The Clark Family

Testing...

2011-08-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

OK I'm testing to see if I was able to link my posts here to FB! Here's a picture of our bikes at the Joyce Daze parade: ours are the ones on either side of the sandwich board.

Kitchen v.2

2011-08-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't realize I'd been neglecting the blog so much - damn Facebook! Facebook is great for keeping up with the short versions of a lot of people's lives but what it gains in speed it lacks in depth. Friend Michelle pointed out that I should be able to post here and share on FB as well though so I'm going to try that.

Chris has been working hard on building the kitchen island. We actually had the outside wall cabinets done some months ago and were waiting to do the island. Have the island and back patios to do as our big summer projects now. The rest can wait until over winter!

The island will have a 30" work surface on the working side and then a raised bar surface o the back side with three bar stools. In this picture, Chris is drilling it in order to anchor it into the concrete floor.

Looking like a home.

2010-07-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

The bulk of the flooring is complete! We put cork flooring throughout the house with the only exceptions being the bathrooms and laundry room which will be tile and vinyl for water protection. The cork has warmed up the house visually and has dramatically reduced the noise and echo, especially because we added Floor Muffler underneath it.

Chris has started on door, window and base trim. In the office where he started it has truly finished off the room and feels "done" now.

Sadly, our neighbors Ed & Gail have moved to be closer to family. We will miss them but as we're finding, the world keeps getting smaller so I do not doubt we will see them again.

After a cool June, temperatures are heading into the mid-70s next week - we can't wait! No real complaints though - it's been dry and beautiful regardless. Just enough rain to keep the plants watered and it always moves on through.

More mulch!

2010-03-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Chris picked up the rest of the mulch today so that part is done, although we now need to carve out part of the back yard of clay so we can bring in the crushed rock to finish the project. Neighbor Jack came over and helped again. Here's the three of us the first day of speading the mulch.

The next thing will be spreading crushed rock out to the back of the house, cleaning and organizing the garage, and getting quotes for flooring and cabinets.

Spring is here - must be time for landscaping!

2010-03-21T19:27:00.001-07:00

We've had such a mild winter that the trees started blossoming several weeks ago and all the daffodils are up and there's lambs and calves in the fields.

Chris ordered in 10 yards of mulch and we got it all spread out this weekend. He also brought in some river rock. Here's the "before" and "after" pictures of the right side of the house. The japanese maple and the azalea have only got buds on them so you can hardly see them against the mulch right now. We need a couple more yards of mulch and some crushed rock and we'll finish of the left side of the house.

Birdbath!

2010-01-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

Went to Port Townsend this weekend to visit the folks for lunch. Dad has really been getting in to driftwood sculpture and I had asked if some time he could maybe make a birdbath stand for me. Well he got right on that and made this really cool stand for my pottery bird bath dish. It turned out to be doubly useful in that it was tall enough I could suspend the suet holder from it. I was able to get home on Sunday night with enough light to set it up but since it's still dark when I go to work and come home I'll have to wait until Saturday to see it in action. We had some pretty good winds last night though and it was standing strong this morning!

E. Coli safety

2010-01-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

A friend of ours recently entered the hospital with a sudden onset case of HUS brought on by e.coli. This is a very active and healthy couple and it stresses how it can happen to anyone. Following is a link to a cdc article on safety as it pertains to e.coli:

http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/stec_gi.html

Unfortunately, in the case of vegetables, e.coli can be absorbed up into the vegatbles so washing may not be enough in that case. Makes it even more important to know where your food is coming from and buy locally, within 100 miles if possible, as much as you can so if something is going on in your area you are more likely to hear about it.

You may see in our "what we're reading" section on the blog as well, some books on the slow movement and food that are also well worth reading. We're certainly not advocating for NOT eating anything in particular, but for being aware of ingredients and processing and where your food comes from...and can what you're eating even be considered food?

Face-blog?

2010-01-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well I find that since many of my relatives joined Facebook - that now seems to be the place where the news is. I can't say as I post much if anything there although I find it handy if I've read an article or visited page to be able to click the "share it via Facebook" icon. I do like seeing at a glance what my friends and family are up to. Unfortunately Facebook is heavily becoming the vehicle through which a lot of folks now share and do all their correspondence. So forgive me if I don't respond right away to a message because I'm not on FB all the time. Contacting us via our email addresses is the best and most secure way to reach us.

I'm in the middle of copying all of the years pictures to cdrom so I'll upload a few here and to FB before I remove them from my computer. Its winter and we're indoors so not a lot to show as far as pictures. It's all in the details. Some pictures have been hung. We had a real Christmas tree for the holidays. Interior doors and some window treatments are being hung. Right now we're just in year-end organizing mode.

I do have to say that one of the really enjoyable things was receiving Christmas cards at our new address this year. We put them out in our living room and it was a joy to see them on a daily basis. We miss you all!

Er... Happy Halloween!?

2009-10-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm so embarrassed I haven't posted since the end of August. Having joined Facebook, I've kept up with a lot of what everyone else is doing but haven't blogged much at all. Chris' folks sold their home in Juneau and moved here so that has shifted a lot of the focus for Chris over the last month or so, flying to Juneau to pack them out and then getting their new place here ready. They're here now and working on getting their household goods unpacked. As Chris says, they should be so lucky - we had to build the house first! Once they' settle in we can show them around much more.

We've had a couple of small things happening at our house, although they are major for us. One - we have interior doors - not installed yet - but they are here! The other thing, just yesterday - we got our propane permit completed and approved for our range! We can now cook, really cook! No more grilling unless we WANT to! Sauces and risottos and saute'!

We've allowed ourselves some fun too, going to see Steely Dan at the Paramount in Seattle. VERY good seats! They performed the entire album "Royal Scam" then another 12 songs. Tried out a new restaurant for us as well "Urbane." Very good happy hour bar menu and a block within the Paramount Theater and Roosevelt Hotel.

Going to see Steve Martin next at Benaroya Hall!

Welcome!

2009-08-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post a couple of pictures here of what we've been up to. We rented scaffolding and finished off the tall entryway hallway. That was a chore we had been dreading because it was just such a difficult area to paint. Chris then installed the pendant lights and it looks beautiful!

We had visitors! Lauren, Jerry and Hunter came down to Seattle and took a detour over to Sequim for a day. This is them at Black Rabbit Farm just outside of Sunland showing Hunter the animals. Hunter also took a liking to the tractor and as soon as he sat down asked for the keys!

We also finally figured out what do do about the entryway approach. We didn't want just a square pad in front of the front door with a straight sidewalk leading up to it. We also knew we didn't want any steps so there had to be enough of a sidewalk to allow for a gentle slope. This is the result! The concentric curves help soften the angles of the house and also complement the round windows. It also defines a couple of landscaping areas. Today, Chris was working on installing the post light in the front yard. It matches the lights next to the fron door and on the front of the garage.

I've got to admit it's getting better!

2009-08-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

So the gods are smiling upon us and we found the range we'd been looking for used on Craigslist. We picked it up and rounded up some co-workers to offload it and its now sitting in ourkitchen waiting for a propane hook-up.

Meanwhile, we were able to get the scaffolding we needed and worked all the next weekend to get the high ceiling halway painted and the pendant lights installed. We should be able to get the small halls and living room finished this coming weekend and all that will be left for paint is the exterior trim!

Chris must love me especially because he knows I love the little creatures and he was outside clearing space to cut up our log pile and discovered a batch that he knew I'd be thrilled with. This picture is just of the ones that were still visible by the time I got home but he said there were twice as much beforehand! They must do good in the garden. I know the neighbor has garter snakes and they take care of slugs and such. These guys were so docile but I knew they wouldn't get along with my gecko so I released them back under a bush where they wouldn't be disturbed. Aren't they the cutest though!

Is that your FINAL answer?

2009-07-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

We received our final inspection approval! We had all the neighbors in the cul-de-sac over for burgers to celebrate and finally got a group picture.Mom and Dad are in Alaska so we'll celebrate with them when they return. Here's our happy neighborhood family:

Alllllmmmmmooooosssttt there!

2009-06-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

So we had our first call for final inspection. They gave us a list of items to fix and we will be done with that this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for our next call. Our neighbors are amazing - one of the items they wanted us to do was to paint the exterior! Our neighbors and Dad came out and painted the entire lower half of the house in one day!

I've been working on primering the inside - they also want that done since the primer is the vapor barrier. The 17 ft. high hallway has been an issue as nobody in the county rents scaffolding that can fit in the 4 and a half foot width of the front half of the hall. I finally tried to tackle it with a 20 ft extension handle and its going pretty well. We'll still have to get up on a tall ladder to do the corners and I'm not sure yet how we'll reach the wiring to put in the pendant lights.

Otherwise, we are looking forward to getting the final this week. We'll still have a long list of things we need to do but at least we can downshift and take a break finally. We hope to drive out to the coast finally. We're on the water here but it's like SE Alaska - no wave action. If we go out to the coast we can see waves crashing on the beaches and visit the rainforest and drive around Crescent Lake - all these things we've heard pictures about but have never seen yet. Oh and we want to brew, and clean up the garage, and and and....

Oh and for those of you who might be interested....look at your local PBS television schedules for July 1st - the Man in the Red Shoes documentary on Garrison Keillor is airing for the first time on television!

Driveway Moments

2009-05-23T20:49:00.001-07:00

After mud-bogging through the driveway all winter while we waited for the clay to settle, we finally had the driveway poured! It's beautiful and really enhances the house. We knew it was time when a pair of ducks tried to take up residence in the driveway puddles. The same couple of crews that did the excavation and foundation also did the driveway.

Just in time to see it - Earl and Marilyn stopped by as they were in Seattle for some appointments. Al brought them over and so they were all able to see the progress on the house.

The weather has been amazing. We did take a break to attend the Irrigation Festival Parade - what a big parade for a small town! It had over 140 entries. Lots of detailed floats from other communities and several marching bands.

Spring is here and our new life is unfolding!

2009-05-03T19:16:00.001-07:00

I am SO sorry that is has been a month since we have updated the blog. Part of it is that we have been doing a lot of things to the house that you wouldn't see, i.e. you wouldn't take a picture of it. If you REALLY wanted, I could take a picture of every outlet and lighting fixture that Chris has wired in - that's been all-consuming. I've continued to paint. The office, guest bath, laundry room, guest room, and pantry are all done, down to having the outlet and switch plates and lights installed. The living room/kitchen is primered on the walls and we'll be working on it this week. The radiant heat thermostats and zones have been isolated so we have been able to turn down the rooms we don't use.

We took one Saturday off and went to CatchCon 2009 which we had been fortunate enough to enter the lottery for tickets and won entrance. It was a limited entry and seemed to have about 500 - 600 attendees. This was a conference for fans of The Deadliest Catch. We've been watching it since the beginning but more for the appreciation of the work and the boats, having lived in Alaska and personal-use fished for King Crab ourselves. The event had all five captains, plus assorted crew and two of the boats - the Wizard and the Northwestern. There were crab pots for photo ops - to get a sense of scale. Lots of stuff to do and lunch! One of the reasons we are here is that we can drive to Seattle and take advantage of these opportunities so we went! The boats and the event were at Pier 66 in Seattle so it made for a great day trip since the Hood Canal Bridge is now closed for 6 weeks so we can't go over without driving around now. If you ask, we'll send you a link to our Catch Con photo album where you can see us touring the boats, and getting autographs from the captains!

Rooms one by one...

2009-04-01T21:06:00.001-07:00

So here's a couple of finished rooms although the pictures don't do the subtle colors justice.

Room 1 - Laundry room - belgian cream all around and new washer/dryer! Yea! No more laundromat!

Room 2 - Guest bathroom - turtle dove walls and belgian cream ceiling. You can see the vanity light fixture we purchased in Seattle. The main concept driving out lighting selection is we want brushed nickel finish but also regular lightbulb sockets so we can put in compact flourescents. A LOT of the bath lights we saw were halogen so they were rejected right away.

Room 3 - Office - from where I'm blogging right now. All belgian cream on the walls and ceiling. We put in Energy Star ceiling fixtures in all the rooms as well .

The City

2009-04-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Ah yes - the City! Just imagine - we can DRIVE there now for just under a $20 ferry toll. No more $500 + round trip airfares per person! We went to Seattle to visit the Woods and did some lighting shopping while we were there. Chancel also told us about an appliance clearance event going on that we should go to so we stepped up and got up early and went there.

The...Perfect...Range was there waiting for us. After 3 hours of decisions and tryng to find a vent hood, etc we were poised to purchase until we found out it could not be converted from natural gas to propane. We were seriously bummed out but I guess in retrospect we have a good story to tell and I definitely condensed it here. Here is picture of Chancel with the guy ahead of us who was first in line at 5:30 in the morning. Hope he got what he and his wife were looking for - a 48" Sub Zero fridge. He waited in line and she brought him breakfast about 8:30 just before the place opened. We were only in line from 7:30am.

Had a whirlwind but good visit. Saw Alex too - we made smoked salmon pasta as it's not quite back patio grilling weather yet.

Walls taking on life!

2009-03-18T20:44:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple pictures of what we've been up to.

At left are some pictures of the drywall work in the bigger rooms - the kitchen/living room and the entry hall.

At right is Chris installing electrical outlets and me painting. We've also installed the washer/dryer. Little by little things are coming together.

Below is our radiant floor boiler that is the source of all the lovely warmness in the house!

We're in!

2009-03-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Camping anyhow. Chris has been working hard to get the hot water in and that happened today. I've been primering and painting. We haven't unpacked anything since it would make more work since we have to paint so we've focused on prioritizing the rooms. One bath and then laundry so we can get the W/D out of the garage. The guest bedroom is set up as the "employee break room" with our office stuff and computer, and chairs and the cooler as our table.

I hear this is the worst winter in like 20 years as far as length and temps. That's great news to us as there's no snow on the ground and its supposed tp be in the 50s by the end of the week. The sun has been out and its beautiful!

Last steps

2009-02-21T20:13:00.000-08:00

We're about to move out of our little apartment so this will be our last post (with pictures anyway) for a couple of weeks. We'll be housesitting so we can post but we'll wait to upload any more pictures until we are in our house. Here's a picture of the herd of 10 deer that have been routinely through the property behind our apartment.

The sheetrocking is done in the garage and the crew is almost done with the ceilings in the rest of the house. So today we moved 2/3 of our stuff from the apartment into the garage. This next week we will be cleaned and out of our apartment and will move stuff out of storage into the garage. We will house-sit next door until we can move in.

The heat is on and we are letting it cycle and warm up to make sure all is running well. It is sure a welcome relief for Chris to be able to come to work with the heat on instead of it being in the 30's. That concrete floor has been holding the cold so even though it has been near 50 outside, it has been colder inside.

Insulation

2009-02-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

The insulation is in and it was inspected and approved today! It's so sound-deadening that you can stand in the garage anmd speak and it sounds like your voice doesn't go any further than in front of your face.

The plumbers will be here on Monday to install the boiler and then the drywall installer will begin on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Chris has some detail work to finish. We are *so* close though! We are hoping to get our BBQ out of storage this weekend and grill up some REAL steaks!

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...

2009-02-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

Siding is DONE! Gutters are DONE! We are connected to power and the framing inspection has been signed off on by the County. Today we ran wire for the thermostats. The insulation is scheduled to go in on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chris will be meeting with the plumbers for some last detail work and getting ready for the radiant heat to go on. The washer and dryer also arrived last week and are going to stay in their boxes for now.

We took a break to go to the neighbors for the Superbowl. Here's a picture of some of the attendees getting ready for the 3-D commercial.

On a side note - we checked out a local farm store and had the best parsnips ever tonight with some salmon. We sauteed the parsnips in butter, olive oil, and cumin. They were far sweeter and creamier than anything we'd had in Alaska. The parsnips in the stores there are usually cracked because they're dried out by the time they get there.

Siding!

2009-01-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

We went over to Port Townsend on Saturday and stopped by the house beforehand to take some pictures in the daylight. I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark so this was the first time I got to see the siding work in progress. The siding is a composite and comes primered so this is not the final color. Paint will have to wait until the weather warms up. That being said, we had beautiful blue skies today after a bout of fog for the past few days. No complaints though - fog with no rain is still ok with us!

We also went and checked out the new building that my company purchased for a new facility. I'll let you just guess what it was formerly. To you Juneau-ites it should look especially familiar. I'll give you a hint - the layout is exactly the same.

2009-01-11T21:14:00.001-08:00

Electrical - check!

2009-01-11T20:58:00.000-08:00

The electrical work was approved on Friday - very exciting! There's been a lot of stuff all happening at once. The crew has been working on roof and soffit and will help with some larger sections of siding this week. Dad will also be over to help with siding. I can't even begin to list all the stuff going on that Chris is managing. Off the top of my head there is the above, plus gutters, insulation, drywall, finishing framing, plumbing fixtures, woodstove hookup, and getting the heat on.

Oh and I wanted to share this: our neighbors took this picture of the last long sections of roofing material going on. These were about 42 foot long sections and it took three people (and four would have been better) to slide them up there without kinking the metal.