A Little Update

The master bathroom is going well, we've got the new double vanity installed & the under sink leak fixed. I had anticipated this & put down a puppy piddle pad, glad I did. 

The vanity top came with a 4 inch tall back splash but since it fits PERFECTLY into the area, we'll need something on the side walls also. So we picked out a matching tile to go up about 12 inches on the sides & above the backsplash. 

We're putting shiplap on the back wall, I've already painted the wall & the boards, cut them to size and they are ready to go onto the walls. 

A mirror has been purchased, its just wide enough to fill the area & we'll put a frame made from the flooring around it to match.

There is very little painting left to do in the master bath, just a bit on the ceiling & around the tub. Then we'll put new caulking around it.

The flooring looks very nice, its a gray & the vanity is brown. I like both together, they aren't too much of one color. The flooring is also waterproof so we won't be worrying about wet floors.

Two Empty Bedrooms

With our roommate gone, we have decided to do a pretty big project in the house, maybe bigger than the kitchen work but to me seems smaller.

This is our old room, we had it for 4 years, since we moved into the house. This photo is taken standing in the door that goes into the room. We're adding another bathroom upstairs and this area, to the right of the blue line, will be the new bathroom. We've already removed the white (who puts white carpet in a farm house bedroom???) carpet and I've done some painting so the red wall is gone.

The door on the right, shown here removed, goes into the old bathroom that was a jack & Jill bath. That will now be the master bath and connected to the other bedroom still.

Plumbing shown here before pipes were added.

This is the single vanity we found, perfect for a farm house bathroom. 

That left side is a barn door slider.

We purchased the double sink for the master bath.

Here is a side view with the vanity in its approximate position. The toilet to its left & the shower on very left. 

The brown door is going to be removed & replaced with a sliding barn door like we have downstairs. 

I like this blue paint but might not use it now. We'll see.

She's Moving!

I'm holding my breath & crossing my fingers, she said she's moving next week. I'll do whatever I can to help her on her way. I mean, I'm not co-signing or paying for anything, but I'll help her move her shit to her new residence.
Monday & Tuesday are the big days. yippee.
She's got 2 places, one is $800 for a bedroom in a shared home, the woman has a day care & kids are there all day and into the evening.
Second place is with a married couple and is a bit cheaper. She hasn't been to see it yet & isn't sure of the location.
I told her the handyman will be here February 3rd & she's got to be out before then.

4 Days

Our vacation begins in 4 days.

4 days from now, Sunday, I'll be doing last minute things like giving the dogs belly rubs, ruffing up the kitties, making sure I have EVERYTHING I might possibly need on our trip. We catch the airport shuttle 5 miles down the road at 9:50am, arrive at airport at 11 and our flight leaves at 1:45pm.

We will arrive in London's Gatwick airport Monday morning at 7am and we'll be in London about 36 hours. 

Tuesday afternoon we fly out of Stanstead airport to Carcassonne, France, landing at 5:30pm. We have 2 nights prepaid in the south, then wherever we end up until we fly out again on the 15th.

On Wednesday the 16th, we fly from Heathrow airport north to Gateshead, where we will meet up with Michelle & Guy for a week.

On Tuesday 22nd, we fly once again, from Gateshead back to Heathrow. We'll have a 10 hour window to sightsee, then spending the night at BLOC hotel inside Gatwick airport.

Wednesday October 23 we fly back home and arrive in Seattle at 11:45am. We'll have a couple additional bags by then so will have to gather them, then catch the shuttle back to Purdy. That's going to be a LONG day.

SIR ELTON JOHN

SIR ELTON JOHN

He's been my one true teen heart throb my entire life 

and last night I was delighted to see him again, my third time, in concert.

Tacoma Dome, 

September 17, 2019

Seats 211 HH 5 & 6

(we were sitting straight across from the stage, a long way but it was perfect)

FAREWELL YELLOW BRICK ROAD TOUR

This street sign was outside, pretty cool.

Inside on the way to our seats

This one is pretty cool, Lan took it

Near the end

I absolutely LOVE the man

Counting Down

The days are flying by & I can't believe its only 26 days until we fly out of Seattle to London.

I went ahead and reserved the Renault Clio for France. It's totally gutless and slow and small. Its costing us $224.23 for the week.

Lan really wants to go see the Catacombs in Paris. Seems pretty morbid to me. 

I was reading online & people are all its so cool & I'm like 

THOSE ARE DEAD PEOPLE.

There is nothing cool about all the 6 million dead people being removed from their graves being cool.

Some woman has a traveling to France FB page & she highly suggests that people go see the Catacombs & have her friend be your guide. He charges $100 for the tour. Or you can stand in line for a bit & purchase tickets with an audio guide for $38.

Back i n April I injured my shoulder at work. Went to doctor & was told just let it heal on its own, if its not better in a month come back.  A month later I called to make another appointment but was told they didn't have an L&I doctor to see me so I had to wait. Finally got the appointment, she told me I'd need to see another doctor & they finally called to make the appointment but I was landing the boat & couldn't get it made. Then forogt to call back. Later that week I got a letter from there to call, then the next letter I opened was from L&I saying they had closed my case. PITA. I wrote, included letter from my doc that I needed another appointment. Low & behold, I got a call from L&I and they reopened my case. Today I've been able to set up an appointment for October 1st. I hope I can get help for the shoulder pain I've been experiencing while sleeping. It hurts no matter which side I lay on. I'm going to ask for an MRI.

Trippin'

In 27 days we'll be at the airport, 

waiting to catch our flight to England.

Drone

A friend brought his drone over today and did a preliminary video of our farm

He got several videos and many photos

The horses weren't impressed with the buzzing and ran for the hills

Mostly we were looking to see what it currently looks like and what we need to do to improve it looks. Theres still some cleaning up and putting things away but for the most part, it looks pretty good.

The machine itself was much smaller than what I thought it would be

Here he is, doing his thing

Photo taken from the back of the property towards the front

Too bad the so dry out now

The bright sunlight was drowning out a lot of the color

When he comes back, we're planning on it being in the early morning so the sunshine is on the front of the house. I also want to know when it will be beforehand so I can make sore the barn is clean. He flew the drove through the barn! twice!

In other news, I have purchased additional plane tickets for our trip:

 London -  Carcassonne, France $35.01

Dinard, France - Dublin, Ireland $63.27

Dublin - Newcastle, England $38.94

Then I realized Michelle & guy aren't planning on going to Ireland so I cancelled that leg of the trip.

 We'll be staying in France for the first week and will see MUCH more of it. South for 2 days, then middle eastern section, Paris (Mona Lisa!!)

We will go to Omaha Beach, where Lans grandpa was at during the war and then back down to Carcassonne to fly back to Stansted, England, $43.84.

Returning the rental car to Carcassonne airport and having it for a week costs less than having it for 3 days & returning to Dinard airport and negates the expenses of the cancelled plane tickets.

I'm not actually cancelling the plane tickets, we'll just not use them unless we decide we'd rather go to Ireland. But they drive on the wrong side of the street there & we'd crash.

Soren

Soren is 7 1/2 years old and he is staying here for the summer. 

He is my great nephew, grandson of my twin brother.

His mom has to work a lot so I get to spend massive amounts of time with him.

I'm trying to make this a memorable time and Lan & I both hope he leaves here happy and with great stories to tell. 

Here I had him help groom the horses. Every day he enjoys helping to turn the horses out to pasture and its now his job to turn the chickens out and give them their scratch.

Last week we went to Waterman Dock to look for the Orcas that were in the vicinity & while we didn't find them, he still made a monkey out of himself.

Soren likes Spiderman so when we went to the dollar store we picked up a Spiderman kite and he learned how to fly it. I should take him back down to the dock, it was perfectly windy there. Here, it would blow every different direction so he ended up running with it.

But it flies.

On Sunday, June 30, 2019

the might ferry M/V Hyak ran her last crossings Bremerton-Seattle so I made arrangements for us to go up into the wheelhouse and visit with Captain Steve. It was SO MUCH FUN and all of us got a chance to drive the ferry.

WE DROVE THE FERRY!!  

And Soren got to blow the horn.

This next photo is cool because just as Steve let go of the telegraph, Soren accidently moved it & a chime sounded, in the wheelhouse and in the engine room. We all gasped in surprise, Soren was scared & almost cried but Steve just communicated for them to disregard. Then we all laughed.

We got him a bike. 16" used, perfect. 

Lan built him a jump.

Then we got him a new bike and its perfecter.

Today he & I went out to Banner Forest and had a blast riding tails.

If we have enough warm sunny days, we can go for more rides in the 65 Mustang. 

We've got about 5-6 weeks until he goes back to Minnesota to live with dad for the school year. I wonder how many more really cool things we can do until then?

36 Hours To Montana

At 6pm June 27th, 2019 we headed out on a quickie trip to Montana to check out that house we like.

We stopped in Coeur d'Alene at midnight and with arrangements to meet the realtor at 1pm we had time for a side trip to Cataldo Mission. It was beautiful outside and inside the buildings

Some of these photos are from the two previous times we were there but I only took 153 this time so had to borrow.

This triangular shape building is technically a fruit cellar I think but for shits & giggles I call it the UNDER GROUND BUNKER.

 The owner used it for storing paint and it doesn't have built in shelves. I does have a drain in the floor but the floor is still damp/wet. 

Going down...

It was about 70* outside and a good 20* cooler inside

It measures approximately 8' X 8'. If we could find a way to get it dry inside, I think adding a bunk bed on the back wall and maybe a teensy chair & table + overhead bare bulb light would be fun. I think people would pay for spend the night there.

The Columbine & Iris along the front side of the house are beautiful

We took a hike up to the top of the ridge on the back of the property and kept finding jaw bones.

Not entire skeletons, just jaw bones.

Many, many jaw bones.

Like 50 jaw bones.

This awesome gate blocks the road so not just anyone can drive on it. It goes through our the property and winds up the hill to the ridge.

This is the view up there, pretty amazing.

We followed the road to its natural end, at our the neighbors house.

This is the view of the front pasture from his place.

And this is the view from the road at the corner down from the entry gate.

We took John Henry with us and she must have run about 10 miles. I know she went farther than I did and I got more than my 10,000 daily step goal.

She was one tuckered out girl.

We returned home Friday night just before midnight.

We are more than ever ready to move and have been packing more boxes. Lan thinks we're 2 weeks away from listing our house & making another offer to the owner.