New Driveway

We need a new driveway.  The original driveway was kind of awkward to pull in and out of and it drove straight into the carport that has been torn down.  That is the one portion of the house that was removed in order to make way for the addition and the garage at a 90 degree angle.  We had to take down some trees and pull out a lot of brush and bushes.  It's now flat on top with a clear view onto the road on either side and there will be a lot of black top for the girls to ride bikes, play basketball, and enough for parking.   Here's some shots of the progress.  Still a long way from being finished.

Before...trees and bushes

Brush cleared out and lots of rock has been dumped to start forming the driveway

Looking down toward the house

As of now, this is what the driveway looks like.  We still need more loads of rock and asphalt but that won't be for a little while.

On-Site Wood Mill

We chose to cut down a bunch of old growth trees from our new lot in order to create room for our new addition, the new driveway, and because of the overall health of the tree.  Many of them were sick and dying so we figured we'd take care of them all now rather than waiting for them to fall.  There's not a lot of options as far as what to do once they are down because they were so large.  We could either load them up on a truck and have them taken away which costs $$ or we could have someone with a portable mill come and cut them on site.  That also costs $$ but for us it made more sense because the house is already cedar sided so we could use the new cedar to side the rest of the house and sell some of the left over cedar as well.  The process was really interesting. 

Andy and his two best employees

That's a big pile of logs

Just a few piles of the finished product.  So clear and pretty and smells AMAZING!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Wishing you and yours a fantastic Thanksgiving.  We were so lucky to spend it with lots of family this year.  Good fun and the best family!

Emily showing off her self selected outfit!

Lots of cleaning to get ready for our guests!

Ellery showing us her spotless technique

Happy Turkey Day from the Singer Girls!!

New Project

I mentioned in an earlier post that we bought a new house.  Very spur of the moment but because all the pieces fell together so easily we know it was meant to be.  We took possession of the home at the end of October and for the last few weeks have been moving forward with a ton of work.  The house itself is a 60 year old ranch.  It's 2 bed 2 bath with a mostly finished basement.  One of the many things we loved about the house was that we could easily add on to the existing footprint and make the old house and new house a cohesive unit.  We're trying to save as much of the original house as we can.  It's a little tricky because at the same time we want to update all the plumbing and electrical which means tearing up sheetrock and flooring.  The house is currently heated with a gas boiler system and radiant water system with 12" registers running up each wall.  Our choice was to leave that and have a furnace in the rest of the home and literally have two heat sources or combine.  So out with the old and in with the new.  It's more work, but it will be much more efficient.  We also have to replace all the windows because they are plate glass and someone could literally punch the window and have it shatter. Too dangerous and not energy efficient.  The most unfortunate part is that they were wood casement so they are gorgeous....but if they glass needs to go it all needs to go.  

We've redesigned the drive way to make a little more sense and to allow for our desired mostly one story layout but in the process had to cut down a bunch of super tall trees.  The best news is that the wood from those tress has been milled on site and will be used in the construction and siding of the house. 

Here's some of the before pictures.  The poor thing looks nothing like this now...

October 2011

Basement. Not part of phase I.

Andy likes the floor tile....me not so much.  That will be Phase II

Disneyland

We bit the bullet and took the girls to Disneyland right before Halloween.  While everyone had a blast, I still kind of think the girls were a little too young.  They were scared on a lot of rides and Ellery did not like seeing dressed up characters (except princesses).  She saw Chip n Dale and asked "Why are they not smaller than me??!!"  I kind of get her point. 

We stayed at an awesome house.  The Disney Theme Home is a rental very close to Disneyland.  The owners were part of TV show a few years ago and had a Theme Park remodel done to the home.  Everywhere you looked there were cool things to see.  The owners have thought of everything.  I worried we'd need to by sunscreen but once we got there we found multiple varieties.  I forgot kids tooth paste, but never fear Tina had supplied 8 different kinds of Disney themed kids tooth paste.  EVERYTHING you could ever need and MORE.   The girls may have liked it more than the park itself.  They played for hours in the music section creating their own band and sat quietly for long periods of time working on various art projects in the art corner.  I'd definitely stay in the home again. It was a little spendy, but we had Grammy Linda, Grammy Bobbi & Grandpa Bill, and the four of us so if you figure we'd need 3-4 hotel rooms it seems to be about the same.  But WAY better!

Ellery playing the drums.  They loved these (mommy & daddy even snuck in a turn) but we have warned anyone that if they buy us a mini drum kit it will be staying at the gift givers home. 

Happy Halloween from Tinkerbell!

Ellery on stage. 

Emily on the guitar

Ellery, Princess Jasmine, and Emily

Grammy & Emily loving the Teacups

Ellery just asked for a picture.  She's started posing for pics now while Emily will only make odd faces.

Emily - "ok I think I like this ride"

And she's ouuuut!

California Adventure

Prior to the Bugs Life 3-d movie.  We lasted 2 min and had to leave with Emily screaming.  Andy and Ellery only lasted 1 minute before she bolted our the door.  We didn't realize that things would fall from the ceiling like gross hairy spiders or that the stink bug would get you wet. EW.

Playing on Mickey's feet

This is typical of the few character pics we have.  The girls are like "WTF" for the most part.

Playing in Minnie's house. 

Ellery as Minnie and Emily as Belle.

Ellery working on her art projects 

Mommy & Ellery

Daddy and Emily

The princess bedroom

Just 1 of the many closet full of costumes

Living/Family room

Dining room