well, except for the color difference, of course. Painting will come soon!

And here is another shot of the kitchen. Just because I love it. And because I'm wearing this really cute t-shirt I got from my parents that says "can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?"


Also at the end of last week, Sam and Dale started prepping for the stucco. They installed a bunch of flashing (that metal towards the bottom of the

The dream house gets dreamier.

The dream house is getting dreamier. First Sam and Dale dug up a rabbit-hole at the back edge of the living room... for a big white rabbit to fall into! (Harvey?)



Seriously, after Sioux sniffed around and I took some pictures, Sam covered the hole with plywood so nobody would fall in. But that hole is access for some future heavy-duty duty trenching. Once that trenching is done, more new foundation will be poured, and then we can build up over the existing house. In the meantime Dale drywalled, plastered, and made square and pretty the kitchen pass-through...


And Sam figured out how to hang the hood again. It really looks fantastic. The hood is higher up than it used to be, meaning that it doesn't obstruct my view to the living room, and that I won't bump my head on it anymore. Unfortunately, Sam is quite a bit taller than me, so his head is still at risk....



What is really amazing about how Sam hung the hood is that this hood (which we both liked a lot, and which came with the house) was designed to be mounted against a wall, not suspended from the ceiling. So not only was it a challenge to install it, but Sam did quite a bit of aesthetic modifications to the back of it. In this picture, you can kind of see- the back of the rectangle that sticks up was fabricated and attached by Sam. Even close-up, you can't tell that it wasn't always that way.


I should also mention that before installing the hood, Sam gave it a cleaning like it had never seen before- so it looked incredibly sleek, clean and shiny when I got home.

After the hood was installed, Sam had to do some contortionist moves to re-install the molding at the bottom of the cabinets.


Then, last weekend, Sam tackled a whole different project. He'd been working on my dream kitchen for a while-it was time to work a bit on the dream garage. Sam welded some steel brackets to a strong steel plate that could be mounted to his winch, and bolted the whole thing to the strongest, widest piece of wood in the garage...


The goal was to be able to hit a button and have the shell of the truck (with the rack attached to it, and the Eezi-Awn tent attached to that) lift up and away. So we bought some straps and hooked everything up...


Sam hit the "up" button just for a minute, and then checked that things felt balanced...


And then up it went!


We lifted it about a foot off the truck, and then Sam moved the truck forward and we lowered everything down to the floor.




After Sam was satisfied that everything was strong enough and secure, he hit the button to raise it all the way to the ceiling. I forget exactly how much this load weighs, but it's something like 450 lbs. (the winch can handle 800, supposedly).


Once it was up, Sam could get his truck out.


And then. And THEN, last night I came home, and Dale had drywalled and plastered all around the new door in the bedroom...


And he and Sam had installed the counter top in the pass-through in the kitchen! It got delivered yesterday and Sam hadn't told me so it'd be a surprise! (The other one presumably will get there today). It looks amazingly good. First, it is remarkable how well it matches the granite we already have. You'd never know they weren't ordered together, just by looking...


And it looks so nice!


It is the perfect height for someone to stand at and lean on to talk to me while I'm cooking, and a comfortable height if you're sitting on one of our barstools.


And then this morning before I left for school Sam fixed the last tiny imperfection on the back fo the hood. There had been two small holes, I guess for mounting purposes. He cut out and affixed a few stainless-steel 'patches' that are practically invisible:


So that is the dream kitchen so far. I'm going to have to kick the cooking up another notch! Perhaps I shall make a cake that says "eat me".




I'm feeling quite virtuous since it's only been about a week since I last posted. I hope I'll be able to keep up this pace. Lucky for me, Sam has spent a bunch of time interviewing stucco people this past week, and that's not something I feel I need to blog much about. However, it seems that stucco-ing is to begin Monday, and that will indeed be deserving of pictures and stories. Stay tuned!

The kitchen, the desert. And bread.

Well, dear reader, when we last left you we had gotten the kitchen ready for the new cabinets. Once they arrived, I emptied out the cabinet that had to be moved...


... Sam removed one of the doors, and then we slid it over (for once, 'we' really does refer to Sam and me!) ...


... and then we scooted the new cabinets in the gap.


Of course, I say that as if it were easy, but naturally it wasn't. In truth, it took us an entire day. The main reason it took so long is that the original cabinets weren't installed perfectly level and plumb, and so Sam had to figure out all kinds of ingenious ways to make the new cabinets match the off-angles of the old ones! It looks magnificent, though. We've got a big wood shelf on top of the bottom cabinet for now, but eventually it'll have a green granite countertop and black granite tiles on the backsplash, to match the rest of the kitchen.

Next, Sam tackled the other side of the kitchen. Our friend Jerrod was the one who had the ingenious idea of opening up the wall behind the range and putting in a pass-through. Of course I loved the idea because it makes the kitchen so much more open, which means I can "be a part of things" and cook! So Sam started by removing the wine rack and then the range hood...


... and then took a gentle test-whack at the wall.


Pretty soon he was really destroying stuff!




Here you can see the dust swirling in the light. Sam had to remove almost the entire wall up to the ceiling because he has to put in a new header across the top.



Once we got it opened up, we tested what it would look like by holding up the granite piece that had been in the hallway. Doesn't it look neat?



Over the next couple of days, Sam and Dale installed the new header, dealt with the electrical, got some cuts made in the black granite tile, and put up drywall. Sam also made a bunch of phone calls trying to find granite that will match what we already have. He did succeed in finding it- and at a not-too-insane price. Some of the prices we were quoted had been rather discouraging.



I have always loved this kitchen, but I can't express how much more I like it now! It is so open and airy.

Another thing that had been done... umm... well, not as well as Sam would have done it, was how the range hood vented out. Let's just say there was a lot of duct tape involved. Sam improved upon that considerably... (in this photo you're looking up into the ceiling.)


Today Sam was replacing the range hood, which will cut off the view a bit, but will suck up any smoke I make while cooking!

A propos of cooking-- I've been (continuing) to earn all those kitchen improvements! I have become a bread-baking goddess. My 8th loaf came out of the oven last night. But seriously, it's been good since the very beginning...
Loaf one:

Loaf two:

Loaf six:

I encourage anyone and everyone to try it. You can see the recipe here, and read the original article and the follow-up article. I consider myself a cook, not a baker, but this bread turned out brilliantly.

Ok, back to the house.

We have installed the side windows in the bedroom.



So that is our "wall of glass". It'll be something to wake up to that view! We'll be able to take that black plastic down as soon as the deck is finished and waterproofed.


Sam also installed the frame for a pocket door in the master bathroom...


and installed the heating vent in the floor beneath the sink in the master bath. It is located there rather than elsewhere by special kimrequest. I didn't want to lose the floorspace in the corner... and now I look forward to brushing my teeth with warm air blowing on my toes!


All work and no play risks making Sam cranky, so we managed to sneak off for a desert trip this weekend. We had fun, although in some ways it was one of our worst desert trips ever. For starters, the trip also ended up being a fair amount of work for Sam- above and beyond the 'usual' packing and loading. We were merrily driving along, towing the new trailer, when suddenly the engine started sounding rather odd. We pulled over to check it (Sam always travels with the little diagnostic computer!), and it looked like a bad coil. As it happens, Sam had an extra coil (yes, really). So we continued driving (slowly) as far as El Centro, where we knew from past experience (!) there was a Toyota dealership, so that if it turned out to be something other than a coil, we'd have parts handy. Once we arrived there, Sam opened up the hood again.


To make a log story short, it took Sam, and then Sam and Jorge (the mechanic at Toyota) about an hour to unscrew a certain recalcitrant nut, but once they did, Sam replaced the coil within five minutes and all was well. Jorge suggested that we shield the coil from the heat of the turbo, as that might be causing our problems. Lacking other options, we stopped at a local Albertson's, where Sam (a.k.a. "MacGyver") bought some tin foil...


A guy kinda looked at us funny, but it worked!

So a drive that usually takes us 2 1/2 hours actually ended up taking us 5. We pulled into camp just as it was getting dark, but gosh it is pretty out there.


Usually, we camp by the canal. This time, Sam wanted to camp with some friends. I did say "honey, every time we've camped somewhere other than the canal, we turn to each other at some point and say, "we should've camped at the canal". We decided to camp with some friends. At around 11pm, Sam turned to me and said...

yup.

To my credit, I didn't say a thing.
We had fun anyway. We went on what we both agree was the worst ride ever on Sunday morning (all long straightaways, with lots of bumps, and not nearly enough dunes). It was fun anyway. Lots of people asked us about the Eezi-Awn tent.



And Sioux loved playing frisbee, even though she got her nose full of sand.


We packed up and headed home Sunday afternoon, and just as Sam had planned, we were able to back the trailer, with the quads still on it, right onto the lift and put the lift up. That was pretty cool.

Oh, and speaking of lifts, that is another thing that Sam has done: installed the second lift. I don't have pictures of that though- yet.

I also don't have pictures of what is probably one of Sam's finest achievements to date. By becoming friendly with the head inspector, and by writing two eloquent complaint letters, Sam has managed to get the jerk inspector banned from our site. Henceforth, Sam will be dealing only with the head honchos, who appear to be decent, reasonable people. He is so relieved and happy that he won't have to deal with that-other-guy any more. Not only was this guy difficult and nitpicky, he was also a real downer: after he'd left the job site everyone would be too cranky and depressed to get any more work done. But hurray! That wicked witch is dead. Well, to us, anyway.

Yet more has been accomplished that I don't have pictures of- plumbing, venting, stuff like that. But you are now pretty much caught up. More soon(ish!).