Lots of fun and not a lot of working on the house...oops

It has been quite a while since I posted an update. Mostly because after all the work we put into the Garage and breezeway over the last year made us really need a break.  We took most of the summer to do small projects, get all of our wood in for the winter and have fun on our boat.

 We did manage to finish the Breezeway and get the lights up in there.

I also started a little jewelry company and had a booth at the Trails End Festival in Millinocket.  You can check it out at Northwoods Jewelry 

It is officially fall now and all that slacking off means we have been busy getting ready for winter.  We have been stacking wood, ordering oil, getting the truck and plow into the shop for a checkup before snow flies, and researching new snow tires for my car.  I hear it is going to be another brutal winter and we are not taking that lightly.  We also had the septic tank pumped for the first time. This involved us having to move the garden bed again to get at the cover.  Part of the bed didn't make it but we are now in the process of putting the raised beds back together and filling in the hole.

Travis has been working diligently on getting the cupboard shelves built in the top of the garage all this week as well. The shelves themselves are done and now he is going to start building the doors.

Tonight we will start packing for a little vacation. I am flying out Monday morning for a conference in California. Since neither of us have been to CA, and my flight and hotel were paid for, we decided we should take advantage.  Travis is flying out to meet me there, renting a car and doing his own adventure while I work for a few days then we are free to tour around LA and San Diego for a few days before flying home.  We are getting really excited.

Trim and Beadboard are up...just needs some finnishing touches.

 Completed the last of the window and door trim then Travis worked on the bead board. He is doing the last piece on the inside of the closet right now.  Last weekend was one of the first really nice weekends we have had.  Travis went fishing on the Saco for Striped bass on Saturday while I went to Farmington to help Dad and Gabe lay the slate floor in their entry way.  We took our first trip out on Sebago on Sunday. It was a beautiful day on the sandbar with a couple of our friends. We all got decent sunburns but it felt good to finally get some sun. It is back to pouring rain today.

Weekend ski adventure

Travis and I had a great day of spring skiing on the warmest day of the year so far (all of about 50*).  We went to Saddleback Mt. In Rangley, Me.  This is one of my Favorite mountain.  The snow was nice and soft making it easier to challenge myself  by going onto more un-groomed trails and glades.  Falling doesn't hurt when the snow is nice and soft like it was. And I did definitely fall a few times haha.  It was also their annual Pond Skimming day so we got to watch a bunch of people get wet on skis.  There was a surprising amount of people that made it all the way across.  Toward the end there were some impressive runs.  One guy did a back flip out of the water at the end and another went in backwards.  It was a fun day of much needed fresh air and sun.  Odly enough my Uncle doug was making a splash by being the first of 100 to get all the way across the pond over in VT at Sugarbushes pond skimming day. He even made the paper.
Dougs Pond Skimming

Productive day of Painting.

Today I got home from work early so after picking the paint color yesterday and getting all the supplies to do the job, I decided to do it tonight.  Finished both the ceiling and walls tonight so that we can start putting up the trim and the bead board this weekend.  (That is why there is no paint on the bottom half of the walls.  Beadboard is more durable for my childlike kicking off of my shoes at the end the day.) Soon we will be able to move the bench and coat rack out here and put a rod in the closet.  Hard to believe just how much work goes into finishing this one little room.  This color is sort of a slate gray that matches the tiles.  The beadboard, the trim and the chair rail will all be white.  I think it will look very nice when all done.  So many other projects to go after this.

Slow Progress on Breezeway

Finished the tile on the step up to the doorway leading inside. 

We finally picked out the closet doors. Travis installed all the hardware and made sure they fit before he left to go to Malaysia for a month.  We got Tons of snow while he was gone.  It was a record snowfall month of February getting 40+ inches of snow while he was away.  He worked long days while he was over there but got his weekends to explore.  He put some pictures of his trip up here Mapped out pictures of Malaysia
 It was in the 90's every day there and he got back a week before the Flight MH370 went missing. While he was gone a got a couple little projects done like polyurethaning the closet doors.  Mostly I was plowing and shoveling every night.     

 Travis spent some time organizing the garage and getting it just the way he wants it.  We hung up some of the christmas gifts like the tool hanging rack.  We still have to put up our kayak hoist and the ski rack up but things are looking much cleaner in there. 

Realized I didn't have a photo of the front of the garage since both garage doors were in and the hardware installed on them. This was taken before the massive snow fall we got in Feb.

After Travis got back from Asia we decided we needed to get a move on finishing the breezeway so we can move on to siding once it gets nice out.  Travis hired one of his Peru friends to come tape and mud.  These photos were after the second application of the mud.

We have spent the last couple weekend skiing, trying to catch up for not going at all in February.  Yesterday we went to Saddleback Mt. and it was their annual pond skimming/spring skiing day. It was sunny and 50 degrees. The nicest day so far this spring.  Hard to believe it is almost April and we are not even getting above freezing on a regular basis yet.  Today is is cold and Raining so we stayed inside and worked on Priming the ceiling and all the walls in the breezeway.  This week I will take a tile sample to pick out the paint color.