trying the tub

Everyone who comes over lately is coming to see the new bathroom. It is really coming along. Our tile guy, Ken, is slowly and meticulously working on making it a fabulous "wet room". The tub and shower area looks better every day. It seems that every night we are in there, after the tile guys are gone. I sat in the tub the other night after I was at skiing all day (and wishing it was working already!), and then made my friend Meg sit in it too. Adam snapped this photo of us hanging out.

colors galore

tried out a bunch of colors for the walls....
I like the darker tan.... but I think I am over-ruled, and we will go with the lighter one. The blue and the green didn't look right. The carpet will be a mossy green berber.

working with emmett

I got to ski with emmett on thursday. It was so much fun to work with him, and use my new skills as an instructor! Yeah! He did great. The mountain was really deserted, as you can see. You can also see, in the background, the little conveyor for beginners, where I will spend some time, before hopefully moving them on to more varied terrain.



We have had enough great snow already to really enjoy it this year!

new windows

they did the window change. so glad I pushed for it. It makes the room way better, in so many ways. It feels bigger, it is cozier, and also has a better place to put the bed.

sea of orange

I was just one in a sea of orange jackets. There were probably 100 of us or more doing our ski instructor training this weekend. 8 hours each day on skis, makes for one tired, but content, me at the end of the day.




There will be a repeat performance next weekend too. Then I will be able to fall into a regular schedule during the week of teaching while the kids are at school 3 days a week. so psyched for my skiing to get much better too!

beachy and beautiful

the tiles for the bathroom. I LOVE them!!!

the rocks will be on the floor of the shower/ tub area, the blueish green on the walls, and the beach glass in the alcoves. The area by the sinks will have a light bamboo floor.

need to fix

okay, here is the new master bedroom, and I don't like the windows.

They had to be put in low because of the roofline that needed to be matched. but it means I need to look at the neighbors' crap.
I don't want to have a great new addition, and not like the view. I just want natural light and maybe a good view of the cliffs behind the house. We have a pretty view of the lake out front. I just told our builder and now I am going to hunt for a few smaller windows to put up high. Then we can use the space below them better too. He said the fix should only cost about $500 to reframe. I think it is totally worth it to fix what could be a huge mistake.

This is the view in the bathroom....
I would like three windows across like this in the bedroom too....

the bathroom..... one big box, with seperate 'rooms' within. a 'wet' room that will be shower and tub (where the windows are), a room with a sliding door for the toilet( on the far wall), and a room that it all connects from for the sinks....

change in bedrooms

our room, now is divided and the new smaller bedroom will be here, with a closet, and then shelves sunk into the wall to the left of it. The room will finally be square with no more crazy angles. The boys have decided that emmett will have this room. Eli thinks their existing room is bigger, and he wants that!

chilly!

they cut a hole through the wall this morning!! brrrrrr!!!!! it is only about 20 degrees, so we are keeping a sheet of plywood over it. Oh, yes, they also turned off our heat on the same day they chose to cut through. They had to so they could work on the plumbing. Totally worth it. We finally have a shower with enough pressure to take a real shower. YEAH!!!!

the rest of the house is chaos. everything is out of the room, so we have our queen sized bed in Eli's room, emmett is sleeping in the tiny guest room (previously the tea room), and clothing is everywhere. we can't even try to store things in the basement as the guys need to work there for the furnace and plumbing. ugh. but totally worth it!!!

walls going up

the framing goes so quickly.... yeah!!! so cool!




room for the little porch off of the room, so we can be outside, and see the lake too!
this is the view....

I think we will need to take the tree out that is weird and scraggly looking though!

starting the work

finally! amidst the first snowfall of the year (YEAH!!!!) the guys ripped off the roof of the garage, and started work.


They have the floor down now, and will be building walls tomorrow. I climbed up the ladder to stand on it, and see where we should put the windows to get the best views. It was great because we could also see where to cut down some little trees to be able to see the lake. And also to leave up some trees we were going to cut, so that we don't need to look at the neighbor's houses!
I LOVE doing this stuff!

surgery again

been having some excruciating pain in my abdomen. finally got in to see my doctor today. I had called her at home last night, and she scheduled a CT scan for me this morning. Then I saw her this afternoon to find out that I have an internal hernia and I will need surgery to avoid having some serious repercussions. sucks.

building

I worked on making most of this so that we can store things from the garage during the building process. I liked that I did alot of it by myself. I did need help on a few places, and Adam used the brute force that I didn't have to drill the anchors into the ground on the corners.
The garage is completely empty now and it feels good to have had a reason to go through all of our 'stuff'.We have lived here for 8 years and it is great to overhaul. We are using it as an excuse to overhaul most of the areas of the house, as we rethink our living space.

sunny morning

the lake we live next to is so fantastic to look at in the mornings when we drive by on the way to school. On mornings like this one, I just have to get out and take a photo....

new office

Adam got a bunch of stuff from IKEA and spent a few days building it all. It went from a chaotic and messy room, to being awesome and very presentable! yeah! all for about $1500. It is now a great space to work in, and even to have a client meeting.


and even the boys love their new flat screens to on their side of the desk.....

addition soon

yeah!! I love building and designing, and all that is involved in it. it is very good for my ADDness, and my love of hunting things down, and finding the "just right" thing, and creating good useable space.

We are building straight up from the garage, just adding on as a second floor. We desperately need another bedroom, and a second full bath will be great. I want it to be a really nice one, and to be able to fit it all in the things to make it that way.

(click this image to make it larger)
the slanty part on the bottom of the drawing is the existing part of the house.

The garage was built at a weird angle to it, and that is why it is so odd.

I did go to school for Interior Design for a year and loved parts of it. I will be drafting out the plans for the addition, but to start with, just used this old kit I had from when I was 18 (yes I loved planning space back then too). It is fun and easy to rearrange stuff on, as it is just plastic overlays and easy to move everything around. Now that it is decided, I will draft it out for the builder. We will start next week.

Someday, I do want to build an entire house on a great property. I guess this is good practice.

nice butt

I really miss these.....

There was a horse trial going on and it was a beautiful fall day. crisp, sunny, pretty foliage, and so many nice horses. I miss them, and being around them, and how I feel when I am around horses.

I love the big soft eyes they have.....

tibet festival

Eli and I went to a Tibet Festival that was intriguingly different and a huge sensory treat. There was music and a ton of vendors with so many things that Eli and I needed to explore, either visually or otherwise. There was jewelry, scarves, singing bowls, prayer wheels, intricately inlaid shells & boxes, mala beads, and so much more. We browsed a ton, and bought just a little.
I bought a scarf that was beautiful, and two silver pieces that are so pretty around my neck. One is a silver medallion of the buddhist mantra. I like it in many ways, on many levels.


Eli trying a singing bowl. (this one was beautiful, but could not justify spending a hundred dollars on a singing bowl.)
Eli wanted me to try this on:

birthday morning for emmett

in our house, I like to have my boys wake up to a party.....
(and apparently when you are only turning 6, it starts just after 6am)
and yes, we have cake for breakfast!


emmett is so cute in the morning
(but my hair at that hour- yikes! a bit big looking in this photo!- it looks way cooler than this usually)
more Star Wars LEGO stuff!!!!
and even more! this was... "this is what I've been wanting!)
Eli helped emmett figure out how to use his "PokeBall" for Pokemon....

just a little excited......

and the next morning, they are working hard first thing in the morning before school!

dirt cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for emmett's birthday snack at school:



They came out great, and were not hard.....
frost with chocolate frosting,
sprinkle the top with finely smashed (crushed completely) Oreos,
stick in gummy worms (I cut them in half and pushed them in with a toothpick)

The way the kids eyes grew when they saw them this morning was priceless. Made me happy.

birthday new things

I had a fantastic birthday this year. Mostly just that my head was in a different place and it was a good place. I felt hmmmm.... sunny and good and happy.

I got the brand new iPod that had just come out the day before. so cool. I have music and photos and even video on it! I have felt so out of touch with music for a long time, but it is back in my life, and it makes me happy. This is my first iPod, and I am loving it! I got the cool green one, and now will get a dock and more for it.

I also got a new haircut. Last year I did too, and let it go kind of curly and wild, and was feeling that way. This year, I got it cut two days before. I hadn't really been going for a new look, but then the woman blew it dry in a whole new way, and I felt so great, sexy, and beautiful. I had her teach me how to do it, so I can keep the look :) It is long loose wavy hair, straight-ish, with big loose curl at the bottom. I get compliments on it like crazy. The first day taking emmett back to school (the day after I got it cut) I had so many compliments, I felt fabulous. So many people loved it, and I did too! Will post a photo soon.

It was a great birthday and I felt like I am changing, growing, and coming into my own. I have both kids in school full day now, and that changes alot for me. I am even looking toward teaching skiing this winter! Yeah! Still doing henna, and loving that, and still drinking tons of tea. Wish I could figure out how to do my tea business, but for now I need to let it go. I will get back to it at some point when it is right.

birthday

I saw a quote about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly the other day. Can't for the life of me remember it (damn mushy old brain), but it generally was about how when the caterpillar thinks it is over, is just when it becomes a butterfly....

that is how I feel today. I am psyched to open my wings and start flying soon! yeah!