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Monday, December 22, 2014

Did we do this right?

And when I say "did WE do this right", I mean Kyle did you mess up. So Kyle takes me up to the property yesterday to walk through the layout. Now all that's there is what I showed you last week, boards all around set up for the cement footings to be poured. Guys I was scared. I got all high-pitched and was like "Kyle, did you measure this right?!" It seems so small. Obviously it is not, but in that giant outside space, I'm looking from one corner to another and I'm trying to figure out in my pretty little head how two bedrooms and a bathroom-  jack/jill bath btw- are supposed to fit in that space. I just don't get it or SEE it. After my slight hyperventilating (did you hear me Mike and Shari?) Kyle assured me all the measurements are right. I'm just going to have to trust him and some guy named Ted who's helping him out. 


Kyle was a bit annoyed, not at me for the moment, that the county was supposed to come out on Friday and do an erosion inspection. Shockingly, no one came. And of course, we can't have the inspection for the footing braces done until the erosion inspection is checked off...and the cement trucks come tomorrow. Yep. So Kyle was in freak-out mode. But his builder friend Ted made some calls and supposedly the county was going to come out today and tomorrow morning to fix it all up. I am fairly certain that this is going to be the pattern throughout this build.


So hopefully tomorrow the footings are poured, and then I have no idea what the next thing is. I think then they have to do some more rebar stuff...more forms and then maybe the full foundation. I have no idea. I'm trying to figure out what counter tops I want (still) and If I want all white cabs for the kitchen or maybe do the island in an espresso. This is what keeps me up at night. This early stage stuff is boring, but obviously necessary to get to the parts I think are important.


Christmas is this week and I'm still waiting for a few packages to be delivered (please don't disappoint Amazon Prime). I have been eating horribly, and loving every minute of it. Except my pants, they are not loving the tightness. Tis the season.


This weeks highlights were hanging out with Peyton Friday. He was so stinking cute. I had him dressed up in these H&M jeans with suspenders- he asks "are this like daddys work jeans?", and his new NY hat that nana and papa brought home for him. He was at the nail salon with me (kyle cringes) and the owners little boy was there, looked to be 5 too, and the boy told Peyton he was super handsome! Peyton was sooooo shy. My nails turned out fabulous too I think. Then Friday night I had my book club xmas party. No book this month, just wine...so it was a regular meeting :-) Love my BC girls and looking forward to another year.




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

It's starting...

So things are starting to shape up around Camus Road. Kyle has cleared the property, dug out for the foundation, put in a gravel road and now the form boards are up to start the foundation pour this weekend. We got our bid this week for the framing, $39k! Ouch. But a nice bonus was that included the siding for the house. The power company is lined up to come out the first week of January to hook up temporary power during construction. So looks like the coal is loaded and this train is pulling out of the station! FINALLY!!


Speaking of trains...This past weekend the Camus clan headed down to Portland to visit Kyle's sister Lynsie and her family. We watched the movie polar express Friday night and then on Saturday took the kids to the Mt. Hood Railroad station and did the "polar express" train ride. It was so fun, they really liked it. They all wore matching PJs. Got to enjoy these moments while they last, pretty sure Ellie isn't going to believe in Santa much longer. She's a little on the fence this year. After all that, Saturday night we let the kids make gingerbread houses. That was interesting. I think there was more eating going on that building. And the putting the whole house together is always tricky. Ellie lost her roof about 2 minutes after I took a photo of her completed house.




I am nearly done with all my holiday shopping. I have done 95% of my shopping on-line. I just don't have the time to make it to the stores, and well frankly I don't want to go to the stores and deal with all the people. My Grinch side I guess. Only store I've actually shopped for is at Spruce and Bon Lemon. Other than that, my amazon prime membership has been getting good use. Now I just have to do the whole wrapping thing.


I've actually missed not having my own tree to decorate, or house to put holiday decorations up in. I've never been a huge decorator but of course this year I've found all this things I'd love to get to make a house festive. Next year...


and for my WIWW, well I'm wearing what I wore in my last WIWW: Sweater + Leather. Its been my go-to for the past few Wednesdays.


Have a Happy Holiday!

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Inspiration: Master Bath

I am actually a little stumped on this one. One minute I like large marble tiles for the flooring, or tile that looks like hardwood. And then there is cabinet color, I like white or I like grey- light or dark. So...I feel I have no real focus yet for this room. I do know I want a pedestal tub, and we will have a walk in shower (no door thing).


Here is the layout of our bathroom:














And here are photos I'm inspired by, again you'll see I'm a little all over the place. What's your favorite?









Monday, December 1, 2014

Dirt + Dirt + Dirt





This is not a fun stage. I see progress...but its all brown. It was quite muddy on Friday. Then by Sunday it was frozen dirt. All forms of browness. Kyle and my brother-in-laws spent the entire holiday weekend working on our property. They worked on the road/driveway. Then cleared more trees, and burned lots and lots of brush. The dug the trench for the power company to come and lay the power line stuff..or whatever they put in the trench. And at last they put pretty little pink flags on the stakes to mark the corners of the house.


Now I know my house is plenty big. But when you are standing at one stick, and looking at the other stick...it seems so small. I was assured plenty of times that it is just fine. Sue and I went up on Friday to help place the house. Kyle needed to know exactly where I wanted it to sit, angled, etc. In the end, Sue drove us around on the 4 wheeler so we could get to what would be the back yard. That was extremely entertaining. We were all bundled up and creeping along slowing over big mud piles. A boy would have been flying through it, we were squealing.


So I think everything looks right. Again, its all so brown its just hard for me to visualize. I believe the next step is to dig out for the foundation. So maybe that will help me SEE the footprint a little better. Which that's all I heard about all weekend from the BILs "your footprint is so huge!" I get it, its a rambler, its going to be big.
Ron bought a new excavator (well new to him) and brought it home Friday. He was up at the top of the hill with it when I was leaving. Peyton in his totally amazed voice says "Did we get a new excavator!" Boys and big toys are always amazing.


This Wednesday will mark 2 weeks since we turned in our paperwork for building permits. No word yet, but that's not a shocker. Maybe we'll hear something this week, but no one will be holding their breathe.


So while the men were up at the property doing the manly chores, the women were down at the house helping clean out what I refer to as the hoarder rooms. Now granted, Sue's home has been a dumping ground for all her kids stuff, or stuff from their weddings, etc. And because she has had all this "stuff" it's come in handy during family events. But things were just a little out of control, and well she just couldn't see what she even had. So day 1 we tackled the ONE bedroom not being occupied and is a holding area for all these party supplies. Karlye got some shelving from home depot and we whipped that together and loaded it up. We found lots of family heirlooms as well as business paperwork from 1975. By the end of the day we had a pile to burn/garbage, we had a good will pile and there was a clean room with a bed for guests. Very successful


Day 2 consisted of the hoarder closet down in the basement. Let me tell you, none of us will EVER have to buy ribbon for a gift again. Sue has collected every color, pattern and width of ribbon ever made. She is always asked to do wedding flowers, so she has bought ribbon for those projects. She loves making wreaths and is good at it, so she has a ton of ribbon for those craft projects, and then of course there is ribbon just for gift wrapping. I swear I organized over 500 rolls. But now she can see what she has, and I can see what I can borrow.


We survived the holiday with lots and lots of family. We got to make authentic Mexican tamales with my brothers fiancé and her family. That only took 4 hours. I am all about the Costco ones now. Also, I got made fun of because apparently you don't eat the corn husk, its just to keep it all together. Well I did not know that! After spending all that time spreading the corn mix on the husk, and steaming it I figured you got to eat it too. But after one bite, and it was really tough, I second guessed that. Everyone had a good laugh at me. Granted authentic taste amazing. I ate way too much pie. I love it, pecan, pumpkin and banana crème.


Friday, to help do something after eating so much pie, I went to a barre fitness class at Focus Fitness here in Olympia. OMG, it was so great and so hard. I am not a sweater. In fact I've asked my dad if maybe my sweat glands are broken because I just don't really sweat. Well this class proved they aren't broken. Now I know what Ballerina's and dancers are in such amazing shape. I highly recommend a class if you are looking for something different to add to your routine.


Hopefully I can report something fun next week. We are nearing the end of 2014 and my Christmas wish is to be breaking ground by the new year. It'll be close.