An Old Bear And His Honey

We've been admiring carved bears even before we moved into our log home. We bought a bear of our own at the Christmas in Coloma craft fair in December. His name is Bubba. Isn't he adorable!?!

We had our first snow in December! It didn't really stick to the ground, but it sure looked pretty falling gracefully from the sky! It did manage to stick to my car:

Check Vanessa out on Facebook. I'll probably be posting a lot more pictures there than here as it's much more user friendly for photos.

The First Thanksgiving...In The House

We enjoyed Thanksgiving Day with Vanessa's cousin, Alison, who lives in Auburn.

Our neighbors, Margie and Pablo, joined us on Thanksgiving as well. (They're celebrating with their family today with a deep fried turkey.)

And now, as promised, INDOOR pictures of the house...

The views out the great room windows to the deck.



The "accent wall" in the living room and the stair railing.

Our rock-covered fireplace...and monster TV.

The view from the dining room into the living room.

The view from the living room into the kitchen.

The kitchen and dining room.

Our thanksgiving table...and Steve getting the wine ready for guests.

The master bathroom sinks.

The master bathroom tub and shower.

The master bedroom.

Eventually, we'll get the basement organized and then we'll send photos of the guest rooms and den. For now, the bedrooms are sparse (but usable - come visit!) and the den is a maze of boxes and stuff. There's always plenty to do around here! For today, however, putting up the Christmas tree and eating a turkey sandwich are the only things on the agenda!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

It's been nine months since we moved into the house and eight months since we've posted anything. For those who don't know what's been happening, here's the "Reader's Digest" version:

THE BAD:

March 17 - This was the last day our contractor worked on site...not because he finished, but because he skipped town with 95% of the loan money without finishing 95% of the job. He hadn't paid at least 5 sub contractors which resulted in 5 liens against the house.

March to October - We worked on trying to finish the house and paid off 3 of the lines. We hired workers as we could and did lots of work on our own - often with the help of wonderful friends and family. (THANKS EVERYONE!) Countrywide (our lender) was NOT helpful and (according to our lawyer) not responsible for releasing money to the contractor for work he had not completed. We wondered if we'd have to declare bankruptcy and walk away from the house.

THE UGLY:

June 21 - Steve was in a terrible head-on car crash. He had cracked ribs and sternum, broken toes, and a severely broken wrist that required two surgeries. He was off work for 12 weeks and is still going to physical therapy. It was a long, difficult summer for us both, but we're SO grateful that it wasn't worse! If you dare, here's a photo of the 2005 Saturn VUE that kept Steve alive:

THE GOOD!!!

October 30 - We passed final inspection with the county. Thanks to our lawyer, Countrywide agreed to pay off the last 2 liens and release the remaining money (chump change) to us. In short, we get to stay in the house (though bankruptcy is still a possibility.)

So, here we are, five days from Thanksgiving, feeling VERY blessed and grateful that God has worked this all out! And now, what you've really been waiting for...pictures:

Our best friend, John, made us these awesome green house numbers. When we knew were staying in the house, we put them on the log and set the log in concrete! We've got LOTS of rocks at our place, so they're a huge part of our "landscape."

Here's the view of the front of the house. We're so excited to have an asphalt driveway! The rocky, dusty/muddy driveway was NOT fun!

Here's the back of the house. You may notice at the bottom of the photo that we have window wells on the basement windows. It lets in a lot more light than regular windows. Truthfully, we had to install them in order to get the correct "grade" of fill dirt from the garage pad to the house.

We had a contractor come pour concrete for the walkway up to the house as well as this concrete patio under the deck that leads to the basement door. (This is where you'll you'll unload all your stuff into the basement guest rooms when you come to visit us!)

The guys that poured our concrete used the rock around our place to build these cool rock stairs!

Our "rock artists" also built this small retaining wall along the walkway to the front stairs. (You'll notice Steve's new truck up on the garage pad at the top of the photo.)

We hope to see you coming up our front stairs sometime soon! We wish you all a Thanksgiving full of blessings!

LOG HOME SWEET LOG HOME

We FINALLY moved into our dream home on Friday, February 22nd!

This was the ONLY picture I took all day: a view of sunset from our deck.

It was a tiring day, but a very happy one!

After a Saturday of hard work, we got ready for church on Sunday and set the camera timer for this photo.

Some of these boxes have been unloaded into the kitchen, but we're waiting for drawer fronts and pull out shelves so we're still grabbing things out of boxes for now.

And the basement is full of boxes as well! We still have plenty of unpacking, organizing, cleaning, painting, and other misc. chores to do. Feel free to stop by to help! :-)

The solar panel installation was finished today and the county inspector comes tomorrow.

There is still much to be done by the contractor, including installation of interior doors. So, our test of patience continues. We are relieved to be "home" and will be even happier when the construction phase of our lives is OVER!

Lights! Power! Flooring!

Most of our lighting fixtures have been installed. PG&E has FINALLY hooked up our power. Flooring has been installed and our latest move in date is...February 22nd. This is the absolute last day our apartment will be ours as a new renter will be moving in, so we pray the house will be DONE so we're not homeless! And now for photos of the latest progress:

The master bedroom fan and light...and our painting supplies.

The dining room light...and boxes of flooring waiting to be installed.

The mess during floor installation was worth the finished product. (Notice the first 2 coats of "scary" (according to Steve) red on the wall. I think it's gonna need 2 MORE coats before it looks just right.)

Imagine how nice it'll look when it's clean!

You know how much I love blue...but don't worry! This is only the padding and not the actual carpet color. All the flooring (laminate and carpeting) was installed on Monday, but it was such a long day that we didn't think to take a photo of finished carpet. You'll have to stay tuned for carpet photos in the future.

All the appliances have been delivered, including the refrigerator. They should be installed in the next few days.

Our friends Lynn and John gave us a grill for a house-warming gift. They delivered it, and helped us paint, a couple of weeks ago. We've broken it in with burgers and it works great!

After a long day of painting, we finally managed to set the timer for a photo of the four of us. Thanks Lynn and John...for the BBQ and the help with painting! Thanks to our other friends who helped paint as well: Lisa, Gloria, Mel, Richard, and Roy.

Coming Out Of The Fog...

The latest move-in date is...January 31st.

We've been at the house every day this week painting and receiving deliveries. It's been a COLD week. Most mornings it's been around 30 degrees when we arrive. It does warm up into the 50s, but there's no heat in the house so it never feels real warm inside. It's NOT good weather for painting, but we're forging ahead. There has been a lot of progress:

It was VERY foggy at the house on Tuesday! (Can you see Steve on the deck, waving?)

The front steps are in...

...and so are the back steps!

This trench (which contains conduit for telephone and electrical) was inspected, approved, and closed up today. Yay! Now that the trench (which ran across the driveway) is closed, the driveway is scheduled to get gravel tomorrow.

Bill, our electrician, is working on getting the power pole ready for PG&E to activate our electrical service...hopefully tomorrow...


Luis and Noe are installing the kitchen cabinets. Now we get to prime and paint them. Appliances should be coming any day.


Cabinets, floors, and counters have been installed in the bathrooms. This is the basement bathroom. We're still waiting for sinks, faucets, light fixtures, toliets, and water. Flooring (laminate and carpet) in other rooms can't happen until we have HEAT!

My aunt, Jane, came yesterday to help install closet shelves in the master bedroom closet. The blue walls are the master bedroom.

The washer and dryer were delivered today and will be hooked up on Monday. Yes, the laundry room/pantry is YELLOW! I've had mixed reactions to my choice of paint color. What do you think?

Launch Reset: T Minus 34 Days and Counting...

Drywall that won't dry...sub-contractor delays...flooring glitches...etc...

Our new moving day is January 18th! We've taken the week of January 14th off to paint, receive deliveries, and have flooring installed. Our best friends, Lynn and John, are coming the weekend of the 19th to help unpack...and to be the very first overnight guests in our home! Dream homes take patience and, even though our patience is running out, we know it will all be worth it in the end!

This is probably our last blog post until after the new year. We'll be in Southern California for Christmas and Tucson for the start of the new year. We pray you and your loved ones have a wonderful holiday season. Please plan to visit us at Cabana de la Cruz in 2008!