indoor projects

 

Here’s a loooong list of house projects.  There is enough to do that prioritizing the time and money can be tricky, but we’ll get them done eventually.

Kitchen

Completed:

• flipped refridgerator door swing
• electrical
• built ikea cabinets for kitchen

To Do:

• add panels to conceal the litter box area and contain more of the litter pellets
• install instant hot water on prep sink
• install a hand towel rack in the kitchen
• assemble and install cabinets in dining room
• create an awesome light feature above dining area
• replace prep sink faucet, which is too small and low flow to use
• build a “barbecue cart” that will roll in to the empty under-counter space
• install a water filtration system (pending discussions about what it is worth to us)

 

Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Completed:

• built ikea cabinets for bathrooms
• electrical
• hung one mirror and one plant
• installed a bidet
• installed master bedroom closet system
• installed most of smaller bedroom closet systems

To Do:

• put in a mirror or medicine cabinet and light fixtures in bathroom
• build sliding closet doors for master closet
• install three toilet paper holders (one actually needs to be moved)
• add tile on wall just outside of master shower which seems to get a little bit wet
• assemble and install cabinets in master bedroom, master bathroom, second bathroom, which will include the laundry chute
• build a storage bench along the windows

 

Rest of the House

Completed:

• assembled two futons
• put up coat rack in entry way
• attached shelves to walls (baby/earthquake safety)
• hung up pictures (just the frames we already had)
• put peephole, chain and chain guard on front door
• put up mailbox
• put up two hanging racks in the basement (my parents did)
• installed doors and inner shelves on staircase bookshelf
• installed peg board for tool storage

To Do:

• build a desk
• diagnose and fix electrical issues (flickering lights, master bathroom lights, some stair lights)
• put in more outlets in basement
• put safety bars over the terrifyingly low fourth floor window
• put in drywall on basement interior walls
• install a doorbell and perhaps security features
• install a cell phone docking station
• install speakers and clean up the routers using all the low voltage wires we put in
• finish or replace the supports for the clear moxy pannels next to the stairs
• buy and install blinds for whole house (currently we have hardware store temporary blinds)

 

Bloedel Reserve

 

Yesterday, Becky, D and I took three hours to walk the two mile loop at the beautiful Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.

We saw lots of native plants, a broody goose, a mansion and some ants.

outdoor projects

 

Here’s a look at the outdoor projects we have done and what we have left to do.

Completed:

• installed turf in “the boite,” which is our little boxy yard
• put up mailbox and house numbers on the fence
• painted neighbor’s replacement fence, which required trying to match the paint color of a lichen colored ten-year-old fence, and rebuilt rock terraces
• transplanted one hand-me-down tree from my parents (Hinoki False Cypress) and got two street trees (Japanese Snowbells) planted
• installed bars (with security screws) to lock up bikes in the bike garages.  Hooray for not having to bring bikes in to the house!

To Do:

• figure out how to mitigate the pooling water around the roof drains, which is very disappointing for new construction
• install concrete roof pavers and planters
• landscape along the sidewalk
• add plants to be chosen by neighbors next to our parking spot
• build doors for the bike garages
• install a retractable net around the boite to keep whiffle balls in
• put up an address sign on the alley to help lost delivery drivers
• keep our trees alive for the next few critical years!
• knock out a small interior wall so that Emo can access the cat door to the roof
• add louvres (horizontal slats of wood) to outside of house to fulfill Jack’s architectural vision

 

The roof and keeping the trees alive are at the top of our lists for outdoor tasks, though there are a few indoor tasks that will take priority.  I’ll save those for another post.

42 pints and counting

 

While planning to donate blood recently, I was pleased to see that Bloodworks Northwest makes donor records easily available on their website.  I’ve always enjoyed giving blood, partly out of altruism and partly out of fascination, I think.  My parents were regular donors when I was a kid and I ate many cookies in the canteen while waiting for them, creating a positive association for me as an aspiring donor.  Aside from the periods of post-Grand Adventure travel restrictions and pregnancy and it’s aftermath, I’ve been a regular donor since late high school.  Lately it is the only type of community service I have managed to fit in to my life.

It was quite satisfying to see my Seattle donation count (23) though I had to estimate how many times I donated in Montreal, Pittsburgh and Boston.  Henceforth, I am crediting myself with 19 non-Seattle donations, which brings me to 42 pints, or 5 gallons and 1 quart.  Isn’t standard a quaint system?  Here’s a 5 gallon bucket for a visual.

* about 6 donations were apheresis platelet donations, but I’m glossing over that

we got our Japanese snowbells

 

Our street trees have been planted!  They are styrax japonicus which I’ve had my eye on for a few years.   Now we just have to keep them alive for these next few fragile post-transplant years.  I can’t wait to smell them in a few months!

winter picnic 2017

 

This year’s winter picnic was for the few and the proud… and the ones who weren’t out of town or separated from Lincoln Park by an icy drive.  My great aunt, the last of the OG (original generation) opted out this year, along with several of her devoted picnickers.  As I alluded to, my parents and sister were travelling and my cousin and her family and my aunt and uncle had to cancel last minute because of the wintery weather on their long drives.

Above: 14 people, one dog, missing Chuck who slipped out before the picture

Nevertheless, we had high spirits and a good time.  Jack won at bingo again.  We were short enough on people that we had to get D and my cousin’s new dog to sign, but of course, Jack’s win was all skill.  D’s eight year old cousin was a first timer.

Speaking of skill, Jack and I won the egg toss.  There were five teams and we even had a couple more successful throws after we locked down our win.  I need to practice throwing farther.

four floors

Choosing the flooring for the house was one of the hardest decisions in the whole process.  There are so many aesthetic and practical concerns.  Is it nice looking, durable, slippery, hard on the feet?  Is it affordable and environmentally responsible?   Does it match the cat?   With a bit of a splurge, we managed to find the perfect floor for us!

Above left: Emo with our engineered DuChâteau terra nile, which is certified 100% pure by the Forest Stewardship Council.  Its finish is non-toxic and CARB-2 compliant (California Air Resources Board) and if would qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) as a rapidly renewable and low-emitting material.  So far it hides scratches well and we like how it looks with the fairly modern design of the house.

Above right:  Jasper, Becky and me in March 1986 celebrating Jasper’s second birthday on our shag carpet.  I remember being pretty amused by the cat carpet match, even as a small child.

We have the DuChâteau floor on the second and third floor, less exciting wood in the first floor bedrooms, tile in the bathrooms and entry and glulam wood stained black for the stairs.  The only downside is that the stairs can be slippery for people wearing socks, so we have to be careful to make D remove his socks and warn guests.  Other than wearing shoes or using institutional rubber or concrete flooring there doesn’t seem to be a good solution for stairs. Not having carpet also keeps us more honest about cleaning, especially with our furry friend.

We made cookies.

Tonight D and I made cookies.  It might sound like a small achievement but what it actually represents is that our oven is finally fixed!

We bought the range used last spring, from a store in Auburn for a very good price.  It’s a beautiful, dual-fuel Viking with what turned out to be a defunct convection oven. 

In the store they hooked it up and demonstrated that it worked to me, but all I could really do was confirm that there was heat coming out.   Flash forward to September when we moved in.  We didn’t do much cooking during the busy time where we were unpacking, cleaning up construction messes and finding lost things in the house.  Then when we did try it, it took a while for us to realize that it wasn’t working right.  In mid-October we cooked a beautiful salmon for my dad’s birthday for over an hour instead of the 10 minutes called for by the recipe.  We managed to eat it but it was a red flag for the oven.   We finally bought a thermometer to properly test it.  It heated up fine but couldn’t maintain the temperature at all.

We contacted the store about the warranty in early November.  A technician came out and saw that the problem was some kind of melted connection that failed when it got hot.  He did a small fix on the spot but said that if that didn’t work, we’d need to have the store order a new control board.  That fix did not work, so we got in touch again.  The store ordered the part, but it was back ordered.  Thanksgiving came and went.  Many texts were sent.  Then in late December, the part finally arrived in a surprisingly big box.  The technician came over that same day.  Lo and behold the box contained a control panel with the stove burner dials on it, not a control board.  The new part was ordered and finally came at the end of January.  Now it is installed and everything works.  The $600 control panel it still sitting in our house awaiting shipping instructions.  If we don’t hear back in a few weeks, perhaps we’ll sell it on eBay.

In conclusion, we managed without an oven for five months, but eventually got it fixed without extra expenditure so it probably worked out for the best in the long run.  Now we are excited to bake, roast, broil and toast!

my favorite fish stew

 

Here’s a recipe we’ve made and enjoyed several times.

• 2 leeks
• 6 oz. chorizo (I prefer other, non-spicy sausage) cut in to small half moon pieces
• 4-5 medium red potatoes cut in to bite size cubes (in the picture above I used purple potatoes)
• salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 28 oz. can diced tomatoes with their juice
• 1/2 c dry white wine
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 lb. cod fillet, cut into four even portions

1. Put the potatoes in a saucepan (not the dutch oven yet), covered with 1-2 inches of cold water.  Salt the water, partially cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat a bit, continue boiling until tender (10-15 min).  Drain.
2. Heat oil in dutch oven (medium for 1 minute), add chorizo and leeks  until the leeks are soft and sausage is browned (6 min)
3. Add the garlic and cook for 1 min.
4. Stir in the tomatoes with juice, the wine, 1 1/2 c water and 1/2 tsp salt.  Bring to a oil, partially cover, reduce to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add potatoes, salt and pepper, and half of the parsley.
6. Season the cod (S&P) and place on top of the stew, cover and simmer until just cooked through (6-8 minutes)
7. Serve stew on top of cod, with more parsley as garnish.

White Pass

The three of us had a snowy weekend at White Pass in mid January.  Jack is starting to snowboard and D and I tagged along to play in the snow.  My parents were kind enough to lend us their Subaru and I definitely wouldn’t have felt comfortable in our car.  At one point, D was playing in the drivers’ seat and he turned on what turned out to be the special fog lights, which had a switch in an unusual place away from the other headlight switches.  Luckily, every other car in the parking lot is a Subaru so I was able to easily find help when I couldn’t figure out how to turn them off.

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We also got to snow shoe while D rode in a sled and napped.  It was a really nice area with lots of loop options so we could decide to keep going when things were going well.

Check out my wicked icicle!

2016 in review

 

D had a great year.  He talks non stop, started eating raw vegetables over the summer (see the tomato below) and is even beginning to recognize written words like  “dog,” “cat” and “bus.”  He spent five days without us in October, enjoys regular time with his grandparents, has made a lot of progress on potty training and is learning to manage his feelings.  We enjoyed two sessions of music classes together, some community center swim classes and a few weeks of dance class as well.  Here is what a year of growth looked like for him.

Friends and Family

• Jack’s dad passed away suddenly at the end of January: mark/dad/grandpa.   In addition to the loss itself, we experienced some of the responsibilities of death, for the first time.
• My dad also had surgery in January, but happily recovered well.
• We enjoyed Dan and Chrysten’s wedding in New York in October:  Brooklyn trip
• In June a friend from CMU visited from Austin.  Although the house wasn’t finished we had a good Seattle weekend with him, including Folklife.

• We also enjoyed catching up with two work friends and their spouses who came through Seattle. 
• My brother-in-law moved to Seattle in the summer and Becky finally moved back in December, one year after we got the good news that they’d be moving here.
• The new babies among our friends and family are Laura to A&S, Johanna to R&W and Kira to E&J.  Laura and Johanna even share the same birthday.
• Our PEPs group kept going, having the advantage of proximity.   Generally I would say our friendships suffered a bit though due to the amount of weekend house work we had to do.  We’re looking forward to reconnecting with a lot of people.  We saw our families a lot, mostly in the context of them helping us with work and babysitting.
• The winter picnic continues.
• Jack’s mom retired and joined the regular babysitting rotation.  Now D goes to daycare three days a week again, instead of four.

House

• We first slept in the the house the day after Jack’s 32nd birthday, in early September, after moving our possessions there during the last two weeks of August, while the house was very much still under construction.  The move took place during D’s week of daycare closure, so we were especially greatful for all of the friends and family who helped us move and helped watch him so we could work.  I had been prepared to hire movers, but it turned out to be so spread out and complicated by the condition of the house that we just did it ourselves.

• It was a very stressful year, which is best summed up by this handy venn diagram.
• Many friends and family helped us with a variety of house tasks over the year.  My cousin Brad, the electrician, and his dad made several trips and put in countless hours for the electrical work.  So many people helped us with electrical, our Ikea cabinet assembly party, moving away rocks and installing turf.  Jack’s brother, Kirk, helped with all of these tasks.  Jack and I spent a lot of time ourselves, of course, which meant a lot of weekend time away from D over the first 9 months of the year.
• In September we hosted back to back evening and morning open houses, with about 90 people in total, which worked out really well for the number of small children we know.  I knew that it would be a long time before the house would feel settled, so we decided to do the party while it was still new, even though it wasn’t totally put together.   Look at these wild, reading kids.

• We hosted a few family Christmas gatherings too, and it was a treat to have a space big enough for more than five people.

Recreation and Travel

Except for a nice weekend in Portland with our friends and our trip to New York, we spent the entire year in western Washington, which is remarkable, in a way.   Washington is a pretty great state though!

• Jack visited our Portland friends on his own in the winter.
• Anderson Island, near Tacoma  Anderson Island
• Mount Rainier with extended family Mt Rainier
• Camano Island camping with cousins Camano Island
• Iron Springs with extended family Mothers day at the beach
• Deception pass with friends Deception Pass
• New York trip
• Mount Saint Helens Mt St Helens
• Portland in July Portland
• We did a fun and soggy Thanksgiving day Turkey trot in the beautiful arboretum.  I actually ran, which I have not done much of in recent years, and D sang good naturedly in the jogging stroller.
• Only 10 months after the invitiation came, Jack started playing Sunday morning touch football in November, with his cousins and their friends.
• I raced with my dad down in Des Moines in the spring and early summer and he also brought their boat up to Ballard for a two handed race in September. Jack and Jill race
• We successfully started pick up volleyball at the downtown YMCA, and our parents’ babysitting gave us a chance to play together: volleyball

Reading, Thinking and Singing

• D and I, and sometimes Jack, adored going to music classes from the Music Together program.   I’m greatful for the flexibility that our grandparent babysitters afford us.  I took PTO for the classes in the morning and then headed off to work happy while D had time with grandparents.
• For the first time, I served on a jury: no honor among thieves
• After two years, I finally wrote some of my thoughts on the fascinating subject of breast feeding: nursing notes
• Audiobooks were key for us this year.  The best book I read, by which I mean listened to, was The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt.   Jack liked reading all three long books in the Red Mars trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson.  Together we enjoyed listening to The Magicians, by Lev Grossman.  We get most books from the library, but we’ve also climbed on the kindle bandwagon where you can sync progress between multiple devices, including both audio and text versions.  I hadn’t used an eReader since our grand adventure, but now I’m reading on one that Jack gave me for Christmas.
• I am slowly enjoying a subscription to the New Yorker, too.
• It was also a light year for taking in the performing arts.  I quite liked seeing The Little Mermaid, with my mom, but I think that was also the only show either of us saw.

As you may have gathered, the themes for 2016 were “house” and “stress” and we look forward to settling in and recovering, respectively, in 2017.