Its Been Too Long

Just wanted to give an update on our progress, don't want anyone to think we're slacking off. So, projects:

Wedding - I was gone for most of last week to a wedding. It went well - Hannah and Daniel are officially married! I think Daniel turned out to be taller than anyone was expecting. But, apparently Hannah was still able to reach him during the ceremonial smearing of the wedding cake. Why do people do that any way? Not that I didn't expect Hannah to give it her best.. This sort of thing is right up her alley... :)

Living Room - While I was gone, August put a couple more layers of paint on the ceiling and started the walls in the living room. We went back and forth on this paint color. Its a little boring, maybe more beige than we originally intended. But its grown on me, and I think it will turn out nicely. Our "open floorplan" means the living room color will end up on half the house without some creative intervention. All the walls just flow together.. The ceiling is another story. Its now flat as can be, but little differences in texture show up everywhere. After much debate, we have decide to try to apply a spraycan orange-peel texture. The rest of the ceilings and walls in the house have this, so hopefully it will match well enough. So plan of attack: orange peel ceilings -> paint ceilings -> paint ceilings again? -> 2nd coat of paint on walls -> hang crown molding -> paint bay window -> pull up carpet!! -> install new mantel -> install new floor molding -> DONE!

Kitchen - We are now the proud owners of a used counterdepth stainless steel refrigerator. Its very swanky. Came off craigslist of course. Getting it home was a real adventure. We had planned to avoid the highways on the way home, since we didn't want to go over 30mph or so. But the path I had selected was obviously going right through a rain storm. (RAIN?!?) In Denver, no hills and no trees, you can see for miles... Luckily most all roads here go perfectly N/S or E/W, so we were able to make it home without too much trouble.

The fridge is fabulous. We are working on installing a water line for the ice maker. It is nearly done but not quite. I'm sure we'll be done this afternoon. Running the water line was easy - the hot water heater is directly below the fridge in the basement. Anyways, this picture is our new design inspiration. We'll see how it turns out in the end...

Rain - In addition to the rain storm in Denver, it rained here last night as well. This is the first real rain since late May. Its about dang time.. apparently not unusual for these parts, but sure seems strange to August and I. We are just excited about not having to run the sprinkler system. All the plants look nice and perky this morning.

Couch - I got a sewing machine for my b-day. So now I can finish the couch project. A place to sit - very exciting in this household! I've got miles and miles of welting to make up, and several box pillows to sew, we'll see how that turns out. My own grandmother, a great seamstress in her day, recommended I have an upholsterer do them for me..

Farewell, Woodland Creatures

**Que the "Bambi" soundtrack** We've just passed a major milestone at the Johnson residence: the sale of our four lovely deer statues which were left here for us by the previous owner. We will miss them, but not that much since we made $90 off their sale. This was only my second Craigslist sale and I got calls from 2 lovely old ladies. The first promised to be here by 7:30pm to pick them up, so when Old Lady #2 called, telling me about how long her husband had wanted some of those, it broke my heart just a little bit. Unfortunately for #2, Lady #1 did turn up on time with cash. She was overjoyed according to August. And only maybe 60, not quite old enough for her love of deer yard ornaments to be cute. Old Lady #2 was REALLY old, by the sound of her voice... I wish I had more little deer statues to sell her. Alas...

In memorium, here are some shots of the deer with Bethany from last weekend. (side note: Bethany got stranded overnight at the Denver airport, so we got a fabulous and very unexpected visit from her. I encourage all of you to route your flights through Denver... You never know...)

A final tribute: This is hilarious for about the first 30 seconds.

Storm Troopers

This weekend we tackled our first cosmetic upgrade in the house - "painting" the living room ceiling. It was a LOT of work. Maybe a little more than we expected. We are still debating about whether we will similarly "paint" the other ceilings or not. Either way, the living/dining room is nice and the kitchen was already nice, so now that whole level is "nice". There are two other levels which aren't as nice...

Here's a picture of us right before we started. In our opinion, you can never be to careful when you're dealing with "paint".

SketchUp!

Hello Internet Audience. Today I thought I would share about our use of Google's fabulous 3-D modeling software SketchUp. (like ketchup...) Being the tech-nerds that we are, this sort of software is right up our alley. August and I actually measured the house entirely during the inspection. Most of the SketchUp model was done before closing.. Since then I have used it to try out my various remodelling ideas.

The best thing about SketchUp is that its free. To make a model of your home, all you need to do is take measurements of all major wall/window/door dimensions. Little stuff like cabinets can be added later. Everything starts out as white, but you can "paint" with a variety of built-in surfaces, brick, tile, wood.. One useful tip is that you can easily change the color of any surface.. ex. I changed the brick surface that comes with Sketchup to resemble the more pinkish tone of our fire place. You can also use your own pictures of your own tile or whatever to make it even more accurate. Some other tips:

• Save frequently... does lock up on occasion.
• If you have a split level home, consider making each level in a different file. August insisted that the entire house be all in one file, and now its a real headache to view the lower levels of the home.
• You can import drawing files from a cad program. This is WAY easier than doing the wall layout in SketchUp directly. Once you import, you have to trace over the walls with the SketchUp pencil, but that part's easy...
• You can import other people's models into your own from Google's Online Warehouse. Some of them are really good.. see the range and microwave below...

Here's a shot of our whole-house model.. sans roof...

Here's a view of the inside of the house. Not the way it currently looks of course.. A couple of renovation ideas we are working on are how to economically update the hopelessly 70s kitchen, and how to make our weakling fireplace have more of a presence.

And finally, to demonstrate one last SketchUp feature: a tour of the house starting at the basement up to the kitchen. *WARNING: may make you a little nauseous..* I'm not the best at steering the camera...

Elk.

For all those who just didn't get enough of the elk from mh's previous post......










If that is still not enough, you can view the whole album here:

Rocky Mountain National Park - July 4, 2008

For Purple Mountain Majesties

Did I mention that my parents were here visiting us all week? We have a guest bedroom now, complete with real mattresses and pillows - you should come visit!

Anyways, we very appropriately decided to celebrate the 4th of July by visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. How can you get any more American than that? We weren't the only ones with that idea either, but we managed to steer clear of the congestion most of the time.

It is amazing there in the summer. I highly recommend it. There are waterfalls and babbling mountains brooks everywhere, and still snow in some places. There are tons of hiking trails for all levels. Fortunately for my mother, you can get higher than 12,000 feet above sea-level without getting out of the car. (The Subaru was a real sport about the whole thing.)

We should really drive up to the mountains more often. They are only 30 miles from here.. Thats like driving from Columbus to Starkville, but somehow it seems like a real trek. (Note to self: Spend more time doing "Colorado"-type things.)

Here's a few pictures:































<< This is where some antler-ed
animal been scratching his head.
Now you know.















Ignore that "u-turn" sign.
These elk are WILD.

Multi-Tasking

This week we have so many projects going that there's no time for blogging. My parents are here helping especially with the electrical stuff. Here's what's going on, for the record:

• Re-wiring the microwave so that it has its own circuit, rather than being on the one with half the house and causing all the lights to dim. *DONE*
• Installing the whole house fan. This includes adding 6 soffit vents, cutting a whole in the ceiling, and moving the hallway light. This one is *ALMOST DONE*
• Pig-tailing and re-pig-tailing the aluminum. And other electrical upgrades like putting GFI plugs in the bathrooms. *ALMOST DONE*
• Cleaning and re-staining the deck. *not done*
• Also a variety of craft projects related to my dear friend's upcoming wedding! Hannah, what do you think of the flower girl basket?