Before... During... and After

The hopes of snowshoeing this weekend were dashed by images of paint brushes and masking tape dancing through my head. I know not as good as sugar plums, but hey it was a very productive weekend. We have totally revamped our bedroom. Although it is far from finished it is now much easier to see what we hope to do with the room and the list has become considerably shorter.

Before

Okay, suspense aside here is the room before:

Take notice of those stark white walls. They were covered in wallpaper not too long before these photos. I completely forget to take a picture of the little flowers repeating all across two walls, but here is a sampling of it. Lovely eh?


During

We had originally planned on painting the room red, but were still unsure so we got some of the paint pod samples. After the initial four red samples we decided against red. Just wasn't doing it for us. So we picked a few more colors. In all we had nine different colors on the wall. Though I think we have decided from those samples what color to paint the living room and possibly the sun room.


In addition to the multiple colors we also had a few stains on the walls so up went the primer. With the primer up on the walls, but no the corners you could tell the walls were just dingy looking. They weren't white like the photos, but well, you can see the difference in this next photo.


After

With a bit of a drum roll may I introduce the after photos:

The final wall color was Twilight Gold. We still have a huge list of to-dos but this is a very strong start and helps us to envision the other tasks. Here's the remaining list:

• Replace windows
• Repaint trim on windows and walls
• Replace closet
• Replace door (custom cut for $90, checked at Home Depot today)
  
• Buy dressers (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30053921) for under windows

Overall I feel pretty good though.

Hope you have enjoyed this episode of Before... During... and After. I'm sure there will be more to come as we hope to do the living room next.

Back in the Saddle...

That's right, I'm riding horses again. I have come upon the opportunity to learn about endurance racing. This is totally new and foreign to me and I'm excited to learn. You can follow my adventures with Annie on my new blog: Joining the Race.

With riding 3-4 times a week I hope to keep pulling the camera out. We've been locked in quite a cold, foggy spell lately. The fog has been here for a week and the forecasts are saying it will stick around for another week. I'm ready for it to go away, feels too much like Western Washington (of course w/o the flooding).

We do have hopes of going snowshoeing this weekend. I've even picked out the place I want to go, Scotch Creek. The plan is to bring the camera and the dog. Hopper should enjoy a good outing and hopefully he won't scare all the animals away. He's so quiet I hope to be able to have a photo shooting companion.

There are also plans in the work for painting the bedroom. Currently there are 9 different colors painted on the wall (don't worry I'll get a picture before the primer goes on). From that 9 I think we have settled on a color for the bedroom, a color for the living room and a color for the sunroom. It's funny, I kept telling myself to concentrate on picking a color for the bedroom and I seem to have done well working on the rest of the house as well.

Wish me luck on a hopefully busy weekend.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2009! So far we've gotten 3 inches of snow and it is still coming down hard. Here is my promised year in review. I just went off what was on my Flickr account and realized after it was all said and done, I didn't even comment about the house we bought in September. Oh well! Remember I've got a whole lot more photos, just follow the links and enjoy!

January

Confidence
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

We started 2008 off with some adventure. We headed up to Conconully with the Streeters for the Snow Dog Super Mush. The first dog sled races I had been to and it was a lot of fun. I hope to go back this year and see what kind of photos I can get.

February

Bohemian Waxwing
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

We finally ventured up to Tonasket to explore. We got a geocache and I found a great little park with a whole flock of waxwings to take photos of.

March

Chelan Snow
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

Snow at Chelan? This is our summer cabin! When we went over to open the cabin this year there was a nice bit of snow and Shawn's folks had an adventure coming of the pass from Western Washington. It quickly melted away, but stayed quite chilly.

April

Double Play
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

Baseball season started and Shawn volunteered as a coach for Okanogan. Gave me a chance to practice some action shots and I loved how this one turned out with the ball in focus. Probably one of my favorite "mistake" photos of the year.

May

Spotted Towhee
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

With the water still down when we visited Lake Chelan in May I hunkered down on a log and snapped photos of birds playing in a seasonal stream. It was great practice and has made me appreciate how fun it is to take photos of birds.

June

Wedding
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

Probably the highlight of the year, our wedding! We were married June 28 in Pateros, WA. I was lucky enough to have two photographers, Tim Patrick of Okanogan and Stephanie Stremler of Lynden. Here is one of Stephanie's photos.

July

Dawes Glacier
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

Our honeymoon to Alaska! Although there are much more picturesque photos of Alaska and the glaciers I figured a photo reminder of our cruise should be one of us. This is when we were at Dawes Glacier. It was a great trip and we really would like to go back and explore Alaska a bit more. It's a different world up there.

August

Father and Son
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

We had some hot weather and luckily spent it at Lake Chelan at our cabin. We even had some friends from Okanogan join us this year and we hope to get even more there this next summer.

The fish didn't start biting until the sun was setting, but Shawn and his dad were still game to catch some.

September

Fur and Feather Auction
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

It was hard to pick just one photo from September as we had the county fair and I had a lot of great photos from it. Our second fair and I entered two photos this year. Maybe next year I can expand that even more. This little guy was waiting to sell his rabbit in the Fur and Feather Auction.

October

Leaping Kitties
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

Boy did the leaves fall. We have three huge trees that each have a lot of leaves. Mickey didn't appreciate helping out with the big piles.

November

Hopper
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

We adopted a new family member. Hopper joined us from Wenatchee Humane Society and he has been a great addition and is a great little dog. Calm as can be unless you ask him to get excited and even then that can be a little difficult.

December

White Christmas
Originally uploaded by Kendal Jean Photos

We had a white Christmas and all the family came to us this year. It was great getting to show off the new house. Although Shawn's folks had more snow at their home in western Washington, we've now caught up and it is snowing heavy as of the first of the year.