December Rain

It turns out that December was a fairly wet month for us.  We received a total of 6.51", and almost 2 inches of that came within 24-48 hours.  Let's just say when it decides to rain here, it can put down some serious rain in a short amount of time.  It seemed like 2014 was pretty average for rainfall.  We are wondering what 2015 will bring!

Putting the Bathroom Back Together -- Part 1

It seemed like we were in the master bathroom deconstruction phase forever, but we have finally started putting things back together.  It is amazing how much work goes into this kind of thing and it always takes longer than expected.  Luckily, Jared is a really good general contractor that does excellent work.  And so it is very rewarding to see things come back together.

Here's a shot of the master bedroom closet; we ended up taking a little bit of the closet to enlarge our shower.  Now that the closet was ripped out, Kristina can't wait to make it a HIGHLY efficient closet. If it is organization, Kristina is the person for the job.

The insulation we are using is made out of actual blue jeans -- hence the blue color.  It is supposed to have super acoustic absorption and it is much easier to work with than the standard insulation.  Since that wall has the hallway on the other side of it, we wanted to minimize any noise as much as possible.

This is an up close shot of it.  Jared said that it was super easy to work with as well.

Now on top of the insulation, we added mass loaded vinyl. Mass loaded vinyl is supposed to add sound absorption as well which is why we put it in there.  The drywall goes on top of this, and of course we used 5/8" thick dry wall too. Hopefully we will keep everything nice and quiet.

This is one of the outer walls (hence the window).  There is an added electrical box to the right of the window.  This box is going to house the switch for our heated towel rack. We didn't use any of the "blue jean" insulation here since it was an outer wall.  Plus, the insulation that was there was in great shape, so we just put it back in place.

More added electrical, this first picture is just an extra outlet.  For some reason the bathroom previously only had 1 outlet in the entire thing.  Jared had an opportunity to add one, so he did.

This is where the heated towel rack is going to be located/installed/  It will plug into this electrical box. Luckily, we didn't have to add any circuit breakers, we reused the one that had been allotted for the overhead fan.

This was the previous overhead fan and it was the LOUDEST FAN on the face of the earth.  It also had heat in it, so we could add as much as we wanted to the circuit we re-used.  That sucker was plumbed for some current!

This blue electrical box is destined to be the light switch for the water closet.  It is tough to tell in this picture, but we removed two inner walls in the bathroom and shifted them a bit.

Since the fan was removed and walls were removed, we removed a good portion of the ceiling drywall for a few weeks.  It made things cold, but it allowed Jared easier access to run electrical lines and get everything laid out just like he wanted.  The newly installed drywall shows you just how much new drywall was installed.

This is the shower drain before it was installed; it eventually goes on that black drain pipe.

Insulation was added here as well.  Again, we used the "blue jean" insulation to keep the sound from travelling to the bottom floor.  And there are a few more shots of all of the new insulation in the floor.

Finally new subfloor was installed and we were ready for the plumber to arrive for his second visit.

Museum of Flight

Jared had been wanting to go to the Museum of Flight for some time now.  Heck, we live in the Seattle area, we should go to the Museum of Flight.  If nothing else, we should go to take our families to in the future or any other visitors we may have!  Santa had a great GROUPON for it and left it in Jared's stocking.  It was for 2 people, so Jared and Kristina headed down to Georgetown to get some lunch first and then onto the Museum of Flight.

Let's start out by saying it is way more involved than either of us thought.  It will easily take a person an entire day to get through the Museum and go through every detail (or several shorter trips). However, it seems well worth it if you are into airplanes and flight in general.

Here Jared is as the entrance...WELCOME!

The Museum starts off at the beginning of flight and pretty much goes through every aspect/detail of the flying industry.  Here is a replica of one of the Wright Brothers' Airplanes.  It took some bravery to get on one of these things.

Of course almost ever type of military plane that has existed was represented.  The interesting that that we noted is that some of the top speed of some of the airplanes is still listed as classified.  WOW!

World War I and World War II had representation as well.  It was interesting to see how many more rivets were on the planes as they got faster and faster!

Here's a shot of one of the engines -- Kristina wondered if her brother could fix this if it was broken. It is doubtful that he has ever seen anything like this.

We were allowed to tour the Air Force One utilized by several US Presidents.  We both thought that this was one of the coolest parts of the Museum.

In the end, definitely a must see if this sort of thing interests you -- however, make sure you allot an entire day or at least a HUGE chunk of time if you want to go through all of the details and attend all of the lectures.

Worn Out Little Dog!

As you can see, Christmas wore Indy out.  She had all of those amazing presents and then she got to go on a Christmas Day Hike and Swim -- what more could a dog ask for when it comes to the best day EVER!  And then at the end of the log day, curling up on the coach with her pillow to take a nap and rest.  She only wishes Daddy would stop taking photos of her.  :)

Christmas Dinner

What is Christmas Day without a great Christmas Dinner?! As usual, Kristina went all out and made Prime Rib -- and boy, does she know how to make a Prime Rib.  It is absolutely perfect every time! Of course she makes her great horseradish sauce to go with it.  And the leftovers are always great too!

This year though she even got fancier and made Yorkshire Pudding as well.  She used the beef drippings from the prime rib and they turned out fantastic!  Serve these with some of the GOOD butter and it doesn't get much better than this!

And last but certainly not least, homemade cherry pie from scratch!  It was probably the best cherry pie we have ever had!

Christmas Day Hike

Merry Christmas!  It was a sunny Christmas in Western Washington, so we took full advantage of it and went for a short hike.  We have both been working pretty hard lately and Indy hasn't had a chance to go swimming for a while, so we headed over to the Tolt River.

Here Jared is getting Indy all leashed up and ready to go. Just look at her looking at the trail, she is ready to GOOOOOOOOOO!

This shot show how wonderful and sunny it was.  While cool, it was a perfect day to take a hike.  One of the things we love most about Washington is how green the grass stays all through winter.  While it gets cold enough for the deciduous trees to lose their leaves, the grass always stays green -- for the most part.

What would a walk be without Indy stretching to the end of her THIRTY FOOT leash! She is almost 6 years old and she still pulls like a sled dog when she is on her leash.

A few shots of the river show how high it is...normally we can walk out to that piling in what appears to be the middle of the river.

Of course we had to get Indy a stick to fetch so she can wade.  The air temperature was right around 45 degrees, so the water temperature was approximately same.  And as you can see, Indy doesn't let a little cool weather stop her from enjoying the water!

Swimming after her stick that Jared threw for her.  That dog is a motor boat!

Looking up at Jared in hopes of getting a treat...little does she know that Mommy has all of the treats!

A shot of the river upstream...

A shot of the river downstream...

Merry Christmas!