Visceral

Eddie Vedder releases his second solo album next week: Ukulele Songs. When he does things like this, like reappear in the press, write simple, beautiful songs, or, heaven forbid wander his neighborhood, I have a very visceral reaction. Debilitating, actually. Completely robs me of any ability to function normally, incapacitates my present, and throws me back to hours spent ineffectively "stalking" my teenage crush. The rush of angst, need and superficial pain prohibits productivity. As Lana so effectively assessed, I am sick, I have a flu, and only through weeks daydreams can I resurface as my self.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/25/136649054/first-listen-eddie-vedder-ukulele-songs

Lamer than lame

Blogger had a glitch yesterday, the day I decided to post on both blogs. Both posts disappeared. Lame.

C'est Fini

So, we're basically finished. There are a few small things we're still waiting on, but as far as the bank is concerned, we're done. Check out the final pictures.

Glass cabinets, tons of light, and an amazing space to gather with friends and family. Too bad it will never be as nice or as clean as day one.

Loving the hood, it makes cooking bacon and other smelly things so much easier. Although, Jim's the one who has done most of the cooking.

Notice our oversized tavern lights. Totally intentional, totally. We have big plans for our West wall... If only $ was an indefatigable (?) resource.

Gratuitous Moo photo - Easter Maizey.

Gratuitous Boo photo - Lazy Monster

So close

Check in with our remodel here. SO MUCH easier than blogger. YAY!

http://erikag.posterous.com/so-close

Midnight All Alone in the Moonlight

Feels like we are getting our life back, a little bit at a time, amid a ton of change. On the home front, not many changes. The exterior painting of our house is done (almost). There are spots where soggy wood prevented completion. The kitchen is still in flux, with new appliances, which means nothing since most are still in boxes. In a fit last weekend, I decided to get the kitchen moved out of our living room and bathroom. I just couldn't take a weekend at home in a living room covered in dust, empty wine bottles, and sticky old coffee. In true Erika fashion (yes I used the third person), this meant a deep spring cleaning for all non-impacted rooms, and an unfortunate hour spent repainting an area of the living room where I decided to test the impact of cleaning dark paint with a bleach-based cleaner. The 16 hours of time spent cleaning was worth it this morning to wake up to an open, airy living room, and a basically new mud room. Check out our progress below.

Cash: taking in the scenery from his favorite position on the couch. Last week this section of the couch was covered in mail. Now, not only are the cushions clean, but so are the windows, and perfectly primed for Cashie's wet nose. Cashie, at peace in the window, barking at strangers, trees and bugs.

The view of our clean, wide open living room, note the new Ikea Poang chair.

Where all of the shit was displaced - the non-functioning kitchen.

Finally, looking East toward Cashie's large bed.

During the remodel, we moved out of the mudroom to make room for Goodwill items. Once those were taken away, it was empty, and I cleaned it. Then I asked (forced) Jim to repaint it from pale purple to the same bland taupe we have in our kitchen. Last week was quarter end for him, and after 60+ of work, he complained his way to a new mudroom.

We used to have a coat tree that my coat collection caused to lean heavily to the east, and blocked a ton of light from coming into the kitchen. Jim wisely refused to let it back in the room. A quick Sunday trip to Ikea with the rest of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties provided a streamlined solution. Jim's patience struggled with the simple 3-picture instructions, but me being bilingual in Ikea, got us through with only a little bit of throwing and stomping.

So what happens when you move your kitchen out of the living room? This. Crazy chaos in your empty, remodel-in-progress kitchen. Note the new, sleek, SD card enabled Kenmore Elite refrigerator. I'll post centerfolds of all of the appliances when we're finished. Yum.

The new exterior paint. Note the rotting, wet piece of railing. The trim is a grey/white, the house is blue (obviously), and the accent color is Midnight Oil, which I chose purely on the name of the paint.

Not only are our windows trimmed in Midnight Oil, but we also painted our green chimney to match. HUGE! It's barely hanging on to the house, now at least it looks attached. Unfortunately, our back door was not included in the original scope of work for the painter, so we have to paint it, e.g. Jim has to sand, prime and paint it next weekend. Also note, our security doors are now black instead of green. Why not Midnight Oil? Because it doesn't come in a "rattle", per our painter's discretion this is the best form of paint for the security door surface, oh and is a whole hell of a lot cheaper than PAINT!

In other news, I moved to the South Lake Union offices of Amazon today in advance of my new job on 4/25. I moved with my new team to save at least $260 in parking, and to also have access to a whole new world of dining and coffee options on our campus. I am very busy working as you can see from this photo. For you non-corporate folks, I bet this picture makes you want to scratch your eyes out.

For the near future, I am the only one in this office, well at least until tomorrow when CASHIE COMES TO WORK WITH ME!!! The Amazon campus is dog-friendly, and if he was vaccinated I would have brought him to work today. He'll be there tomorrow after his AM appointment at WS Animal Hospital. Poor boy, I am sure he'd rather watch the world go by rotating from pillow to pillow on my couch. Too bad, so sad Cashie.

In the spirit of last weekend's AWESOME trip to Walla Walla (if you want photos, visit my posterous blog at erikag.posterous.com), here's a rockin' nieceylicious photo - auntie Rik loves her moo!

Oh, and why the EV photo? I seemed to have purchased 6 tickets to three Eddie Vedder solo shows, which rocks, but leaves me somewhat impoverished, for now.

My next update? A finished kitchen. In the meantime, all of the activity from the past two weeks makes this photo seem like a distant.... Memory...

New Blog

Consolidated my blog here: http://erikag.posterous.com/
Password is my dog's name.

Giant Leap

After a quiet two weeks, a lot of progress has been made in the past 72 hours. It's just a matter of time, and the two plus months spent in chaos will just seem like a distant memory. Take a look.

We walked in on Thursday, and all of the sudden we had cabinets.

They were not hung, but they were there, and gave us our vision.

We walked in on Friday, and our cabinets were hung. Holy shit.

Saturday we went on a circuitous journey to our contractor's concrete studio and picked out a selection of grays. We picked the one on the right. It is just the right tone, and depth of gray. One week, and it's installed. Can't wait.

New kitchen, old window. When they pulled out the casing, you could see the original double hung pulley system. So cool for such a nasty window. Happy to see it go.

We walked in on Monday to a sunny kitchen, hung cabinets, and crown molding. Our cabinets are tongue and groove, have the slow close, and don't fall out of the track when you pull it all the way out.

We also came home to ghetto house. The painters started by scraping off all of the paint on the south west side of our house. Notice the new kitchen window.

Having the windows covered sucked, and felt a little like we were caught a bubble. It only lasted a single day, amazing.

Tuesday we came home to finishes - trim, the paper pulled off the floor, etc. Worth it. So worth it.

We also came home to stairs. We thought we were getting a deck, but with the new roof, we had to settle for stairs.

Total paint. Our trim is next week. We pulled off our "security" bars. I hated them, and they never made me feel secure, they just made me irritated.

From today. The whole house was painted when I got home. I guess that's one benefit of a small home - quick to paint.

We get our appliances on the 30th, our counter on the 30th, and last but not least our paint job should be complete. The project is not over, but it's so close I can smell it.

Stuck

A sweet shot of my Niecey-Moo in her kick ass boots her auntie Ricki bought her.

I am back. Not much to update, but thought I would anyway... Last weekend, Jim and I hightailed it out of town on Friday, and planned to head to Leavenworth for the weekend. Due to the backassward technology at HoJo this did not happen, and we ended staying at Jim's parents Friday night. We intended to stay all weekend, but woke up Saturday morning to no water. We couldn't seem to escape the issues, and ended up heading home after cross-country skiing and a late lunch at Snoqualmie Brewing on Saturday. Bummer, we wanted one more evening of home-cooked meals.

As far as the house goes, we're in a holding pattern until our cabinets arrive sometime late next week. Because of the type of loan we have, we couldn't order our cabinets until the project had started, which means a 2-3 week delay overall. Sucks. Anyway, this week saw us get a new roof, interior paint, and a brand new closet for my preciouses. :-)

Cash and I went on a long trail run on Friday that got us lost in the woods around Beaver lake. It was awesome, and the weather was wonderful. Sunny, but cold.

Awesome shot with the reflection off the snow.

It's a well-tread path, but I saw no one, not a soul.

Saturday took us to the Iron Horse trail just past Rattlesnake Ledge. I couldn't believe the quiet, and the deep snow so close to Issaquah. We only ran into three other couples. Wild.

Ahhhh... Space. We basically duplicated the amount of space in our closet. I am breathing easier, and can see all of my clothes. Will likely result in less shopping. Cross your fingers.

To put in perspective, pre remodel.

Our freshly painted kitchen, trim and doors.

Our shabby little house with a sparkly new roof. An exterior paint project and new back door are on the horizon when the weather improves.

Stay tuned. Next update - new window, cabinets, and an end to the kitchen remodel. Holy cow.

The Light...

I wasn't going to post until the end of the week, but I couldn't help myself... MAJOR progress. I can see the light at the end of the kitchen remodel tunnel. I am breathing easier, the difficulties of the past two weeks seem like a figment of my imagination. I am overwhelmed. I am beyond excited.

What we came home to last night. Floors, and thank you lord they matched the tone of our house and the chimney.

What I came home to today... Holy daylight Batman!

Notice our new trim. It will be stained to match the trim in the rest of the house.

Notice the paper is off of our french doors to the future deck. The new back door, and the new not-so-sticky, kitty-holed basement door.

Notice how wide our new door is from the living room to the kitchen. Makes the space feel even bigger. We would have taken it down even more, but we would have needed to re-route our heading vents.

I think you get the best sense of how amazingly different the kitchen feels from this photo...

You can see the floor in this shot. Future home of our range, and refrigerator (I've typed this word so many times in the past two days , I don't need spell check to spell it right!).

The trim for the pass through to the kitchen. So bright!

This is the view out of the french doors. I can't wait for spring, when everything is in bloom and I can enjoy breakfast while looking at the garden.

Cash in the "work area" with his new "dead duck" Cuz. It' amazing they did all this in the snow today.

A view from the outside...