Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful - minus my drain-clogging vegetable peel mishap! The evening was spent making 5 types of holiday cookies and relaxing as a family with a movie.
Oh Sweet Gums, why do you torture us? We started seeing leafy "weeds" sprout up in the backyard along the fence line and thought little of it at first....but then all of a sudden we had a mini jungle out there and knew that action must be taken! 
It turned out that the Sweet Gums that had been chopped down and the stumps ground just weren't going to go without a fight. The root systems were still thriving and sending up little shooters all along their paths. A friend recommended trying Round Up on the leaves.....but we just weren't patient enough for that. No matter the size of the little guys they were pretty difficult to rip free from the burly roots, so we had to take matters into our shovel-and-axe-laden hands. After a few hours (and two sessions a few months apart!) of ripping and chopping we feel pretty good about the damage we've done to these beasts. Just for good measure we also drilled holes into the larger pieces of root that we couldn't dig out and poured in some stump killer. Take that!!
Another project that had been on our long list was replacing the very outdated garage door opener. One Sunday in November, Jay's Dad, Larry, came down from Portland to assist with the project. A few hours later they had removed our mid-70's, loud and slow opener and replaced it with a super quiet model complete with remotes, a light, a safety sensor, and a keypad for easy access from the front yard.
We no longer have to worry about wet jackets and shoes in the house! Thanks, Larry, for all of your great help!!
So in late summer 2009 we had some electrical work done and had installed a new bathroom fan (super quiet, powerful, and most importantly efficient!) and a whole house fan (the crazy heat wave this summer convinced us we needed a better way to cool down the house than a box fan). First came the air and duct sealing, then the insulation! We are no longer living like our college days with three layers of clothes and a blanket. 
Making it all a little sweeter is the wonderful pellet stove we added in September. The modest design fits perfectly with our little house and the super efficient stove warms us up pretty quickly. We've enjoyed some great nights over a board game by the stove.
Mid-May, 2009 - Jay received a visit from a very special person - his Grandma! Jay was very excited to show off the house to Liz and get some great photos to commemorate the visit.
In very late March of 2009 a local tree care company came out to take down the large Sequoia in the backyard - the tree can be seen behind the sweet gum in the photo This thing was massive - it took over about one-fifth of the yard and created so much shade that all of the arborvitae in its path couldn't survive! During move-in weekend Jay and I raked layers of needles at least a foot thick from the base of this tree.....so we weren't too sad to see it go. Also, with a split growth pattern into two tree tops, we wanted to avoid any future potential for a dangerous tree falling situation. While we made the right choice, we did eventually get some comments from neighbors who missed seeing this beautiful tree in the neighborhood. 
After Pacific Power took care of the portions of the tree near the power lines, the tree company got to work! The impact of the tree hitting the ground left some substantial dents in the ground that we still have, but it was amazing to see the aftermath. An enormous stump and many thick pieces of wood were left to be chopped and stacked, which Jay quickly got to work on.
In February 2008, with the help of a great and very skilled friend, Jay embarked on a major plumbing project to replace the storm drains and sewer lines to the house. On top of that, he also replaced the water service line, all the waterlines in the house and 75% of the drain lines...phew!! Enjoy a gallery of photos from the plumbing project.
