July 13th!!? How'd that happen?

Hard to believe it's been 3 months since our last actual house update, but alas it has.  Unfortunately, we have not made 3 months progress.  The couple that prefers being the hare is playing the tortoise on this house...not by our choice.  Ryan got home from Azerbaijan the last weekend of May.  After a week of recovery, and 40th birthday golfing, he found his way back to the Richland house and back to his office job.  He's not loving being tied to a desk, but the boys and I insist he sticks it out at least a few more months. 

That first week back in the house he spent most of his time reacquainting himself with what he needed to do, and readjusting his schedule to meet the needs of a family that would arrive in a mere 3 weeks.  When he was last here working he had 3-4 months with no worries about disrupting the lives of anyone but himself, so priorities changed quickly. He hammered out a plan and it's all worked out thus far.

If I haven't scared you off already grab some water, put your feet up, and make sure your plugged in.  Although, we haven't made a lot of progress I have a feeling this will be a lengthy post.

Knowing that he didn't have long before we invaded with half our STUFF we agreed the best place to begin would be the upstairs flooring.  We've installed all kinds of floors, wood, tile, laminate, lino, but refinishing an old floor was completely new to us.  Thanks to Google and YouTube we felt confident Ryan could tackle it.  So the weekend of June 7th the boys and I made a trip to Richland to help him remove the last of the staples, tack strip, moldings and deeply imbedded 60 year old floor wax (disclaimer we didn't get all the floor wax from between the boards...it's just flat out impossible.)  Then Ryan wove in some patches.  I'm not going to include pictures of them and let everyone come and see if they can find them on their own.  I think he did pretty good...on those he didn't get lazy about. (Can't blame him he was on a tight schedule)

Bryer requires tunes for working

Yep, you have to use a blade and run it down every single crack...he was a pretty good sport.

That Sunday Ryan started the sanding.  He couldn't find the sander he was looking for so he wound up renting what we are pretty sure is a sander used on these floors when they were originally put in.  It was bulky, cumbersome, and difficult to control.  I'm sure they all are, but this one was a special kind of difficult.

Not as easy as he pretends

 After a week of sanding he was ready for a break. Luckily, Bryer was set to promote out of 8th grade, so he had an excuse to walk away for the weekend.  The following Monday night he was back at work filling the now huge cracks between boards with trowlable wood filler. We had purchased a 5 gallon bucket of the filler and he was out of it by the time he reached the dining room.  We had purchased it in Eugene, OR and nobody around here carries anything even similar.  The boys and I rearranged our plans for being in Albany one more week and drove up to save the day.  Even though we hadn't planned to be here during the floor refinishing (Ryan didn't want to spring for a hotel) I'm glad we did because having two people here really helped ensure Ryan got done before our move in date.  With two people, one person was able to run the bulky drum sander while the other ran the squirrely edge sander over the newly troweled floors and before we knew it we were stainable.

First came the stain/sealer

 

Then came poly...Ryan and I polyed the first coat.  Then the next day at lunch Ryan came home and tried to rough sand it for the second coat.  Unfortunately, the sander was a bit too aggressive so we were set back a day.  While he worked I applied a second first coat.  The next afternoon I sanded again this time using a sanding pole...SLOW. Then I applied the second coat.  Then a third and final coat...which proved to me that I am a poooooor mixer. Once dry, I had a very matt strip between the dining room and living room with fairly glossy living room, dining room and back bedroom.  I checked the cans and all read satin finish.  Googled it, where I learned how they make a polyurethane have a matte finish.  I should have started here cause then I would have done the first day what I did the next...stirred the can until my arm was almost off.  The back bedroom is now slightly more glossy than the rest of the house, but I can live with that. And a herd of elephants can walk through my living room, dining room, and hall without worry because 4 coats of poly ought to cover it.  :)  I finished the 4th coat just in time for us all to head down to Albany to pick up our upstairs furniture and a few odds and ends.  Maybe someday we will get to go back and get all the items that belong in the basement and/or garage.

What was this-is now



Even Fat Cat made the trip this time

 

Hall right after we pulled the carpet out

Hall now



The other bonus of having all of us here during the final phases of refinishing was that we couldn't be IN the house after I mopped on a coat of poly.  This lag time gave us plenty of time to dig post holes for Lula Belle's new back yard.  Our 4th of July weekend was spent putting up pickets and finishing the post holes.  (Kuddos to our awesome neighbor for supplying the post hole digger.  I have to say it again; I love our new neighborhood.)   We haven't fully finished, but we have fenced in the parts where there was no fence as well as a section of the old falling down fence that is being held together with zip ties.  Bryer and I even got half of what's up water sealed yesterday morning.

The side fence and the front drive through gate (160 linear feet of fence on this side-back side is longer...gads what were we thinking?)



This last week Ryan tried to buckle down and finish the upstairs rewiring so we can get an inspection this next week which should allow us to return to working on the basement.  After adding about 30 outlets he thinks he has it all prepped for inspection...

Good thing he has a fantastic assistant...or maybe this is why it all takes so long

 



What do I do while Ryan's at work all day? Funny you should ask...I do what I want, of course.

Don't worry Ryan approved it...It is Beaver orange 

His way



Tav and his Ukulele, it was his Easter present even if he did get it in early March. :)  

He doesn't strum in a conventional manner, but does that really matter? You can decide, but be aware he doesn't care what you think...come on it's Tav did you think he would?  He took a workshop last year (with his cheap beginner ukulele) where he got the basics, but has never had a private lesson or actually spoken to an instructor. He is still learning and I'm sure some private instruction would be great for him, but for now he's happy just playing for himself his way.  He doesn't have the sheet music for anything he plays, everything is by ear. In the video you can see that he's not quite certain of himself, but he really only started picking up this instrument, or any instrument, regularly in January. He's playing a mash up of two of his favorite songs. It sounds like a three songs mash up, but the last 2 sections are the same song; once played strumming and once picking.  If you'd like to hear the original songs for comparison, the first song is Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy0AmZu3xLg), and the second is "The Girl" by City and Color (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8xDo-qM8w). (That second song makes me cry every time.  I tried to get Ryan to confess to writing it, but he swears he didn't.)  

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend.  Cheers!

Easter fishsticks

Happy Easter.

Woke up early this morning and, with my colleague Mark, our interpreter Ilkin, and the driver Rasul, we headed about an hour south of town and did some fishing.  Here is the sunrise at the place where we bought bait.

Here we are walking out to get the bait.

Here is the bait man, getting the bait from his net.

Here is the bait...fresh prawn

This is the fishing spot.  It was near the town of Alat, Azerbaijan.  We boated out to those platforms in the distance and fished from there.

Mark

I dont know the guy on the front right, he was just along for the ride.

We had uniforms.  The guys without uniforms were not with us, which is probably why they were the only ones catching fish.

Marks one and only mud sucking fish.

The other guys

Ilkin's one and only mudsucker. I didn't catch anything. :(

The platform we were on.

Then, i went "golfing" with Maksim.  He has a golf pro friend that let us come use the virtual course.  they don't yet have a real course...maybe next month.

They did have a small driving range though.

And an extensive chipping course.  Everything is artificial turf.

Maksim and the golf pro friend

Lilacs and Locusts

Howdy all!  Since Ryan is gone for so long I thought I'd hijack his blog and give everyone an update while he's off trekking the globe. 

 

 

Unfortunately, there hasn't been much going on at the house in Ryan's absence.  The boys and I have plenty to take care of with school, but somehow we managed to head up to Richland the last two weekends. 

 

The first weekend I had to go up and deal with our prima donna mailman.  He didn't like our mailbox.  It evidently wasn't adequate for holding all of the junk mail and catalogues the former owners still receive at our address.  Regardless of the silly reason for being there we had a really enjoyable weekend in our new neighborhood.  On Saturday morning I had to run to the store and grab some snacks and what-not for the boys.  When I got home one of our neighbors, Michelle, ran down to make sure I got the message that that afternoon Mary in #74 was having a her 80th birthday party and we had to come down for cake an ice cream.  You'd think having a stranger show up at your 80th birthday party would be weird...not for Mary.  When I extended my hand to shake hello she by-passed it and swept me up in a warm hug and "welcome to the family", same for the boys.  We were passed between all the neighbors we had not yet had the pleasure of meeting, and warm welcomes were everywhere.  My favorite of the day was Deliah.  She's 93 and lives 3 houses down from us.  She moved to the neighborhood in 1952 or 53 (she couldn't remember).  Before they moved to Richland, her husband returned to their home in Seattle, from is interview with what was then the secret gov't project, and all he could tell her was that all that was out there was "tumbleweeds and trashcans"...I think his observation then still holds true. She's a hoot and I can't wait to hear more of her stories.

 

While we were there I was also able to coordinate getting one item off our "to do" list.  It was not anything that moves us forward on the house, or really helps our move in in anyway, but it had to be done and it could happen with no one there.  I scheduled the removal of two big locusts trees between our house and the house south of us.

 

Trees on the right

 

 

While these trees were great trees and we hated to get rid of them. They hung right over our roof, and almost over our neighbors.  There was no way to prune them back without them looking really strange.  Given that and the fact that at some point we will likely put a garage behind the house and need a driveway there we agreed the trees should go.  Ryan didn't expect me to coordinate this, so it was a surprise.  I don't deal with contractors or service people.  It's our unspoken agreement, I deal with teachers, doctors, dentists, banks, etc. he deals with car and home repairmen.  I was willing to make a exception this time because I needed some sort of progress on the house while he was out.  So this last Thursday the crew showed up and by sundown the trees were gone.

 

Topping them

WAY bigger than I thought (that front piece is currently only slightly shorter and still sitting in the front yard)

Gone baby gone

 

 

I don't have a picture of it (the neighbor sent these) but they also ground out the stumps and piled ALL of that wood in the front yard.  Needless to say, the wood mess is why the boys and I returned this last weekend.  Together Tav, the wheelbarrow, and I were able to move the wood to the backyard on Saturday.  About 8 of the pieces were HUGE and I was prepared to leave them in the front yard until Ryan returned and could use the chainsaw to cut them into manageable pieces.  Instead our neighbor came to the rescue. He and Bryer were able to get all but one on his dolly and haul them to the back.  Our arms were toast on Sunday so I wasn't able to do anything with the two 2 foot high by 5 foot wide piles of chewed up tree root on Sunday...I'm hoping the other neighbor, down the street, will have it all scooped up and in her yard by the time I get back up there in a few weeks.  She was VERY enthusiastic about wanting it for her garden.  Hopefully we won't wear out our new neighbors before we get to really know them.

 

A bonus:

Since we lived in the little house on 2nd Ave in Durango I have wanted one thing back and could never manage it...until now.

 

It's a good one!!

 

When we bought the house we didn't really pay attention to the trees and shrubs around outside; other than noticing there were quite a few.  When we were staying up there in December I finally saw this bush and I have been waiting to find out what color MY lilac was going to be.  It's a basic purple and I'm happy with that.  It's big enough to put some seats under it and breath deeply all bloom season.  Bry loves it, too. (if you scroll up to the tree pictures you can see how big it is. It's just beyond the shed)

 

I also scored a Dogwood.  It's not the pink I have been dreaming of, but it's pretty, and right out the kitchen window. It will do.  Maybe, I'll put a pink one somewhere to make up for the missing locust trees.

 

Hopefully, in six more weeks there will be some more exciting pictures...and maybe there won't be.  With us it's always a gamble.  Hugs to all.











Azeri 2

Spent today wandering around a bit. Went to a the Fire Temple just outside the capital of Baku, which you can watch a video on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psSNChdSOoo.
Also went to a separate location where the natural gas is escaping through the ground and has been on fire for 70+ years...photos are below.

There was a wedding happening while we were there....

Ilkin has made a new friend.

Mark is cold.

This guy gave us the tour

Fire on the mountain! Natural gas escapes through the soil here and some 70 years ago, legend has it, a sheepherder threw a cigarette out and it lit the hill on fire. Go figure.

I don't have any information on this one...sorry. Just a lady in front of a shop.

New opposed to old.

Left to Right:  Ilkin (Interpretor), Ruzul (Driver), Mark (electrical), at the Maiden tower in old town.

Nerds

Having tea.

For kicks, here is Ilkin, our interpretor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmbeArolU0w