He is risen!

“In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

the ultimate one day remodel

The new house has a mother-in-law-type of unit on one end. The plan that we made before the house closed (after a rather cursory walkthrough) was to move our stuff into that part of the house and just "camp out" until the main house progressed to a certain degree of livability.  Once we pulled up with the Uhaul, ready to unload, the jewel tone carpet and matching green drapes seemed decidedly unlivable and remarkably strong smelling. We decided that unloading would have to wait a few hours. 

Using a crowbar that had escaped packing by being an awkward shape and a few other tools that were near the surface, we got to work tearing out the carpet, pad, and underlayment.  The plan worked well and we threw down some leftover white paint on the walls and subfloor to clean things up and cover over stains and any other unsavory finds. While waiting for the paint to dry we got to work unloading the Uhaul and somehow managed to get the thing unloaded before calling it quits for the day.   

The next morning we brought the wood-burning stove in from the other room and hooked it up to the existing flue pipe. That little stove has made our space amazingly nice and cozy for these last few weeks of winter.  It kind of looks like a shanty town but living on painted sub-floor is really not too bad.

 

our new digs

The before:  



The after:
coming in 2014

Mammoth Lakes

While waiting for the house to close we loaded up our skis and headed south for a few days. It was a good decision.

Settled

The big move finally happened and we're now working on carving out a bit of habitable space in the 3000sq ft of dump that is our new home. I've been working nights this week and have been able to spend quite a few daylight hours working with Denver setting up camp at the new place. Those are my favorite hours, I love working together on something we both care about. The work is 10x harder then my "real job" but 100x more satisfying. I'm hoping that someday that will be our every day life.

Despite the craziness of moving, the real job and a nasty bug, to boot, it has been such a relief to be settled and have purpose. The unknown for the past few months has really been un-fun. We are so thankful and excited about the successful sale of our little brick bungalow and the chance for another project.

My benediction to you today:
                            

and because the only thing that could make that combo better is a warm sun and body of water....


I also hope you find some serious sunshine in which to read those books while snogging with that person who thinks you're wonderful.


Image can be found here

mt bachelor ski trip

The annual Little family ski trip happened last weekend. This year's excursion was low-key compared to other years but low-key is sometime the best. We are continually blessed by my parents generosity. We forgot our nice camera at home but I happily documented the holiday with some iphone photos.

true words

Image can be found here

These words take on an entirely different meaning when moving day approaches and you begin to judge all your wordly posessions by their weight and manueverability. Let the fun begin!