Wacky, Warm January Weather

Today it was 60 degrees and sunny!  Let's just say this is NOT normal Western Washington weather. All of January was been dryer and warmer than normal -- always a little bit concerning.  Jared thinks winter will finally come, but Kristina isn't so sure.  Regardless of what we think, we took some time out of our busy schedules and went over to the Tolt and Snoqualmie Rivers in Carnation.  It was been way too long since we had been over there (due to the bathroom remodel) and boy did it look different.  The rivers were super HIGH and the water was flowing fast.  As we walked along the rivers, you could tell that when we had some decent rain a week or so ago that it was really cooking through there.  There were huge debris piles every where that the water WAS.  Luckily for us, it was all in the river and no longer in the hiking trails along the rivers.  And we weren't the only ones taking advantage of the abnormal weather.  It was hopping, but never so busy that we can't feel like we have gotten away from the city (a bit).  We'll try and add some photos later...this is all for now!

The Tolt in January

We don't seem to be getting any snow for our winter, but the rain seems to continue.  We had some time today, so we decided to check out the Tolt and see where the water level was...we weren't disappointed.

As you can see it was a beautiful day!  And, the temperature was pretty warm for January!

This is one happy dog; she is getting a walk and a SWIM!  The water is almost never too cold for Indy!

Putting the Bathroom Back Together -- Part 2

Blog posts have been fewer since we have been so busy with the bathroom, but once we find the time to write a post, we have plenty to say!

In this post, we begin by showing you the newly installed drywall in the master closet.  After putting up the acoustic barrier, we were able to put up the drywall.  It is not "mudded" or taped yet in these photos, just merely screwed in place.  It was a LOT of work getting this far.  Anyone who has done drywall knows that there is a lot of measuring and cutting and screwing it into the wall!  The driver that we are using for the screws runs out of battery and we have to stop and let the battery re-charge. Luckily a few years back, Kristina bought Jared a kick butt driver and it charges in no time at all. Makita makes good stuff!

These photos are after another visit from the plumber.  He installed the shower valve and some of the plumbing for the shower head and the handheld shower wand.  The first picture is from behind the shower valve and then the next is a "frontal" view.  The last one is a shot of where the rain shower head will be installed (eventually).

Here is the site foreman, keeping her eye on all of the activities going on around the house.  She is not a fan of the plastic everywhere, but it is definitely needed to keep all of the mess to a minimum (if that is even possible).

The dining room has become the staging area for all of the material.  Many of the materials have to be in a warm environment or things won't "stick" -- you really want the tile to stick to the floor when you install it.  That being said, we had to move out all of the furniture in the dining room and make it a staging area for the tile guys.  The dining room is near the garage (where they do the cutting) and it is warm.  Indy doesn't like them taking so much of her dining room up though -- she LOVES to watch people and things out in the cul de sac!

After the plumber came, we could finish up the installation around the shower and finish up the drywall in the water closet.  Since it shares a wall with the shower, we had to get the plumbing run first before we could close things up.

Here's a photo of our new water closet.  It got shifted into the master closet a little bit since we extended the shower, but it is going to be much better than what we had.

This is where the vanity will be installed eventually.  The drywall couldn't be closed up completely yet because the tile guys will need to still connect the heating element for the heated floors to the switches and wiring we ran for it.

And the foreman has developed a bad habit of getting on the bed during this whole remodel.  She knows this isn't allowed, but she likes to watch what is going on and honestly there isn't a lot of room anywhere else for her to watch.  She is going to have a sad realization when this ends and she is not allowed on the bed anymore.  Spoiled little dog!

It is subtle, but this is a shot of the shower with the curb built up (where the glass will reside) and Kristina's ledge that she requested.  We put one of these ledges in our shower that we did in Arizona and it was GREAT!  The tile guys never heard of it and thought it was a great idea.  Kristina doesn't want cubbies -- those are more difficult to keep clean and you are limited by their size when it comes to putting stuff in them.  This way, you pitch the ledge so the water runs off and doesn't collect and then you can put your soap, bottles, etc... on it with no worries!  And it makes a great place to put your leg when you are shaving them (according to Kristina).

In this shot, the tile guys did some prep work on the base of the shower -- you can see it has been shaped and leveled a bit; they also installed some Ditra-like flooring for the heated floors.

If you look closely you can see the heating element run in the floor.

The next steps were to put in the self-leveling concrete, the shower membrane, and the moisture resistance board around the shower enclosure.  There is also a close-up of the "leveled" floor.

After all of that set, floor tile installation could begin along with shower tile installation.

Progress has seemed slow, but the tile guys are doing a great job.  They seem to pay attention to all of the details and get everything just right.  We have been pleased with our tile selection; everything is coming together just like we had planned.

Since the wiring had been run for the floors, Jared could zip up that section of the wall with drywall. You will also see the floor heater in some of the pictures keeping everything warm and happy!

This is a good shot because you see the shower pan pebbles, the sides of the shower, and the floor tile all in one shot.

The water closet looks good.  All of the tiles have been cut and the baseboards were completed with more tile.

Here is the shower pan, we have always wanted the pebbles at the bottom of the shower.  Now that we live in the Pacific Northwest, we figured it was the perfect time!

Stay tuned for more updates...the tile guys should grout and finish up next week and then work is back in our court again!

Having a "bit" of fun!

We decided to do something different than just working on the bathroom this weekend.  We were find of stalled in the bathroom because the tile guys had stopped at a place where we couldn't step on the floor.  That works for us -- give us a reason not to work.  :)  So, we headed down to the 8-bit Arcade in Renton.  Renton is on the "eastside", but it is a fairly long trek from our house.  But since we both LOVE video games (Kristina especially likes the old school ones), we decided to go down and check it out.

It was PACKED!  We were both amazed at how many kids were running around and playing these games.  It makes sense that we like these games, we grew up on them, but we figured that the kids of today wouldn't have any interest.  Well, we couldn't be more wrong -- the funny thing about it was that the parents (who are our age) were playing along side the kids.  It was fun to see!

They had lots of pinball machines in addition to some old school video games.  Kristina was hoping that they would have more than just one Pac-Man game (they only had Ms. Pac-Man), but they did have Tetris (one of her favorites of all times) and Qbert (a weird game that she liked too).  Jared made his rounds as well and in the end we had a good time.

2015 Spa Day for Indy

We noticed before Christmas that Indy was looking pretty "curly" -- for those of you that know Indy, her fur gets very curly on her shoulders when it gets long.  In addition to being "curly", she was leaving huge tufts of fur all over the house.  Mommy couldn't stand it anymore.  So Mommy called before Christmas to get Indy a spa appointment at Cascade Kennels, and they couldn't get her in until January 6th.  We snapped up the appointment and anxiously waited for the day to arrive.  Here she is back at home...doesn't she look marvelous!  You should smell her too!

That is one good looking Aussie!

Happy 2015

We had a low-key New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!

Kristina ended up working for most of the day (since her PCBAs came in right before Christmas -- she was still bringing things up and doing some testing).  Jared had the time "off", but he was working hard on getting the bathroom ready for the tile guys to show up and do their thing.  So by the end of the day, we were both exhausted (getting old is no fun)!  :)

That's okay though, we had a quiet evening in and then headed to bed prior to the New Year.  That was a bad idea though -- people in Woodinville LOVE their fireworks and at midnight they started going off -- and continued well into the morning (1:30am)!  So much for turning in early!

Happy 2015!