We're off to spend a week on the Pacific Coast, the Washington State side. Hop over to my vacation blog at The Pacific Coast 2009 where I will keep a blog of the interesting stuff we come across at the Washington State coast but also the fun days we will spend at the Oregonian coast.
See you all in a week!
Be well, be healthy and most of all be good ;-)
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The Making of The Porch.
Ever since our first move to the US in 1999 to beautiful absolutely gorgeous and warm and friendly Point Reyes Station in CA, I wanted a house with a porch.
You know, we all have our dreams, and that was mine. Not only a porch but some acres with some sheep and a couple of Border Collies to go with them. ;-)
That was 9 years ago, life got in the way as so often happens but I kept the dream alive and kept hoping on one of those 'one day miracles'. But recently I came to the conclusion that dreams don't automagically come true, you have to make them happen. With the recent housing burst I didn't see us move to the boonies real soon to occupy some beautiful farm house with a porch and those acres and sheep and the Border Collies. Lord knows it's hard enough to _sell_ your home now-a-days let alone buy a new one with a new mortgage.
Our neighbor's home sold after being on the market for 2 1/2 years and 70.000 less than it was valued at.
So I kept thinking about that porch and thought well, if we can't get to that house with that porch why don't we build one ourselves? And that was what we did.
It took 5 days to dry(concrete) and build and now it's DONE! And we're ecstatic about it. It worked out so well! When I look at it I can't even remember what it used to look like. It has definitely increased the curb appeal of our home. Now all we need is some nice furniture, a rocking chair and some decorations and we will be the envy of the neighborhood. All the neighbors already have come by to look at it and all approved of it, wanting to have their morning coffee with us on the porch ;-)
We found a wonderful contractor, Scott, he's a real gem, knows his stuff and knows how to customize something to what you want. I'm so happy we choose him instead aof one of those porch and deck builder companies. Scott was really happy to work on it and was proud of what he made and how he was able to think outside the box with us to find solutions for some problems. I especially like the trellis he made, it's light and airy and at the same time provides shadow that is much needed in the afternoon.
In fact we are so happy with Scott that he's going to do another project for us, the installing of some light tubes. We have some very dark area's in the house and a light tube can instantly let light in.
Here is how it looked like before we installed the porch:
Please click the images to see a larger version!
And here is the after photo:
Doesn't it look stunning? can you see me sitting there with a nice espresso, the dogs and my daily newspaper? Watching the world go by?
I'm so happy with it!
Below is a slide show of the making of the porch as it happened.
Tomorrow we'll be off for a few days to the Washington coast, we rented a nice top floor condo right at the beach. The beach is leash free for dogs so they're going to have a blast and so will we. Some much needed relaxation, books, music and good food!
Will take my laptop with me so I can blog and upload photos, we will not have Internet in the condo but the general clubhouse has free wifi. We will have someone staying at the house watching the evil pixie catz and taking care of business.
We'll be at Westport Beach Escapes.(click)
Isn't it beautiful? ;-) Sleep with windows open to hear and smell the surf, aahhhhhh, wonderful!
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Ever since our first move to the US in 1999 to beautiful absolutely gorgeous and warm and friendly Point Reyes Station in CA, I wanted a house with a porch.
You know, we all have our dreams, and that was mine. Not only a porch but some acres with some sheep and a couple of Border Collies to go with them. ;-)
That was 9 years ago, life got in the way as so often happens but I kept the dream alive and kept hoping on one of those 'one day miracles'. But recently I came to the conclusion that dreams don't automagically come true, you have to make them happen. With the recent housing burst I didn't see us move to the boonies real soon to occupy some beautiful farm house with a porch and those acres and sheep and the Border Collies. Lord knows it's hard enough to _sell_ your home now-a-days let alone buy a new one with a new mortgage.
Our neighbor's home sold after being on the market for 2 1/2 years and 70.000 less than it was valued at.
So I kept thinking about that porch and thought well, if we can't get to that house with that porch why don't we build one ourselves? And that was what we did.
It took 5 days to dry(concrete) and build and now it's DONE! And we're ecstatic about it. It worked out so well! When I look at it I can't even remember what it used to look like. It has definitely increased the curb appeal of our home. Now all we need is some nice furniture, a rocking chair and some decorations and we will be the envy of the neighborhood. All the neighbors already have come by to look at it and all approved of it, wanting to have their morning coffee with us on the porch ;-)
We found a wonderful contractor, Scott, he's a real gem, knows his stuff and knows how to customize something to what you want. I'm so happy we choose him instead aof one of those porch and deck builder companies. Scott was really happy to work on it and was proud of what he made and how he was able to think outside the box with us to find solutions for some problems. I especially like the trellis he made, it's light and airy and at the same time provides shadow that is much needed in the afternoon.
In fact we are so happy with Scott that he's going to do another project for us, the installing of some light tubes. We have some very dark area's in the house and a light tube can instantly let light in.
Here is how it looked like before we installed the porch:
Please click the images to see a larger version!
And here is the after photo:
Doesn't it look stunning? can you see me sitting there with a nice espresso, the dogs and my daily newspaper? Watching the world go by?
I'm so happy with it!
Below is a slide show of the making of the porch as it happened.
Tomorrow we'll be off for a few days to the Washington coast, we rented a nice top floor condo right at the beach. The beach is leash free for dogs so they're going to have a blast and so will we. Some much needed relaxation, books, music and good food!
Will take my laptop with me so I can blog and upload photos, we will not have Internet in the condo but the general clubhouse has free wifi. We will have someone staying at the house watching the evil pixie catz and taking care of business.
We'll be at Westport Beach Escapes.(click)
Isn't it beautiful? ;-) Sleep with windows open to hear and smell the surf, aahhhhhh, wonderful!
# # #
Today it is 90 F or 32 C. It's blazing hot for the Pacific NorthWest. Lets hope it cools down quickly to it's normal temperatures again.
I'm back! Yes I know it's been a while but I needed some time to regroup. My beautiful baby girl got married and I couldn't be there, that threw me off for a while. It's every mothers dream to see her daughter walking down in a beautiful wedding gown with the happiest smile ever on her face and I had to miss that. They had a videographer make video so we could watch it afterwards which is nice of course but still it hurts. Rotten illness, I was upset with myself for quite sometime like it was my fault for not healing quicker but alas, there was not much I could do. We now hope I will be well enough to witness the birth of my grandchild whenever that may be ;-)
At the day of the wedding we turned on our iChat(Apple's video chat, it was night for me of course and she had her laptop perched on the pillows on her bed so I could be part of the dressing ritual. She had friends helping her dress and we chatted along while they fastened the 80 small buttons on the back of her corset ;-) It was a strange and yet wonderful experience, strange because it felt like I was watching a reality show, like Big Brother or so. It felt like really really strange....... but I'm thankful that it was possible at all. I didn't want to miss it for anything.
She did her make up and hair herself of course, she's a licensed beautician, she knew exactly what and how she wanted it. She asked me to send her some kind of fluid that kept her make-up stay on the whole day and looking fresh. It wasn't available in the Netherlands so I send it to her, it worked really well, she looked stunning all through the day.
She looked absolutely gorgeous in her wedding gown, by far the prettiest bride I have ever seen, of course I might be a bit biased ;-)
She didn't know what her husband to be would look like, he kept his suit a secret and he went to his family home to get dressed and picked her up later. So that was a surprise, but he did very well buying a suit without her and look very handsome and modern. ;-)
They sent me 3 photo's yesterday that she got in advance from the photographer and here they are, don't they look wonderful together?
Walking through the beautiful town of Klundert in the province of North-Brabant in the Netherlands, where they got married in the beautiful old City Hall.
The wonderful old City Hall of the small Dutch town Klundert.
After the official part they had a small reception in the restaurant Bellevue in another small Dutch town, Willemstad.
Look at René doesn't he look handsome in his wonderful stylish suit? And what about the bride? Isn't she the most stunning bride you have ever seen? We think so!
We will have to wait for the other photo's and the video. When it arrives I will post more photo's because we both are mighty proud of course!
After a day of rest they went on their honeymoon to Aruba which was a wedding present from us and they had a wonderful exhilarating time, enjoyed the island, their beach and each other.
Hop over to their web site if you want to check out their honeymoon photo's and their blog, they have the most stunning photo's, makes you wish you could go there too!
Well now you're all up to date, next will be the report of the making of the porch in our mansion ;-)
# # #
I'm back! Yes I know it's been a while but I needed some time to regroup. My beautiful baby girl got married and I couldn't be there, that threw me off for a while. It's every mothers dream to see her daughter walking down in a beautiful wedding gown with the happiest smile ever on her face and I had to miss that. They had a videographer make video so we could watch it afterwards which is nice of course but still it hurts. Rotten illness, I was upset with myself for quite sometime like it was my fault for not healing quicker but alas, there was not much I could do. We now hope I will be well enough to witness the birth of my grandchild whenever that may be ;-)
At the day of the wedding we turned on our iChat(Apple's video chat, it was night for me of course and she had her laptop perched on the pillows on her bed so I could be part of the dressing ritual. She had friends helping her dress and we chatted along while they fastened the 80 small buttons on the back of her corset ;-) It was a strange and yet wonderful experience, strange because it felt like I was watching a reality show, like Big Brother or so. It felt like really really strange....... but I'm thankful that it was possible at all. I didn't want to miss it for anything.
She did her make up and hair herself of course, she's a licensed beautician, she knew exactly what and how she wanted it. She asked me to send her some kind of fluid that kept her make-up stay on the whole day and looking fresh. It wasn't available in the Netherlands so I send it to her, it worked really well, she looked stunning all through the day.
She looked absolutely gorgeous in her wedding gown, by far the prettiest bride I have ever seen, of course I might be a bit biased ;-)
She didn't know what her husband to be would look like, he kept his suit a secret and he went to his family home to get dressed and picked her up later. So that was a surprise, but he did very well buying a suit without her and look very handsome and modern. ;-)
They sent me 3 photo's yesterday that she got in advance from the photographer and here they are, don't they look wonderful together?
Please click the images to see a larger version!
Lydia and René in front of their American car
After the official part they had a small reception in the restaurant Bellevue in another small Dutch town, Willemstad.
Look at René doesn't he look handsome in his wonderful stylish suit? And what about the bride? Isn't she the most stunning bride you have ever seen? We think so!
We will have to wait for the other photo's and the video. When it arrives I will post more photo's because we both are mighty proud of course!
After a day of rest they went on their honeymoon to Aruba which was a wedding present from us and they had a wonderful exhilarating time, enjoyed the island, their beach and each other.
Hop over to their web site if you want to check out their honeymoon photo's and their blog, they have the most stunning photo's, makes you wish you could go there too!
Well now you're all up to date, next will be the report of the making of the porch in our mansion ;-)
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