June 29, 2010:  Things have mellowed out a bit around our place, construction is still going on with the addition but it's concentrated on one end of the house so it doesn't seem to disrupt quite as much as the roof work did.  Speaking of the roof, it's finished now, they will be back some time next week to shingle the roof on the addition so everything will be a match.  I just posted the final pictures on the House Projects page.  I've been pretty good about updating the addition page every day that they make progress so you should be able to get a feel for how quickly it's moving along.  Once it gets closed in hopefully later this week they will start on the exterior siding and trim and that's where I get to start by painting the entire thing.  The goal is to have the outside painted and complete while the inside moves along, that way the neighborhood won't be complaining too badly about the way it looks.  I am not a big fan of painting but it will be fun to watch it transition from looking like an addition to something that's been there the whole time.  I finally got the last details sorted out on my replacement mountain bike and road it twice over the weekend.  It looks amazing, climbs really well and feels like a great fit, case closed after only about 4 months of messing around with Cannondale warranty support, at least it worked out better for me in the long run.  Stella joined John and I for a 6 mile ride on Saturday and did well considering she hasn't been out riding in such a long time.  We pushed it on Sunday when she came on the shop ride with us, 16 miles and a couple thousand feet of elevation did her in.  Actually it was really the freshly graded logging road that was done with 3-4 inch stones that tore up one of her paws, that slowed her down to a snail's pace, which isn't her style at all.  It's been a couple days and she's almost back to normal, favoring that paw a bit but not too bad all things considered.  Well, speaking of dogs, I should run out and check on them, see what kind of trouble they are finding in the yard, have a fun and safe holiday weekend and keep watching for those new pics! 

June 19, 2010:  Hello again, hope things are well in your world.  Things here are just as crazy as ever, the construction projects at the house are moving along full throttle and work for both of us is as nuts as ever.  Lisa has been doing training at different stores around the whole Puget Sound area for the last two weeks so the commutes have been tough but the experience much appreciated.  I had to fly down to San Francisco last week for two meetings, down and back within 24 hours, long day for sure.  The weather has been pretty wet so the contractors have only really started getting into the work this week.  The roofers showed up at 830am on Thursday and by 7pm that night they had removed all the cedar shakes, put down the new plywood and covered it with the new tar paper on 95% of the roof, these guys were super fast.  They came Friday morning and finished the last two pieces and got everything cleaned up.  The shingles showed up late on Friday and were the wrong color so we'll have to see how quickly they can get another delivery appointment with the roof conveyor truck.  Ryan and Chris spend a day or so getting the siding off the house and working on the foundation forms, even though the ground is a mud hole.  They hope to get the rebar, insulation and sand in so it can be poured by the middle of the week.  That would be great because the weather looks decent and maybe they can get some framing started by the end of the week.  The only real snag we've ran into so far is that the big window on the back of the house we planned to re-use isn't going to fit in the new wall.  The estimate was $600 for the new window we needed and it had to be custom ordered, which could take a few weeks.  Ryan happened to find a window at the building supply he goes to that would work and is actually nicer than what we would have ordered.  The coolest part is that it was a mis-order so they just wanted it out of the way, instead of the original $700 price tag he gave them $75 to get it out of the way.  If we can sell the old one on Craig's List for $100 - $150 then we might actually make a few bucks on it!  My warranty bike frame finally showed up and is quite amazing to look at, which is all I've really been able to do with it so far.  I got most of it assembled but had issues with the bottom bracket, crankset, front derailleur, and they never sent me an SI stem as they promised.  The missing parts are on order and if all goes well there is a chance I'll be riding it next weekend, not holding my breath though.  I'm trying to capture the daily progress on the construction and upload as many pictures as I can, you can find both the roof and addition listed under Projects then House Projects on the left.  Have a great week! 

June 9, 2010:  Busy as always but I figured I'd throw down a quick update when I had a second.  Lisa has been doing a bunch of training for her new job at a few different stores and she's loving it so far.  My work has been getting crazy again and I'll probably have to do a little traveling coming up the next couple weeks, nothing too crazy but any time away from here is a challenge with the two dogs, the addition won't be done soon enough!  Speaking of that, our contractor dropped off some equipment but the weather has been very soggy for the last couple weeks so it's holding up progress a bit, hopefully it will clear up later this week and he can get started.  Our friend Chris and Maryellen where here for the long weekend checking out places to live and the area in general.  Chris has a job offer from my work and they are trying to decide if this is a place that they want to live.  Hopefully the answer is yes but if not we totally understand, it's a long way to move.  I rode another charity ride two weekends ago, not a super long one but plenty of climbing.  The Seven Hills of Kirkland is a 40 mile ride with about 3300 ft of climbing, it was actually great, other than the fact that it rained the entire time, ahh, that's how it works around here sometimes I guess.  If all goes well the weather will start to dry out, which will allow the trails to dry out as well.  I took Stella and Mabel riding yesterday and it was like running through a swamp, we were all covered with mud when we got back.  Lisa is off this weekend and other than a few bike rides we have no plans, which sounds great to type, hopefully we can relax a bit, it's been a crazy month so far and it's not even half over yet!  That's about it for me for now, we hope everyone is well, we'll chat again soon!