Sunset a few weeks ago

This is a pic of a sunset from the top portion of our apartment complex a few weeks after we moved in. The apartment complex is on a hill that faces east and the cascades...but the top crests the hill we are on...and you can see past Lake Sammamish, past Bellevue, past Lake Washington and into the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle. This was looking that direction with some dynamic clouds and a beautiful sunset! :) Enjoy.

  

Forms Appear!

Some Forms have appeared on the lot this last Saturday. The foundation is suppose to be poured this week (yea I said that before). So we'll see

 

Our house is the forms to the left, the right house that is framed is the house next to ours

 

Looking at the lower part of the forms for the foundation

 

Looking at the foundation (to be built up) for the right garage.

 

Looking at the forms for the left garage...the front door entrance is off to the left out of the picture.

 

So you think you can ride the tour?

Yea. Um no. The pro riders sure make it look easy. Every year before the tour blazes through France, a ride is organized that sets anyone up for it against one (just one) stage in that year's Tour, called L'Etape du Tour [letapedutour.com]. This year? Stage 15. L'Alpe d'Huez.

Ouch.

7500 insane people rode it this year. 1500 didn't finish.

But don't take my word for it. Read about someone that rode it....and cry.

The Tour de France Almost Killed Me [Slate.com]

House Updates

Not much to mention. There hasn't been a bunch done lately. The builder called us mid week to let us know they are about to lay the foundation. So hopefully that will happen soon. The lot has been excavated and is ready for the foundation to be layed :)

More pics....

The framing on the left is the house next to ours...the framing in front is the house accross the street from ours...This pic was taken from the lot looking down.

 

The Jeep is pointing at our lot.

 

The framing on the right is the house next to ours.

  

Tour de France: Stage 11

Floyd Landis is now in the Yellow jersey. Hincapie has fallen way back.

This tour has been very interesting, with the Yellow jersey bouncing around to all sorts of riders. I think it is good that one rider is not dominating the race. Its an open field and anything can happen.

In case you missed it. Landis announced that he has been having hip problems since a crash in training back in 2003 and is scheduled to have surgery after the tour.

I REALLY Love Seattle (part 2)

We went down to San Diego this last weekend for a wedding. It was a long time coming, even if it was short notice on the date side. It went well and was fun. We had a blast being able to talk to a lot of people we hadn't seen in a long time. Lots of friends came in from the various places we have split to and it was great to talk to friends and professors from PLNU.

Now the downsides....

It was HOT...as in 81 Deg at 7am. (disclaimer: Point Loma was nice and cool (all relative of course)! Always has been...That's the only reason I was able to stand San Diego for 5 years...)

And then there is the unexpected. Even though San Diego is close to LA, it has been historicity a great town. There are lots of good restaurants and fun things to do. Good movie theaters. The Zoo and Wild Animal Park are a blast. Balboa Park is awesome and The Old Globe is there that offers very good theatrical productions. Seaworld is fun and the beaches and piers are abundant. That all still holds true, except for one thing.
The mentality has changed. I have never been yelled at, flipped off, cut off, run down, glared at, and had just general animosity directed at me more in a 3 day period in my life. There are now AT LEAST 20 minutes of commercials and trailers at the beginning of movies. Gas is expensive, homes are expensive, movies are expensive. But there is good Mexican food at least! My question is this... WHY? I will never, ever live in Southern California again in my life. We will visit again and go down to see friends, but that is all. Oh, and I almost forgot...don't use your turn signals in San Diego. Instead of letting people know you want over so that they will let you in, a turn signal seems to be a notification to other drivers to speed up and make sure you don't get in front of THEM.

Now I understand that no place is perfect and all cities have their downsides, but to me, Seattle is a great area.

Did I mention I love Seattle?

I Love Seattle....

Well, I guess I should say I love the Pacific Northwest. Oregon to Whistler. The trees, the ocean, the rivers, the mountains, the snow, the rain. The Colors. And of course the random changes in weather.

The last two weeks have royally sucked. HOT. Did I mention it was HOT? 90s..high 80s. Ich. (of all times to sell the house WITH the A/C!)

And then WHAM.

At 4am on the 4th, we (all 4 of us...Beagles included) sat straight up in bed awakened by the loudedest and most grippingly strong rolling clap of thunder I have heard in years. It was awesome. It even rained. All on the 4th of July! :) Yesterday was the first cool day we have had in two weeks. The ground was wet when we woke up and there were clouds in the sky. The bike ride I went on in the morning was awesome. It got warmer in the afternoon and cleared up some, but not too much. The clouds were still hanging around come fireworks time. I don't know what it was like at the major fireworks locations because we went to a friend's house and watched their cul-du-sac's local display. But this is what I am used to. I grew up in Monterey, CA where 60% of the time the fireworks were half in the clouds. :) It was a good forth.

Real. Actual. Progress! With proof!

Its actually for real! We really are building a house. :) The lot is finally starting to be cleared. Bellow are some before pics and some pics I took today.

Original Shot - Looking up the lane. Our house is the second lot on the right

 

Sunset from Lake Sammamish that night.

 

Today: Looking up the lane. The first lot with the foundation is the other house the builder is working on.

 

Today: Grading the lot.

 

Today: Looking down from the lot.

 
 

Cool Tour Tracker

I ran into this cool gps/google integrated tour tracker this morning. Its pretty cool...
Google Maps Tour de France Tracker

Tour de France 2006 - Stage 1 - George Hincapie in Yellow!

The 2006 Tour has started, amongst controversy and major hopefuls being pulled from the race. The prolog went well, with two US riders in the top 3 after Thor Hushovd (Norway) took the first stage. I am excited now tho, because the chance that George Hincapie could take the tour is much higher now with Ullrich and Basso out. He is definitely due, sitting behind Lance for the past 7 years. I just don't know if he has it in him. We'll see. Hincapie is starting strong in the 2006 Tour. Now the question is, is it too strong? Is he pushing to hard too soon? Only time will tell. See the specifics here: Tour de France 2006 - Stage 1

On another note..

Pun intended.

I duno if any of you have ever heard of Relevant Magazine, but they are a great Christian magazine for those interested Emergent style of worship and forward thinking. They also have a relatively new section called Relevant TV where they focus on all kinds of Christian and Secular up-and-coming music. Through this and other sources I have been able to keep up with some of the new great Christian artists... everything from country to hard rock.
One such artist is Anberlin. I had not heard of them before, but they have a new album out that Rocks...literally. So check them out if you like good Christian Rock.
Other good artists to check out are: Falling Up, By the Tree, Tree63, Casting Crowns, Skillet, Kutless, ReliantK, Lifehouse, Sanctus Real, Switchfoot, David Crowder Band, Delirious, FlyLeaf, MercyMe, Jars of Clay, Newsboys, Pillar, SONICFlood, Thousand Foot Krutch.

Also of note...Petra is no more. They have retired. Its a sad day, they will be missed.

Meeting with the builder...

We had a pre-construction meeting with our builder on Wednesday. It went very well. We walked the lot and talked about what trees will go, what will stay and he got input from us about the slope of the driveway as well and how high we wanted the house... The lot is on a slop, so he could cut down and put the house lower or build up the dirt around and place the house higher...we opted for the latter because it will give us a better view. One of the really cool things is that we will have input along the way for things like grading and rockeries (on the back side for retaining wall...all depending on how the lot gets finally graded). We have a protected growth area in front of the house, which means we get to (have to) keep a few trees in the front of the lot, which is fine by us.
Also, one of the options we had, that we gladly chose, was to have an open wood beam on the main level (9ft ceiling) that allows the kitchen/dining/living area to be fully open. This beam will be natural wood and we will have timber (real trees) as the two posts in the kitchen for support. The original plan was to have a Glulamb Beam. While we were at the lot on Wednesday, we saw a few large, straight trees that had been felled on the lot next to ours that the builder is working on as well. So I asked...

So about the open beam...would it be possible to take one of those (*pointing to the logs lying by us*), and mill it to be our open beam?

His response was this...

You know, I was just starting to think about that too, so I'll talk to my mill guy and let you know.

SWEET
:) Our builder is awesome.

New schedule (rough dates):
June 12th - clearing/grading starts
July 1st - Framing starts
December 1st - Completion

It will probably slide some, but I just hope we can get in by Christmas...

More to come as it unfolds.

Progress!

Yea, so during the final junk/odds-n-ends moving process on Saturday, we got a call from our cool realtor Andy with word that he has been in contact with our builder. Finally, permits are completed and everything is good to go. The site is scheduled to be cleared late this week or early next week and we have a pre-construction meeting planned for Wednesday afternoon. The meeting is to walk the lot to see what trees can be saved and to get an idea of what the final grade will be like, as well as to confirm all the requests/changes/additions/selections we have made over the past few months.

It is perfect timing, because now we can focus solely on the house and we are only 10 minutes away from it! :) God is good. We had an opportunity to move a while back and didn't end up proceeding down that path because it just didn't feel right. Everything about this move has been awesome and has fallen together easily and efficiently. That is one of the many reasons we know we are making the right decision.

All out

The sale of our house has closed, money deposited (YEHA!), and we are out...never again to be in our old house.

The apartment is packed...there are boxes everywhere. It is a nice area tho and the dogs seem to like it and are getting used to the noises. The only thing that sucks? No Air Conditioning...I really like my A/C. :)

Our place backs up to a rock wall and has grass off of the patio. Thus I have on order (delayed...suck) two sets of metal pet pens that I am going to link together and put up around the grass and patio so that we can let the dogs out without putting them on leashes every time. So that will be nice. We still have to clean out the garage so that we can fit the Z4 in it. Lots to do, but we are tired so it may take a bit to get organized. I have one thing to admit... as much as I hate moving and the fatigue that goes with it, I have been feeling more alert because of all the activity and exercise (moving boxes and such)... so I just need to keep that up.

Chaos Reigns!

We are moving. Need I say more?

I hate moving...


*sigh*

Movers come on Thursday. We are doing our best to get fully packed and furniture dis-assembled. 1/2 goes to storage, 1/2 to our apartment...(our 925 sqft 1bd/bath + den apartment). Its nice tho. :) I just hate this part of moving.

More later...if we survive.

New sound experience...

I have been running sound for my church almost solidly for the past 3 years. We have gone from school gym, to school gym, to finally our own location. It has been a fun experience and I have learned a lot. I have been humbled by how much the worship team, pastors, and congregation have consistently conveyed how much they appreciate having me around and how much they enjoy the quality of the music and the mix that I am able to produce. Let me put it this way... if there is a special service, or a Holiday service coming, I can pretty much assume that I have been scheduled to run sound. We have been able to train a fair number of people and have gotten a lot of nice, new equipment over the years. There are now several ppl that are doing a decent job and have contributed a lot to the system and setup. I now feel that I can release the reigns and let them proceed without me. Don't get me wrong, I love the church and the people there. We have developed a lot of awesome friendships and media/tech team is great to work with. I just feel like my skills could be used better somewhere that really needs the help to get things going.

That place is Seattle Family Church. They are just getting started and they really have a good thing going. Its small, but fun and very much centered on doing what they can to reach as many people for Christ as possible. The people getting it running are a splinter group that have come from a few different churches in the area that want to head is a slightly difference direction and go back to the basics of worship and ministry. That all being said, they are doing it right coming from a tech side. A lot of startups scavenge for equipment and limp along with crappy quality stuff for a few years and build as they go. Not so for SFC, they have gotten some good deals and have some contacts within the av community and so have been able to get good prices on rentals and great prices on good equipment. One such piece of equipment is this: The Mackie TT24. It is by far the best mixer I have ever worked with. I went to rehearsal last Saturday, jumped on the board and ended up running sound for that night's service. Now, mind you I have only
work with a digital board once before. The thing is a dream to use. It is amazingly powerful and almost infinitely configurable. I would recommend it to anyone. It has 24 analog channels and 24 digital inputs. It has almost everything and it sounds awesome.

All in all, I have found a place where I fit in and can lend my expertise to help them leap forward and get a good thing going.

Curious Tidbits from my family's blogs...

Here are a few cool things I thought I would spread from my cousin's blogs:

The need for Ethanol as an alternative fuel

Life Lessons on "The Freedom of limitations"

New house on East Lake Sammamish

I know I am on a posting rampage, but here is a few more tidbits.

Our new house is on the East side of Lake Sammamish, Wa about 5 minutes south of Redmond, WA. It is not in a development, it is a small builder building on a few lots he owns in the area. It is up a hill in the trees with a partial view of Lake Sammamish west through the trees and of cougar mountain south. We don't know the full extent of the views because it hasn't been built yet. It is smallish (1580 sqft), which we like, and it is 3 stories (including garage). The lot was suppose to be cleared late march/early April, but that hasn't happened yet. We are suppose to close August 30th, but that won't happen. You may be asking..."What the...". But we don't care. Its pretty much our dream house. We have massive control over almost everything...fireplace, rock on front, floors, slate, countertops, cabinets, molding, colors, windows, skylights, open wood beam in kitchen/dining/living greatroom with log timber posts, etc... So if it takes a while and we are crammed into an apartment for a bit...we don't mind so much.
Here are some specifics:

Listing

Floorplan
(kinda, its a little different from this: the kitchen/dining/living room on the main floor is all open with an island where the furnace/water heater/fridge is on the plans. The deck will be off back instead of the side and the half wall next to the powder room is not there. Also on the upper floor, there is a skylight in the master and master bath.

Weekend trip to Orcas Island

This last weekend, when our house went on the market, we packed up the backpacks and the dogs and headed on the ferry to Orcas Island. Our original plan was to go backpacking up trail 1002 (Taylor River/Snoqualmie Lake Trail) to Snoqualmie Lakes. It probably would have been a fun trip but the conditions were iffy and there is still snow around which would have been fine...But we were exhausted from the last 2 weeks of getting our house ready to sell. So we went to Orcas. :)

I had forgotten what it was like to camp in a state park. I grew up camping at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park with my dad. I always loved it and still love to camp. But I think my preferences for camping have changed a bit. I like backpacking....it's quieter, more open, less people, and no cars. So our first night in Moran State Park was less then exciting. On top of that, I guess fishing season just started (don't really keep up with that), so it was quite busy... and loud... and there were other dogs (some not so friendly). Therefore we were unable to let Bailey and Zanni off leash...which was a pain. Don't get me wrong, the area was beautiful and if you like car camping its a great place to go. But I don't think we really like car camping anymore.
Needless to say, we did some searching and found Obstruction Pass Park. Its not much of a hike (.5 mi) and its NOT in Garmin's MapSource Topo mapset, but it was awesome. The short hike goes down from the parking lot, along the sound to a beach. There are 9 decent size and private camp sites with the sound of lapping water 50 feet away. Its an awesome little park and we were able to let the dogs off leash because there were not many people there. Another cool thing about it is that is it one of many waterfront camp sites on the Cascade Marine Trail. This is something we have been wanting to experience sometime soon. After we get settled in our new place, we are going to get new touring kayaks and spend a week or so kayaking around the San Juan Islands, stopping at the campsites along the CMT. It was a blast to experience one of the sites on the CMT. It did rain all that night and into the morning, but us and the dogs had a blast. I will post some pictures when I get a moment to pull them off my camera.

WOW

So...wow. Our house went on the market last Friday. We got back from our backpacking trip late Sunday evening and met with our realtors on Monday afternoon. Here is the status:

10 + offers

We have sold the house and are in mutual acceptance with inspection complete.

We got a fair amount over asking price.

We are amazed.

God is good.

Now we have to be out by June 3rd, and so begins the mad rush to find an apartment for however long it takes our new house to be built (its a little behind schedule).