Lake Cushman Trip August 1, 2010

My parents told me at the end of July that the family lot at Lake Cushman was going on the market.  This lot is located on the west side of the hood canal and has been in shared ownership between my parents, Aunt, and grandparents basically shortly after I was born!  It's funny how I couldn't tell you when I had last done to even visit it let alone camping over night there but when my parents told me they were going to sell it, I got kind of sad.  Todd hadn't seen it yet so I wanted to make sure he at least got a chance to see where we spent a lot of my childhood camping at.  We had a potential buyer that was coming to look at it on august 2nd so I had a sense of urgency.  It was fun to make the trip anyways.  The lot is not right on the water but in a very short walking distance to one of the parks that has a boat launch, dock and swimming area.  This picture was taken on the dock.

I had forgotten just how truly beautiful the view of the Olympics are from that area!

Standing on the dock looking back towards the swimming area.  We brought our suits to swim but honestly it was all that warm that day certainly not enough for me to jump in even though I really wanted to.  There were some brave kids playing in the water though.

We used to bring our boat down with my cousins boat and go tubing.  Definitely some fun memories!

It's funny how things seem much smaller as an adult as they did when you were a child.  I am standing on the road looking into the property.  They trees and grass are certainly overgrown since I was little.

They had subdivided our lot into 3 areas with hook ups for RV's for water, sewer, and electricity.  Our trailer used to be on far left, aunt's was in the middle and my grandparents had the far right.

I don't know where but there was a large rock/boulder somewhere underneath that greenery in the corner.  My cousin Missy and I used to take our dollies up there and play for hours.  Funny no I can't even find the rock but I swear it was large.

Look I even have proof with a picture.  You probably can't even tell but that is the same corner and you can see the rather large rock we are sitting on.  We are so little and cute!

This is our fire pit where we would cook smores, fruit pies, and just sit by the fire for hours.  We also used to play in those woods behind our lots for hours on end.  We were so imaginative!  We found a teepee made out of wood, we made trails, name areas like look out point.  I think kids today are missing out by sitting inside playing xbox!

Another proof picture of the younger years!  From left to right: cousin Missy, cousin Jeff, my sister Megan, and me.  I remember pretending that this was a space shuttle that would travel us to different places.  This used to be just at edge of woods behind our camp fire.

I guess I was 5 months old here and we are at Lake Cushman done by the water.  I can't believe that I used to be that small!

The potential buyers haven't made an offer so who knows we might have this lot in our family for another year or more since the market is so bad now.  I'll have to take advantage of it while I can....

Additional House Photos

I wanted to share some more house pictures with people because most of you have not been over to our house yet.  It is also fun to show the progression of changes that you make so people can see what you have done to upgrade or decorate your house.

Well I guess this photo speaks for itself.  Todd has lived at this house I think for about 5 years now.  We have a small piece of grass in the front yard and a front deck that has built in seating.  We don't really use the front deck but I guess it's nice to have.  Todd takes pride in the yard and likes to keep tidy as time allows.  Currenlty he is trying to thin some of the moss that runs rampit in our grass due to so much moisture and shade.  It's a tough thing to keep up with but right now there is moss killer on it doing it's thing.

Now you can see our main floor with more finished with freshly painted walls, new floor molding that had to be painted by yours truly, molding under counters, new pendant hanging lights, etc.

Upclose view of one of the pendant lights.  Man those suckers can be expensive.  We spent a lot of time trying to find the best deal for what we wanted and ended up where we started our search at Home Depot.  I think they are a nice artistic addition to the house.

Inside the kitchen with all the beautiful appliance!  I love them!!  That refrigerator couldn't have fit any tighter from left to right though....very snug.  We didn't fully account for ther moulding and wood paneling in this section but it works.

Now you can see the wanscoating panel under counter to match the cabinets.  It definitely completes the look.  We still have to stain the undercounter brace and add some filler in the cracks.

Notice the lovely can lights on the ceiling.  Thank goodness no more flourescent lighting!  =)  I love the back splash tile as well.  I'm glad we went for it.  We repainted the ceiling and small space of walls in this room too.  We still have to paint a part of the window ceil that had to be replaced attached to counter and change out all the electrical outlets from that nasty light brown to white.  Hasn't been top priority though so I'm sure that will sit for awhile.  It's always those darn finishing touches that take forever!

I am standing on the stairs looking down into the front room.  I think the furniture went together nicely given the space.  Now I just can't wait to hang more pictures on the wall.  We painted this entire room last summer I think.  We only put one coating on it which it really needed two.  Then after the remodel we repainted it since texture spray covered parts of the wall.  It was good in the end because I think it needed it anyways but just created more work. =(

Todd had these new light fixtures for the front entry and the dinning room for way too long.  A big thank you to Uncle John Ellis for helping to install those with Todd!!!  They look much better then the older ones.

We used to have a wall and clost in this empty space that obstructed your view to the front door.  I miss the closet but like the openness.  New light hanging fixture as well!

Our bedroom.  Not exactly girlie colors but I like them.  Todd had actually painted and decorated this before me so not much needed to be done to this room.  He had this nice king bedroom set too.  We added my cedar chest and recently got the new duvet cover for my down comforter so that it actually fits the bed right.  When you're a bachelor you worry more about functionalilty then how the spread fits the bed.

As you can see we still have random odds and ends in corners.  Not everything has it's place yet but we are getting closer. We tore a part our walk in closet.  We repainted it and Todd added a whole extra rod for close almost doubling our space thus allowing for my many clothes to fit.  Hahaha!  No comments from the peanut gallery please!

The laundary room downstairs off the rec room needed a small renovation. We had our contractor (Liem) replace the floors, rip out the old vanity and replace with this one, new molding, and replace the toilet.  We painted the walls, ceiling, and molding.  I wish I had a before and after picture here.  Liem also replaced the molding, door jams, and doors in entire basement (in total 5).  Unfortunately we still have to paint those they only came primed.  I am not looking forward to that.  We have already waited too long on that project.

This is our latest project.  The basement end nook.....at a glance in the photo it might not look too bad but the previous owners did a bad job installing this peice.  They obviously tried to make it an office area.  It is white in color with permanent stains on it.  We are going to rip it out and in it's place put some ikea storage cabinets that stand almost as tall as the space.  Then the plan will be eventually to move Todd's computer desk next to it as our family grows to free up a room upstairs for the ability for an expanding future family.  Downstairs might not be as ideal since it gets sort of dark in winter with minimal light but it will fit the bill.

We painted this entire room as well and painted the floor molding that Liem installed for us.

We got a new patio set with umbrella right before July 4th with wedding money so I guess we are ready to entertain now.  The frustrating part is keeping the deck and furniture free of needles and other tree debree.  You could clean it twice a day. 

More moss killer in the large backyard. 

We definitely have a decent size yard that is almost totally enclosed which is nice and a shed on the side of the house for storage.

Other end of our back yard

We bought a large storage bin to hold all the cushions from our new patio set too.  It also doubles as a bench seat and barrier so people don't fall off the deck.

Before and After Kitchen Remodel

Todd and I decided to go through with a kitchen remodel after much deliberation.  We talked about doing nothing to the late 70's kitchen on one end of the spectrum and on the other end of the spectrum was taking out all the walls so the kitchen, family room, and living room were one great room.  To due the later would of course cost tons more money with lots of demo work and we would have to raise the current dropped ceiling in the kitchen.  When you start opening ceilings like that, you just don't know what kind of pandora's box you are opening.  We decided to go for middle of the road option as you'll see from the pictures below.  I know they say you usually get most of your money back from kitchen remodels but with the realestate market what it is now, not sure that would be the case especially since we don't see this house as our final destination.  For now we get to enjoy the kitchen and since I do all the cooking I am really enjoying it!!  And hopefully when it is time to upgrade to a bigger house, the kitchen remodel will at least help sell the house quicker.  We started the remodel sometime in January and it took about a month for Liem (our contracter) to finish the job.  We decided it would be good to do before I moved in and that would also allow Todd to have my kitchen to use as his was inoperable for awhile.

I am standing in the front right corner of the house taking a picture diagonally in towards the kitchen.

Same angle as picture above but now you can see we completely removed a wall that was extending off our kitchen that created a small hall from the front entry as you walked towards the kitchen.  There was also a hallway closet that I do miss that was a part of that wall.  To help create that open feel on this main floor without completely removing walls Todd liked the idea of creating 2 pass throughs instead.  We debated on putting the counter section then on top of that area.  I am so glad we did all of it.  It really lets more light into the kitchen which it was really lacking and you'll see on the other side what else we added.

Old view from standing in the living room and looking back towards the dinning room.

Obviously we've done more to the dinning room since this photo was taken but you can see how nice it is to have the pass through facing the kitchen creating more of a conversational area.

I have to say I hated eating and preparing food in this kitchen.  The flouresent lighting square hurt my eyes and it flashed, the aweful wallpaper, and the old partical board cabinets.......need I say more! 

We know have more realestate for counter space which honestly you can never have enough of!  We also have more cabinet space.  Since we don't have an actual pantry this has become our pantry that is stacked full.  I'm not sure what we would do without it to be honest.  Great addition to the house.  He also have bought 2 stool height chairs to place at the bar on the right.  I'll have to post some updated photos.

The lovely old cabinets and cream colored appliances.....don't miss them!

New tile floors, tile back splash, & cabinets with slow closures.  We obviously have all new stainless steal appliances of which the refrigerator I love the best with the sub-freezer drawer!  = )  It's like heaven!  We've also painted what little wall left.

The corner of kitchen with the lazy susan.

Leim recommended taking out the curve in the corner of coner/cabinet on the bottom and adding an addition cabinet to left of window to help with the balance.  We decided to go with his suggestion and I think it was a good plan.

More view of our old lovely cabinets.

The kitchen sink is undermount setting which is a must.  I also love our gooseneck sink faucet.  You can see better here that the cabinets are better waited from side to side although not perfect.