What a Difference Two Months Makes

Just over 2 months ago, the house looked like this:
And now....

There are a couple of additions that I saw for the first time this week. First is the platform in the media room. We decided to move the door a little and go ahead and build a platform so that we could possibly have two levels of seating. Of course, all of this is for the that hypothetical furniture and hypothetical projector/screen/speakers that we will have one day, when our hypothetical children are teenagers! Ha!

And the second addition is the "bonus room". This came about in the past two weeks when we decided that part of the attic would really make a nice bonus room... ONE DAY. We made arrangements to have all the furnaces, water heaters, etc placed in the back part of the attic so that ONE DAY we could turn the attic above the garage into a bonus room. Well, ONE DAY got here a few years earlier than I thought it would and now, we have a bonus room that will hopefully serve as an exercise room for a while until those same hypothetical children take over.

So now that framing is over it's on to plumbing, A/C and electrical--all the stuff that needs to go inside the walls before the sheet rock. I'm really ready for sheet rock. I've done pretty well with visualizing things since I have been in the house so much. But I know that the sheet rock will really solidify the feeling of the house and I can't wait!

Easter Egg Cake Pops

As promised, I attempted the Easter Egg Cake Pops from Bakerella. (Scroll down in her blog for the recipe/directions). In general, it was a success, except for the decorating part. See more below.

Here are the cake pops pre-dipping

Close up after dipping in white candy melts.

And, my attempt at decorating...

See, the problem was the decorating--the sprinkles. I couldn't make them stick. I let the pops dry and then tried using the light corn syrup as Bakerella suggested. Well, that just didn't work. The syrup on the candy coating was like mixing oil and water. It was like a Rainex-ed winshield and rain -- the corn syrup just beaded up and was useless. So then I tried brushing on the candy melt as the adhesive but it dried so fast I had to do it bits at a time. After 5 pops, I was DONE decorating. So, my coworkers got plain white egg pops today! I have a few in the freezer that are un-dipped, and some colored candy melts that I am going to try my luck with again this weekend.

Front Porch

My wonderful husband just sent me this picture! MY front porch now has its cedar beam across the top and the cedar columns. Later this week, decorative bracket/braces will be installed where the columns meet the beam. I'm so excited!

Ps, I completed my "Next Baking Adventure" over the weekend. More on that later...

Next Adventures in Baking

I am determined to make one of the following sometime this weekend or next....

Sheep Cake Pops

Chick Cake Pops

Bunny Cake Pops

Easter Egg Cake Pops (scroll down in link)

Hopefully a post about my experience making these cute treats will come soon!

A Roof over our heads!

This week we have seen some real progress. The most notable from the outside is that we have a roof, complete with shingles. In addition, all the Tyvek paper is up, windows and doors are in, and fascia board is primed.




Inside we have also seen TONS of progress. The framer has almost wrapped up all the detail work. There are tons of arches and a couple of cool ceiling treatments that I was finally able to see this week and it looks awesome!


"Gallery"long hall way between living and dining that connects kitchen to master.

Master Bedroom Barrel Vault Ceiling

View as you walk in the front doorLiving Room ahead, Dining to the right.

Master Bathroom

And of course, a picture of Admiral trying to conquer the stairs. This is still new for him.

For a full set of pictures of the house progress, go here.

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad!

Today is my Dad's 60th Birthday. Unfortunately I am unable to be with him today... BUT he is surrounded by family. Mom and Dad accompanied Grammy out to Winters, CA to visit our "west coast family". It's a full house over there... my aunt and uncle, Rosanne and Ed, my cousin Jean and her husband John, their two girls Anne and Katie, Grammy, Mom and Dad. I know they will have a fantastic week.

In honor of my dad's birthday, here are some pictures over the years...


The family around 1983


James and me playing in the mud, dressed in Dad's Army gear, as Dad looks on.


Faithful husband... he ran to Sonic to get Mom a drink on my wedding day... raspberry iced tea I am sure.


Proud Papa on my wedding day!

Dad... I hope you have a fantastic day with everyone! Know that I wish I could be there with you! I Love You!

Admiral rolls in the mud...

We took Admiral to the dog park today. It's a beautiful day today after raining all week. We met our friends Jason and Jennifer and their dog Drake and Jon and Natalie and their dog Daisy. All are labs...Admiral is white, Drake is black and Daisy is chocolate.

Admiral loves the dog park. It's so big and open and he likes to play with the other dogs. We even got him to go through the doggie tunnel a couple of times!


When we got to the park, I saw the mud puddles from this weeks rain and told Ryan I knew Admiral would go lay down in one of them before the day was over. Sure enough, after he got nice and tired, he ran right over and plopped himself down.

All the other doggie parents had a good laugh as he came out of the puddle looking half white lab, half chocolate lab.


At least he had that haircut yesterday so he was easier to clean and dry off. He's passed out for the day now. Lots of chasing other dogs!