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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Have I mentioned it's snowed a little recently?



Yes, that's a street sign with snow piled up

Our neighborhood plowers pile the snow in the middle of all the cul-de-sacs.  They are gigantic - I do not think this picture does the size justice.  Matt wanted to climb the pile.  Mocha did not. :)

 It wouldn't be complete without a snow angel.
Mocha just can't get enough of it. It cracks me up.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Cross country skiing

A popular winter activity in Anchorage is cross country skiing.  With all the trails running through the city, it is easy to get out and ski for an hour after work to get in some exercise and enjoy the snow.  Matt and I had never tried it before, so once again we opted to rent and test it out. There are just so many different types of activities, we are having to pick and chose what to invest our time and money on (which is quite challenging when everything is new and unfamiliar).
Photo op...while enjoying the view
Thankfully some friends were heading out and offered to help us learn.  It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon with fresh snow on the ground.  Perfect conditions.  We headed to Continental Trail (where we have gone biking on multiple occasions) and enjoyed the views, exercise and company for a good couple hours.

The technique is similar to a walking motion where you pick up your heel and glide. It takes some balance, energy and certainly some getting used to the movement of your feet.  There are groomed trails that have the ruts already provided which makes it easier to stay in proper form.  However, it can be done anywhere there is snow.
This is a groomed trail on the right, you can see the ruts for your skis.
Beautiful, huh?

All the girls!

Some good friends, Jared and Nicole
(notice the sign behind them:) )
No conclusion on if we will run out and buy some cross country skis, but it is certainly on the long list of toys we want...that seems to just keep growing...

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Bathroom Remodel: Finished!!

We are (almost) finished the infamous bathroom remodel that has been in the works since Labor Day weekend.  Yes, I mean September 6th. 

When we purchased the house up here in Anchorage, the master bathroom (along with basically every other house we looked at) was quite ridiculously small.  Especially coming from the suburbs in Houston where bathrooms are about the size of a normal living area. Anyways, we decided we would need to fix that, but since it was the only "issue" in the entire house that we disliked - we fell in love with rest of the home and moved right in.
The bathroom BEFORE
You could basically sit on the toilet while brushing your teeth and still reach the water.
Lovely.
And the shower...with no door or curtain. I'm not sure how that'd work.

And the closet BEFORE
We had to do some major spring cleaning to get our clothes to fit.

 At first (since we had just done a complete house flip in Oklahoma City this spring and I, for one, was not too excited about taking on another huge project) we had a couple contractors come out and give us bids on what we wanted to happen.  They were pretty pricey...so our conclusion?  Let's save thousands of dollars and do it ourselves!  Fabulous. 

Or that's what I thought on September 6th. Not so much 13 weeks later on December 4th.

All we wanted to do was move a wall about 3 feet into the bedroom to extend not only the bathroom but also the closet, move the closet door from the bedroom to the bathroom, add another vanity, hang a glass shower door, add addition electrical outlets and lights, build a sweet closet organizer, paint...and a few other minor things. No biggie, right?!?

Thankfully, the 2nd full bathroom is right outside our bedroom, so we just moved on in there and used that since move in day back in July. 

I would like to give major props to my wonderful, hard working, multi-talented husband for doing it basically all alone.  (I helped paint and hold sheet rock while he drilled it in, but I can't take much credit at all for this one).  He labored after work in the evenings, on weekends and on his days off. He built a new wall, took out the old wall, did all the electrical, tiled, carpeted, hung doors, trim, mirrors...I can't even name everything he did - but he did a fabulous job.  I'm very proud of him!!  

Working hard...again

You can see where we moved the wall from and to in this picture

Our guest bedroom turned into a closet for a bit...
can you tell why I may have been losing my mind? :)
I took a lot more pictures of the process, so we'd never forget:), but I decided to spare you and try to give you an overview. 

It all came to completion just a week ago.  It has been a long process, but the bathroom looks amazing!

Our new sinks - his and hers
That alone made it all worth it. :)
partial view of the new shower door


Where the new bedroom and closet door are
and you can see some of the amazing closet organizers installed

a bad picture...but i wanted to show how much bigger our closet is!
Before and after pictures are my favorite. Though the process is often forgotten.  I am so thankful that it is finished and we can just enjoy the fruit of Matt's labor. And now we can go into the new year with a brand new bathroom. 

What a great Christmas present.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Mocha's new love

I think Mocha is adjusting just fine to the new climate. :)