Category: Well drilling

Baby step towards progress

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It may be little, but I will take whatever I can get. This past week we got water. Yes, I can mark “well drilled” off my list. We were estimating the well to be around 200 ft. The driller called and said he hit water at 217 ft. After putting “stuff” in (there’s boxes, and screens and things I know nothing about) the total came to 220ft. So we are pretty happy about that. When I see the bill, it will still feel like a punch in the stomach, but you gotta have water. So what does this mean now? Well the driller takes a water sample to the county, they analyze it to make sure the water is drinkable- which shouldn’t be a problem. Once that is all cleared, our septic permit is released. Yes, we had to apply for it before the well…but you can’t do anything with it until there is a water source and its OK’d by the county. Makes zero sense to me, but whatever. So Kyle can now work on installing the septic. And since that’s he’s biz, we will be saving lots of $$.

Now, most of you would think that was the highlight of my week. Well your wrong. Its great…but bigger things happened. JIMMY JOHNS sandwich shop is coming to the Westside of Olympia. I know, calm yourselves, its finally happened! I am a passionate girl about my sandwiches. I love the beach comber. And I love how when I order it (especially on-line, when working in our Tacoma office cuz they’ll deliver. BONUS) they have to *warn* me about the sprouts. I like to live dangerously people, I’m eating the sprouts.

This week, Karlita (aka SIL Karlye) has been whipping up delicious dinners at Casa de la Camus. We’ve had chicken fried rice, beef stroganoff, and chicken with oven roasted zucchini and squash covered in Parmesan cheese.  I’m not gonna lie, I kind of pretend I’m a super rich person, and she’s my chef. I stroll in with the kids and dinner is served. I imagine that’s what it like. But then reality hits and I turn into “Lupe” and I clean everything up. Its nice for a moment though. And it is totally OK for me to give us Hispanic names, because I’m part Cuban, so no discrimination is happening.

Oh now, Karlye and I had a funny mom moment, and I saw a flash into the future with Ellie. We were watching a rerun of Modern Family. And I actually hadn’t seen this episode. Claire (mom) was having a day with Alex (daughter) when it was realized, Alex didn’t think Claire was cool anymore. Alex didn’t want her around her friends at the mall, etc. Claire was devastated, obviously. Then Alex hopped in the car, gave her mom a speech that I knew was fake immediately- thinking she was schmoozing Claire over. Claire gives her $40 to go shopping, just because. As Alex thinks she’s “won”, Claire rolls down the window and shouts to Alex-in front of her friends- “oh sweetie, make sure you buy a training bra with that money, your little boobies are starting to poke out. Love you kitten!” And drives off! Oh…I am putting that in my pocket for when its needed because I have no doubt that it will be needed one day.

Friend plug- I got stocked up this week on my supportive Cougar wear for Ellie’s cheer, oh and Kyle’s football too. Everything is glitterfied in cougar colors with CAMUS labeled on everything. So here’s my speech, support your local school and look good doing it. Go to Glitter and Ice facebook page and they can whip you up whatever you want…bedazzeled of course! We have some tshirts, a water bottle, and a stadium seat. She does merchandise for all the local schools (Oly, Tum, NT, RR, etc).

Friday we went down to Portland to visit SIL Lynsie and to do some school clothes shopping for Ellie. The kids got way more clothes than they needed, but the sales were just so good. The Gymboree outlet store everything was $12.99 or less!
Ok. I went school supply shopping for Ellie. I was really proud of myself, I went to Wal-Mart and got nearly her whole list for $35! That was including the $9 earbuds needed for the classroom ipad. BUT we did not get the square pink erasers becasuse they were out. That is just crazy talk. Also, we did not get pencils. Ellie’s school, as well as I think the entire county, has required that they get a certain brand. Appearantly they are the best pencils ever. The lead is perfectly in the center or something,  they don’t break as easily, and are probably environmentally friendly. I don’t know if these things are “hand crafted” pencils or what. They are SOLD OUT everywhere. So being the genius that I am, I amazon-primed that shit and it will be here on Saturday. BOOM. And that only cost me an additional $8. Obviously not counting the prime membership, but that doesn’t get factored in and it is worth its weight in gold.
And in a last note, I will NOT be winning the sister of the year award again this year. My sweet little sister loves to borrow my clothes and shoes and she loves this particular pair of wedges. Last summer a strap broke on them and I was super sad. She found a nearly identical pair by the same brand and bought them for me. At the same time, I had taken the original pair to the shoe shop and had them fixed. So when I was moving I was like “i don’t need these, I’ll give them to April.” Well…she wore them on Saturday night. I get a text from her “Oh my gosh Mandy I just fell down at a comedy show because that wedge broke again and the F-ing comedian called me out!!!! So embarrassed!!!” Lets just say I was crying laughing. I know, super supportive of me. I sent her the crying-laughing emoji. She replies back “He says “oh look at the drunk girl””. Then to top it off she tells me she’s on a date! So I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to take her shoe shopping to make up for this. Her pride and knee are bruised. 
House plans got copied and they were distributed to the heating air guy to do energy calcs. That’s needed for our building permits. And then another copy went to the framer guy to get a bid from the Truss company. That’ll be a big number. On the last plan, the bid came in at $18k. Given this house is bigger and one level, more trusses will be needed. But from what I’m told, we need just regular trusses, where the last bid, the whole second floor was bonus room trusses which costs more becasue they are thicker. So…maybe it’ll be about even. One can hope.


2 months! and still boring

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Things are boring because everything seems the same! The well drilling truck is still sitting there. He drilled for a few hours over 2 days. Then had a vacation planned. Geez, doesn’t he know I’m dying for some progress here?! So hopefully today or tomorrow we’ll hit water and be done with that. Until I have to see the bill and write the check, scary.

Kyle finally finished the drawings and gave me the OK to have copies made. So I’m doing that today so we can get copies to the Truss company. Also, pass a copy on so we can get the permits started. September sounds like its going to be super expensive. Our house has turned out a little bigger than we planned. Which means more $$.  We talked about it and feel that there’s nothing we want to change, and if thats the sqft it came out to be, well we will just bite the bullet and do it. Grand total:4054 sqft. The main level is 3092 sqft and the bonus room is 962 sqft. We will most likely build with the bonus unfisished at first. Saves money in the permit process and when the county assess the hosue for taxes purposes. Then we’ll finsih the bonus room after we move in, if we have any money left! 🙂 

As far as life goes on the Camus compound its been busy. Ellie has cheer M T and Th. So we aren’t home until 8.  I had book club Tuesday night, love catching up with the girls. Our book this month was The Vactioners. It was a quick light read. We had a breif discussion about it, but we are really bad at staying focused and end up discussing personal stories that relate…which I love.

Thursday was a fun day. Ellie and I both got to go to the salon and get haircuts. A little bonding time. Then we came home and I was asking Sue how her interview went (interviewed for a new para job at another elementary school). Of course she was saying “I don’t know, it was weird and akward. I don’t know what they thought” blah blah blah. As she’s telling me all this, the phone rings, and shes like “its the school!!” They offered her the job of course. She was so funny, jumping and sqealing. So we congratulated her and ran out the door for Ellie to go cheer at a scrimmage match.

Saturday was Kyle and I’s 11 year wedding anniversary, and honestly we did nothing. He was sweet and told me “happy anniversary” about 20 times. It was just too crazy to plan something. He had 2-a-day football practice, I had to go to a cousins bridal shower. So I’ll just save that “did nothing” in my back pocket for something. 

Sunday was a fun and busy day. We woke up early that morning. Ellie asked “what day is it?” I replied Sunday, so shes asks “why do I have to be up so early?!” Cheer Ellie, always cheer. Sunday was the league’s jamboree. And Ellie was schedule to cheer at 9, but we had to be there at 8.  So we scrambled and ran out the door. We spent the morning watching her, then hit Costco for some dog food. I got out of there only spending $45! That never happens. Must have been because Kyle was with me.  

We went home for the day and I spent a few hours cleaning Ellie’s closet and drawers. We are going school shopping Friday and I needed to see what still fits and what does she really need. Kyle and my BIL Josh began the process outside of pressing apples to make hard apple cider. This was an all day process of course. But they enjoyed it. It is so messy, and luckily the bees weren’t out really. Papa Ron waited for high tide then took the kiddos out on the boat to go set out a crab pot. They weren’t sure what to think of that and got on the boat reluctantly. They were gone about 2 hours and came back with huge smiles on their faces. They caught 12 crabs! They thought that was so cool.

We ended the weekend tired but lots of fun times. My goal this week house wise is to 1) get copies made; 2) get new bid for windows- since the house has changed from the last bid. 3) stay on top of kyle to get permits started! 4) get some water in that well. 

7 week itch

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Yes week 7 of our new lifestyle. And whats happened…..Monday morning began with discovering that Tubbs our dog had tangled with a porcupine in the night. He had 6 or so quills in his lip. So Kyle was kind enough to pull them out. Let’s hope Tubbs has learned his lesson.  Ellie also started cheer practice with TCYFL. Oh how it keeps us busy, but oh how she loves it so much. It was like 97 degrees that day, and then clouds rolled in making it muggy. We are Washingtonians, we don’t do muggy. I had a maxi dress on, and it was still too heavy. I’m not sure who had it worse at practice, the moms sitting on the sidelines watching, or the girls jumping around. Everyone looked gross. So I worked all day, then got to go sit in the sauna outside for 2 hrs. The plus to this: I didn’t have to cook dinner OR clean the kitchen after family dinner! A plate was waiting for us when we got home. Ellie has practice M W and Th nights, so I’m liking this no cooking or cleaning scenerio. Oh we had to stop by the old house to pick up a package that accidentally got delivered there. So Ellie’s with me and gets out of the car too, she sees on the porch this bicycle planter thing. Well appearantly she had got it for me last year on mothers day (totally forgot), and I had left it behind for the new owners to plant something in. She was mortified “MOM! I got that for you!” So I said, oh really well…I guess we can take it back. So I awkwardly took this planter off the new owners porch, that was mine..but now isn’t. Not sure what the rules are on that. (Sorry Chantelle!) Oh, and as we left Breve was there laying on the sidewalk. He looked good, we petted him and told him how much we miss him. He did not care.

Tuesday was Miss Ellie’s 8th birthday! I can not believe how old she is. Every year I lay in bed and make Kyle listen to me remeber going into labor. And us having no idea what we were getting into. Ellie woke up and asked for a bagel with cream cheese for her bday breakfast…OK. Then I called her at 10:43am to tell her “officially” happy birthday. That night she had cheer again, and now it was raining..so still muggy but not as hot. The cheer girls sang her happy bday, and she ate cookies all the way home that Sunny (alternate mom/nanny) made her. We ran home, grabbed Peyton and headed to my parents for the kiddos to have a sleepover. Nana made her her favorite dinner of Chicken and Dumplings. I than went back to the compound, where Sue had ordered a new Fax machine/Printer and I was asked to install it. Sue was at Bunco (I love bunco BTW) so I kicked Ron out of the office, he was not a good assistant. He was as bad as Peyton, kept moving everything I was taking out of the box…I have a method! So, I spent the next hour hooking up this new wireless contraption, and did so successfully.  I asked if this covered my rent for the month, the reply was barely!

Miss Ellie August 12, 2006
 

Wednesday was a mellow day. No cheer that day, and no where officially to be. Peyton and Kyle went down to the Columbia River to go Salmon fishing with Ron and Sue. So Ellie and I had the entire house to oursleves! I splurged and got us our favorite pizza from Brewery City Pizza- Cheese with Asiago sauce. We ate the whole thing. It was so good.

Thursdays adventrue involved a deer. While Ellie and I were at cheer practice, Karlye came over to the main house to use the grill for dinner. As she’s outside grilling, she notices a deer laying in the grass in the side yard. Obvisously shes intriqued by the fact the deer is just laying in the yard. Upon further examination she discovers its dead. Yes, just appearently keeled over and died in the yard. Josh looked it over, no gun wounds, or vehicle wounds. So either it had a heart attack or something. Anyone ever heard of something similar? Anyway, coudln’t leave it there, so he drug it off with the 4-wheeler.

Ellie and I had the house for 2 nights to ourselves. I made sure to clean up Friday so my laziness wasn’t so obvious. I was watching Bailey for the day, and Ellie had her bday party at painted plate.
It was a little busy. First, I completely spaced and in my head was thinking it was Saturday, so being downtown and parking I didn’t pay the meter and got a nice $15 parking ticket. Oopps. After the party I was craving some nuts, so we went to Farmers market. I was just “running in” so I carried Bailey in with me. OMG, there was the whole stinking family in front of me sampling every signle nut the lady had. “oh this one is spicy, oh this one is sweet, blah blah blah”. I was like I know what I want and I”m holding a 30lb baby, HURRY IT UP! I swear we were there 20 minutes waiting for all of them to decide which nuts they wanted. Of course when I get up there, Bailey immediately knocked a box off nuts over…yeah. I forget babies can do that. I got my large bag of coconut-lime almonds and was happy to escape.

We finally made it home, and to my surprise the well drilling truck was sitting on our property!!! YEAH!!! finally. No drilling was actually taking place I learned, but they are starting that today. My estimate is $12k for this. This will be our first major expense, in a long line of expenses I’m sure. We may not have a house yet…but we will have water!

Kyle finished most of the exterior drawings this weekend. Tried to take some pics to show you guys. He says he has ONE more to do and promises it’ll be ready to send to the engineer tomorrow. Let’s get this show on the road! So this top picture here is the front of the house. I like the look of two story’s but ours is not a 2-story. So, this large dormer will have windows that are open inside, high ceiling thing. Does that make sense?

View of Garage/Bonus room. That little door in the middle goes into the laundry room.

Sunshine and ….Breve

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Let me see if I can recap week 3: I started the week with offering to mow my in-laws grass. I love to mow actually. This shocks most people. I like riding on the mower…really not having to think about much. And of course, working on my tan. So Monday was a lovely day and I pulled out the tank and shorts and hopped on the mower. Now, this mower is new to me, so it took me over an hour to work out the kinks. This consisted of me scalping one part of the lawn, grass getting stuck in the blades and the mower shutting off…and well me taking a break or two. I finally got in the groove and mowed the placed. I was feeling so confindent that I decided to mow the sloped lawn between the in-laws house and Gma Lois’s house. Appearantly its steeper than it looks. I felt like I should have been wearing a seat belt. So did I mention I’m wearing shorts? I am, and my legs are grossly sweating on the plastic seat. Like I hit a bump and slide sweat. So this became really interesting on the mountain (hill). I completed it, but I must say…I didn’t think I was going to finish it without some sort of crashing either climbing up or flying down the hill.

In the never ending saga of Breve the cat….As you read in last Mondy’s post, he was lost. We went camping and I couldn’t find him. We yelled and looked, and still no luck. So Thursday I’m at work, and I get a text from Chantelle (new house owner), and the text reads “Does this belong to you?” And you know what, its a picture of Breve! Yes, that stinker went ALL THE WAY (1 mile) back to our old house! I loved Chantelle’s telling of her finding him: She opened the door, and out he pops from under her car…yelling at her. She was so nice, and went to Traders Joes and got him some cat food. I tried to explain that now he will NEVER leave, because he gets the cheap stuff at the store, Friskies. So he has been back now several days…and has stayed. Though he usually is not easy to find in the mornings. So when he shows up late afternoon/evening he’s starving and yells. Hopefully he’ll settle in to a routine here shortly, otherwise Chantelle may be adopting him 🙂

I went and had my eyebrows waxed and tinted this week! never done that. And to be honest its been a really long time since I’ve maintained by brows. In my mind…they looked fine. Well I was horribly wrong.  A little maintence can make a BIG difference. Take care of your self girls!! 

Oh and the REAL highlight of my week, no it was not finding Breve, was dinner with our relator Jessica Chase and her husband. Love her. She made this whole process of listing and selling our house so easy. She’s amazing. If you are in the Oly area and need a realtor to sell or buy a home, you must use her. I’m not kidding.  And now I have a new friend too. So it was really a win-win. We went to dinner down at Heathfire on the water. Enjoyed the sun, though Kyle hated that part. We ate and sipped mojitos. In the end we closed down the place! haven’t said that in a long time. Granted the restaurant closed at 10, but still I feel really proud about that.

This is a house blog after all right? So the pain in my side currently…among a lot of things actually, is cabinets. There is such a HUGE range. You can go custom. You can go semi-custom. You can scrounge some kitchen cabs for $7k, or you can blow your wad for $30k+. Its such a dilemina. I want quality. This isn’t something I want to remodel in 10 years. Nor do I want my hinges falling off. So Kyle has me getting bids it feels like from every single cabinet maker in the NW. We have meet with a custom cabinet maker, BeechTreeWoodworks, and I’m in love with his ideas, his heart for the project, etc. And I know I will get exactly what I’m paying for. But in the end…it doesn’t get me every single cabinet area I need (aka laundry cabs) and its at the top of the budget for that area. So I’m getting one more bid…and then I’m making a decision. Any tips on this is GREATLY needed. Again though, I know everyone has a different opinion about cabinets too.

The other thing bothering me is just everything is sooooo slow. And actually its not that its slow, but so out of my control. You just have to sit and wait for John Doe to do X, and then Scuba Steve needs the info from X to do Y…and they say 2 weeks, but you’re currently on week 4 and still nothing. Okay, I’ve vented.

So all that got accomplished this week was Kyle meeting with the well drilling guy on Sunday, and he’s got us in the schedule for sometime in the next 3 weeks….right. #$(% !!!

Oh…actually the more I think about it, a lot happened this past week! We also got to spend some QT with our friends the Chases (different from Jessica 🙂 ). And we had a lovely time crashing at their lake home all weekend. Peyton LOVES the Chases. He asks when we will see them all the time. It doesn’t hurt that they a) have a mountin of hot wheel cars for him to play with b) have a house where he can swim all day.  So we bbq’d and took boat rides, and the kids got to get in some tube time. This coming week is going to have some competition!