Gettin' Sketchy

So, this past month saw my birthday and the inevitable end of my twenties.

*tear* 

Okay,I wasn't really as broken up about that as this picture may lead you to believe. 

When my wife started planning the party, she decided to invite my rather enigmatic friend Mike Q who, I should mention, lives in New York. He was the only out of state guest she invited, mostly because she figured if anyone would respond to a random birthday party invite from a friend several states away it would be him.

As is to be expected for Facebook events, he never sent an RSVP confirming whether or not he would be there. However, in texting back and forth about some unrelated topic he led me to believe that he would not be coming. Bummer, but I figured it was a long shot.

The day of the party arrived and a short while into the party itself I heard someone say, "Is that Mike?"

Skip past the "squeeing", the running outside, the hugs...

While Mike was there we talked about the house a bit and the various things we could do to it. His dad is a contractor and he has quite a bit of insight into that kind of thing (or at least more than I have). Most notably, we discussed the possibility of putting stairs in and finishing the attic.

A couple days later, I get a text message from Mike asking me for my house measurements. No explanation. Once I sent them (which took me way too long because I am a procrastinator and also who knew it took so long to measure a house filled with stuff and kids?) I got an e-mail back with this super cool video:

Obviously there have been some major "tweaks". Some of these we had talked about and some of these were fun additions Mike threw on (like that second peak and the full porch). The stairs were the part that I was excited about. They fit! It can be done! So, whatever we end up doing at least I know that it's an option.

I'm also excited because he included the file so I can play around with it myself. I've downloaded Sketchup (which is what he used to make it) but I haven't had a chance to really mess around yet. Once I get a chance maybe I'll share my experience.

Has anyone else used sketchup? What did you think about it? Or have you ever put in stairs? Want to help?

All Around the House

Ba-bada-ba! Bada-ba-bada-ba-ba!

We are celebrating this week; it is our one year anniversary (what?!) of living in our little blue house. (The above "ba-bada-ba" was my attempt at transcribing a glorious fanfare. Or, maybe a fanfare played by a lone woman on a kazoo.) 

It's a little bit of a shock; it certainly doesn't feel like an entire year has passed. (Wasn't it just yesterday we were picking up our keys and unpacking boxes?) 

Well, in honor of our House-iversary, we would like to invite you to take a walk with us on our Very First (super-awkward, mildly cringe-inducing) House Tour Video! 

Well, actually, that's not quite true. You see, while uploading some pictures the other day, we came across, not one, but two (!!) House Tour videos (well, one's more of a "yard tour") that we shot last year, the day after we closed on this house. 

And, we thought, what the heck, these videos are so incredibly dorky and embarrassing, let's put them on the Internet! And, then, let's make another one and share that, too!

So, that's exactly what we did. 

Some things you'll see in these first two include:

- Our house almost totally empty except for our bedroom, which is where we stored tools. 

- My five-month baby Alice bump. 

- Our backyard nearly bamboo-free. (Oh, but it's still there, it's just waiting...)

- Our front yard, with all of its original trees, bushes, "landscaping rocks" and weeds still intact. 

-  The "Ghost Door".
 

Now that you've seen the previously unreleased "First House Tour", here's this years Updated (but still majorly in progress) House Tour Video: 

 

 

 

Some of the gems included in this new video tour are:

- Just under seven minutes of me talking too fast while trying to recall what we've been working on over the past year. 

- A chair is tripped over. 

- Me, seriously over-using the word "fantastic". 

- Us completely leaving out big chunks of things we've done (i.e. tearing up the walk and the random arrows in Grayson's room). 

For a more in-depth breakdown of every project and tweak, we've also added a House Tour page. Like sand through the hourglass everything else in our lives, the page is still majorly a work in progress, but we'll be updating it regularly so, hopefully, things will be a little more put together over there soon. 

Well, we've definitely got a lot of work ahead of us, but looking back at what we've done so far just makes me feel like, "Yeah, we got this!" Then Joseph and I high-five each other and immediately pretend we didn't just do that.