Some Pictures

We finally found the camera and discovered that we had not taken any pictures on it while Dad was here.  If you'd like to see the progress between my last posted pictures and today you'll have to get Dad to post some pictures.  He is today's shot.  I've spent the time since I returned finishing up the front porch, wrapping a few windows, and fixing a few mistakes we had made.  I think I've got maybe the rest of this week to finish those details.

You can see the synthetic roofing material on, which keeps the rain out.  Adri picked out the tile color a few days ago, so I think we could have tile up there pretty soon.  Here's a picture of the back.

I still need to put sheathing on the gable and wrap the upper columns.  The stucco people are coming and setting up scaffolding this week, then I can finish that. 

Here are a few inside shots.  This first one is standing at the entrance from the dining room into the kitchen.  The kitchen is in the foreground, the great room in the background, and the bonus room (junk room?) wall visible at the far end.  The kitchen basically ends between the first visible window opening and the large door opening.  The two large window openings are for arched top windows.

If you turn to the right you would see the front family room, pictured below.  You can also see the stairs down to the basement in the left of the picture.  The stairs up haven't been built yet.

Here's a shot of the garage, with the large beam we had to set.

Basketball Season is Here!

We have started the basketball season.  Ty and Rich are playing in leagues right now which gives up 2 games per week to watch.  Rich plays on a team with Brad and Trent.  It is a very long season, last year it seems like it went into March.  It is fun to go watch them and as a bonus I get to see Kylie and her cute kids each week.  Ty is playing Jr. Jazz.  There is a complete transformation in Ty's basketball skills from last year to this year.   He is really fun to watch this year.  He listens to things Rich tells him to do and works on doing them.  He is a run and gun player - if he ever touches the ball it is fast break to the other end of the court for a layup.  He scored 18 pts. last night and probably could have had more except Rich kept telling him to pass it so he didn't look like a ball hog. :)  Probably a good idea.  Kade starts his Jr. Jazz season in January.  Zack is super sad that he can't play this year and wears old Jr. Jazz jerserys to the games waiting for the time he can play  - Next year! 
We are watching my sisters little boy Will all week while they are in Disneyland.  Will is 6 months younger than Cort.  Having someone smaller than Cort in the house for a few days makes Cort seem so HUGE.  It makes me sad that he is growing up. 

Pictureless Update

Since Dad left we've gotten the rest of the roof on and finished up nearly all the framing.  I couldn't find the camera, so there are not any pictures, maybe when I get back.  The windows have arrived, and the front door should be here any day now.  I think we will have the house weathered in and more or less 'secure' within a week or two.  My plan was to have the roof on last week, so I'm about one week behind.  Not too bad.  After the windows and door goes in I'll work plumbing and electrical.  I think a new goal will be to have drywall up before Christmas.  That's just a wild guess, but seems reasonable.

In Kauai I had a fun experience the other day.  It was our day off, so I thought I would go and do the last big hike on the island I hadn't yet done.  I forget the hike name, but it's along the Nepali coast.  I've been up to several waterfalls along this hike each time I've come, but decided I would just hike to the end this time.  It's 11 miles in, 11 miles out.  Those who do this hike will hike in, camp for awhile, then hike out.  I was going to do it in one day.  I got to the trail head at about 6:45 am and set off.  The hike all the way in went pretty nice.  Made it to the end at about 11:30, feeling I had plenty of time to sit on the beach, eat my lunch, and make it back before dark.  However, there were 3 naked men sunbathing on the beach, so I didn't spend much time seeing the sights.  I started heading back at noon.  5 miles back to the parking lot you make it to a stream that leads up to a waterfall that I'd visited on my last trek.  Maybe 1/2 mile before the stream I could feel my muscles in my legs starting to get tight, like they might cramp up.  I wasn't too worried, I'd had calf cramps playing basketball as a teenager.  It would tie up and hurt, but I could just pull on my foot and relax it out.  No big deal.  Well, maybe it's the 20 years of age, or the circumstances leading to the cramp, but this was NOT the same.  Just as I made it to the stream my right calf tied in a knot just as a muscle along my inner left thigh did the same.  I immediately collapsed to the trail (covered in red dirt).  I tried to tough it out for what seemed like several minutes, but the pain was very intense.  Eventually I'll admit there was some screaming involved.  After what seemed like forever (but was probabaly no more than 5 minutes) the muscle relaxed and the pain stopped.  About this time a nice native walked up in a straw hat and asked if I was OK.  Well, not so much.  I got up and hobbled over to the actual stream and sat on a rock for awhile.  I sat and rested and he chatted up a storm about waves and surf and mushrooms and weed.  From what I can gather he basically lives on the trail.  It was all very entertaining, if I wasn't worried about getting off the mountain.  I figured I had about 3 hours of hiking left to go at a good pace to get out.  I drank two 32 ounce bottles of gatorade (my last), ate some granola bars, and after about 30 minutes started up again.  I made it about 20 yards and had to sit back down.  I was not encouraged.  However, after another 15 minutes or so of rest I got up and started walking without cramps. I had to stop every so often and masage my hamstrings and calf when they started to tighten up, but I was able to keep going for 4 miles.

That brought me back to the sort of main day hike beach.  This is 2 miles from the trail head and the spot nearly every tourist hikes into and then hikes back out.  Mom and Dad made it this far when they were here.  I arrived at the beach at 5:20.  It had taken me 45 minutes to hike in the 2 miles in the morning, and I knew it would be dark by 6:30.  I felt pretty good about my chances.  However, I made it no more than 200 yards past the beach when my muscles cramped again and I collapsed back down to the trail screaming.  Luckily for me I was now on the trail that sees lots of traffic.  I had 4 different sets of tourists walk past me (for my pride sake the screaming had stopped by then).  The first gave me some water, the next two offered advice (but had no water).  The last ones came by at about 6:00 with a lot of water.  I took all they had.  This seemed to do the trick.  After about 10 more minutes I got up and started walking and the muscles felt pretty good.  I caught back up to the water bearing tourists at about 6:30, just when it was almost too dark to see the trail.  It is amazing how dark it gets.  The mountain blocks the moon (if there was one) and there were some clouds, so little or no stars.  It was as dark as a cave pretty quickly.  Fortunatley, the last tourists had a flashlight.  We caught up to another set of tourist who didn't have a light and we painstakingly made our way through the last 1/2 mile or so.  We finally got to the parking lot at about 7:15.  I expressed my gratitude to my helpers and headed home.  It wasn't until I was sitting in the car that I fully appreciated how nice the helpers were.  I stunk - I could barely stand it.  I don't know what they must of thought.  22 miles of hiking in the sun and rolling around in the dirt just doesn't do good things for body odor.  I was very tempted to burn all my clothes when I got back to the condo.  I imagine that will be my last big hike on the island.  If I ever desire to see that beach again I'll take the helicopter tour.