I am starting to understand that knowing look, grin and nod that fellow home owners give us when they find out we are new home owners — “welcome to my world where the house work never ends”.

Owning a home is good exercise.

US Memorial Day Long Weekend

Julia and I took a second weekend off house work. We drove down to Seattle for US Memorial Day long weekend.

It was a beautiful green drive, but as soon as you cross the border you can feel and hear those horrible concrete roads.

We stayed at the The Hotel Nexus, which seemed like more of a motel than a hotel. The location is great if you want access to both the outlet malls and the city. I would not recommend it because it was quite noisy and the service was not great for the usual, but high enough cost of $120/night.

We went to up with our Silicon Valley friends Rebecca and Jupjit who were also visiting Seattle. We had an awesome time — meeting some of their awesome expat New Zealand friends and their sweet children.

While we were there, we did some shopping at the outlet mails. I bought Dickie pants and top — I love the tacky, practical, stain resistant, clothing — and some Adidas sneakers and Julia bought quite a bit of office clothing and shoes.

We went to Pike Place Market, saw the original Starbucks, and did a driving tour of the city. We had a delicious seafood dinner at ???

The Northwest Folk Fest was happening there this weekend. We did not get a chance check it out. I would like to another year.

It definitely was not enough time, but it was a delicious first taste of Seattle.

House Work

The lawn has been growing like a weed, and I knew that this past weekend was going to be me vs the lawn.

But before the weekend came, we had our first plumbing emergency. The drainage backed up downstairs in our tenants suite. Luckily, she discovered it before it was a mess.

Now, I know what Roto-Rooter means, and how easily it is to remove and install toilets. An hour and $150 dollars later and our drainage should be clear from six months to multiple years.

Saturday, we borrowed Donna’s lawn mower and weed eater and I was victorious. I discovered that we have a little more yard behind the trees than I previously appreciated. We continued the fun by painting.

Julia had done all the prep work, so we were able to finish the day by painting the study / spare bed room the same light yellow with a semi-gloss that we used in the hall.

Prepping for painting seems to take about the same amount of time as the actually painting, and after is the time you spent cleaning the brushes and the rollers.

Julia had also spend some more time on the dining room cabinet.

Paint supplies are cheap as long as you don’t need to buy the actual paint! $100 a room: two cans = two coats as we change from darker colors to lighter ones. Bernie’s expertise and assistance has been much appreciated.

Sunday, Donna met us for an 8am breakfast at Blue Fox. There is no wait at 8am. It definitely it is not what I had thought of as the usual crowd, but I imagine it is the usual 8am crowd. Parents and babies.

I did some work work while Julia and Donna went for supplies (shoe shopping included).

Julia and I spent still more time on the dining room cabinet. Sanding and waxing to get the drawers to slide nice with little success.

Julia and I prepped our bedroom and painted it the same light green color as the living room and dining area — or at least we thought we were until near the end we realized that there was less green in this paint. To be continued…

With every improvement (read repair) the house feels more our own.

We finished the weekend off with a BBQ dinner with Bart, Donna and Landon at Heron Home.

Pam invited us to join her family and friends for a piece of cake to celebrate her graduation.

That night and again tonight we sleep on the futon in our living room.