Friday, February 19, 2010

Wood, Wood, and more Wood

Seth putting the finishing touches on our railing.

We rolled up to Concrete a few weekends ago and picked up some siding from NW Cedar Salvage.  It is good stuff and much less expensive than any place else that gave us quotes.

With our siding we got this sweet table and chair set.  Kind of a "free gift with purchase."

It's even the perfect height for Cosmos.

A couple weekends later, he had the rest of it cut for us.  There was a lot of really pretty old growth.  I learned a lot about cedar and our shop smells great right now.

You can't see it very well, but our free gift on trip #2 was a 3-4 inch thick piece of cedar with the rough edges.  We are probably going to use it for our fireplace mantel.

It is so nice to have the railing finally in so Ryker isn't about to fall over the edge at all times.


Seth has spent the last few weekends sanding.


The fireplace has been inspected finally so now Seth doesn't have to work in the cold.

Here was a fun outing for the boys.  We rolled down to Hamilton to checkout a Black Walnut tree that Clayton had given to a guy.  Clayton was trading him for a slab of maple that he was going to use for a bar top.  We were interested in seeing if we could weasel our way into a Black Walnut countertop.  We have been looking, but they are really expensive and when "Clayton has a guy" it usually comes with deep discounts.  We ended up getting a piece of maple as well because it was gorgeous and was a better size for our project.

Ryker and I cruised the property and checked out the lake. We got back in time to check out the center cuts to see if it was something we were going to want.


One slab going on the trailer. 

Of course, Clayton had to have his turn at the saw.
Good thing we brought lots of help.  They were heavy!


So this was the piece that we passed on for another.  I loved it, but it had a spot that was thin on the edge and it might have broken off.  We probably could have reinforced it with resin, but we're not woodworker's and I would have been sick if it had broken off and ruined the whole peice.  This piece had so much character.  The piece we got will be great when it is finished and it has lots of good qualities too, like more color through the middle.  Plus it could change more as it dries out.  We'll just have to wait and see.  It's a little wider than this one, but not as curvy on the edges.  We will have standard granite countertops for most but this will be raised up in one area as more of a bar with stools.

And Seth's turn.

Fun day in Hamilton.  The guy on the right is Clayton's neighbor.  He graciously delivered our slab to our house since he had brought the trailer to get Clayton's slab.  I guess Clayton already has his about finished so I'll get some pictures.  Ours won't be installed until next winter.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Haircuts and Hats

Since we're on a strict budget while building our house, Seth hasn't even been getting haircuts.  I couldn't handle the sweet do he had going on anymore so I cut it for him.  Here's the before picture.

After Rykers cut, he took a bath. 

And the after picture.  Seth's hair could have turned out better, but we both had a different idea of what I should be doing and that lead to some miscalculations, especially with the bangs (hee hee).  The last haircut I gave was about 8 years ago on the back deck of the Secure, so I'll admit, I'm a little rusty.  Next time, it will be better.  "IF there is a next time", according to Seth. 

Ryker likes to wear hats now.  He found this sweet Schlitz hat that his Grandma used to wear when she was a lifeguard back in the 1920's.  I think that calculation's right.  Yep, Mom, I have your hat.  I'm sure you search for it every summer.  You can't take it back now because Ryker wants it.
I put a hat on last weekend which really confused Ryker, but he also found it funny.  He then insisted that he wear a hat too.  He tried on three before he settled on this one.  It is way to small and made his head look even bigger than it is, but what the heck, he'll make worse fashion choices in the future.  Besides, who am I to judge?  I wore mismatched shoes to work the other day.  Yep, one black and one brown.  Surprisingly, no one notice, but I couldn't resist telling most people.  I believe in sharing the laugh and this was a gut buster.

Proudly displaying his mini hat!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Fun with Bubbles - Part II





Long Walk to the Mailbox

Getting to the mailbox is always an adventure. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes, sometimes it takes an hour.  To put it in perspective, when I do it myself, it takes a minute or two.  Here Ryker stops to say hi to the neighbors dog, Zoey.

Then he insisted on pulling the wagon that I was trying to get him to ride in.  He got this wagon for Christmas and it is sweet!  It is so durable and can go through anything with those big rubber tires.  Seth pulled me to the mailbox one day, because we couldn't get Ryker to get in.  Ryker thought that was pretty funny and helped push.

Soon the pulling got boring and he decided to push it a ways.  He stopped to put some rocks in it at the neighbors driveway.

The rocks must have made it a little heavy because soon he was really working.  There was even a little grunting and lots of heavy breathing going on.
More rocks at the next driveway.  This time, he was throwing them in the neighbors yard into a puddle.  I figured they wouldn't appreciate all the rocks in their lawn so I scooped him up and......
Made him ride back in the wagon.  He didn't seem to mind though because now he had something to read.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Visitors! Yay!


Kara and my Mom were here last weekend.  We stopped at the Children's Museum in Seattle after I picked them up from the airport.


Good 'peek a boo' log


Ryker loved this sweet ride


Ryker had fun at this place.  Everything was nice and soft.


He was good about sitting down on the slide the first few times.  Then a couple big kids showed him how to run down it.  He made it to the bottom, but a little boy was sitting at the bottom of the slide and Ryker fell over him.  We moved on to the next area after that.


Picasso-ing it up.






Kara with the 30 pounder she caught.


All three smiling!


We went to the Edison school playground and it was a soggy mess so the next day we were smart and went to the mall.  We got there early, but it filled up fast.


Kara must have this one memorized.  She's not even looking at the words.


Loves Go Dog Go, but he calls it Go Go.


Slumber party in the tent


We covered the door with a blanket, but Grandma found a side door and outsmarted us.


Ryker just barreled out the front.


Kara hanging with the boys.


Ryker insisted that Kara talk into the watering can while reading him a book.


When she would take it out, he would shove it back in.  Aahh, good times.