Project Update I

Last week, I told you that we were going to have some projects going on at our house. Well, this weekend we put on our construction hats and our safety goggles, and hunkered down for some destruction, dirt and dust. Oh, the dust. So much dust. Make it stop.

On Friday morning, a crew came to dig up our back sidewalk and patio. For about a half hour, Marin slept through two bobcats jackhammering through reinforced concrete about 20 feet from her bedroom window. How is that possible?!! Things were knocked off our walls, but yet Marin slept right through. When she did wake up, Marin was fascinated with what was going on in her backyard. She sat at he back window and looked out at the machines saying "dig, dig, dig!!" when prompted. And that was just the beginning...

Saturday morning our house looked like this:


Jason's dad arrived and he and Jason got to work studying the deck plans. By Saturday afternoon, we had a giant hole in the back of our house. No time to stop now.


By Saturday night, we had a door!


Marin loved the new view from her highchair on Sunday morning.


Yesterday a real charecter came to dig the post holes. He's in a band and we now know all about it. Today Jason and Bill are pouring the concrete. It's 90 degrees outside. Y-U-C-K. When I left for work this morning, my otherwise handsome, very sweaty, extremely dirty, unshaven, concrete dust covered husband gave me a kiss that tasted salty. I shuttered a little. But then I told him how much I appreciate him once again working so hard for our family. I may just stay away from those "while working kisses" for the duration.

But wait, there's more! Last weekend, Jason started installing a custom wine bar in a nook in our dining room that, when we bought the house used to be a closet. Who needs a closet in the dining room? Not I. Closet out. Wine in. So before we moved in, Jason tore the closet out, and converted it to this nook with a little framing alteration and drywall. It's not complete yet, of course, but here's how it looks today, waiting on hardware, the beverage fridge and the granite top.

I painted our (horribly ugly, yet to be remodled) first floor bathroom this weekend. Forget water torture, if we want our terrorists to talk, perhaps we should make them paint a small, basically windowless bathroom in a thousand percent humidity. It had to have been at least 104 in that bathroom. I stepped out into the mid day squelching heat with the sun beating down, and actually felt relief.

Marin loves helping with our projects. She loves bringing Jason his tools while he works. Granted, he may have absolutely no need for that tool when she decides on a whim to bring it to him, but we still celebrate her generosity and her kindhearted desire to help with triumphant grandeur. "Oh THANK YOU, Marin! You are so helpful! How kind of you! Thank you for helping!" She is so pleased with herself, that she appluades.

I'm not sure what Marin will think about the deck when it is built. So far, she is unhappy about her dwindling cedar and lumber jungle gym on the lawn. As soon as the project began, Jason unbundled all the wood, so its pretty dangerous for her to climb. Still, she has taken to removing the tags on each piece of wood, gathering them in her hands, and piling them in her wagon. She plays with those tags almost all day. I think I have come up with every imaginable game to be played with those tags. We have counted them, we have lined them up, we have pretended they were currency... you name it, we have done it.

There is a kind of excited energy about our house these last few weeks. We've had some of our very favorite guests visiting, we've spent some very nice time together, and we are seeing some more of our visions for our house come to life. It feels like the night before vacation when you are anxiously packing your bags and triple checking flight times. We love our house, and we love working together to make it our own. I know Marin will never remember her home any other way. But I am excited to tell her about how she reacted to it all unfolding in front of her. I'm also excited for tiny little hand prints on the glass door, next to doggy drool spots on the screen. I'm anticipating breaking out a bottle of champagne from the wine bar and toasting with friends on the deck... during all of life's adventures, big and small. These are the ways that a pile of cedar, two flats of concrete and bucket of screws becomes a stage for Marin to perform, or a shady spot for Norah to rest, or a respite for Jason and I to enjoy together at the end of a busy week. These are the ways that a house becomes a home.

Project update II to come later this week. And don't think I haven't forgotten about the life changer. Don't turn that dial; more to come!

In the meantime...enjoy some videos of the progress!
Video one: listen for Marin's babbling in the background, and watch how she claps for the progress
Video two: sorry, have to tilt your head (I took these on my camera)
Video three: it's a little long, but watch for the saw and the shocker at the end.