December 2007

Hey, it's the month of my title! The 28th day of the month, but still.


So, earlier in the month, Sean's company hosted an 80's-themed screening of one of the cheesiest movies of all time: Aspen Extreme. We had to dig in the big bag of ski-clothes goodies. I believe we came up with some gems (yes, that is a side ponytail I'm sporting. I should have made it much higher - it just doesn't translate):



As did many others:


And we made time to find ourselves a not-quite-Charlie-Brown-but-damn-close Christmas tree. We will call him George:





A happy 2008 to all! May all our wildest dreams come true...

November 2007

Hah! I have now procrastinated long enough that I am behind again, and can therefore stick with my cop-out post title, the oh-so-creative "November 2007." Whew.

No house stuff in November, though we did get to do some really fun non-house things. Like take a trip to Mexico to visit Buzz and Mary at their new house, where we were spoiled rotten with lots of beach and palapa bar time and Ramiro's margaritas, along with some great days of fishing.

Why, yes, that is a 75-pound monster tuna that Sean caught (and we brought home)!


Of course, he caught it with a little (a lot of!) help from Buzz and Mary, so everyone got to pose with it back on the dock:

What a great fight that was! So, not to be outdone, I got to catch my very first sailfish - so, so, so exciting! That is wonderful Marco posing as well, who not only baited every line for us, and helped us bring every fish into the boat (check out his "chain mail" gloves - quite the teeth on this one!), but fileted the ones we kept, and put them on ice, ready to be frozen and taken back to Colorado. Thank you, Marco!

We also had many wonderful dinners with Buzz and Mary, and with their Baja friends (yes, those are the whitest legs you've ever seen - it was November and we live in Colorado!):

We also had John and his roommate Dan out for Thanksgiving, which we were lucky enough to celebrate with all the family at "the big house."

And what would Thanksgiving be without a little Guitar Hero? No holiday at all, that's what I say.

John and Dan also stayed at Cody and Annica's brand-new Rico house, and took these pictures:

November 21st:

November 23rd:

So, with that FOOT of snow that fell overnight and into the next day, we were able to get in a little cross-country skiing (the ski mountain wasn't open yet - bummer for the boys):

October 2007

Hey, we're practically caught up! (now I'll actually have to start coming up with post titles) And... wonder of wonders, the rain quit and we were able to pour the slab, again with the help of wonderful friends (what would we do without you guys?).

Heat tubing, to keep our toes toasty:

In no time at all... the concrete was down, in One:

Two:

Three:

Then the real work began: floating, floating and more floating. With a whole lot of waiting, waiting, and more waiting in between. So what better way to kill time than to arm Anna with "her" floating tool (a butter knife) and take pictures? There may or may not have been a bottle of the Veuve involved in that one. But hey, it made killing time fun.

Here we are, hard at "work:"

It was a constant battle to keep the falling aspen leaves off the surface (it was a very windy afternoon!)

And, finally, success! A finished slab. Time to put this baby to bed for the winter. After, of course, our Halloween party...

Where much fun was had!

September 2007

Slow month, waiting for the rain to stop so that we can finally pour the slab. We did lots of research on creating a slab that would serve as our finished floor, contacting the plumber to see if our existing tankless water heater would serve our entire in-floor heat system, including the existing house and the addition (it will, thank goodness!), and ordering supplies. We also watched some football (Go Pack!) and got some well-deserved rest. We did not, however, take any pictures. So how about some interior before-and-afters?

VANITY (thank you, Shane and Sandy!):

Before:

After:

There is a new after, with completed shelf and finished walls, but in the interest of getting this post out there (amazing how I can find so many other things to do at home than to take a picture of the vanity!), it will wait until I get around to it.

KITCHEN:

Before (yep, taken through the front door before we owned the place and got a key - note my head in the reflection):

After:

My January posts will include a WAY after, as Sean promises he'll have the new backsplash and hood that actually matches our stove up before Mom gets here in a few weeks!

August 2007

August's highlight was Sean's trip to Australia, where he saw some really cool stuff:

Made some friends:

Got to ski a little:

Oh, yeah, and did manage to squeeze in a little work, too!

While he was gone, a little surprise was in the works, thanks to our FANTASTIC neighbors, who made sure a little green made its way to our little house. Our first lawn!

July 2007

July in our household was all about landscaping! And what is landscaping all about? DIRT:

(note the gravel backfilled in the addition - progress happening there, too!)

Then, while I was back in Wisconsin for Mom's birthday (Happy 60th, Mom!), Sean nearly broke his back heaving many, many railroad ties into place to make the following absolutely gorgeous (hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder) retaining wall. It's okay to say wow.

Now all we need are some stairs, huh?

Man, are we proud of those things!

June 2007

June 4th, our first "concrete" progress (couldn't resist).

How Don managed to thread THIS particular needle, I have no idea, but couldn't resist getting a picture of it (note the hummingbird feeder - this activity did not interrupt THEIR activities one bit):

Footers completed! (and looking quite lovely, I might add)

Somewhere in all this, Sean found time to carve out a lower parking spot (with the help of a very large machine) and begin a rock retaining wall (with the help of a much smaller wife):

Then it was time to pick up the insulated concrete forms (ICFs), which we'd use to build our stem walls - we got some good looks on the highway THAT day!

It seemed some days like all we did was stack rocks, dig out rocks, move rocks, swear at rocks, tell rocks that if they didn't grow up and get a job, they were outta here - oh, wait. Not that last one. But let me tell you, there are really a whole lot of rocks here in the Rocky Mountains, most especially in our little 8,000 square feet of the Rocky Mountains. But they do make a lovely retaining wall, no?

After the ICFs were in place, it really started looking like something we might eventually live in... someday!

And now, on to July - here's a little preview: big piles of dirt, a second attempt to backfill, lots of railroad ties and a birthday party. Intrigued?