A much needed cure for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

As a native Seattlite, I have never been too bothered by the winter weather.  It's grey and rainy, annoying no doubt but it's what I'm used to.  Even trudging a half hour each way to class in college in something like 81 straight days of rain (a record)...up hill both ways of course...didn't get to me.  But, second year of residency has (this is Paula by the way).  I leave home in the dark, get home in the dark and never get to see out a window during daylight.  My outside time consists of walking to the car in the dark and rain/scraping ice of the car in the dark.  This combination of long hours, lack of sleep and constantly dealing with very sad situations has been a struggle for me this year and, for the first time, the grey and gloom has really tipped the scales.  I'm now a firm believer in SAD and, more importantly, a firm believer in the power of sun, sleep and relaxation. 

Per and I got to head to Cabo for a week (thanks so very much to my parents for sharing their timeshare).  For those that followed our blog while we were in Europe, you know that my ideal vacation does not involve sitting in one place doing nothing.  I like to explore, adventure and get out to see and do everything.  Not so on this trip!! 

Our day: wake up whenever, lay by the pool til whenever, wander the beach and into town til whenever, eat some food, lay by the pool some more, eat some more food, go to bed (AMAZING)!

We did do a few things.  We did a sunset dinner cruise...all you can drink.  A snorkel adventure on a random pirate ship....again, all you can drink.  Whale watching, a trip out to Lover's/Divorce Beach which is by the famous Cabo arch.  While there we saw some dumb tourists nearly drown because they wanted to swim on the Pacific Ocean side in the waves which were 20 plus feet...bad idea (as indicated by the numerous signs that say DANGER! NO SWIMMING) but luckily they were ok thanks to some locals.  We also took a 2 hour trip to Cabo Pulmo which is in a marine reserve for more snorkeling with fishies, sea lions and a school of thousands of skipjacks...craziness.  We saw more whales there too!

It's the only vacation I've ever taken where I don't feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.  I'm back at work now and feeling so much better!!  I'm sure my patients and coworkers appreciate it (I image Per appreciates it too!) 

Here are a few picts:

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Overly Optimistic Home Remodel - Update 3

In our 2nd update to our Overly Optimistic Home Remodel, Paula and I had wrapped up the installation of our plumbing and electrical.  The guts to our glory if you will.  I'd also already installed some custom brackets for floating shelves.  Since then Paula has essentially been sequestered over in Port Angeles on a two month WWAMI rotation working at a pediatric clinic and studying for Step 3 of the USMLE.  My intent was to take these two months to make some serious progress on the kitchen/dining room, but like always, I was slightly more optimistic than realistic.

Over the last couple weeks, I sealed up too many cracks to count with that expandable foamy-stuff, hung batts of insulation in the walls, and installed sheet rock on the ceiling.  Turns out, all that stuff helps keep the heat in the house... I hired a couple experienced guys to install the sheet rock on the walls and tape/mud the seems.  Taping and mudding, from what I had heard, is an art form.  Since Paula and I didn't want any seems visible in these high traffic areas, we decided that hiring that out was a good idea.  In hindsight, I think we were right. 

Today, a couple things wrapped up:

1. Paula finished up a marathon of studying and completed the Step 3 test.  Good job, Honey!
2. The dry wall guys finished up the taping and mudding and now the kitchen/dining room is beginning to look like a kitchen/dining room.  

This weekend, Paula and I head south to Cabo San Lucas, MX for a little sun.  This has been a particularly miserable winter (we're currently on flood watch here), so the sun will be a god send.   When we get back, its time to sand the floors, paint the walls, and install the cabinetry.  The end is getting close...er. 

As always, we've added some more photos for your viewing please.  

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Overly Optimistic Home Remodel - Update 2

In our first Overly Optimistic Remodel (OOR) update, Paula and I had wrapped up major demolition for Phase 1, which generally includes a full kitchen remodel and partial dining room remodel.  We had installed a new-to-us red oak floor and left a gaping window bank, ceiling, and all manners of entry for frigid air to enter our home.

Side Note:  Turns out using a compostable, 0.007-mm green tarp as a construction tarp may have temporarily satisfied some personal desire to reduce the carbon footprint of our OOR, but it doesn't do much to keep the cold out.  As a result, we burned through 200 gallons of heating oil in nearly 3 months (only used 100 gallons all of last year).  So, there's me with an oily egg on my face. 

Since our last update, we've been making more tangible progress.  Finally, we've got our two casement windows and large picture window installed thanks again to our bad-ass friend, Nelson.  While that's awesome, the cold still is coming in and oily heat is escaping faster than _____ (insert your own Nicolas Cage movie joke here).

One things that's taken a lot longer than necessary are 3 floating shelves that we've got planned for our kitchen.  These shelves are supposed to hold our dishware and other heavy items while having hidden support (ergo the term 'floating' shelf).  However, the question of how to build the shelves and support it sufficiently without having the shelves collapse or bow has taken more thought than I'm usually accustomed to.  In the end, I found a local iron worker who made some beefy 3/8" x 8"x 6" angle brackets that I've mounted using 1/2" lag bolts to 2x3s sistered to studs.  I had 14 brackets built but after hearing the subtle laughter while explaining my approach to a co-workers cabinet-making husband I decided to increase the spacing between the brackets and only ended up using 6.  Hopefully I don't regret that.

I pulled new PEX supply lines for the sink, dishwasher, and fridge.  Super easy and totally recommend everyone using PEX if they need to re-plumb their house, although apparently copper has some natural antibacterial properties.  I hired my bad-ass friend's (Nelson's) plumber, who basically works for coffee, to install a new waste vent too.  All of this was approved by the plumbing inspector today!

I installed new recessed lights, pendant fixtures, and gang boxes for receptacles and switches throughout the kitchen and dining room too.  Here too, I hired an electrician to make all of the connections though so I don't a) kill myself and b) blow out the expensive 3-way dimmer switches we purchased.  Again, the electrical inspector approved all of this too.

So, this weekend, I'm hoping to purchase myself some dry wall and start installing some insulation so we can keep some oily heat in this mo'fo.'  Looking forward to composting my construction tarp.

Again, here's some update pictures of our OOR. 

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Overly Optimistic Home Remodel - Update 1

Last time we posted, Paula and I had moved through the house like a tornado destroying much of what we saw in sight. Having begun to piece the house back together again, Paula and I installed a reclaimed red oak floor in the kitchen with much satisfaction. That seems like years ago now...

Shortly after, our cabinets arrived! Sure, they're still in boxes and taking up a ton of space, but at least they're here and getting anxious to find their homes.

Paula, our friend Nelson, and I have taken out the large window in the kitchen to make room for 3 new windows (All of which don't leak heat like a sieve and 2 of which actually open!). However, we got a bit held up and haven't yet managed to complete that task since we only were able to get 1 installed before it got too dark. That task should be completed by next week though.

We've been getting the plumbing sorted out too in the past month. I took out the 1/2" old galvanized pipes to the kitchen and had a plumber install a new drain and waste vent. Finally, this weekend I pulled the supply lines for new hot/cold water lines.

One thing I've been spending a lot of time on is trying to map out the electrical for our new kitchen, dining, and living rooms to sort out what makes sense. I had an electrician and a friend who's a contractor give me some advice, which was awesome. So, I managed to install the recessed lights, boxes, and pulled the new wire. However, when it came to connecting everything I decided to have an electrician handle that so a) I didn't kill myself and b) I didn't blow up expensive 3-way dimming switches. That's essentially done now and we actually have light in our new kitchen!

Things are coming together and hopefully we'll soon be able to insulate the walls and close them up. Keep your fingers crossed.

I've added a few more photos to our slide show for you to check out if you're interested.

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And so it begins...

Phase 1 of operation Blow Our House Up and Slowly Try to Put it Together began a few weeks ago.  Actually, it began almost a year ago when myself and some good friends (aka. the CHUMPS) replaced a load bearing wall between our dining room and living room with an engineered beam.  So we've had a hole in our ceiling since January...which is pretty awesome.

Our intention was to start our remodel many months ago, but the lack of experience in all things remodel and home ownership coupled with our recognition that Paula and I have different interior design aesthetics whilst sharing no ability to conceptualize design has slowed us down.  And then there's the obvious which is Paula's insane schedule that regularly saps her of energy and motivation.  She's rallied more times than not though while I bug her about how low the carbon footprint is of locally harvested alder cabinet materials, the advantages of low-formaldehyde medium-density fiberboard, great strides in locally produced recycled concrete countertop materials, and other boring topics that would put most normal people to sleep.  So, she's a champ.

About a month ago though, we sealed our fate by throwing down a chunk of cash on new kitchen cabinets and countertops.  Paula and I have been drinking Pepto-Bismol with dinner since.  They've not been delivered yet, but their imminent arrival has required us to start getting serious about this remodel and begin making progress.  So, I spent two weeks thinking the remodel through a bit and trying to plan all of the steps for a major task that I'm woefully unprepared for.  And finally, one weekend when Paula was on call I hung two large green sheets (I think Maddie's thinks they're like the green curtain the Wizard of Oz hides behind because she's been so scared of all the noises coming out from behind them...) to separate our temporary living/dining/and cooking quarters from the chaos and demolished much of the kitchen.  The process has taken a bit longer than I had scheduled (probably because I have no idea what I'm doing), but I think we've been making decent progress.

This weekend, Paula and I completed our first task where we can actually see progress towards a new livable, functional kitchen.  We finished putting in a new-to-us red oak floor in the kitchen.  I bought about 250 square feet of old red oak flooring in all types of condition.  We really only needed about 200 square feet of flooring, but there's a ton of crap that you get when you buy reclaimed flooring (e.g., tongue and/or grooves missing, split boards, etc.).  But now we've got a sweet hardwood floor with most of the imperfections strategically placed where the cabinets will be.  All that's left for us to do now with the floors is to rent a drum sander so all the miscellaneous boards that have traveled far and wide to end up in our kitchen can feel and hopefully look somewhat uniform (we're not going to stain the floors yet).  For now though, we're enjoying having a tangible example of progress behind the green curtain.  Victory is ours....

Next step is either installing our new windows, running the new plumbing, or running the new electrical.  Not exactly sure though since, I repeat, I have no idea what I'm doing.

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