Back by popular demand...

Or not-so-popular... Mom, my faithful blog reader has requested an update, and seeing as I have been negligent in this department the last few weeks, I shall oblige.
Here's the garage project in the very "condensed, it's-after-11:40pm" version:
Trim goes up
New opener is installed!! This thing is incredibly quiet - they really weren't kidding about the "whisper drive"!
New keypad
BEFORE (click the link) and After: I LOVE it!!!! The beginning of our exterior house makeover!
Aluminum siding comes off...
Old creosote particle board comes down, OSB goes up
Tar paper on the front of the garage where the rock will be
Aluminum siding off the side of the garage...
Old creosote particle board comes down, new OSB goes up...
Who knew we could PAY Lowe's for this house-wrap AND advertise for them! What a win-win... for them. About 30 minutes after Peter finished getting the house-wrap up, we had a HUGE thunderstorm and torrential downpour all night!
Un-house related, our neighbor somehow acquired a bunch of free tools this last week - and Peter benefited too! Ralph didn't need this radial arm saw so now it's living in our garage... so far it looks like it just needs a new safety switch to bring it into working condition!
Okay... 'nuf for now, time for some shut eye! I have some fabulous photos from our trip to the Botanical Gardens with Peter's sis yesterday, but not the energy to blog about it right now. Un-edited photos are on Picasa. Night-night.

Fourth of July fun!

Peter and I had such a great time camping with Ken and Liesl over the 4th of July! We stayed at the Tree House Camp in Rohersville, MD. The weather was beautiful and the bugs weren't even too bad!
This photo was taken when we first arrived, still clean, showered and smellin' good! Things change pretty quickly after being in the woods for a few days! Camp, set up!
Usn's
We brought the bikes to go for a long ride on Saturday, and after about 200 feet down the road my tire popped! Bah Humbug! :-( We had extra tubes with us, but didn't think we'd need an entire new tire! Needless to say, those plans changed and we hiked instead.
Friday night, grilling steaks! YUM! Why does everything taste better when you're camping?!
S'mores! Melting the chocolate...
Oooh, perfectly browned!
Mmm, mmm! Delectable!
No words for this one...
Coffeeeee! We had some serious coffee drinkers on this trip! We were having some issues trying to get the water to boil - our fire just wasn't hot enough, but somebody (cough, Peter) was having cafe noir withdrawls... So, in an attempt to speed the heating process up he poured a tad bit of salt into it (about 4 tablespoons!). When the coffee was finally brewed...
...this is what Liesl thought of it!
Spitting it out!!!
YUCK! Haha!!!Saturday a.m....Our camp chef!!! These potatoes also didn't want to cook... stubborn little fellas.
The hollow log that provided us with some great heat and coals!
Usn's again - ready for our hike!
Ken & Liesl - I like this one!
Mom & Pops, took this for you! It's for sale if you'd like it for the front yard! :)
Pretty *POP* of color.
Charlies Angels?!
Hikin'... hot... tired... really? Another picture?
You've been warned... don't eat red mushrooms!
Our camping crew! We turned around and headed back soon after this...
...and saw this little fella on the way back to camp! Munching on leaves...
Friends!
Saturday evening we headed over to the Battlefield at Antietam where they were having a FREE concert!
Ken!
K&L - I like this one too!
The National Anthem - Maryland Symphony Orchestra played
Mr. P & his odd wife
Sunday we meandered on home, but stopped in Harper's Ferry, WV on the way home. Cute little historic town.
Me thinks there was a building here at one time!
That about wraps up our long weekend! It was awesome to have time to relax and get away from the bustle of life and work. A much needed trip. Thanks K&L!

EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!!!!

Our house in Oregon SOLD!!!

It's been pending for the past month, but I didn't want to say anything until it actually closed... the new owners signed the papers tonight!!!

YAHOOO!!!!

Now we're back down to just one house in Virginia and our five acres in Oregon. :-)

**Happy sigh of relief**

Catsup... aka Catch-up!

Sorry for the delay in posting!! I'll try to catch you up in pictures of our adventures from the last few weeks. :)
This project is done now! What a huge improvement! Next on my list is to repaint that ceiling fan, and we'll put it in one of the guest bedrooms. We plan on moving the fan location to the peak instead of having it sit 12 inches off center... that drives me crazy! You might notice the window in this picture isn't centered either. It's off about 2 feet from the true center of the room, but there's not much we can do about that, short of tearing into the wall!!
Cans in...
Lights and finish work done!
Our hostas are blooming!! They are quite pretty - this last week of dry heat has wilted them a bit, but we enjoyed their color just outside our front door for the better part of two weeks.
Well hello... welcome to 1486. I'd like to get the letters that spell out your address to put above the door... like these. Someday. :-)
My favorite! The bumblebees love these blooms - they barely fit inside!
Dozer's first experience outside in over a year... he immediately started eating his greens!! I guess we should have been feeding him salad all this time!
Another project! Our backyard was pretty close to being designated as a forest, so Peter's been cutting down all the scraggly trees. We still have over twenty back there, but they are mostly around the perimeter, plus some of the larger ones in the middle are left. Now we actually get sunlight in the back windows & the deck sees a bit of it too!
Just the start of a woodpile!
This door will hopefully be gone before too long!! The edges will be squared off and we plan on putting a rock fascia on the face of the garage - instead of siding. The rock will be similar to what was on our place in Oregon. We're attempting to make this colonial style house look more craftsman style! The rest of the house siding will be replaced with hardi-plank concrete board... color to be determined still! Oh, and we're hoping for a red metal roof! :-) I'm so excited for all of this!!
Upon unpacking boxes the other night, I came across this VERY exciting discovery!!! When we moved from Oregon, we marked a number of our boxes with red dots, to remind us that what was in them probably wouldn't be needed for the interim period that we were in an apartment... I hadn't seen these dishes for over a year!! It was like Christmas in June! I might just pack some other things up and store them til' next June to do it all over! :-)
Coffee mugs!! With cream? Honey? Tea? Come'on over!
We were brainstorming the other night and came up with a pseudo-plan for the front of the house. I'm really not a shutter-type of girl. But the house would look so stark with out them, so... we're thinking about putting a porch along the front. Big sturdy pillars that have a base made out of the same rock that will be on the garage front. Then we'll trim out the windows and garage door with some sort of dark stained wood... Like this window/garage trim maybe? Just ideas for now, but it's fun to dream anyway!
The big D again... he's found his new love - CRICKETS! They are plentiful around here, so I'm not complaining! It's amazing how he disects them tho... we find two perfectly intact pairs of legs over by his food bowl on a regular basis. Somehow he eats everything but the legs!
New exterior faucet. The old one was plugged, way back at the valve in the basement, so Peter replaced it.
The plumbing for the aforementioned project was a bit of an experience, but it's done now! Eventually Peter plans on replacing all of the plumbing in the house. Back in the 80's they used a material called PB (Polybutylene) piping (the grey stuff below), which these days isn't used or produced because it's SO horrible! They say there are two types of PB piping - the kind that leaks, and the kind that will leak. Great! Well, ours has already had one catasrophe (thankfully before we owned the house). The pipes burst and flooded all of the main floor. Anyhow, hopefully we don't experience that again before it is replaced!
And dinner tonight! Quiche is such a great meal when you need something quick, but healthy. I mixed this up and we were eating in less than an hour... yummm!
Washed the cars tonight. Simple little things like that I'm appreciating so much now that we have a house! We certainly couldn't do that at the apartment!
In other news, we booked a trip to Aruba this week! We'll be hangin' out in the sun from Sept. 3rd-8th! Can't wait!!! Then Dellas and Jill's weddin' is right after that, so we'll be in Boise the 16th-21st! I'm SOOOO excited to see my family again - it's been WAAAY too long!!