Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wreck this house no more! and other adventures...

We are officially done with tearing things out of the upstairs. And the downstairs too I guess because we pretty much demolished that thing right from the get-go. The last two weeks have been all about installing the new: wood floors, baseboards, carpet, and kitchen cabinets. Oh and scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing all the appliances and getting the dozens of bugs and grime out of the window sills (that was disgusting. Those for sure had not been wiped down for years.)
Best picture I have of the finished bathroom:
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Around the time that the new mailbox post hole was dug, David's parents and brother Preston came to visit!!!! It was a crazy trip but so worth it. Since we came up here in May they have been talking about coming up to visit and help etc. We thought for sure that the upstairs part of the house would be done by mid-July and that would be perfect because that's when Scott had vacation time.  But turns out, the week they're able to come, we we're just getting started on the wood floors, just barely got a functional bathroom, and the kitchen was in the process of getting new cabinets. Oh and, we had to work for the 3 of the days that they were here. Like I said, craziness. But fun. 
Friday, the 29th, we took them down to the ice caves. 
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And then we packed and got ready to go to work! They came up to Henrys Lake with us and camped and fished while we worked. We met for dinner and fishing in the evenings. 
They didn't bring a tent with them because they could just use ours. Ahem. We.could.not.to.save.our.lives.find.that.stupid.tent.in.our.pile.of.crapola. So, they bought a new tent. This picture of Papa Scott cracks me up every time I look at it...I don't know why...
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They came and visited us at work, which was great because Nessie would bring us snacks and food! Ahhh, motherly love. And she took some pictures of us in action. 
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Mama caught a fish!
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After our 3-day shift was over, we all headed to Yellowstone!!!!...for a day. We camped outside West Yellowstone the night we got off. All of us, in the same tent. hahaha I wish we got a picture of that! I also wish we got a picture of all of us in our little boat, trying not to hook each other. haha! Preston was the man and caught the most fish during the trip. And unlike his brother and dad, actually ate the fish. Yum!
Filling up our water supplies at Howard Springs- fresh, clear, ice cold water. yum!
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It hit freezing that night/morning in camp. We walked down to the river in the morning and watched the sun rise. There was so much steam/mist surrounding the water. It was so pretty and serene!
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 We ate, broke camp, and went in to Yellowstone. I was super pumped! And can't wait to go back (we got an annual pass)
The sign says leaving...but we we're coming. We couldn't get a good picture on the other side because of too much Mr. Sunshine.
Can we talk about how tall Preston suddenly is? 
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Gibbons Falls
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The Norris Geyser Basin area:
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Helping some fellow travelers unlock their car. Robbins menfolk are handy to have around.
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The Lower Falls. Getting down to this was easy. Climbing the 500 stairs back up had us breathing really good when we got back to the top.
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There she blows! Old Faithful. It started going off in spurts. Very small, very brief shots. And we all looked at each other like, "That's it?  That's what people come here for? Boo!" But we were proven wrong wrong wrong. When she blew, she blew high and long. It was awesome!
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We saw a really nice sized elk, and a lot of Bison. We were really hoping for some wolves or bears. Next time, next time.

We got back to Rexburg Tuesday night, and the Nevadans kept on heading south. Long drive!

Wednesday morning, David and I got back to working on the house. David put most of the baseboards in so that we would be ready for carpet on Thursday, and I scrubbed the fridge for 4 hours! and cleaned out all of the kitchen cabinets.
It's amazing how much more together and finished the rooms look with baseboards:
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Thursday we waited and waited and waited for the carpet installer to come. While we waited, we worked on finishing the wood floors in the hallway, closets, and kitchen.
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Carpet finally showed up around 6:30pm.
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And then a few hours later Daddio showed back up! Surprise! (They left Saturday, drove alll the way down to southern Nevada, and he came back up by himself Thursday). Crazy. We finished the floors for the kitchen that night.
Next day, Dad got to work on finishing the kitchen cabinets, David caulked the baseboards, and I scrubbed out the washer/dryer, the tub/shower, and changed out door knobs.
Putting the baseboard around this part was tricky, but David did it and it turned out great.
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Ta-Da!!!! When we get home from work we'll have the joy of moving in! And then who knows what Dad will have us be doing in the basement. :)
Also, in the mornings before heading to work on the house, we picked buckets and buckets of raspberries out of the Erickson's garden. Every morning. Buuucketssss.
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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Little by little

 We are putting this house back together!
Tile in the bathroom got some grout:
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Bathroom got a new coat of paint:
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Mom picked the color for it, because I really didn't know what I wanted to do. At first I wasn't too keen on the creamy orange, but I admit- it is growing on me. 

Bathroom vanity installed, plus the rest of the bathroom finished- new toilet in and working, cased and caulked in the window, new fancy double-shower head put in (thanks Mom!)
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Check out this hole Mama dug for the mailbox post:
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Over 2 feet deep! Plus, do you see that funky shovel she had to use? Isn't she the cutest?

Other improvements that I failed to get pictures of before coming up to work:
kitchen and laundry room finally painted, most of the new wood floor is in, kitchen cabinets and counters are in and look great, kitchen sink installed. Hip hip hoooooray! We can live there now and finish putting in the kitchen floor. To say that we are ecstatic to have a place of our own to live would be a huge understatement. My tummy just did a flip flop of excitement.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Lately on Wreck This House and other misc happenings...

Exterior all painted and the shutters up!
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Accent wall in the living room: Balsam Fir
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Horrible picture due to strange lighting; Bedroom #2 with a Hazel accent wall
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And Bedroom #1, just an "Accessible Beige" all the way around with a white trim. 
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BO HNTR is no more! We got Idaho license plates. Living in Idaho is nice, our car insurance has been cut in half!
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We got a fishing boat! Just a tin can with a motor, but it gets us to the middle of the lake.
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Sprucing up the seats- covered the chipped wood with outdoor carpet. 
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Had a cake bake-off. 
Giulia- butter pecan. David- Strawberry delight.
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David's won. It was so so so moist. Mine was delish as well. It's just that David's had that, "I could eat this all day because it is so moist" factor in his cake. No big deal.  (cough, he used a super moist box cake, cough, mine was all from scratch, cough)

Our friend at work
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This is what the lake looks like coming in from Montana
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We went to the Young Reunion July 4-6 at the Little Bear River Resort in Northern, Utah. We got off work at 7 p.m. on the 4th, got home (to Jean and Colin's) and climbed up on the roof to try to watch fireworks, but couldn't see much cause the neighbor's trees are just so dang tall! We headed down to Logan, UT the next morning for lots of fun and games with family.
These are the only two pictures we have from that: we went to Porcupine Res. and did some cliff jumping.
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Last week we slipped and slid at the best slip'n'slide evah! (at Uncle John and Aunt Julie's house). So soo so fun. 150 ft. of wet'n'wild goodness. It's all dammed up with inner tubes at the bottom so you always get a nice splash at the end to slow you down.
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The next day we went to an Ice Cave with Chris and Shelly and kids
First, you hike down into a lava rock pit and then under this arch.
And then down into this cave mouth. The opening wasn't frozen over (it is summertime) so we had to tip toe from rock to rock so we didn't get our feet wet.
And eventually you find this! Ice thick by the foot
Complete with an ice slide
Awful photo for almost everybody, except David, of course. And Shelly too! This was at the beginning of the cave. The deeper you go, the more ice there is, top to bottom. 

I finally finished my first crochet blanket! I spent a couple of hours on it each day while at work waiting for boats to come in.
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David:
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I mean, David's twin. Chris sent this pic to us- an ad for Gillette from a Field and Stream magazine. laughing.out.loud. I've always told David that he could go into modeling. For Cabela's, or Bass Pro- he's got the rugged outdoorsy man look about him, and now apparently, I can add Gillette to the list.

Finally took the boat out for its maiden voyage with its new owners.
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Fish on!!!
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David protects Colin and Jean's strawberries from the birds...in style. Just warning shots (mostly), people. Don't go all gun crazy on me. (It's a pellet gun. )
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And also, my parents got in yesterday with a trailer full of tools and flooring!!!! Hip hip hooray! Things have been slow on the house project the last week because there wasn't much left for us to do without Dad's tools, materials, and noggin' full of knowledge.
pretty wood floors
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demolishing a kitchen: taking out cabinets and nasty pantry. And look at that darling original wallpaper circa '70.
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Tiling bathroom (Jean and Colin had leftover tile from tiling their house years ago and said we could use some for our tiny bathrooms. woohoo!)
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We're excited to see what the house will look like by the end of this week. We're hoping to have the kitchen, laundry...closet, and bathroom painted; new(old) kitchen cabinets installed; wood floors laid down; and then just waiting for carpet to come in. Woooza