Levi arrives

 Our nephew Levi has arrived in Portland (with his mom and dad of course).  This was hist first trip on a plane and he was very excited once he got here!

Olive was excited to test out Levi's stroller.

More house updates!

The grass that we seeded outside the studio has grown in perfectly!

We finally got the guest bedroom all set up and ready for visitors!

We used old wood from the garage to build these shelves in the bedroom!

The Table Project

 We recently bought a $25 table at a thrift store and Brian decided to sand it down to see if we could make it a nice dining table for the new house.

 The wood was in pretty good shape after sanding it down.

Renee used her painting skills to put some re-coat the top.

 It was amazing!

We painted the outside white - now all we need are some chairs!

Stepping stones!

Time to lay some stepping stones as a path from the house to the new studio. Olive still uses the grass.

Studio remodel!

It didn't look like much when we bought the house - but over the course of a month we were able to convert the free-standing garage behind our new house into an AWESOME art studio for Renee.  
Here are some pictures to show you the process...

This is what it looked like before on the inside...

This is what it looked like before on the outside...

 

Cutting the grass!

It's warmed up enough that the grass is growing...and FAST! The problem is we haven't gotten a mower yet! Brian and Olive improvised with some clippers!

Our tree is PINK!

Spring has hit Portland and the tree in front of our house has flowered with surprising pink petals!

Helmut Arrives!

Renee's father Helmut is visiting Portland for the first time. As a certified electrician and general handyman if all sorts, he wasn't in our new house five minutes before he pulled out a chisel and got to work!

The studio construction is done. Yesterday Helmut worked on the electricity and we worked on painting!

Snowlandia!

 The snow keeps on coming!  There was a small gap this morning and Renee was able to get out on her scheduled flight to Michigan, but since she left it has been snowing and freezing rain all day!  Here are some pictures courtesy of PDX Pipeline.

People stopped driving and just decided to ski everywhere.  Seriously, people have been skiing past all day!

And what better food for hungry skiers than ice cream!

 This was our house this morning!

 

Judging by the snow on our trash cans we've gotten 8-10 inches in the last 48 hours!

First icicles on the new roof!

Snowpacalypse in Portland!

Yesterday afternoon Portland was hit with a surprise attack of winter! Most schools, including Brian's, were cancelled halfway through the day. The conditions were bad enough that it took Brian over 2.5 hours to drive home from Hillsboro (usually 40 min!) when he was let out at 1:00.  Thankfully we are safe and sound and there's no school today!

Studio progress!

Renee's studio got a roof and walls this week! Now it's on to priming!