When will it end?!

As you know, we started ripping out/laying our hardwood floor a few weeks ago. I already posted the "before" and destruction pics, but I was waiting to post the "after" pics until we were completely finished...

Well, it's been almost a month, and we still have to paint, put up the trim and finish our entry way (which I think we are going to tile now- interesting, considering we don't know how to tile). So, at the request of some dear friends of mine, here are some pics of the (almost) finished floor. You get the idea, and when it gets completely finished I promise I'll put up a few more "after" photos.

 

 

 The archaic hammer gun. 

I kid you not, this is what we used to lay our floor. (The closest automatic nail gun to rent was 100 miles away.) Just how does this antique work? Well, you simply place the nails in the shaft, use the hammer/mallot contraption you see pictured here, slam it as hard as you can onto the black knob on the gun, and the momentum from your swing drives the nail into the ground. All of that effort= 1 nail into your board. FYI- We used over 2,000 nails. And when I say we, I mean Joe. 

Getting started with the hard stuff... damn our half-octagon shaped nook!

 Our brother-in-law Lukie "ripping" the boards to make the transition from our dining room to the living room nice and smooth :)

It was a total family effort... even our nephew Wyatt helped :)

End of Day #1: it doesn't seem like this would take very long, but don't be fooled...

Progress: More floor done and we have our kitchen island back

A close up of Wyatt (and the wood)

Joe working on his carpentry skills- look at that focus!

Infamous words... "Measure twice, cut once." Oops.

Jonas, so proud of his work!

Like a glove.

(See that ugly linoleum in the bathroom? Hopefully that's gone soon too.)

Trying to finish up the hall, but these angles did NOT making it easy. 

(Guest bedroom is on the left, office on the right.)

 But we persevered... and got it done.

The view from our bedroom door.

Now down the hallway and into the great room...

I see wood. A lot of it.

Here's a shot with some furniture back in. (And a cute, spoiled doggie too!)

Looking into the kitchen.
(Don't mind the rainbow of paint samples on the wall...
we are being a little indecisive right now.)

Looking into our unfinished entry way.
(Maybe you can help, wood or tile? We need input people!)

Now you can see why I wanted to wait to post pics...

Looking into the kitchen and nook.

Looking back into the kitchen from the nook.
(Door on the left is for the pantry, door on the right is the laundry room.)

One last shot of the great room with (some) of our furniture moved back in.

D-Day

Recently, Joe and I mustered up the courage, energy, and funds to declare war on our hideous floors. The cheap, ugly linoleum in our kitchen had been on my bad side from Day 1, and our carpet proved to be inferior after a winter of Jack tracking in minimal dirt yet still staining with ease. If any of you know Joe, then you know laminate flooring was NOT an option for us. We considered tile in the kitchen, but then decided against it due to the grout issue. Inevitably there was only one option left for us to choose... hardwoods.

After purchasing the actual boards a few weeks ago, we chose May 15-16 as our installation date. We were determined to do it ourselves and recruited a couple of family members to help. But before we put in the pretty new floor, the old one had to go. With a plethora of tools to choose from, we found the hazel hoe to be the most useful in ripping up the linoleum. Joe had this laborious duty as I followed behind with pliers, ripping out countless staples. (FYI- this was the biggest pain in the ass ever.) If you ever plan to do something like this yourself, plan a few extra hours minimum. Even with Joe's uncanny ability to destroy things, this took WAY longer than we thought. In addition, we discovered that we had to move our kitchen island, stove, dishwasher, and fridge in order to rip out all of the linoleum. This was not in our original plan, and needless to say only added to the process.

Although it was a huge pain and took way longer than we thought, once the floors were ripped out the actual laying of the hardwoods went pretty quick and was a lot of fun. We still have the entryway and pantry to finish, so the finished product pics will have to wait. But here are quite a few of us tearing our house to pieces...

The before: our living room from the entryway. 

Looking into our kitchen/dining room from the living room. 

The furniture all moved out and the floors ready to be demolished. 

It began so simply... 

and escalated quickly. 

Dominating the linoleum. 

Making progress. 

Two 12-hour days working on the weekend= lots of caffeine necessary.

Damn you staples...

No more kitchen island.

Yes, that is our island countertop and stove on our deck. 

Casualties. 

Taking out the trash, and ready for the fun part...

What an exhausting process... even Jack was tired.

Nutritious AND Delicious :)

Our first garden has officially been planted. A few trips to the woods to dig up some soil, Joe making his debut performance as a carpenter (a skill I am hoping he will master one day), some digging by yours truly (with some help from Jack), and of course- buying our beloved plants- SHOULD equal some delicious meals for us this summer. What's on the menu? Tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, strawberries, asparagus, corn, and cucumbers. After a slight mishap (Jack thought it looked like a glorious place to dig one day when we were at work), our garden is slowly but surely growing big and strong. Now if we could just get some consistent sunny weather, we might actually be able to harvest something soon! And the pics...

The spot.
 

The saw.
 

Jonas making the raised bed box.
 

Finished product! (And Jack helping us dig)
 

Truck load #1of dirt

 

Getting closer...
 

Our babies.
 

All ready to grow!
 

I also decided to plant an herb garden...
 

Here's to delicious, yummy meals this summer!

Um.... oops???

Apparently, it has been about two months since my last post... yikes. (Thanks to the Wilsons for calling me out on my blogging neglect, good friends tell you like it is.) I am not really a fan of excuses, so let's just chalk it up to my bad and I won't let it happen again. Now, for what has been keeping me from my beloved blog...

(The Short List)
I could probably list about 100 things that have been taking up our time. But when it comes down to it, anything worth mentioning falls into one of the following categories. So here is the rundown...

3. The house
We moved into our house in November, officially closed in January, and are just now getting around to "The List" of projects we want to do. At the top of the list: planting a garden and installing hardwood floors. We started Operation Deliciousness last weekend and still have work to do. Yesterday, we drove up to Eugene for a huge sale and got a great deal 709 sq. ft. of hardwood floors. We are super pumped to make our "canned" house a little more "us", and what better way to start with than yummy food and wood floors? More on these projects (with pics of course) to follow as they progress.

2. Work, work, work, all day long...
If I were prioritizing this list by time spent, this category would hands down be #1. While we are grateful to have good jobs, we also wish we had a little more balance. However, you won't find too many complaints here, because Joe is loving his new job and I am happy to have enough work to help us make ends meet.

When I say Joe loves his "new job" I am referring to his promotion. Joe was finally promoted to his forester position after 5 months of working on the crew. In short, he is now using his brain and his degree, instead of just using his body for physical labor. He is the Reforestation Forester at Lone Rock Timber Co. and enjoying every day. His days are long, usually 7am-5am and sometimes longer, but he is learning a lot, gets to be outside every day, and sometimes even gets to take little Jackie Poo with him. He is helping trees grow big and strong :)

As for me, I have a random mix of work taking up most of my time. Subbing has picked up A TON. I typically sub 4-5 days a week, and honestly get more calls than I really want. In addition, the PE Curriculum I am creating is in full-swing and starting to become a little overwhelming. Any day that I don't sub (and a lot of my weekends) are dedicated to this project. Lastly, I am also coaching track at Roseburg High School. Yes, I am making my return to the track after a 9 year hiatus. While I am enjoying my time as a coach, I forgot how time consuming track can be. We have practice every day from 3-5pm, one dual meet per week that usually goes until 8pm, and the killer- invitationals EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND in April/May. I really enjoy the athletes and other coaches I work with, but it definitely consumes a little more of my time than I had originally anticipated.

1. Family and friends
Ok, now for the good stuff. The last couple of months have been JAM PACKED with family and friend time, and it has been awesome. One of my bestests from Missouri came home to her beloved Oregon over Spring Break. It was SO good to hang out with her in Portland and actually give her a hug in person. Some of our other best friends, Blair, Mo, Caleb, Jessie, and Colton have all been down to visit/hang out with us in the Burg. (Makes me feel like we almost have friends here... almost.) We have been to Portland several times to see my family and various friends, including Brandon and Merissa who are expecting! I should also mention our first return trip to Newcastle since we moved back to Oregon. The main reason we went up was to attend a friend's wedding, but we squeezed in as many visits as we could! We stayed with the Wilson's on Friday and had ton of fun with their fam, before seeing all of our old Seahawk friends at the wedding on Saturday. The wedding was beautiful and A TON of fun. It was so great to see all of our friends up there, especially John and Dani Carlson, who we stayed with on Saturday and are also expecting! (Noticing a pattern here?) Click here for more pics of our return to Newcastle.

Ok. That was a lot of info. Hopefully I will stay more on top of things so I don't need to try and squeeze 2 months of our lives into one measly post. Below is a random smattering of pics to document the aforementioned events. In a valiant effort to limit the # of pics posted here, (which is REALLY difficult for me to do), check my facebook albums if you care to see the rest....

Subbing isn't always so bad... here are some cards a 3rd grade class made me. In our short time together, they learned that I love dogs, pie, sports, and OSU. See how they incorporate them all? So freaking cute and thoughtful, it made my day :)

Hiking with Jessie and Jack near Roseburg

Running with Jack on the North Umqua Trail

 Beautiful day on the North Umqua River

All of the doggies, ready to go

Love this lady!

Doggies aren't the only ones who get to play in water...

Hiking with some of my favorites :)

Loving the view at the Newcastle Golf Club

So good to see all of these girls!

Joe with some of his buddies

I heart Seattle skylines

Mustache mayhem, so awesome

Joe has made me more conservative. I have made him a dancer :)

Joe and some of his old teammates

Sneak peak at the garden... separate post and pics to come!