A piece of advice...

For any other home owners out there... (Warning Reader Beware: some gross and graphic details below)

So when we first bought our house, Matt thought there was a slightly gross smell in one of the rooms in the basement. We could never figure out what it was, but we never spent much time down there (pretty much only stored boxes) so didn't worry about it too much. Well every time we went down there though it drove Matt nuts, so we figured during this basement remodel and demolition we would figure it out.... and boy did we!

We have never seen a mouse since we have lived in this house. That said, apparently the previous owners did.... and the way they decided to solve it is where my advice comes in.

You know those mouse traps that snap close? Yeah they freak me out and are probably disgusting to deal with once they have caught a mouse. Probably also what the previous owner was thinking... so instead they decided... "hey, why not try poisen tablets?".  Doesn't seem like the worst idea right? The mice eat it, die, and you dont have to deal with those messy mouse traps. WRONG.

Poison tablets were tossed up into the "drop" ceiling in one of the basement bedrooms. The mice of course proceeded to eat it. This is where is gets bad. They then probably took about a week to die... making a HORRIBLE mess throughout the insulation (just think if you were poisoned what would happen). Luckily this was contained to one room. When we (and again by "we", I mean Matt in this horrible instance), pulled out all the insulation in the ceiling... debris came falling down that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

After all that and about 5 old petrified mice later....ewww good lord they had to have been up there about 5 years!... the smell was gone! Thank the lord.

Now I hope we never get mice while we are actually living in this house, and I hope nobody else out there does either. But if you DO.... learn from this and just use the old fashioned mouse traps.

Indianola Day

We spent this last Saturday over in Indianola to help judge sandcastles with a group of folks from Matt's work. The weather was fantastic, and besides the fact that we took the wrong ferry on our way there (haha, oh well it worked out), it was a great day.

Lots of great sandcastles, and a fun day across the water away from Seattle.

On the ferry

SUCH a beautiful day and view of Mt. Rainier

Some of my favorite sand castles.

Around the neighborhood

Took a walk around our neighborhood yesterday morning, and in typical fashion headed to Cafe Ladro to grab some coffee.

Warning neighbors: Do not let your dog poop in this yard!  Saw this sign in front of one house out by the sidewalk, these folks must have been crossed one too many times by some dog owners not picking up after them. Not sure why but it really made me laugh.... I guess I just can't imagine incorporating a sign like this into my front yard. Plus the picture is just kind of funny!

That is one huge... Zucchini

Last year I had such success with growing tomatoes, I thought I would expand this year and try something new. Matt shot down pumpkins, haha... I dont know why (pretty sure it's because I'm such a successful gardener now he was worried we would have too many huge pumpkins everywhere... =).

My next choice was Zucchini! So far the 1 plant I have has just gone crazy! This is my first Zucchini of the season (I swear its huge, the picture doesn't do it justice) and there are about 8 more already growing on the plant... time to find a good Zucchini bread recipe. Anyone have suggestions? yumm...

Happy 2 Years!

I cannot believe Matt & I have been married for 2 years already, time flies! I feel so lucky to have married my best friend. Cheers to 2 years, and to many more memories and adventures to come!

Who knew?

I had no idea so much water was just floating around in the air in our house. That sounds odd right? Maybe its just me. Anyways our basement always seemed dark and dank and musty. Maybe even a bit humid. Ick.

I've learned over the last couple months that apparently concrete is not a material that keeps water out. Who knew? I certainly didn't. Most basements just have insulation or other things on the inside of the concrete (or its sealed) before the wood and drywall and any other layers, so that when moisture comes through it evaporates and its fine. (ok this is my basic understanding from what Matt and others have tried to explain to me so this may be somewhat wrong, haha, but I trust that others know what they are saying).

Long story short, our basement is more moist than most...probably because its so old. And we noticed it even more after all the drywall came off and the insulation and wood framing. So we bought a "de-humidifier". It was about $200 (Matt found an online deal) and plugs into the wall. It arrived in the mail this weekend and after being plugged in for about 3 hours there was already about a litre of water! Geez.

We plan to keep using it. And once we get to the point of leveling the floor and improving the structure in the basement, we are looking into sealing the concrete also to keep it even more dry.

It's Official...

Matt is an architect! After all that school, and then working & studying, and finally taking all of his exams over the last year... he is finally certified. I'm so proud.

Now, time to find a nice fancy frame to put this in.

Flowers of the week

I'm trying to continue to bring fresh flowers into the house every week if I can. It's such a fun and inexpensive way to bring a splash of color into the living room or kitchen and I love it. Since it's summer I thought I should try and keep bringing in flowers from our yard since we have them. This week it's Daisies from the backyard...

The Furnace project

Our recent project on the basement is getting our furnace replaced, and we will be moving some of the duct work. We had 3 estimates done, and then chose our guy to do the work in a couple weeks!

In the meantime, to save some money.... we (and by "we" I mean Matt) tore out the old duct work. That way we dont have to pay to have the old duct taken out, something Matt thought we could easily do, and when they come in it will be all ready to put in the new furnace & re-route the duct.

The Basement: the plan

Matt measured everything in the basement again, and drew up a plan for our basement remodel. Its fun to visualize what we are working towards!  I added notes to his drawing, labeling what we are thinking each room will be used for...

 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day! We are thoroughly enjoying our 4 day weekend! Yesterday we spent the day downtown Seattle, and met up with my parents for lunch at "Matt's at the Market". Afterwards we walked around Pike Place Market a bit and then downtown. I even met up with my girlfriends later for drinks and to see Twilight.

Saturday we decided to be productive and Matt spent about 5 hours in the basement working on things, while I spent the day working in the yard (and boy did it need it!).

I was inspired and decided to try and make some festive decorated sugar cookies for tomorrow.

Sweet Peas! I LOVE these flowers, probably my new favorite. I have always loved flowers, but I was inspired by a DIY blog lately that I read, and they say getting some bright/inexpensive flowers once a month is a great way to keep your house feeling fresh and colorful. Picked these up at the market for about $5, and boy is it worth every penny.... they just make me so happy! =)

After a long day of yardwork... mowing, weeding, trimming. Brought in these pretty yellow flowers and some lavendar from our yard, and put them in a short little vase on our living room coffee-table. Cute right? I'm going to make this a new habit.

The Basement: after some more demolition

Here are a few pictures of things.... "after demolition". After our long Memorial Day weekend, we got a ton out of the basement, but then realized we needed to take out even more walls/dry-wall, as well as all of the ceiling in the basement (not just the drop ceiling in the living room).

Next on the list will be replacing our furnace and having some of the duct work moved. We had 3 guys come in this week to give us estimates (since we aren't doing this part ourselves)... now we just need to wait and see how much that will cost and then hopefully we have this done in the next few weeks.
Just a couple pic's for now. I'll take some more after we take this last trip to the dump and all the piles of dry-wall and debris are gone so everything is a little easier to see.

Hard at work.

The former "office" (small bedroom) in the basement. We are tearing out these walls and moving them to the right to make this room much bigger.