White Christmas

White Christmas in SLC!

The snow has been pretty good here over the last week, but tonight it is really coming down even in the valley. Looks like Christmas will bring a fresh blanket of the white stuff and the skiing will be almost up to speed for Utah after a slow start to the season.

Although the forecast only calls for 2-4 inches in the valley, we have had a solid four inches in the last few hours with no sign of letting up!

Before and After

Before

After

Before

After

View of the south wall with quiet new dishwasher, sink, loads of working space, and small bookshelf.

View looking to the front of the house

Kitchen Bliss

We are now back in a functional kitchen, which is really great after having to seek out the bathroom for running water in the house. The countertops installation was finished on Wednesday and that same day the new sink was plumbed, dishwasher hooked up, and later that night we hosted an impromptu holiday dinner for 12! Although it was put together last minute and when Rina invited everyone the kitchen didn't have running water or a flat surface, it was a fun night and a great way to break in the new kitchen.

Dina, Isla and Alison.

There are a few finishing touches we need to do still (glass doors in cabinets, backsplash, paint touch-up, and eventually finish the floor), but the space that is the kitchen is soooooo much more functional, spacious, and better looking than the last version. It hasn't been in for a whole week yet, and already we have made more meals (a tenderloin, pizzas, lasagne, gingerbread javelinas, flapjacks, more pizzas) than weeks of being in the last kitchen.

The north wall of the kitchen with the new over the range microwave, slide in gas range, and two new work surfaces. 2 months ago this space was occupied by a hulking refrigerator.

A closer look at the countertop. It is made of 100% recycled paper and cashew resin. Find more about it at paperstoneproducts.com

One of the nice things about the paperstone product is you can work with it like wood, so we had our installer rout out a built in drain board which looks and works great!

What an improvement this is. The fridge is tucked out of the way where the little laundry closet used to be.

Albuquerque Thanksgiving

Rina, Lucy, and I drove the 10 hours down to Albuquerque to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and his wife. Lucy traveled really well, just lying in her bed, getting up to adjust her position every once in a while. We stopped a few times so she could walk, pee, and drink some water, but it seemed like she would have been just as happy driving the whole way straight.

Just before we left, Lucy had started to demonstrate these mothering/nesting behaviours by taking shoes, toys, slippers into her bed and keeping a close eye on them. No chewing, just gathering up her 'babies' and watching them in her nest. This behaviour continued in ABQ, much to the chagrin of Jorge, my dad's little dog. Lucy collected all of his toys; foxy, chicken, piglet, hedgehog, and others and proceeded to nest in his bed. Jorge wasn't quite sure what to make of all this intrusion, so he did what he could - barked. All night. Hopefully he settled down now that he has his territory and toys back.

Lucy in Jorge's bed with Jorge's hedgehog, piglet, and owl. The freaky chipmunk with the disproportionately large head is the only toy/baby of Lucy's.

It was beautiful weather there and we hiked from the tram up the la Luz trail with the dog. She wasn't allowed on the tram to come down, so Rina, Lucy and I turned around at 1/2 way and Tom continued up to the top and took the tram down. This hike is excellent, and I would recommend it to anybody in the ABQ area. About 8.5-9.0 miles, it traverses 5 distinct zones as it ascends. The view from the ridge is phenomenal. It is a bit of a slog, but I am sure anybody could do it, especially knowing that you can take the tram on the way down (in itself worth a trip to Sandia Peak).

Thanksgiving eve hike on la Luz trail.

Rob and Rina with the Sandia Peak antennae in the background.



Lucy-cam shot of the la Luz trail.

Sandia Peak at sunset. This is the view from the back yard. Especially nice after a snowfall.

Rob, Eleri, and Susan (Sam in the background), walking along the Rio Grande in the snow.

More of the same.

The kitchen is coming along. Here are a few more pictures taken after the hardware had been installed. Appliances are sitting in the living room at present waiting for installation tomorrow. Countertop selection is going to be made tomorrow as well. In keeping with the 'green' choice of refinishing the fir floors rather than install new, manufactured flooring, we are going to investigate some of these eco-friendly options like Paperstone, etc.

Our new 'built-in' fridge. The final product really looks great, considering how uneven the floor is.

Natural cherry cabinets with new hardware. There are glass windows for the upper cabinets yet to be installed. The beam on the right of the photo posed yet another installation challenge, but Mike rose to it and it really looks good.

View toward the front door. Getting the refrigerator out of the main kitchen space really makes the kitchen feel a lot bigger. Not big by any means, just bigger than it felt before.

Cabinets are in!

This is a reminder of our kitchen before. This was it, there were no cabinets on the north wall.

This is what we have on the north wall now. There will be an over the range microwave and gas range in the gap between cabinets. Previously this was just a blank wall with our refrigerator sticking out. The refrigerator has now been tucked into the old laundry closet.

So, after living in very cramped quarters with narrow corridors of boxes stacked to the ceiling, we are now really loving our new kitchen come together. Our installer has had his fair share of challenges with our very uneven ceilings and floors. He's done a great job. In a week, we will have our new appliances delivered and installed. Now we just need to pick out a countertop and sink.

Centennial update

In the midst of all this remodeling and the ever growing boundaries of the project we realized that the house will be 100 years old next year and this will be the centennial update that it deserves to both bring out its history and make it more functional in this modern world. Seems easier to justify the scope of the work we are doing knowing this bit of information. We plan on a centennial celebration when the whole deal is finished so everyone can see the final product.

In uncovering the Douglas fir wood floors, we decided to keep and refinish them rather than install new bamboo floors in the spirit of doing this as green as possible and bringing the house's history into plain view. They seem in pretty good shape overall. A few variations in color from years of use, but it all just adds character, eh?

Brown teepee on the walls ready for the cabinets.

BAM! Cabinets delivered.

Who stole the kitchen?

Having spent hours working out all the cabinet details with Erin (cabinet specialist at Lowes), we ordered a set of cherry cabinets about 4 weeks ago. Well, time passes and 4 weeks quickly go by and before we know it, we only just have enough time to remove the existing cabinets, tile and subfloor, and appliances, AND paint the walls before accepting delivery of the new cabinets. Rina assures me that the last few days have been the 'low point' in the upstairs remodel, as we are now using the bathroom sink for both hygenic and not so hygenic applications, due to lack of water in the kitchen. Here are a few photos of our bare bones kitchen.

View from the back of the house to the front door with cabinets and appliances removed, tile and subfloor removed. As we demolish the house in stages we are also learning more about its history. You can see where there was a rug nailed to the wood floor with the floor painted around it (in the middle of the house). Also there is evidence on the floor of the location of the old kitchen walls and old doorway to the kitchen.

View into the kitchen. Who stole the cabinets? What's up with the camouflage paint job? We decided on 'brown teepee' to the right of the doorway. The electrician's input swayed the final decision.

Oh, there they are, in the living room - naturally. We managed to sell these on craigslist in less than 24 hours!

Call the cath lab!

We are in the process of moving to the next step and finding someone to finish the basement once the digging has been completed. Funny how it seems fairly simple on paper and in our heads, but once you start talking to these contractors, there are a lot of little (or not so little) things that come to light and need to be addressed. For instance, the plumbing for the basement either has to be evacuated via a sewage ejector that is recessed in the basement floor and pumped up to the main drain, OR the main drain needs to be dug out and relocated a few feet lower all the way out to the city sewer. Take a peek at the cross section of the small section of pipe that Ivo cut out while excavating. Based on this nearly compete obstruction, we are wanting to replace the main drain line rather than go with a sewer ejector. We patiently await a bid to see how much this will cost. If these were coronary arteries a CABG would be in order.

Left drain pipe - what should be a patent center is crammed with, well sewage, I guess.
Center pipe - you can see a lot of roots obstructing the pipe. The creamy center is where the remaining 2-3 inches of space was draining the waste from the house.

The day Mike and Jen posted their kitchen color dilemma, we ran into the same problem. Now I am voting for sticking with the camouflage look. It is hard to predict what the color will look like on the wall with the cabinets installed . It's easy to see why people play it safe and go with white or some variation of very light tan.

Neffs Canyon Hike

Lucy, Rina and I went for a beautiful fall hike in Neffs Canyon the other day. All the leaves had turned and most had fallen already. It is a steep hike, which means that you climb out of the inverted smoggy air quickly. the view down into Salt Lake gives you a good perspective, but makes you realize how bad the air can get in the valley during the winter.

Rina and myself at the meadow just below the Big Cottonwood ridgeline.

Good girl Lucy!

View down the canyon to smoggy SLC.

Rina and the alpenglow.

One tired doggie.

Come Lucy!

Archeologic discovery

The basement excavation continues to move ahead as expected. Over 8 Mack truck loads of earth has been relocated to the landfill, leaving the furnace and water heater stranded in the middle of the basement. The majority of the walls have been underpinned, and there has only been a few minor cracks here and there. Today, Ivo knocked on the door to show us that he uncovered an old well under the bedroom.

Airing out the dirt from under the house.

The furnace and water heater shored up as the earth around them are removed bit by bit.

The view from the new front window (to-be).

The south wall underpinned with new concrete footings and wall.
Pretty straight considering the age of the existing walls.

A 6 foot deep piece of history.
We can only presume this is the remnant of a well or outhouse from when the house was built in 1908!
It's under the addition on the back of the house.

Las Vegas and back

Last week Rina and I drove down to Las Vegas for a CME conference where we met up with Sam and Megan and their crew. En route we camped for a night at Zion National Park and went for a short hike. It was the first time either of us had been there, and we were duly impressed by the canyon and surrounding rock formations. We are definitely going back for some real exploring.

Fall

As it was, even with a brief hike the morning that the conference started, we rushed to get to Las Vegas, cutting it down to the wire, checking in all sweaty, plopped down in our seats waiting for everything to get started only to realize that something wasn't right. There were only 10 people in this vast lecture hall, and no one seemed in a rush to get started. It wasn't until about 30 minutes of waiting that we realized there was an hour time difference between Utah and Nevada, so although we thought we got there right on time, we were actually an hour early! Much to Rina's relief.