Beach house - mid June 2010

Looks almost done from the outside!  I can't wait to see it again but we have to wait until the end of July for our next visit there.

The floor is in on the ground level.  This is taken from what will be the kitchen looking toward the Great Room.  I see stairs!!

Beach House - early June 2010

Siding and trim!!

if you can't tell, it is a very light blue siding and white trim.  Prettiest house on the block!

Beach house - May 2010

Wow - is this something!

I used to think the Michell's house next door was large but ours is sort of making hers look small (which it really is not). 

Mike and Kristian discussing the front steps.

Here's the back porch and view of the back yard over to the garage.

And from the back yard looking toward the back porch.  That's Michelle's house on the left.

When you walk in the front door, the open space to the right is the kitchen.   The framed rooms are the laundry room and a bath.  If you look closely, there are sliding glass doors that open to an outdoor covered back porch.

To the left when you walk in is the study/possible 5th bedroom. 

This is the "great room" where we will spend all of our time when we're inside the house.

We are building a full bath/changing room onto the garage.  We have some fun ideas for this bath but you'll have to wait to hear them!

The stairs aren't in yet, so we had to climb up a ladder to get upstairs.  Yikes!

Somehow I only managed to take one picture of the master bedroom looking out through the sliding doors.  that's Mike standing on the upstairs porch and our builder Kristian with the plans.  The master is on the right side of the house as you face it from the street.

The view from the upper porch toward the bay.  I never noticed that tree before. I think we'll still have a fine view of the sunset. 

The other bedroom at the front of the house also has a door to the porch. 

Here's one of the other bedrooms upstairs.

Bathroom upstairs.

Look - the back neighbor put in a pool!  We may need to make friends with them!  By the change in the color of the stones, you can see the property line between our yard and the neighbors.  We'll be putting up a white fence like the back neighbors along that line but only as far as the back of the house. 

Here you can see the garage from above.

We'll be back again in July so hopefully there will be a lot of progress between now and then.  I'll post photos that Kristian sends us between now and then. 

Happy Mothers Day 2010

Happy Mothers Day to all Moms today! I phoned my Mom this morning and really wish I was there with her to celebrate her day. Hope you enjoy the flowers that did arrive on time from your other daughter and that my envelope filled with love arrives tomorrow giving you another day to celebrate.

My two angels came over with precious cards and gifts (see above) and to make me a delicious breakfast. Duncan was the chef and Steffi sous-chef/chief dish washer. The crepes were yummy! We had maple syrup, strawberries, various jams, cream, lemon and sugar to put in them. I preferred the strawberries.

Duncan expertly flipped a dozen or more crepes but I managed to not capture any of the crepes in the air.

Steffi got her APO jersey last night at the annual banquet. Her "Big" (as in Big Sister) gave her the name Novel Chef as a salute to her writing and culinary skills. Pretty clever!

Earlier this week Duncan got a new car (well, new to him) that I/we named Cinco as in Cinco de Mayo which was the day we first found it. It's a dark blue 2007 Nissan Altima and he loves it! What a big change from "Iknow" his Ford truck. I hope you have many happy times driving in your new ride, Dunx!

More beach house progress

We didn't realize this would tower over our neighbor's house as much as it looks like it is.  We thought that house was pretty big.  I guess it was compared to the old house.  Maybe it is just the camera angle?  Still to come is a covered front porch that is a balcony for the second floor.  The wide opening on the right will be french or sliding doors from the master bdrm to the balcony.  There will also be a door out to the balcony from the other bedroom on the left (facing the house).  I am excited about that because I think we'll be able to see the sunsets over the bay from up there. 

Lavallette Beach House progress

Our builder just sent us a photo today that really makes the beach house look like a house.  I know the progress may not be as visible once they finish the outside but I will try to provide an update each month from here on out. 

This was probably back in February and here they are grading the lot.

Then the foundation goes in.

The frame goes up

And just last week a roofline appears...

And all of a sudden, today, May 3rd,  it really looks like a house.  That's the garage in the back.  I think it may actually get done this year.  Wouldn't that be cool?! 

Mike and I will be there in about 3 weeks to start making interior choices.  Don't put your bathings suits on just yet, but stay tuned for more updates this month!     

How does your garden grow?

Mike is on his annual golfing weekend so I needed something to do.  I know this may be crazy since we have the house on the market and I may not be able to reap what I've sown, but I decided to plant a vegetable garden this weekend.  There was a pretty neglected garden area in the back of the house and I've been wanting to plant some herbs anyway, why not plant tomatoes, peppers and a few eggplants while I was at it?  First I had to removed the neglected plants, most of which came out happily with all the rain we've had.  A few are stumps too big for me to remove that I just buried or worked around.  I planted marigolds as a natural pest deterrent and for bright color.

See what a good garderer I am  - I already have a tomato!  Or maybe that only proves I chose my plants well yesterday :)

Do you think this very innocent looking dog will dig n my garden?!

Keep your fingers crossed that a gardener looks at this house and just has to buy it!

Here are some long overdue photos from Easter.  We had been planning to sit by the pool before eating Easter supper, but the weather was not cooperative with that plan so we had to stay inside.  Instead of setting up a card game I put out Easter egg dye and a dozen hardboiled eggs and a dozen raw eggs.  The adults arrived first and pretty much went all of the eggs before any of the kids showed up.  I think Sandy, Una and Leslie had a good time!

Ziplining at Grouse Mountain

The weather cooperated and produced the most gloriously nice day for us to go ziplining at Grouse Mountain just outside of Vancouver.  Grouse Mountain is where NBC set up their communication center for the Olympics so there were lots of television crews there but no sporting events.  It was about a 20 minute trip by cab to get to the base of the mountain.  From there we took a 20 minute tram ride up (2 miles?) to the lodge.  Not much snow up there, but there were people skiing and snowboarding. 

This was the gear we had to wear.  It allowed us to kind of sit while we ziplined.

There were 5 ziplines.  The first one was short so we could practice.

Here are Duncan and Stephen demonstrating the "landing" position.

Here they go!  Follow the lines and you will see little people hanging from them - it is Duncan on the left and Stephen on the right.

Here is someone coming in to the landing area feet first.  We had no brakes but the big spring and orange bag absorbed our impact and made for a safe stop.

The next zipline took us over a mostly frozen lake.  That's Stephen on the left and Duncan on the right this time.

Here is one of the guides going through the prep process before Stephen was allowed to go.  The guides were great and followed the safety procedures completely every time. 

Here they go again!  This was a really long one!

This was the 5th zip we did.  The guides warned us to try to go fast and stay streamlined or we wouldn't make it all the way to the other side!  The views were great - I wish I had been able to take photos while zipping.  Check out the big windmill at the end.  It was enormous!