Living Room Fireplace Upgrade

You probably hadn't noticed that we have a fireplace in our living room because most of the pictures we post are taken from the same corner where the fireplace sits, thus you can't see it. Anyway, the chimney is large and brick and was painted a color very similar to the wall color and then on top of the brick was an out of place mantle and a brass ash screen. This was not working but was not ( and probably still shouldn't be) a priority as there is still so much to do at the house. But when Kelly started to get out the Christmas decorations we realized that this fireplace just wouldn't do,especially since the fireplace is such a key location for Christmas decorations. Not sure when the fireplace upgrade will be thoroughly completed ( still need to change out the mantle) but we want to share a brief update on the upgrade. And we'll probably post again to follow up with the finished product.

Before:

Current:

Happy holliday decorating to you!!!

Here's the mostly finished (aka finished for now) fireplace:

Quick Kitchen Update!

Kitchen

Functional?  Not even close. 

Beautiful?  Absolutely. 

Adventures Without A Box Truck

Today was both victorious and sad. That's right folks. We sold the box truck. We successfully bought a box truck in California, fixed it up a bit with blood sweat and money, stored all of our belongings in it for 6 weeks, moved across the country, completed 2 dump runs, delivery of 700sf of hardwood flooring, drywall deliveries, sold the truck, and net spent less than the cost of gas to move across the country. Not bad.

Our beloved box truck will soon be on it's way to Honduras with a family that owns a small hardware store. 

 ¡Adios Box Truck!

Privacy Glass - Quick DIY Project

The shower in our main bathroom (the totally blue bathroom that will be remodeled before we are done with this house) has a window right in the middle.  The natural light is great and our backyard is big and jungle like so it's a great view. However across our backyard and through the jungle are other houses. As winter approaches many of the leaves will drop and the backyard ought to thin out. The window is placed a bit low so we decided to frost the bottom pane of glass. Great idea! We are very pleased with the final product. 

Before:

After:

This look was easily achieved by cleaning the glass, taping off the frame and using a frosted glass spray paint. We used a Rustoleum product but there are several options available. 

Finally! A place to rest

We partitioned off the dining and kitchen area so we can finally relax in the living room. This is a proud day!!

Quick House Update: Day 1 vs. Today

"Kitchen":

Living Room:

It's going to be GREAT!!

Day 2 - July 26

The day began with the arrival of the dumpster followed by more planning, plan/permit prep and a trip to Home Depot and the grocery. We also removed the carpet and padding to begin the prep for the new hardwood floor on the main level. 

View of the living/dining area Day 2

10yd dumpster

Day 1 - July 25

Most of the first day we spent unpacking with the help of Drew's wonderful classmate Scott. We also assessed the condition of the house and planned our attack. 

View of the living/dining area Day 1

We set up our "kitchen" in the storage bedroom so we can eat throughout the renovation

Pulled staples and tack strips before moving bedroom furniture in. We will refinish the floors in the future but they're pretty good now so not a top priority. 

First Night in Durham!!

We anticipated our arrival throughout the 5 day drive in the box trick. Arriving in Durham was even more exciting than we had expected. 

Kelly was bit by a poisonous copperhead snake within our first hour of arrival. The snake was lurking in the shadows on the front path residing by the much overgrown front landscaping. Unfamiliar with the copperhead's potential danger we played it safe and headed to the ER around 10:30pm. Of course, we didn't leave home before Drew had a chance to behead the copperhead and stick it in a cup to take with us in the car. 

Parts of the copperhead. Courtesy of Andrew McGraw

In the end, Kelly was fine. Little pain and absolutely no reaction to the bite. The ER staff did very little - just monitored the bite for 3 hours such that we didn't get home till 2:30am and we still had to unload and set up our bed to sleep for the night. 

Moral of the story: be smart and be safe but don't over react to a copperhead bite. 

Box Truckin'

A nearly shredded tire, 3 air guns, and 4 tires later we were back on the road!

Next upgrade was an AC recharge on day 3. Well worth it!!  The ride is quieter and more comfortable. Now we're over half way there!!

10 Pounds of Chicken

After five days of daily consumption of fast food, Drew proceeds to order several pieces of fried "chicken" and rationalizes eating it by completing 30+ push-ups in the Wendy's parking lot.  Do you think it's a fair trade?

Let the Box Truck Adventures Begin!!

We left Healdsburg, CA this morning and now it's NC or Bust all the way!

Two Tired Puppies

Thanks for the workout babies!

Meet the Neighbors

Not only are we excited about moving to Durham and exploring North Carolina now we also get to know the Vandergrifts better. Sara is Kelly's cousin. Sara and her husband Mark have three great kids Vaughn, Milla and Fletcher. We can't wait to live just up the road from these cuties!

Mr. McGraw

Nuff said

A Reason to Listen to a Friesen

Driving on 25 between Wolfe Point and Circle, Montana we turned the radio on at 6:30 pm. It was the first time all day we turned it on. There were only two stations available. We settled on 106.7. Drew quickly recognized the voice on the radio: it was Virginia and Paul Friesen. They are friends of his from the Catalina Island Christian camp he worked at about ten years ago. Sure enough it really was them on Focus on the Family. Unfortunately we lost service 15 minutes later and we're not sure if we missed more of the interview or if we heard most of it. As the static increased, Kelly looked out the passenger side window and saw a small silo with the word "Friesen" on it, and nothing else. It's a fairly desolate part of the country and truly miraculous that all of these things came together at once. The Friesens are well known for their work with Christian family and marriage counseling. They have written and published a handful of books and recently came out with a new one on marriage. 

The cumulation of coincidences driving through Montana was amazing. Needless to say we will be ordering the book!

Check out their website for Home Improvement Ministries, where you can also read about their new book:

www.homeimprovementministries.org/Bookstore/TMA/TheMarriageAppInfo.html

Goodness Gracious the Great Glacier National Park!

We made it to Montana!! Kelly's first trip to the Treasure State and we weren't disappointed.  We managed to sneak in a hike and a bit of camping in the middle of a seemingly never ending rain storm. We hiked to great water falls, wrangled a calf, found our dream vehicle, poked and prodded bear skat to determine it's freshness, made our way through a number of Indian reservations, weaved our own rope for bear bagging (fashioned out of duct tape), made our way across the rope bridge sure to be featured on the set of the next Indiana Jones movie.  And we took turns playing professional photographer with the fancy Cannon 5D Mark II we bought for our last wedding anniversary.

!

This post's shout out goes to Miss Katie Cava. Without her, Kelly might have drowned and froze in all the rain. Thanks for the gear rental!

Upgrade to the Box Truck

We found an opportunity we couldn't pass up and decided to go for the upgrade.

For real - might be the coolest vehicle I've ever seen.  Sam, pass this on to your brother for me!  

Glacier, Glacier and More Glacier

Perhaps we've been in the car too long...

 

North Dakota: Land of The World's Largest

Meet Salem Sue. She's the world's largest Holstein at 38' high, 50' long and 12,000 pounds. That's a lotta milk.

Next meet the pride and joy of Steele, ND, the world's largest sand hill crane.

This is the world's largest buffalo weighing in at 60 tons and located in Jamestown, ND.  Rocky mountain oysters, anyone?

A Man with A Plan

Traveling through Eastern Washington we decided to pull off at the dancing horses rest stop. As we drove up along the long entrance road, Kelly asked what was sitting atop of a car. Then we both agreed that the apparatus in the distance was not on top of a car but sitting on the far side of the car and merely appeared to be on top of the car from our relative viewpoint. As we got closer we came to realize that the large apparatus was in deed on top of a red 2002 Excursion. We spoke with the owner to find out that he is a professional photographer from Massachusetts with a true passion for America's rest stops. He had scaffolding placed on top of his roof with a large format camera on top using film that is 5"x7". He had his trucks air bags inflated to the max (actually passed their max as one of them had blown) and the truck jacked up in an effort to completely stabilize the vehicle for a clean, crisp shot. While many photographers aim to catch natures beauty and the vast landscapes, our new friend Will had an obsession with documenting the landscape architecture at these rest stops of bathrooms, concrete sidewalks and paved parking areas amidst their natural backdrop. Will had seemingly little interest in the mountains or other typically beautiful scenery in the background. Will showed us a handful of 11x17 prints he kept in his car that he has taken over the years all over the country.  One of the prints he showed us was quickly recognized by Kelly as it was I-70 exit 254. The photo was taken within 3 miles of her home and you could actually see her fathers old office building in the background!! Will was as excited as Kelly to find this common ground. He started this project back in 1998 and is nearly finished. He plans to publish them soon. We exchanged info with Will and look forward to connecting with him in the future to see his final product. Good luck Will!

Will snapped a couple of quick photos for us. You can see his rig in the background.

Aca Believe It

We had a lot of fun getting to know the 11 year old version of our niece Kaliah. She helped us explore The city of Seattle. We also watched one of her favorite movies, Fever Pitch. Very entertaining film. And Kaliah, you're skinny but you have a fat heart. Thanks for showing us around!