It's a Doggy Dogg World

So, for those of you who with whom I haven't been in touch ... we got a puppy!  She is a French Bulldog, and we named her Lucille (Lulu for short).  She has been taking up a lot of my time and energy for the past week, but she is just a little furball of love.  We got her from a wonderful breeder at frenchies2luv.com, who I would recommend to anyone looking for a French Bulldog. Here are some pics!

Racing to meet our deadline...

Guest Room pics

Snapped just a couple of quick images this morning on the way out of the house...

And here's one of the guest bathroom so far (I realize, not much to speak of yet).

Roofed and PaintedI

After a long day of painting, with lots of help from Matt and Sylvia, Becky and I proud to say that the construction phase of the shed is nearly complete.  We need to do one more topcoat of the green, and then paint the trim.  Here are some photos that tell the tale, including the brown metal roof, the shed in it's primed but not painted condition, some interior photos, and finally some pics of how it stands today, with the first topcoat of green. 

How to build a shed:

Step one:  Order a butt-load of wood (huh huh, huh huh huh)

******VERY IMPORTANT!!!***** Step 2: Hire professionals.

Step 2A:
Watch as they build a foundation and level it on blocks:

Step 2B:  The pros (our extremely able friends Dave, Matt and Sylvia) install the floor

Step 2C:  Before you know it, a wall will be framed...

Step 2D: ... and another started.

Step 2E: Once all 4 walls are framed, you can call it a day.

On Day 2, Build a small attached deck and throw on some siding:

 Maybe add a few roof joists:

And throw on the initial coat of primer to prepare for final paint job, which will make the shed match the house.

Work to do...

Well, I know it's been forever since I posted anything on the blog, but it has been a busy, busy start to 2010.  We have moved into the house, thrown a housewarming party, had our team win the Superbowl, elected a new mayor (hooray!), and partied through Mardi Gras.  In the midst of that, I took a trip to Eugene and Seattle with Dad to visit Aunt Cindy and Diana AND we moved our entire company to a new location.

We decided at the end of January to terminate the lease on Becky's apartment, which is where we had been doing laundry until the move.  Since we tore down the shed that used to house the washer and dryer at the house, we have been spending a half day at the laundromat every two weeks.  I have to say that the laundromat on a Sunday morning is simply an unpleasant experience.  Given that Dave expressed some interest in tackling this project with me (OK, mostly *for* me), I opted to get started on this in early February.

The room designated as the laundry room is the room all the way at the rear of the house.  When I purchased the house lo these many months ago, the room was painted a dark grey, and consisted of 2 windows and a closet.  The windows had obviously been covered with tin foil and black sheets (??) for some time and the whole thing had a "crack-y" sort of feel.



We (and by we I mean Dave) tore out one of the windows and added a door to the back yard:


There aren't really a lot of good pictures of this room because almost from the beginning, it was filled top to bottom with "stuff."  You can see the pile of boxes to Dave's left in the picture above.

Anyway, to the good news and pictures!  In the past month we have torn out the closet, repaired the sheetrock,  primed and painted the walls, patched the floors with thinset concrete (twice), laid down linoleum, run plumbing and electrical for washer and dryer, purchased and installed cabinets and countertop, and moved the washer and dryer indoors (just today) for a triumphant first load of laundry in the new laundry room.  Without further ado, here it is!