Pantry Cabinets

Here are some pics of my pantry cabinets. Finally got the insides built and installed.

Now I need to get them lined and stocked up :-)

First Deck Party of 2010

Well, I've had spring fever all day. Was up and moving by 7 am. Sunny day, turned just beautiful. I spent the whole day cleaning and organizing 'stuff'. Then about 6:30 pm Chris & Valda came over to have a glass of wine. We decided to sit on the deck. This pic was taken about 6:45 pm.

And here is an earlied picture of Stella. Paul came buy to put the door handles on my pantry cabinets and Stella took decided a nap was in order for her :-)

Kitchen Cabinet Door Glass

I got home yesterday and got to see my kitchen cabinet doors finished. Paul got the glass installed last week.
Yay!
It was a great Easter present :-)

March Photos

We got a bunch of snow last week, here are a few pictures.

And, I got my window seat cushions in. I had the folks at Nomar make them for me, they really came out nice.

Travel & Web Cams

I found a very interesting web site today. It's called Webcams.travel. It combines maps from Google Earth, with web cams. If you're familiar with Google Earth, it's pretty easy to use. You can zoom in and out, looking at detailed maps of the area. Little squares show up every place there is a linked web cam. I love it. Check it out when you have a chance.

http://www.webcams.travel/

January Update

I haven't been blogging this R&R, so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of tonights sunset. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The dusting of snow on my front deck melted. It really felt like mid March this afternoon, not mid January.

These 2 were taken at 4:18 pm. Just starting to get dark. Lots of fog drifting out over the bay. The moon is up but it's high.

This one was taken at 4:56 pm. No flash so it really shows the color in the clouds.

I got a few things done around the house. Placed an order for seat cushions for the window seat with Nomar. I'll stop there tomorrow on my way north and verify the details. They should be ready in about 6 weeks. I'll post some pictures when I get them home.

And Paul finished up the aluminum frames for the kitchen cabinet doors. I have price quotes coming from a glass place here in Homer, and one in Soldotna. So hopefully I can get that finalized tomorrow. Then Paul can get the glass installed and that part of the kitchen project will be done.

I also picked up some 1 x 1 x 1/16 aluminum angle at SBS today. I think it's going to work out just fine as my light valance. Right now I have a piece duct taped to the bottom of the kitchen cabinets, but I like how it looks. I also tried a piece of the 3/4 inch but it was just too small. It matches the door pulls and the aluminum frames. Boy this picture shows I need to wash the cabinet doors :-)

More Bar Stool

I got a set of folding IKEA Barstools for Christmas from Shari. Finally got home with them last night. Put them together this morning. They're great! Nice & sturdy too. I like them better than the expensive ones I looked at when I was in Anchorage last month. ScanHome wanted $200 each for something similar and they were pretty wobbly.

Happy New Years Eve

Here I am in Deadhorse for another New Years Eve. Missed seeing the lunar elicpse because it got cloudy about 9 am. That was a bummer, it had been really clear and the full moon was beautful when I came into work a little before 6 am.

Though the days are getting longer, it's still dark all the time. We don't get a sunrise for another month or so.

Virg sent met his photo of our jet on the tarmac over at Kuparuk today. I don't know who took it, but it's a nice shot showing the full moon. That flight departed at 2:30 pm, so this had to be taken some time close to then. -27 over there when it was taken.

Early Christmas

I had an early Christmas today.

First, my new washer & dryer were delivered.

Then my bar stools arrived. They got shipped into Kenai this morning and mom & dad brought them down. They are molded alumuinum. Very light weight. I like how the look against my dark floor and island counter top.

And, after dinner we decorated sugar cookes. It's after 11 pm, I'm ready for bed, but it's been a great day.

Heifer International

Here is a link to Heifer International. They are one of my favorite charities. I think what got me interested was their "Passing on the Gift" requirement. I think it's really import for the people who receive help from any charity, to be able to eventually, pay it back, in one way or another. And giving the gift of breeding pairs of animals, to others in a poor community, just strengthens the entier community.

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201549/

And then, here are a couple of sunset pics from the past few day. The one with the airplane in it was Monday afternoon, around 1 pm and this other one was taken Wed around 3 pm.

A few new house pics

Well, this 2 weeks has gone by way too fast. I got a fe more things done around the house. The guest bathroom is now finished. AND, I managed to get the settling tank for my cistern cleaned out. Boy was that a task. I'm glad I only have to do it once a year.

And Paul got some time to work on the upper cabinet doors. The aluminum frames are going together quite nicely. Once we get them sized correctly, I can order the frosted glass to go inside them.

Sunday night and Monday morning we got some snow. Then Monday afternoon there was rain, followed by more snow over night. YUCK. Though the roads aren't as bad as I'd feared.

Saturday Sunrise

From my bedroom window...its warming up a bit. Might get some snow but it will probably be mixed with rain.

Guest Rooms & Guest Bathroom

OK, today I finally got the guest bathroom finished, which meant getting the glass block wall caulked. It's done and cleaned & the shower curtain is hung.

So, who is coming to visit and when?

This is sunset tonight, taken through the window in the guest bathroom.

Winter Sunrise over Kachemak Bay

I'm at home this week, still organizing and enjoying my new house. I'm about finished with the guest bathroom and should get some pictures posted of it tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I'd post these pictures I took yesterday. It's was clear & cold (today is partly cloudy, but still cold). I didn't think my camera would take a very good scenery pictures, but these came out pretty well. I took them from my deck. You can see how cold the water looks.

Getting Ready for Winter

I managed to get my icicle lights up. It's kind of a grainy picture, but it was pretty dark when I took this on Wed night.

House Update

Here is a quick update. I've been doing a lot of unpacking and putting stuff away. In fact I got the file cabinets installed under my counter/desk and spent an entire day sorting paperwork, setting up files and filling up the file cabinets. I also took several boxes of old paperwork to the dump :-).

And this is a milestone. Paul got the block wall at the end of the guest shower put together yesterday. It still needs to be caulked, but I'll do that when I'm home next R&R. This has been a real pain, I started ordering the parts back in April. But the glass place in Anchorage I ordered the supplies through, didn't talk with the manufacturer and after 3 more orders, and getting the wrong materials, the manufacturer finally told me they would not sell me the right boarder to use the blocks in a wet environment. They only installed that themselves, and not in AK. So Paul took all the wrong parts we'd recieved over the past few months and modified some of them to make it work. Thanks Paul!

Penny & Carol came over for dinner.

And I found some of my Halloween decorations.

Another Arctic Sunrise

As winter settles in, we're starting to get really colorful sunrises. They are one of my favorite things about working this far north. Everyday is a new sunrise, and they're all different. I wish my little camera could capture the colors, but it really doesn't. The dark pink along the horizon was really a fluorescent magenta. It almost hurt to look at.

Then a little later, as the sun move around the horizon a little farther, the oranges were amazing. Look at the how they light up the bottom of the clouds.

And the moon through the clouds was pretty too. I started taking these about 8 am, and the sun finally came up over the horizon a few min after 9 am.

Internet Shopping - www.donfamily.com

As most you probably know, I do a lot of shopping on line. It's much easier than wandering around in a store.

So last month I found this duvet cover on e-bay. I really liked it but thought the shipping charges were high, so I looked around a little more and actually found a web site for the company who makes them. And they also sell silk stuff duvets. I've been wanting one (since I'm allergic to down), so decided to splurge a bit and buy a duvet and the new cover.

http://www.donfamily.com/products/Product_97.html
(The web site has a few problems, so you have to scroll down a couple of pages to actually see the items being sold.)

I e-mailed Christina (though the address link on their web site has a typo in it so it doesn't work, the real address is christina9876@hotmail.com) and got a quote, including a couple of pillow shams that she said they'd make for me, that aren't part of the package. Then I got her invoice and paid through PayPal.

Then I got to wondering if I'd ever actually get my items. Sometimes buying from another country through the internet, can be a bit iffy. However, about 10 days after I ordered it, my duvet, duvet cover and extra pillow shams showed up in the mail. Great service and a reasonable price. Thanks Christina!

I really like the material. I may have to order another cover in the spring for variety. They have some great options.

A definite sign of winter....

Yes, Chuck had to de-ice the jet a few minutes ago, before it could depart. That's a definite sign of winter.

Moving In

Well, I finally got to move into my new house. There are a lot of small things to finish and I expect they'll take most of the winter. But that's OK, it's very livable. I'm really loving the view. Now that it's dark a night, the stars are amazing.

This is the entry hallway, just in front of the main doors. The 2 guest rooms and the hall full of closets are to the right. And the kitchen, living room and master bedroom are to the left.














This is the back hallway, it will eventually be all closets. But I need to decide what 'insides' I want for each closet, and then figure out the doors. I'd like to put a bypass door system on and then make the doors with aluminum frames and frosted glass, which would match what I'm going to do in the kitchen. But I'm not sure I can afford to buy them this way. Paul and I are talking about a way to buy kits and build them. When they finally get installed, I'll post some pictures.






















This is the 'middle' guest room. Currently no furniture and full of boxes & other stuff. Most of this 'stuff' will migrate to the crawl space or basement next time I'm home.

















I got the duvets ironed, and laid them out over the packages of sheets, pillows, etc. But didn't actually get around to making the beds. Penny & Louie are coming down for a few days in Oct, so I'll get the beds made before they show up.
















I did get my computer moved and hooked up to the internet. That was big step. I 'needed' to be on line to feel moved :-)





















Here is the kitchen island, part's 1 & 2. The upper kitchen cabinet doors still need to be ordered and then installed. But that should happen before Christmas. They'll have aluminum rims and frosted glass inserts.






















Eventually I'll get a flat screen TV to hang on this wall at the back of the living room.

















And here is the living room. Pretty fancy camp chairs :-). It works for now but I really have to buy some chairs and then get the cushions on the window seat. I've want a couple of pedistal style swival chairs, I'm just having trouble finding the right items. I can find them in black or brown leather, but I prefer something upholstered, and with some color to it.
















Here are a couple of brief looks at the basement. I still need to get the file cabinet drawers upstairs and installed. And there is a lot of cleaning to do, but the basement is pretty much done. That's Patty's elliptical machine, I had it covered up when I was spray painting the file cabinets. How do you like that bright blue paint? I post some more pics once I get the file cabinets installed upstairs.





















And there is some left over construction material in the cistern room. I'm going to need this stuff in the spring, so it just might sit there all winter.