All I want for New Years Day is...

Whenever Sandi and I go on vacation, especially camping, I crave a savory, snacky-lunch.  Bummer that Sandi doesn't share my enthusiasm ("its not a meal").  She must love me because New Years Day lunch came and we filled our table with all the good finger-food we could find (not shown are the wheat crackers that made it on the table shortly after this photo).  

 

So happy!

Moolock Shores

Sandi and I have talked about going the coast in the winter for a storm for a few years.  This December we decided to make the trip.

 

Moolock Shores is a little motel between Beaverly Beach and Newport.  The Central Oregon coast is a great place to watch waves crash against the rocks. 

 

view from our hotel room. 

I was a little surprised that we never stepped foot on the sand.  The tide was either too high or it was too rainy.  The wind and rain woke me up at 3:00 AM.  It was fun to listen to knowing that the cabin was solid. 

 

 

Devi's punchbowl

These next photos are from downtown Newport.  Incredible surf. 





A Day in Seattle

I promised Sandi a date in Seattle over Christmas.  We originally planned on seeing the usual suspects: Space Needle, waterfront, Ferry to BI (for lunch) and Pikes Place.  We modified our plans over breakfast that morning and came up with this:

Starbucks just opened a new roasting place called "Starbucks Reserve."  The line outside is to purchase coffee.  We walked in just to look around.

 The photos don't do this place justice.  The colors and décor are very warm and inviting.  Dark leather, copper and wood mix with the smell of roasting coffee and comfortable chairs.  Its an easy place to relax if you are playing more than just the role of a tourist. 

After lunch at an Indian buffet near the Convention Center we headed over to the Underground tour.  I remember going on it (and enjoying it) as a kid. Sandi had never been. 

 

I love Seattle for all the reasons that one should love a city.  But have mercy, its history is sordid and repulsive.  I marvel that a city so steeped in corruption and incompetence from its early days can be so vibrant and healthy today (acknowledging present challenges).

 

We are walking on what used to be the streets of Seattle and looking at the first floor of a building. 

 

If you walk near First and Stuart you may see stained-glass areas on the sidewalk.  This is a very of it from the underground.

 

From architectural disaster to an architectural work of art, we walked over to the Seattle City Library. 

 

 

Neither of us had been inside of it so we took our own little tour.

 It was kind of a maze how the different floors worked together.  As we took the escalator all the way up we were confused how people got to the intermediate floors.  It wasn't until we started walking down (imagine driving a car around and around a parking garage to descend to the street level) that we figured out what was going on.  There were a ton of computer terminals and a lot of tables/cubbies to study.  I'm not sure if I would enjoy using it as a library, but I think I could work on my laptop for a hours there.

 

As we began our day with Starbucks, so we ended it.  From the library we walked 1st Street towards Pike's Place Market. 

 

Sandi wanted to get 'Market Spice' tea and I wanted to see the original SB location.

 

Mission Accomplished.

 

Christmas up North

Sandi and I had a great time up north with my parents on Christmas Eve.  I tried (and failed) to get a picture of everyone.  Sorry Sandi and Dad and Dwayne.

Though I don't have any photos to prove it, Christmas Day was a ton of fun at the Needs.  Imagine: a day eating snacks from Trader Joes and Zuppo Tascano. 

 

Bathroom remodel: Phase 1

Simultaneous to our wall project, we undertook remodeling our guest bathroom - we're young, we're foolish - why not? 

 

Before any major work began, we had a functional bathroom with several design flaws.  An old vanity, inefficient toilet and horrible use of space topped our list.  Our vision was to cut away the baby-changing table and update everything else.

 

No more baby-changing table.

 

This is what a 38 year-old pressed-board vanity looks like.

 

This is what a 39-year old vanity looks like.

 

Now, let's talk about the new vanity.

 

 

Sandi and I looked at the box stores for a new vanity for a few months.  We never found one within our budget that looked good and had some sort of durability.  So we turned to plan B: I'll make one.  We bought a sink & counter top to set the dimensions and set pencil to graph-paper.  Borrowing from existing designs and personal desires we came up with a model that should fit our needs. 

 

The 'carcass' is 36" long, 25" high and 22" deep.  Five drawers and a cabinet.  This ought to be plenty of room.

 

 

Per Sandi's request, the top two drawers have little baby drawers sitting on rails.  Per the utility's demands, half of the back is missing (which made installing the top right drawer a little challenging).

 

I think the most daunting part of this project the 'espresso' color we wanted.  As a rule, I never paint wood because I don't like to hide it's natural beauty.  I feared I would have to rent a spray gun or perform some sort of elaborate ritual to achieve the desired result.  A Rockler sales rep showed us how and laid most of my fears to rest (though we did have to settle on 'Java' instead of 'Espresso').

 

 I was thrilled how the stain turned out.

With the vanity mostly completed and company coming soon, I turned my attention to the rest of what ails our bathroom.  Demolition began Friday evening and rebuilding started on Saturday morning.

 

 

I installed a new floor

 

 

and toilet, neither of which was particularly easy or enjoyable.  Now come the vanity.

 

A special note on plumbing and how much I hate it: There is much that separates me from a professional plumber: skill, training, years on the job, tools, etc.  There is one thing I can do to make my experience a slightly more tolerable disaster I know it will be is to have supplies on hand.  Not just the supplies I think I need (or even the supplies the hardware store associate thinks I need), but the same supplies at my disposal that a plumber has in his utility van.  After the associate showed me what I needed, I grabbed that plus much more just in case....

Even with all this supplies it still took me 3 evenings to get the plumbing hooked up.  A special time of panic arose when I had everything finished.  The vanity is leveled, the counter glued, the drain finally stopped dripping and I was grinning with satisfaction.  Before going to bed, Sandi and I thought we should take a few minutes to put the drawers in, just to finish it off.  Uh-oh, the toilet is in the way.  I can't get the bottom 3 drawers in.  It's 10:30 at night and I have to unhook the faucet and the drain so I can slide the vanity to 3 different positions to fit each drawer.  Everything barley fit and I will never take out those drawers again.

 

After that and a few more frustrating experiences (like dropping and breaking the last face on Thanksgiving morning), I finally got the drawer and cabinet faces attached to the vanity.  It's a huge check off my list of projects.  I hope never to build another cabinet that involves plumbing.  Actually, I hope to never do anything again that involves plumbing.

 

We are really pleased with how it looks.

This completes phase 1.  Phase two is a matching cabinet to fill the useless space on the left.  Phase 3 is updating the bathtub and shower.  Stay tuned...