Sum-sum-summer

We have a bona fide closet!!!! This is exceptionally exciting. No joke. This is our very first legit closet since being married. Amazing, it is, being able to gently hang so many clothes and having shelving on which to put our neatly folded clothes. It's a wonderful thing not having to use all our body weight to shift our bursting-at-the-seams hanging rod just to squeeze a single hanger in the mix, thus creating an even more wrinkled item of clothing. And how wonderful having more than three shelves to share and CRAM our balled up mess of clothes onto. We have ample storage, and are on our way to a more organized existence. BIG SIGH. Thanks Chippy and Brett!!

Amidst serious summer-time activities this weekend (have I mentioned how I love Ashland?!?), B managed to get going on tiling the vanity in our bathroom (can I get an Amen?!). Chip came over and helped, and got the top cranked out within an afternoon. We just have to grout and install the sink (today!), and the vanity will be pretty well good to go!

Here the boy is, surveying his work. Job well done!!

Further proof that we've been enjoying sum-sum-summer. On Saturday we went for a lovely hike to the top of Mt. Ashland with the Wizard, and enjoyed our sammies at the summit. It was wonderful. The place we call home is kinda...ummm...BEAUTIFUL.

Baby Steps

We are making baby steps toward completion, peoples. We finally turned our tool room into our bedroom, quite literally (little else fits :). Getting carpet in our room has made it feel like we are 1000x closer to being done! We even slept in our room last night for the first time. Brett made the assessment that that was probably the first time anyone had ever slept in the garage. Yup. Such trailblazers!

We've been taking baby steps with the bathroom, too. The floor is complete (thanks to chippy), the trim is up and painted, the light fixture hung, the (SECOND) toilet is set, the vanity base is in place, the shower is totally ready to be tiled (thanks to adam and brett), the tile is purchased, the counter design is established. we are getting there!

Here's our office, pretty well dialed. We have some little things to do yet, but it's finally fairly organized and workable! Brett built our wonderful desks, enabling us to retire our doors-on-sawhorses, and put up all the shelving recently. Since I spend much of my time in here, I finally feel like I can breathe. Sigh...

Good Riddance!

I have little to say, other than halle-freaking-lujah!

The Clampets of Park

Remember when I posted about the trees we had fallen? This is what our backyard looked like...and has looked like for the past 3 months. Every time I looked out the window I got a headache thinking about all the work that was required.

Be sure to take note of Brett. He is in these two photos to bring this situation more to scale. About half of our yard became engulfed by the massive Siberian Elm remains.

Fast-forward to Saturday morning. We hired two guys to help us tackle the tree situation. I thought, for sure, it would take the entire Saturday to clear the yard. Much to our elation, we started working at 9:30 am, and 4 1/2 hours later we were basically done. It was incredible!

Note: we had to individually drag each limb, each wheelbarrow load around the side of our house within a 31" area, which happens to be our only viable access to the yard. Hence the difficulty.

Here we go, our almost-cleared backyard!

We forgot how big our yard is! We are now able to see the back fence, and the far corners. Oh, yeah, and we're still able to see all the ivy.

Brett continued working hard on the demolition and removal of the (what once was a) fort after the guys had left. So our yard is even more cleared than these photos show.

What once served as a major headache is now over and done with. The job we were dreading the most is behind us. We are able to breathe a bit deeper now.

The neighbors, on the other hand...

This is what they have to look at until we figure out how we're going to get all the remains chipped.

We absolutely are the Clampets of Park Street.

Tap that

If only we could put a tap in our chimney...

...we would have an endless supply of honey...

...and so would you.

If only.

When we tell people that we have a "bee problem" I'm not convinced the people quite understand the degree to which this problem exists. Perhaps a photo will help illustrate what we're talking about?

Disclaimer: if you have an aversion to bees, shield your eyes. If you are allergic, the mere sight of this photo may cause you to go into anaphylactic shock. Proceed with caution.

Apparently the previous owner of our sweet little home was privy to the fact that she shared her home with thousands of bees...for 10-15 years! After my extensive research on how to properly address this situation, and many beekeeper conversations later (including contact with the President of the local Beekeeper's Association), I've come to learn that a hive that has been established for a "long period of time" has the potential to hold bees in numbers exceeding 30,000. Whaaaaaat? Well, "long period of time" certainly applies to us. I've been told that it is very possible that the hive that is comfortably situated IN our chimney could take up the length and width...of our entire chimney!!

A local beekeeper and his son have decided to take on the task of trying to lure our bees out of our chimney. They have set up a one way trap, meaning that bees can leave the hive, but are unable to return, and a temporary hive (the white box shown in the photo above).

Last Saturday night they came to collect "some" bees. It proved to be the perfect post-dinner entertainment for us (joining us were the Dicks, visiting from Eureka, and Alan & Kacey).

Greg, the beeman, scooped up what he guessed to be around 5 pounds of bees. Apparently a single pound of bees can contain 3-4 THOUSAND bees. You do the math.

The crazy part? The very next day we had equal the number of bees formed in their little cluster outside the hive. I bet that our hive whistles to the tune of more like 100+ thousand workers. But that's probably modest. I'm going with a million.

It is safe to say: we have a bee problem.

Contrast & Compare

My silence does not indicate a lack of work or progress. We've been busying ourselves with countless little projects that hardly seem worthy of a blog post. We've been hanging pictures, organizing, touching up paint (well, that's an ever-growing list), tending to bees that keep finding ways into our home (grrrr), trying to figure out where to put the explosion of our things with only part of our house being complete, beginning the seemingly unending project of tending to the explosion of our backyard (oh, falling a tree and just leaving it there is not the best plan of attack, fyi), addressing the unfinished back section of our home, trying to make our office a pleasant and organized workspace, etc.

Beyond this we've also done our fair share of non-work. We've been thoroughly enjoying just BEING here. We've had friends over for dinner, enjoyed lovely mornings of coffee and breakie, just reveled in the novelty of finally living...in our home...that we love. I've enjoyed playing in the kitchen (oh, how I love it!): running our dishwasher, and marveling at the fact that I've never seen our dishes so clean; love-loving our ample cabinet storage for food & dishes alike (!); gingerly and lovingly talking to our sink that is so beautiful and wonderful (i know, it's a sink); wholly appreciating our insta-hot water faucet that provides us with tea or coffee within mere moments, and more. It's been pure delight. We frequently stop to say aloud how much we love our home. It's been a joy being here, making it ours.

Needless to say, we have been keeping very busy. I will post more pictures once I deem them worthy enough for your eyes, but in the meantime, I thought a little contrast and compare might be a fun little game for you to play. Happy Monday!

MovED--past tense

OK, peoples. The time has come. Not only have our things moved in, but WE have moved in. Can I get an "Amen"?!? We bid our former roommates (Chip, Laura, Kacey & Alan) adieu, and made the grueling 4 mile trek down Siskiyou Blvd. to our new little home. It feels SO GOOD to be reaping what we've sown. Oh my!

We passed our inspection (it only took 4 times), and have been approved for gas, and consequently hot water! Our appliances work, we have hot water, and an indoor toilet. That's all we need. Heat will be a beautiful thing, too, but surprisingly not a prereq for us. We just hope that Winter gets the memo that it's no longer welcome. Snow and hail are not welcomed visitors any longer. Now, the giant yellow ball in the sky, on the other hand...

For having zero pieces of furniture upon our arrival in Ashland, I'd say we've done quite well for ourselves. Thanks to Busha, Chip & Laura, Mom, and Craigslist!





You may notice I'm showing only the main part of the house, sans office and master suite. With good reason: they're not finished! We will be residing in the 900 square feet wing, until we complete the aforementioned rooms. We are just so excited to be living in our home that we're not too concerned about the rest. It'll get done, mark my words, but we are more willing to take that slowly. June?