Kitchen Remodel 2011 - Day 24

Ok, it has not been 24 days since we tore apart our routine, it just feels like it sometimes.  Really ready to be able to find things and have a normal schedule. I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post. I've spent a lot of time running around trying to find things that it will now take too long to order. I stalled on my sink purchase because I just couldn't bring myself to spend $544 on a sink, no matter how cool it was.  I should know by now that when I stall on making a decision, I'm not totally happy with it.  So I took an hour in sink aisle of Home Depot and went through my "process" to find my sink and faucet.  I need to spend time looking at everything and considering the pro's and con's.  Usually I put an item in my cart and then take it out, and repeat.  After all this time and consideration I am perfectly happy with my decision and that is what took place with my sink.  I love it!  I always pictured it as dark brown or black, don't know why, just did. I bought a metallic black quartz sink that has all the features I love.  This happiness spread to other decision areas....I see the hardware color now and an overall scheme is coming together.  I can move forward with paint, cabinet pulls and light fixtures.  I'm creatively unclogged!!!!
Today the guys are here and I've had my first look at my full sized cabinets, the wood and stain.  Awesome!  Going to go pick up the cabinet pulls shortly....

I don't know why, but I can't post pictures to this post. You'll have to stay tuned for the results.

Kitchen Remodel 2011 Days 3 & 4

Day 3 I was at work, so I didn't get to watch as the day progressed.  I know that the hole in the floor was filled in.

Day 4:

• The drywall sections on either side of the family room opening were put into place.
• Proper venting for the over the range microwave was finished.
• Insulation was put in the kitchen walls.
• Ceiling drywall was hung.
• Some kitchen drywall hung.

Unfortunately the guys had to spend a long time at Home Depot getting supplies.  The store just doesn't have enough people to help you when you need it.  

Charlie the site supervisor.  It looks good to him.

Kitchen Remodel 2011 - Day 2

Yesterday was a great day, why would today be any different?  Because it is.  Because there's a full moon.  Because it's a remodel.  The guys who do this all the time know that, expect it, and go with the flow.  Me?  My stomach is in knots!  I know when things go "differently", the ka-ching factor goes up.  That's like finger nails on a chalk board to me.  I also had to make decisions on the go, without checking to see what Randy thought.  I know he'd probably have come to the same decisions, but I hate that he might not like what we've done.  Well, it is what it is.  It is what it is......breathe....it is what it is.....

Unplanned items today:
1. rotten floor boards under dishwasher.  While cutting them out, the outside hose bib line was cut.
2. Need to move the refrigerator outlet and water line out of the way of the cabinets, but there's a pocket door behind that space. Doh!
3. The last guy who put flooring in the utility room didn't patch the floor right and the patch dropped out.

The guys are good. They took all these extras in stride and are "ahead of schedule".  The prep work could be done by Friday.  : * )  Yeah guys!!!

Actions today:

• Old flooring removed.
• Hood system properly vented to the roof.
• Cut out rotten floor boards
• Fix hose bib plumbing.
• Plumb water to icemaker vault.
• Prep refrigerator electrical box.
• Frame in wall opening and doorway.
• Remove pocket door and frame in wall.




The young boys have the flooring out, now the "experienced guys" show up.  He's kneeling in front of the rotten boards that will be removed.







 


The plumbing is set and spaces are foamed in.  The hole in the floor is covered by a door and some chairs to keep the kids out of it.




That's worth a close up, beautiful work!!!

Refrigerator icemaker vault, with water plumbed properly to the pipes, and a new electrical box.





Filling in the open space and some of the family room walk way.



Kitchen Remodel 2011 Begins....

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I had a dream.  A dream of a kitchen that was place that I would like to cook and people liked to hang out.  The planning is over, the wood is being cut, no more new ideas or mind changes allowed. That dream is coming to a kitchen near me, right now.  The force is with me.  Thank you Obi-wan Kenobi!

This weekend I spent two days taking everything out of the kitchen and stashing it around the house.  I tried to leave some things accessible so that we could BBQ or microwave to feed ourselves over the next two weeks.  My whole organization got blown out of the water today when the guys started demo work.  The refrigerator was moved into the dining room and lots of other things got pushed aside and into my work space.  Oh, well.  I keep telling my husband, "it's only for a few days".   Sunday night the dog found my stash of calcium chews and ate the whole bag.   He is still alive today and apparently fine for having ingested a mega amount of calcium, vitamin D3 and foil wrappers.  Damn, dog stomaches are tough!

The boys got a lot of work done today, I'm impressed: appliances moved out; upper and lower cabinets removed; soffetts taken out; some of the floor taken up. The fixtures are being donated to Habitat for Humanity so care was taken to remove items with as little damage as possible. I am very pleased with how the kitchen looks opened up to the dining room, it is going to great! 

We were lucky to find no really bad surprises.  We did find out what happened to the baby bunny that the cat brought in over 10 years ago.  The poor thing died under the sink cabinet and it's intact skeleton was found there.  Always wondered what the answer that mystery would be.  

Sunday night, it's all cleared out and ready for change.

It begins....the monster refrigerator, Alice, is prepped for the move to the dining room.

The uppers over the bar are gone!  COOL beans!

Making the rest of the uppers go away....

This was harder than it looked.  There were some adult words used at this point.  Andy orchestrated a beautiful and coordinated maneuver to get 2 whole banks of uppers down at one time.

Too bad I have to put upper back in at some point.  I like it the way it is.

Oh yeah, don't blink honey badger or all your lowers will be gone!

Get those soffets out of of there, I need that space!

I only asked for an estimate.......then he said "Yes".  Love you sweetie!

Sweetie Pie will get a new garbage disposal. Be sure to tell him how that makes the kitchen awesome.

Soffets all gone.  Left with a trench into the attic.  The boogie man will have an easy time getting into the house tonight.

They say they are done for today.  No problem sissy boys, I'll keep working. Honey badger don't need a break like you men.

Where the sink used to be.  I scraped off old wallpaper backing tonight.  See you boys tomorrow!

First Sprint Triathlon

On May 30th, 2011  I participated in my first ever sprint triathlon, the Heart of the Valley Sprint Tri here in Corvallis.  I've been planning on doing a Tri in June, the Blue Lake Sprint Tri in Gresham, with Derek and Annie.  However this spring, after coming home from my cruise, I lost interest and thought I probably wouldn't do it.

Then Lauren Ohlgren, my art & triathlon newbie friend,  pushed my motivation by doing her first two sprint tri's in May.  She was so excited about her races and spilled all her info and excitement onto me.  I was worried about losing my motivation again and wanted to do a race soon to try it out and know what it was like.  While the courage was up I paid my money to enter  the HOV s-tri. I liked that it was my "home pool" and I knew the course well.

After entering,  I had a short period of high anxiety as I realized that the race was only a week away (where the heck did May go?) and I hadn't been doing anything serious for the last 3 weeks.  The swim was 750 yds, 350 yds longer than the race I had trained for.  The bike portion was 11 miles with 6 hills and I hadn't been on my bike for longer than 6 miles in over a month and a half.  Running?!  Not so much.  I was working up to running and hadn't gotten that far yet. This course was a nice easy flat 3 miles.
 Beside the 3 "events" of a Tri, there's the "transition factor", often called the 4th component of the race.  T1 is the transition from swimming to biking and T2 is the transition from the bike to the run.  Both of these transitions are timed separately, with the goal of being as quick as possible during these changes of equipment.  There's a whole lot to learn about how to transition quickly.  Luckily for me Lauren dropped everything to give me as much information as I could stand so that I could relax some.

Before the start, with my transition area set up.  I was racer #1 because I had the slowest projected swim time.  Just for the record, I wasn't the slowest that day.  

Once settled down, I slept well leading up to the race and came to the race morning with the attitude that "it is what it is".  I was calm and ready to get it going.  Two days before the race I learned I would be in the outside pool and in the first wave, which was a relief because the laps are 50 m vs 100 m.  I would have to do 15 laps, but I could rest more often.  I needed those rests.  The swim was much harder than I thought it was going to be.  I finished in about 26 mins, which was slightly slower than I expected.  I was the last out of my pool in my wave.

Listening to the start count down (while cap).  I had only the guy at the right edge of the photo in my lane.  

T1, swim to bike.  Putting on my bike gear and drip drying.

Heading out for the ride....no rain yet!

The bike ride was an 11 mile loop up Highland Dr to the Lewisburg area and back.  I wasn't sure how those hills would feel after swimming for a half hour.  They were fine!  What's going on, this isn't that bad?  The bonus to hills is the back side where you can let it rip.  I dealt with nausea near the top of two hills, but otherwise felt great and passed 6 people.  Had a heavy downpour near CVHS, crazy weather!  Had to be careful as I flew down the south side of Highland drive that I didn't run over any painted line, else I might crash at high speed.  Came into T2 feeling good and earned a time of about 50 mins on the bike.

Back from my ride.  Hit a downpour just before the last hill back.  Feeling good though.

Took off on the "run" at a walk.  Hard to get the hips in the mode of moving that way.  For some reason my hips hurt like crazy and running actually felt better, except for the aerobic part of it.  I alternated running and walking the whole way.  I passed a couple girls, always checking to see if they were one of the 3 Athena's in my group.   I caught one of them, but not the gal who won our classification.  Candi, Lauren and the Hills were on hand at the finish line, so I ran some more.  I finished the "run" in about 34 mins.

I'm sure I'm running because I know the camera is there.

I'm glad to have it over and know what it's like.  It was a fun time and can't wait to do more.  The highlight was the bike ride, I'm ready for more of that!  I feel good about doing the race and it was fun to come in 2nd in the Athena over 40 group.  If I keeping working, 1st place isn't that far off.

Crossing the finish line!

April 12th -- Cabo San Lucas

Tuesday April 12th, 2011 -- Cabo San Lucas

We arrived in port around 0700 hrs.  Last night was down right chilly and I was not optimistic that today was going to be warm.  For my morning walk I had my windbreaker on, and was still cool, but was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.

We had no tour planned for Cabo, just decided to ride the tenders in to port and walk around and to the beach.  The day ended up being warm and wonderful, I think because the city is protected by a bay from the wind.  

Cabo is beautiful, a nice small to medium sized town that is fairly new and sits on the golden sand beaches.  I think this would THE place to come to on the western coast of Mexico.  Water sports are big here.  Many, many, many jet ski’s zooming about.  

Many of the small boats are glass bottom boats that are for hire at the pier.

This yachat has a helicopter on the back as well as a couple of jet ski's.  Wonder who owns it? Took this picture from the tender en route back to the ship.

The rocks near Cabo as from our ship as we are departing.

Lots and lots of boats and jet ski's in the water.  As well as 4 other cruise ships.  This view is from our balcony.

We walked the shops around the pier and Dad had his picture taken at the Giggling Marlin.  He was strung up like a caught fish.  I said “No”.  What a party pooper, eh?

I recognize that marlin!  

So finally, after 16 days on the road, I see a guy walking around Cabo wearing a green hat with a big yellow “O”. It never fails, that I should see some kind of U of O wear while on vacation.  I talked to the guy, he said he’s from Nevada and is just a Duck fan, no real affiliation with them.  He also said that he’s had 3 people wanting to buy the hat from him while he’s been here.  Next time I’m going to bring some to sell!  I think.  I don’t like the idea of owning them, but it might be fun to see how much I could get for one.

We didn’t stay in Cabo long enough to enjoy the water or beach.  We set sail just after 2pm for Los Angeles.  It’s hard to believe our tour is coming to an end.  Tonight is our last formal dinner, which means one more set of clothes can go in the duffle bag.

I stopped posting the blog because we didn’t want to purchase another internet package.  The package we were buying, 250 minutes for $100, were expensive.  I averaged 10-13 mins a night by writing my blog on a word document and then cutting and pasting it in.  I check email and only responded to Randy’s email.  

The internet connection was by satellite and a lot like a slow dial-up connection, for those of you who remember those days.  I used the laptop and it was much faster, relative to the system.  Dad was using the computers in the internet center, and they were slooooow.  Once I figured the connections out, I showed Dad how to use the laptop and he sped up a bit too.  Anyway, we were running low on minutes and wanted to leave time to check in online.  

As I’m writing this after returning home, I can’t recall what we had for dinner that night.  Or any other details for that matter.  Guess I’ll end this post.

The Island Princess cruise ship

14 days on a ship, rooming with your Dad.  Don't you wonder how that might turn out?  I did.  It was fine. We are good travel companions, perhaps because he trained me (LOL).

Here are a few pictures of our room, pictures from the balcony and around the ship.  I LOVED this ship and would gladly sail on it again.

Our room mailbox and address label.

Welcome!

Dad in our room, Caribe 319, starboard side.   Life jackets on the bed as we are getting ready to go to our muster drill the first day.  Also, bed will be made into twins that evening.

See, it's all good.  The beds were made with just a comforter with a duvet cover, no flat sheet.  At first I thought that was weird, but I took to it quickly.  It ended up to be just perfect.

This was our walk-in closet.  Just to the left in the photo was a floor to ceiling shelved cabinet and farther left the bathroom door.  This floor plan worked out well.  We used the floor of the closet for storage that we wouldn't have had if the closet had been designed in a closed fashion.

Here's a view from our balcony as we are leaving port in Florida, Port of the Everglades.  The balconies below us were completely uncovered, ours was half covered.  The balconies above us were smaller (could only hold 2 chairs and a table vs 4 chairs and a table) and were completely covered.  I think ours was perfect.

If I couldn't find Dad in the Horizon Buffet dining room at lunch, I often took lunch back to the room and ate on the balcony.  The Lido deck was up 52 stairs, which I tried to take as often as possible.

This is the atrium of the ship.  If you come across this feature, that you can reach on decks 5, 6, and 7, you know you are mid-ship.  Our dining room, the Bordeaux Dining Room, was deck 5 and to the left. Guest services and the tour desk were in the area also. The ship shopping is on deck 6.  The Crooners Bar (piano bar) and the Churchill (cigar smoking) room were on deck 7.  Also surrounding the atrium on various decks were the Card room (games and cards), the Library (books for loan, quiet reading, daily suduko and brain teasers), and the Casino. Many ship activities took place here, including: formal night photos, live music, cocktail and culinary demo's (fruit and ice carving), cocktail parties.

 This is a bad picture of the "Movie Under the Stars" picture screen on the Lido deck, near the Lido pool.  Perhaps I have a better photo......

If there wasn't a live band playing on the Lido deck, there was something showing on the screen.  Sometimes it was pretty nature photos, but usually a movie or a concert.  You could easily watch a movie while swimming in the pool.  I preferred the 10 pm movies, mostly because the time didn't conflict with other activities.  You could buy candy, but a cart would come around and offer free popcorn before the movie started.  If you wanted to get up and get a refill, it was unlimited.  At the half way point a cart would come around with milk and cookies.  Wool blankets were available in case the wind caused too much of a chill.
This is the passengers vs cruise staff volleyball championship game.  I knew the lady serving.  This was taken just after we left Cabo San Lucas.

I took this picture from the Sun Deck (deck 15) looking down on the Lido deck.  This was the "Ultimate Deck Party" and cruise staff (first row from the right side of the photo) are leading passengers in a line dance.  This area is usually filled with lounge chairs and Movie screen is just barely visible at the top left of the photo.  This is also where our Zumba class was held in morning.  The railing closest to the bottom of the picture is surrounding one of the two hot tubs near the Lido pool.

This is part of the Sun deck, looking towards the hills of Acapulco.   The ship appears empty because many people are off ship on tours.  We ate lunch here this day, trying to find a breeze to cool us off.  Hot, hot, hot in Acapulco!

This is deck 7, The Promenade.  This deck became one of my favorite places to hang out.  Here you can see some of the morning walkers doing laps.  I tried to walk every day.  This deck is the only one that you can walk unobstructed around. 2.8 laps equals a mile.  I didn't count laps, just put time in.  I like this deck because it's outside, without glass panels between you and the ocean. It's close to the water which makes it a great place to look for wildlife and feel the breeze.  These deck chairs are the most comfortable and once I got one, I didn't want to leave.

Unless I'm cold, I don't hang out in the sun.  I moved from port to starboard, depending on where the shade was.

After walk on the promenade, near dawn in the Pacific.  We changed our clocks back and forward a few times.  One day on the Pacific sunrise wasn't until 7:41am.

This picture is provided by Princess, of the Lotus pool area.  It's enclosed and air conditioned.  There are lounge chairs around the outside that look out through floor to ceiling windows, lovely!  This pool also has a slight current, and 2 hot tubs.  The ice cream station is just to the left.  Ping pong tables are upstairs.