Where we are at now

So my Dad who has been away from the project for a bit wanted to see some pictures of where we are at in the house build.  

We are almost done with framing.  At least upstairs.  Somewhere along the way we decided the basement is huge, why don't we use it and put our living room down there as one open space.  Besides, we have this huge ass staircase in the middle of the room going down anyway so we might as well.  My existing living room will become a dining room and the area transitioning between the old space and the new will just be open.  Open and airy.  Make sense?  

Enter Cara who now has to drive her happy butt out East to the County buildings to amend the permit.  See, if you want to have a finished basement you need to have a permit for that.  Right now I have a permit for an unfinished basement that wants me to put a door at the bottom.  Yeah, I want an open staircase to allow as much light down into the lower area as possible.  A door just isn't in the plans.  I have a phobia of dark split level like basements with teeny tiny windows, and that is definitely not my intention here.  I want it to feel natural to go downstairs, and like it is still part of the floor plan.  Not like you are entering a dungeon or cave of teenage angst where parents hide their broody children away from the world to play video games till they can be social and nice to the world again.  Nor do I want this to feel like some room out of 50 Shades of Gray either.  That could be fun. ;)  This will hopefully not feel like a basement at all.  I am not quite sure how to go about that yet, but believe me, I will find a way, and it will likely involve a lot of white paint.

We shall not talk about how high our friend is teetering up there on two Home Depot buckets like a mountain goat.  The best part about house building in Colorado is there is you have friends who can set up and break down large theater sets for national traveling productions, (think Batman flying through the air.)  Add in family members who have climbed very large mountains for fun and worked in rock climbing gyms.  Between the two, we have a ton of gear and equipment to basically belay and harness everyone in so they are safe.  Pretty sure that is not how it is supposed to be be done, but hey, it's done.
 

It is kind of hard to see, but we purchased attic trusses.  The space up there is huge.  This way if Dave decides he needs some sort of man cave, or I need a room to craft creepy dolls and wrap presents like Candy Spelling, then we can cut a hole and add a staircase outside the house to access the space.  It can also be a space for when Calla is done with College and has decided she will live at home forever and take care of me when I am old.  #seperationissues  

One of the other cool things about building the house yourself with your friends who also happen to be your trades people is you have the ability to hide your utilities.  The plumbing will be hidden as best as we can as well as the ducting downstairs.  No soffits.  

Trickiest part of the whole damn thing was tying it into the house.  It looks simple, but Geeze Louise this is where those of us who actually passed geometry, figured thing out.  Those of us who cheated in Geometry along with 1/ 2 the track team swept up saw dust and picked up trash.  

The space next to the stairs is my closet.  The bedroom is where the miter saw is living.  Yes, I know the closet is half the size of the bedroom.  Our master bath is in the back sunny corner.  The pantry is where the electric box is, and directly next to it is a small powder room.  I am standing in an open hallway with a door that goes out to the side garden onto a wrap around deck and in front of the large picture window with views of rolling farmland and the Rockies.

The stairs going down.  Yes, the same stairs the dipshit dingo dog fell down 10 ft.  Picture only a frame, no plywood, where the landing is half way down.  That is what he high centered himself on.

So that is pretty much it for now.  Kind of slow going when you only get to work nights and weekends on it.  But we are getting somewhere.

I am back in the office today with my calves still like rocks because someone, *cough*myself*cough* decided to pretend she was 14 again and jump like it during the Master Ballet Class on Saturday.  But damn, it was worth it to jump like that again.

Webpage almost done.  Finally!!!!

Hasta Pasta.
Me:)

Fashion Friday BMW F800 GS Edition

So last night this happened:

My first question is does it come with a side car that seats 2?  And by 2 I mean for the girls.  Not twit and twat.  Although I am pretty sure they do make doggy goggles for the Dipshit Dingo Dog.  I hope it has room for his ears.

www.peoplepets.com

My children didn't quite know what to think.  Notice how apprehensive Calla looks.  They never even knew Dave could ride a motorcycle.  Or that when I met him he picked me up for our first date on a motorcycle.  Chances are I was wearing something like this, but with shorter shorts.

Damn we were cute.  And this was pretty much the same look India gave me when I tried to put her on the back of the bike and replicate the picture last night.  By the way there is no retro f'n filter on that last pic.  That is pure 70's baby.  

Also, I was told if I wanted to ride on the back, I now needed to wear boots, and a jacket.  Well duh...No one, and I mean no one, wants or needs to see the ba donk a donk in daisy duke cutoffs and a crop top and flip flops these days on the back of a motorcycle.  Besides it is a BMW and not a Harley therefore fringe is out of the question.  It is just not acceptable.  Joan Rivers would not approve.  God forbid.  I could do a Harley outfit.  I own fringe and a black concert t shirt of some sort involving an 80's band with long hair.

Lord help us all, and my wardrobe as I dig out the Frye boots from the depths of the closet and something resembling a technical jacket.  Because my snowboard jacket involves fur and paisleys, and not neon or leather.
 
I did however find this.  It matches the boots but not my checkbook:
http://www.coloradoeuro.com/eshopprod_cat_8007-87103_product_1501468.HeritageLadiesLeatherJacket.htm

Told Dave just to pick it up for me as a belated birthday present when he gets some parts.  He looked at me like I had 4 heads and said buying a jacket and helmet isn't like buying a t-shirt and a frozen pizza at Target.  Evidently he doesn't shop like I do.  Also, it might have something to do with the fact that it costs over $20, and he knows it.

Since this is more of an "Enduro" type bike vs a "hog" chaps are not necessary.  But you didn't think I would write this post without finding me some chaps:
http://www.jpcycles.com/product/634-224?utm_source=PLAs&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CJXazLyQ9rcCFc5DMgodIUkAwA

Just don't Google ass less chaps.  Do me a favor, just don't.  Chaps is fine.


But this......  Holy Crap.  This just takes the cake.  Someone buy these for me ASAP:
https://www.denniskirk.com/328051.sku?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&gclid=CPXvnZuE9rcCFaVFMgodoD4AWA


Just call me Motorcycle Barbie.  :)

House building and a master class with an Artistic Director candidate for the ballet company this weekend.  Please pray for me as I squeeze into tights and a leotard.  Something tells me the chaps would be easier.

Any fun things for y'all this weekend?  

Buenos Noches.

Where's the beef?

So Tuesday afternoon I was at the Post Office downtown with the small child named after a large country.  We were headed to pick up Calla at her day camp when I received a call from an old friend asking me what I was doing in approx. 1 hr..  Well, headed home to make dinner and bathe the stinky children.  Same thing I do every night Pinky.  He wanted to know if I could help him out and attend a focus group for our age at a super popular local breakfast place to discuss and give my opinions about food.  Um.....So let me get this straight, you want to talk about food, and after I am done you will give me a gift card to said popular breakfast place for my trouble?  My first inclination.......What's the catch?  Then it was......wait, this involves a time share right?  No way Jose.  Nope, none of that.  We went into it thinking we were going to discuss new menu ideas, oh yeah, and they would feed us.  Ok, I was curious.  So I dropped the kids off with Dave to have a picnic in the living room and booked it back downtown to discuss what I thought were pancakes and all of the unique flavors they serve.

Once we walked in there were about 10 people sitting around a round table.  (Cliche, I know.)  I was handed a plate of hash brown casserole the size of my head and a notepad, and told to give my honest opinion about the questions but they couldn't let us know who they were from until they were done.

After that they began asking us questions about why we liked coming to the restaurant and then asked us questions about grocery stores and which ones we shopped at and why.  First light bulb that goes off in my head says ding ding ding, you guys aren't from the restaurant.  Maybe you are from Trader Joe's looking to see if Ft. Collins would be a great location for their store.  Nope.  Damn!  More questions about local vs organic vs humane etc. etc. followed.  There were no wrong answers, but at the same time you were trying to figure out who they were with so you could answer the questions a certain way even though you weren't supposed to.  Make sense?

Needless to say I found it all very fascinating.  Since I do a lot of the marketing, ok all of it for our business, they had my attention.  There were 3 other people fast and furiously taking notes in the background from the mystery company.  We were also handed color ads and told to put them in order of our favorites based on layout, the claims they were making, and what we would purchase.  Turns out we all pretty much chose the same 2 as our top two for various reasons.

At the end of it all, we found out they weren't with a large grocery store, but with a Co-op that represents 700 farmers across the US.  The farmers adhere to a strict set of guidelines in order to sell their meat and eggs and have them represented as such in grocery stores nationwide.  What I did respect about them was the help they give small local farmers to get their product in the hands of people who may live in a large city and really want to have that kind of food lifestyle, but aren't as fortunate as myself to have a chicken and pig farmer who butchers 3 miles from my home and gets fresh eggs daily.  I am also pretty sure rainbow fruit flavored cereal is not on the approved list of standards for feeding chickens.  Mine would probably starve or protest.

While this story has absolutely nothing to do with what I am usually up to, I thought you might find it interesting.  Besides it beats me telling you about how I was going to make a box of Mac and Cheese and watch the girls float in the bathtub like mermaids.

In the meantime, the children and I have a new craft project.  I'll give you two clues and get back to you after we are done.  It is hard taking pictures of someone's booth at an antique fair so it doesn't look like you are stealing their ideas.  Ok, so I was.  But only because I don't have $175 and I won't be mass producing these things on Etsy for a living.  I would also like to stay married, and if I spent that much on a doll, Chucky the tin man and I would be sleeping in the chicken coop.  So far we have a bunch of found bits and pieces and only $45 spent.  The girls are having a ball trolling the flea markets for materials.  It is like a scavenger hunt.

Adios.  Back soon.  :)

When last we left off.....

When last we left off I had no heat, a spring work rush, and a dipshit dingo dog looking for ways to get his happy ass down the 10ft into the hole beneath him.  I am happy to report a lot has happened since then.

1. We have heat as well as AC (yipee!)
2. Work is insane, but only going to complain about that for a sec. in case I jinx it and it stops.
3. The house addition is almost done being framed and ready for roughing in thanks to a lots of hard work from family and close friends.
4. We took a trip to visit a dear friend in St. Louis.
5. The girls each had a ballet recital and were beyond cute.
6. Dave had a birthday, I had a birthday, and we are both in denial about our age.
7. We lost a chicken, but the ones that are left are learning to like watermelon and various other good for you foods.  They are still pooping artificial colors and rainbow fruit flavors, but since I have the new Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook, they are growing accustomed to a more vegan lifestyle.  We are not, but that is besides the point.  I just bought the book for the pictures, but some of the recipes aren't bad actually.
8. Calla can read and India can write her name.
9. Speaking of India she has become quite opinionated these days.  Not sure why I am surprised.  She is Dave's child and not the UPS mans (he is quite passive.)  She wants us to refer to her now as "Sugar Baby or Bug."  Just like her outfits it isn't worth the argument. 
10. Calla is headed to the 2nd grade in the fall. Note: see # 6
11. The website still isn't done but getting there.

And because I can't sign off without filling you in on the dipshit dingo dog and whether or not he finally made it into the basement.  He did.  The hard way.

Dave's Dad showed up to help us one Saturday, and Rusty was so excited to greet him he forgot the hole down was there.  He realized too late when he missed the corner and fell down the 10 ft. and high centered himself on the frame for the stairs during the fall.  He is ok, but now has some serious PTSD and refuses to even go near the stairs up or down.  Since the living room will be downstairs we hope he gets over it when the time comes.  Nothing appears to be broken or damaged, so he is lucky, but every once and while he gets stiff and has trouble getting up.  We give him some pain meds and it appears to help him not look so much like Quasimodo.  Not sure if dogs have 9 lives like a cat but his punk ass is def. down a couple.  Idiot.  Gave me the fright of my life.  On the plus side, he appears to have mellowed out a bit.  A little bit.

As you can see, the clouds are rolling in.  Off to batten down the hatches before the golf ball hail and possible tornados come rolling in.