Work has finally begun inside the house! After taking turns camping out at the permit office, we finally got our building permit and the contractors moved in. It's only been two weeks but look at the destruction 2 men with jackhammers can do...

They started in the basement - first tearing down the walls, then tearing up some of the floor (5" of concrete!) to get ready to lay down the pipes for the kids' bathrooms.

While awaiting the permits, we got our own dumpsters and a honey bucket!

Back in January, we sold our 1941 stove and threw in the metal kitchen cupboards to a young guy restoring his 1930's farmhouse. Here is a glimpse of the removal...too bad the boys didn't enjoy themselves!

We applied for permits to fix two piles on our dock last August. One of the piles had sheared through and the other was barely hanging on. We were worried they would not survive the winter storms on Lake Washington. They did! Our permits were issued only 3 days before all work above the water must cease due to fish conservation regulations. Our dock repair crew were on-site the next day making the much needed repairs.

Our house was built in the 1950's and was still using oil for heat. Since we didn't like the smell of the oil furnace, we'd already decided to switch to natural gas. After getting several opinions, we decided to remove the oil tank from the property rather than have it decommissioned. It is common for these old tanks to leak and ours was no exception :(. After several loads of soil removal, we should be ready to fill in the hole and be on our way to more exciting projects - like building a fence to contain our cute, furry, friend Lucas.

Our family began looking for a new home last February. We knew we wanted to live in Kirkland so we started there. After many months of hunting and several offers which came to nothing, we eventually bought a house we'd looked at, and offered on, early on in our house hunting process. Our new home needs a remodel but is in the perfect location and is on an incredible piece of property.

Here is our remodel story...

It took us 6 months to work with our architect designing plans, settle on a contractor, and obtain our building permits. Now the fun is finally beginning!