November 25, 2007:  Hopefully you all had a great long turkey day weekend, our's was awesome.  Thursday our friends Thomas and Ashley and Thomas's sister Alice cooked turkey dinner and of course it was awesome.  We stuffed ourselves and sat on the couch the rest of the night, it was perfect.  Friday we avoided the craziness and just stayed home most of the day.  We went out to a hockey game with a huge group of friends Friday night and even though it was in Everett it was still a lot of fun.  Yesterday we picked up the paint for the big room and I took down the hand rails in the staircase for sanding and re-staining.  Mike and Jamie came over for drinks and some hot tub that night and we ended up having a few too many drinks.  Today we just sat around and relaxed, it was a nice break.  I got started on some of the painting too, it's going to take forever but we're really excited about how it's going to look.  Well, it's late and i'm tired.  Have a great week. 

November 18, 2007:  Super fast update tonight.  I hammered out the rest of the bathroom yesterday and got started in the dining room today.  I just need to seal the grout tomorrow night and it's totally finished.  After a bunch of measuring and some modification of the chain/wire length I got the new chandelier installed.  I also replaced that sconce in the staircase that we replaced last year, this time it was with one that matches the new chandelier, it's looks much better this way and I'm sure we can find a home for the old one.  When Lisa got home we unboxed the new dining room table and got it set up, now we just need to start the enormous task of painting that and the big living room.  Check out the new pictures and have a great Turkey day if we don't talk again first. 

November 16, 2007:  Hey again, not much new to talk about around here.  Lisa got the closet doors finished on Monday and we let them dry for a couple days before I got them mounted in the guest room.  I'll update the pictures for the guest room when we get the furniture sorted out in there, right now it's acting as storage for the work we are trying to finish up in the half bath, dining and living rooms.  We spent a few nights this week working on the bathroom and made some decent progress, the pictures are updated as always.  I plan to tackle the grouting tonight and I'm hoping it will be cured by the morning.  Lisa painted the door and base trim on her day off yesterday so it will be dry and ready to install tomorrow after the grout is dry.  Once the trim is done the toilet and vanity can get installed and then it's just the details that need to be sorted out.  We're going to be having Thanksgiving dinner at our place with some friends so we need to get the dining room cleaned out so the new table can be moved in and set up.  I'm also going to try to get the new Chandelier installed before dinner, we'll see if that happens in time or not.  Anyway, Lisa is working this weekend so it's going to be all about the house for me, hopefully I can put this current project to bed.  The mountain biking has been on hold since this project started so as soon as we get done I'm hoping to get back out on the trails again, I even bought a helmet light so we can start doing more night rides.  Have a great weekend! 

November 12, 2007:  Well, fall is just about gone out our way, the leaves are all down and mostly cleaned up and we've even had a couple mornings with enough frost to have to give the windshields a good scraping.  We had a busy week as always, I worked a couple of night, including one at a local data center when I didn't get home until about 4am.  I end up drinking a bunch of Red Bull to stay awake and end up being basically a waste for the rest of the week, I try to only do one of those a week at the most.  The pharmacy broke their record for most perscriptions filled in a day twice last week so obviously Lisa has been working some long days too.  While putting the Halloween decorartions away last weekend I did something to my ribs that has been really bothering me all week so I had to miss a couple of really nice biking days and just sit on the couch, waiting for it to get better.  Oddly enough it actually has gotten a lot better, maybe taking it easy actually works?  Over the weekend we really just spent some time together and picked up a few more things for the renovations like chairs for the dining room and a medicine cabinet for the bathroom.  It amazes me how much time it takes to just find the things that will look good together in a room, you'd think you could find everything at one place not one thing at 10 places, no such luck though.  Sunday I cleaned out the garage and moved a bunch of stuff out of the "big room" and into the garage so we can get started with some drywall repairs and painting before the furniture arrives in a month or so.  Lisa started and almost finished painting the closet doors that we bought for the guest room last year, if all goes well they will be installed by the end of the week and that will make another room that is totally finished.  It still needs more furniture but as far as repairs go it will be done.  As for the half bath project the paint is done and I was able to get the cement board cut Thursday night and Lisa helped me put it down with mortar and screws Saturday afternoon.  It's amazing how solid that 1/4" plank with some mortar behind it makes that floor, you can really feel a difference just standing in there.  As for the tile, the stuff we originally bought isn't going to work out so it's being returned tonight on my way home tonight.  We found a new style that we liked last night but when we got it in the room we were on the fence as to whether it worked or not so we're off to a different tile store tonight to see what we can find that might be more perfect than what we have.  So with any luck i'll get started on actually laying the tile later this week and if all goes well I might even be able to get the grout done by the weekend.  We might end up having some friends over for Thanksgiving so it would be nice to have that bathroom operational by then, even if some of the small details like trim aren't finished yet.  I posted a couple pictures of the paint and cement board on the project page and will probably update them as the week goes on.  If I don't get swamped too bad at work this week I might actually be able to make some progress on it, crossing my fingers anyway.  Well, that's about it for now, have a great week and we'll talk again soon.