Whew!  What a week (and a bit) it's been!  It all started two Fridays ago, when our contractor came in and tore out all the carpet in the house, revealing a HUGE amount of sand that had settled underneath the carpet & pad.  I was so thankful for Chris coming home that day and vacuuming the house, putting furniture back in place (during the afternoon Elliott and I sat in the kitchen, since it was the only place in the house not getting torn up)!  We had a weekend of wearing shoes everywhere in the house and then flooring started going down last Monday.  The house has been a bit smelly, but we can keep lots of windows open and most of the time I was able to stay in the opposite part of the house from where work was being done.  Elliott was a real trooper and didn't seem to mind the noise of the compressor, nail gun, etc.  Elliott and I also spent more time at parks this week than normal...he's showing just the slightest bit of a tan...and I got just the slightest bit burned.

There have been to obligatory frustrations along the way...thankfully this time there wasn't too much wrong with the subfloor...just one bit of rotten wood by a sliding door that had to be replaced.  There was a fair amount of glue that got tracked onto the finished flooring, so Chris has been spending quite a bit of time working with paint thinner to get that off.  There's also been quite a bit of furniture movement and unpacking/repacking closets.  Now that the flooring is done, we're going to hopefully have some fun getting things re-organized (a lot of items were thrown into any place when we were moving in) and setting up a plan for making things baby proof since Elliott will probably become mobile sooner than we care to think!

See Elliott's guided tour of the new flooring in the house, as well as pics of the construction, here.

Now the we're getting settled into life with Elliott, we're getting back into working on some home improvement projects, although Cheryl is still often minimally involved, since she is needs to look after Elliott.  We hired a heating/air conditioning company to service the air conditioning system that came with the home, so it looks like we'll have central A/C available for the summer when it's needed...although of course we will try to be responsible and judicious about its use.  There are ceiling fans in each room and we hope there will often be a breeze coming through the house because we are up on a hill.  Another measure we took to try to keep the house cool was to have the west facing windows tinted. 

Finally, just today we completed the project of painting Elliott's room and putting up a decorative border.  With that completed, we hope to soon have new carpet installed and will be able to set up furniture in the room for use as a nursery.  Beyond new carpet, I think our next big project will be working on installing some measures for addressing the drainage issues of our yard.  Chris has said he doesn't mind doing digging, and Elliott seems to very much being outdoors, so hopefully it'll lead to some good family time in the yard this summer (one of the benefits of owning a home instead of a condo!). 

Follow this link for pictures of Elliott's room with its brand new paint!

I've updated pictures in the "Home Improvement" album to show the progress that has been completed on our home improvement projects.  The latest has been having a contractor/handyman do some drywall & framing work in the 2nd bedroom...something we wanted completed before bringing home a newborn.  It was a bit close, but since the baby has decided to come late, we were able to have that project completed enough to take a break from that and now focus on taking care of our newborn when he/she arrives.  The room still needs paint, once we decide on colors, and we hope to put new carpet/flooring in before starting to use the 2nd bedroom for the baby.

The album also has a picture showing Chris' latest new "toy" - a weed whacker.  He is finding that yard maintenance is becoming a new passion for him and, while it is hard work, he thoroughly enjoys having a well manicured lawn (actually, the yard has a random mixture of grass, clover, and assorted greenery, but when it is cut short it looks a lot like regular grass).  We also have recently gotten around to setting up some fish in our fish tank, so I included a picture of them.

We'll be checking in with our doctor this week about possibly inducing labor, so most likely this will be the last of major home improvement projects for a while, but we have thankfully accomplished most of the major tasks we felt were particularly important to address before the baby was born.  We are very thankful to have this home as a space for our growing family to live and make lots of fun memories! =)

After a few weeks with lots of pounding and noise (Cheryl's perspective), and some back-breaking work (Chris' perspective), the roof project is now done!  We were glad to be able to convince the roof tear off company to haul away the extra debris we had in the yard, so the yard is now mostly clear of debris (one shed was also dismantled and disposed of in a dumpster we ordered).  However, we were also sad to find out that the roof tear off uncovered an area of plywood roof base that had been severely water damaged and needed to be replaced.  Still, the roof is now completed, the flashings have been secured correctly (they had not been secured on the old roof), the new eaves are completed, and we are ready to move forward.

We are currently taking time to accomplish a few projects that will wrap up some aspect of the roof or other small items that were needed when we moved in.  We are also making plans for what needs to be (and can successfully be) accomplished before Honey Bee's arrival.  Our projects will also likely slow down now that Chris is back to work and we will be taking time for childbirth/parenting preparation classes in the next month.  However, we decided to take on the project of moving our office/computer equipment from the master bedroom "retreat area" to the living room.  This will hopefully allow us to make better use to the living room space and allow for an empty space in the master bedroom to set up a changing table and other items for Honey Bee.  We would like to eventually use the 2nd bedroom for the baby, but we have to evaluate some possible needed repairs/improvements...especially considering that room seems to have some more serious rain water damage and has a very musty smell.

Lastly, Cheryl's role in the roof project has now started - she wasn't able to be up on the roof, but she was able to help pick up debris in the yard that fell or was thrown off the roof...and we knew the inside of the house would need serious cleaning from the dust that fell off the ceiling due to the pounding and roof work.  We waited until the roof was completely finished, but now Cheryl is doing her part with a thorough dusting, washing, and vacuuming.

Pictures are available in the Home Improvement album

After a week of hard work, the roof is definitely coming along!  On Saturday the new beam supports were in place and the fascia boards were put up.  The carpenter is going to work on Sunday and Monday to get new insulation put in and plywood on top to finish the eaves project.  We then have a roofer lined up, who will have a tear off company come in on Tuesday morning to tear off the rest of the roof.  The carpenter will come back in the afternoon if we find that there are any rotten pieces of plywood and repair/replace those so we can know we have a good, solid roof.  Then the roofer hopes to be able to put on the new roofing material between Wednesday and Friday!  Whew!

Completion of this roof project (which has been a big one) will be the last of the major projects we knew we'd need to take care of right away with hired contractors.  It's been pretty stressful, but after that we can work on getting things ready for Honey Bee's arrival and hopefully trying our hands at a few DIY projects. =)

Our week of projects around the house has started and is moving along nicely.  Chris worked over the weekend to tear down rotting wood stairs that were attached to two unusable sliding glass doors.  He hopes to work at some point on replacing these doors with windows.  He was also able to tear down the rustiest of the three sheds that were on the property.

On Monday Chris started working with a professional carpenter to tear off the old eaves on the house.  They will be removing a section of the roof for the purpose of adding support beams for the new eaves that will be installed (something that was lacking in the old eaves and a reason they were sagging).  As we are coming to expect with each demolition project, there were some interesting discoveries as the demolition began.  The guys found out that the composition roof was laid over plywood, underneath which was slate shingle roofing.  It also appears that in some places the space between the ceiling of the rooms and the base roof is very narrow, meaning it may be impossible to fit in the larger style of wood beams for supporting the eaves, so we may need have 1 foot eaves instead of 2 foot eaves.

Chris has also been working in the evenings on a project to fit a wooden shelf for our fish tank.  This gave him his first opportunity to make use of his new compound miter saw!

More to come as the projects continue...

The week of Christmas has been pleasant.  Cheryl was able to work on making a variety of Christmas cookies, some of which we took to our new neighbors and had opportunities to make some connections.  On Christmas eve we went to a 5pm Christmas Eve service at the Santee campus of the church we've been attending, then came home for Cheryl to finish making a "Christmas dinner" - roast turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, and bread rolls.  It was a nice dinner, shared by just the two of us.

The next day we enjoyed what is likely our last Christmas morning to sleep in for a while, then Cheryl made Ebelskivers (a tradition from her dad's side of the family) with ham and bacon.  We opened our stocking gifts (from each other) and other gifts, then had Chris' parents over for a lunch of miniature cold meat sandwiches and spent the afternoon visiting with them.  A highlight that many enjoyed (a bit surprisingly) was one of Cheryl's stocking stuffers - a DVD of a fire in a fireplace which we had running on the TV.  People enjoyed watching it and noticing variations like a new log being put on.

The upcoming week includes time that Chris will be taking as vacation from work.  He hopes to work on a few small projects around the house, like demolishing the decaying wooden stairs outside the house.  Originally he had hoped to take out two unnecessary sliding glass doors and frame in windows, but instead we have arranged with a carpenter to tear out and replace the eaves on the house so that we can get the new roof put on (something that is urgently needed - we have discovered that there are major leaks in the roof).  Chris is going to add his manpower to the project, which will help us keep the cost down and be a neat opportunity for him to learn a bit more about carpentry.

We have a variety of pictures from the week available on the Pictures page.

Chris' company needed to send some IT personnel to Portland to finish packing up equipment from the Portland office before the building lease expired at the end of December.  Chris was included on this job, which meant an opportunity for both of us to have a trip to Portland, with only needing to pay for Cheryl's plane ticket.  Cheryl was able to spend the weekdays visiting family and friends, while Chris worked on the tasks at the office.  Most evenings were spent going out to dinner with Chris' co-workers, which was enjoyable and Chris found he had a lot of favorite restaurants he was glad to be able to visit.  We had also planned to spend a few extra days in town, making a mini-vacation lasting Saturday through Tuesday.  We ended up spending the majority of this time visiting with friends and family as a couple, which made for a busy weekend but a good opportunity for fellowship.  We were also able to get out to see the Zoolights and to wander around the Northwest 23rd area (aka "Nob Hill").  We enjoyed some chilly days and, toward the end of the trip, a little bit of good old Portland "liquid sunshine" (rain). 

Our flight back to San Diego brought us into town around 2:30pm.  What Chris didn't know is that Cheryl had planned a surprise birthday party for him, since Tuesday was his 29th birthday.  So we got settled in a bit at the house and then friends and family stopped by between 5:30pm and 8:30pm for an "open house".  It was a time for chatting and having our first chance to host people at our home, something we hope to repeat in the future.  The party made for a bit of a tiring day, but was an enjoyable time.  Now we are really getting settled into our routines at the house, with the bathroom being completed and enabling us to stay at the house!  Cheryl is working on taking care of any tasks she can during the days and Chris has plans for lots of jobs during the evenings, weekends, and his upcoming vacation days between Christmas and New Year's.

We didn't get a chance to take many pictures while in Portland, but I remembered to get a few pictures during Chris' birthday party, which can be seen on our "Pictures" page.

Just a quick update.  We are still staying at our friend's house instead of our new home, since the bathroom work is yet to be completed.  There is definite progress, but there have also been the typical bumps in the road - problems with pipes that weren't known about until the old tub got removed.  We also thought we had figured out our contractors for the roof and eaves work that need to be done, but we discovered there had been a communication breakdown at some point in our phone conversations and we had misunderstood the bid for the work.  So we are now on hold for that work to be done.

We recognize these challenges as normal and as opportunities to practice trusting God's grace and provision for us in all circumstances, especially when the natural tendency is to get frustrated at not being able to live in our new home yet.  That time will come, however!  =)

Meanwhile, we've been able to get the majority of boxes unpacked, have all our utility accounts set up, and have completed most of the work to register our new address with government agencies (voting, post office, DMV).  So we keep chugging along and seek to have patience with anything that is outside our control.

The last few days have been busy with cleaning projects and coordinating services, but we are now at the point of being ready to move our things into our new home!

Tenting was accomplished as our first project (fumigating for termites), and as soon as the house was cleared for re-entry, Cheryl recruited help to get a cast iron/porcelain tub moved from the store into the house, in preparation for the plumber's work on the bathroom.  Cheryl went over to the house the next day and got a lesson in caring for citrus trees from her aunt.  The trees have been neglected a bit, but we're hoping they will grow healthy and strong with a bit of TLC.

On Monday, Chris' mom and joined Cheryl in a day of cleaning at the house.  It was a day of hard work and definite progress, although it was obvious that such a small group of people (one of them being pregnant and needing to take things slow) would not be able to clean the whole house in a day.  The contractor started work on the bathroom Monday morning as well, getting the old tub and shower surround out by midday.  Chris' mom joined Cheryl again on Tuesday morning to work on finishing up a few projects and we were joined by Chris after he got off his flight from Toronto.  Chris and Cheryl then spent the afternoon at the house, with Chris having an opportunity to inspect the house and start working on little projects he felt particularly interested in addressing right away.

As the contractor continued his work on the bathroom, as is inevitable in an older house, he found some complications in the form of substandard plumbing pipes.  This extended the bathroom job longer than we had been hoping for, but the contractor was available to come back the next day and continue the work.  By Wednesday morning we were able to get the last of the utilities connected (except cable, which we have to wait until the company can contact the previous residents & get their permission to disconnect the existing account)...the last being our gas service, which powers the heat, water heater, and stove.  Wednesday also saw the delivery of our new washer and dryer, and an amazing day of hard work from Chris to wrap up washing the walls & windows, along with steam cleaning the carpets in the whole house!  Cheryl was not feeling well in the morning, so she started out taking care of tasks like starting mail forwarding service.  In the afternoon she was able to join in cleaning walls and counters in the kitchen.  It's amazing what scrubbing with a toothbrush and cleaner can do to grimy grout! =)

By the end of Wednesday, we were able to leave the house with the carpets completely shampooed and ready to dry.  The contractor had finished installing the tub and drywall, making him ready for putting in the tile surround on Friday.  We feel pretty confident that we have done our best to thoroughly clean this house and make it ready for us to move in!  We've also coordinated with family and friends who are available to help us move our things in on Friday, although we'll wait to see what progress is made in the bathroom on Friday before deciding whether we will start living in the house that night.  Today, however, we are taking Thanksgiving as a day of much needed physical rest before beginning the moving boxes/furniture and unpacking phase!