Happy Thanksgiving!

1st Grader's Turkey that turned out looking way more like a turkey than mine did.

Mine looks like a goose pretending to be a Turkey.

We had our friend thanksgiving last saturday it was so much fun, sadly I only got a before picture without any of the people. It was so fun to be able to host all of our friends and we found out our house isn't as un kid friendly as we thought. Ralph's deep fried turkeys were great but everyone brought great food. Happy Turkey Day Everyone! Enjoy your Families!

New Paint!

After, Just need to paint the awning a fresh coat of white.

Before

Basement Apartment

After a lot of hard work and effort, our basement apartment is finally ready to be rented out. We ripped out the ceiling put in new plumbing, duct work, electrical, and insulation, put in canned lights, repainted, and put in new windows. Whew! We have some cute renters set up to move in December after they get married. So now that we have the homeowner/handy people thing down we will try out landlord! Woo hoo! More posts to come on our upstairs progress as well....

Yosemite

Thanks to Ralph's parents we went on a great family trip to Lake Tahoe and spent two days in Yosemite National Park. It was awesome as you can see from the pics. This is one of the Giant Sequoias.

This is Bridal Veil Falls... not the lame provo one.

Ralph looking cute!

Half Dome view from the hike we went on that was straight up the canyon sides, talk about switchbacks!

View of Yosemite falls from the hike we went on.

Squinty pic at a dam and pretty resevoir.

Salmon River Trip

Our group that went on the Salmon River. Thanks to ralphs brother Jesse I got to go on a week long trip down the Salmon river in Idaho. It was an awesome trip.

After a few cold rainy days this hot spring felt AMAZING! As you can see it was a popular stopping point along the river.

Jesse let me row one day! It was so fun, except for the part where I got us stuck on a rock, After I successfully rowed through a pretty big rapid I might add!

We saw a black bear!

Here is all of Ralphs Family member that went.

The movie is when we jumped from a bridge along the way!

House Colors Sketch

Here is a little sketch I did of our House. These are the colors I'm thinking for the front. I want to paint the siding gray (my new favorite color.) And I was thinking a fun bright green for the doors, with white trim. I still remember one of my favorite houses in Georgetown was this cute little rowhouse with gray siding, white trim and a bright green door. I'm still debating if the orange will go with it though. We will change out the accessories for some stainless steel ones, and change up the plants too, I'm thinking some modern looking grasses. And that awful awning out front will have to just get some fresh paint until we can redo that and the railings so some sort of cool tension wire railing. Here is the plan we will see if I can do it before the end of summer.

A picture says a thousand words...

Fun Birthday Buys!

Thanks to some birthday money, I've bought myself a few fun items. I have wanted this switch plate organizer since the moment I saw it. This is design genius! And the mobile from cb2 is also one I've had my eye on for a few months. Can't wait to put them in my new house!

Odd little Findings

Here are a few treasures we have found left by the previous original owners. Apparently they designed and built this house in 1959.

We found the original blueprints, which have come in very handy so far. I like the vertical original siding maybe one day we will go back to that.

We found this photo down in the crawl space. It is a picture from a new years eve party in 1947, we are unsure if these were the owners but Ralph has a sneeking suspicion that the creepy man on the left was the guy who lived here and he has hidden bodies or something in all the strange nooks and crannys in this house.

A nice little reminder on our bathroom toilet handle.

One day I took a shower with the door open and went in the other room to find this nice butterfly print on the steamy window must have been left over from a tacky window decal.

It is hard to decide which is my favorite find, but I think these trucks we found out in the shed under piles and piles of pinecones are my favorites. They are bit rusty but I think they will be fun toys for future kiddies!

Utilitarian Update

This in update for all those of you who actually care about our little house renovation, and actually think that looking at the guts of a house is fun. I know I know, all this is going to make our life a little better but it is not as exciting to me as the stuff I will actually see on, in, or around the house. Nonetheless, Ralph and some helpers are doing a great job.

This is what we have been drinking, showering, and washing in...Yuck!

Out with the old...

In with the new.

Our nice new cement pad for the central air Condenser! Yippee!

We added a nice little touch for someone else to find one day in the distant future.

New interior electrical panels...

New exterior power box.

Spring has Sprung, Finally!

We haven't quite figured out what kind of tree this is yet, cherry, maybe apple, it smells so good and is gorgeous.

Our giant apricot tree is looking beautiful this spring, as well as our apple tree next to it. We can't wait for the peonies to bloom.

One of our planter boxes ready for some veggies!

This is what Ralph has been working on, we ripped out the whole basement ceiling, to change the galvanized pipes, the elecrtrical, new ducting, and some good sound proofing insulation

Long Time Overdue!

Sorry for the hiatus we have been moving, and going to weddings, and graduating, and having art shows, and celebrating birthdays, and sending siblings on missions, and fixing up our new house! whew...we have been busy. One more month until I'm out of school and ralph has already gotten a good jump on our house renovations. But as we have discovered he is more of a guts and systems manager, and I'm more of a how things look kind of gal. So if your waiting for any exciting after pics you will have to wait a little while. In the meantime we would like to celebrate that we are now Homeowners! Yay!

The House!

Some things just work out the way they are supposed to. We found this house last week, and we made a first low-ball offer and they accepted! So we are doing our inspection this Tuesday, but things are looking good for us to close on this home in a few weeks. And we will be HOMEOWNERS! As my nephew would say, "Scary-Happy." We are so excited about this home it is over right behind Highland Park Elementary, on a quiet cul-de-sac. As you can see in the pics it is what I would call "Immaculately Sixties." It has lots of potential and has been very well cared for. It has a big yard and a basement apartment. If all goes well this is just the beginning of some very fun before/after picture posts!