"Finishing Touches" on the House

The Grey House (that's what I'm calling my Minneapolis residence now that I'm in Seattle) has undergone some improvements in the last couple months. It still needs a new roof and windows and siding, but in the meantime it's gotten a new deck, patio door, and trim on the first floor. Here are some pictures to show you all how beautiful the old girl is looking.

Matt and I tore the old deck boards off and put new deck boards down.

Now with 100% less chance of breaking a rotten deck board and falling through!

A new door that you don't have to fight in order to close. And it locks!

Baseboard trim in the dining room.

Baseboard trim in the living room.

Here's the finished mudroom, with a tile floor, closet, and trim all around.

Another shot of the mudroom (you can see a little of the new window trim here).

Here's the trim around the dining room window.

There's also a new water heater and toilet, but I didn't think you needed to see pictures of those. You can just imagine how glorious they are.

The Jeep is back on it's feet! (or wheels)

Shiny new pistons, rings, and bearings are what it took to get the Jeep off the mat and back on it's feet. I wouldn't say it is ready to contend for the title, but at least it is running without sounding like it's going to launch a piston through the hood at any minute.  Thanks to neighbor Scott for advice and Snake man Fred for help.  My contribution was to tear it all apart and reassemble it multiple times until it was right. Oh ya- and to pay for the parts.

Honey Makes Some Friends

To celebrate our one year anniversary (almost!), Amber and I are out in Las Vegas this week for a quick trip. We were worried about what to do with Honey and tried to see if any of our friends could take care of her. Nothing quite worked out, so in the end we had to find a place to board her for a few days. Honey tends to be shy of other dogs, so we worried about whether it would all be a traumatic experience for her.

We brought her down yesterday evening and dropped her off, along with her food, a bag of chew bones, and her bed. This morning we got an email from the dogcare place. They said that Honey seemed to be having a good time and was even sharing her bed with some of the other dogs. We found it hard to believe, until they sent along some photo evidence:

Looks like Honey's made quite a few friends after all!