Check out this nifty picture I took with my new Nokia Lumia 1020 - an awesome  smartphone. Click on it to see it full sized for the best effect (it might take a minute to load...)

We had another bright sunny weekend in Seattle, as well as spending some time on the water we signed the lease for Kyle's first apartment (in Vancouver!), more on that soon!

The last few weeks have been really busy - we thought it would quiet down after moving into the apartment and we'd be able to post updates more frequently. But it seemed like every day it was midnight before we knew it and we were off to bed! The crew removed some of the protective paper from the floor this week in preparation for hardwood sanding. We found some of the tape layout that we had put down back in February, we were remarkably accurate! Check out the before and after below.

It's moving week! No not into the new place, but our temporary apartment in Redmond. We'll be there until early September. Monday we make the first move out of our house into the apartment, taking just the minimum that we'll need for the summer. The apartment is pretty nice, 3 bedrooms, they have a pool and are close to the local movie-plex.

Move two is on Thursday and Friday,  the moving trucks come back to take everything else into storage.

On Independence Day we took the dog for his first 4k - "Four on the Forth" in Bellevue, later we went back to the house to watch the fireworks. The fireworks barge went right past our house.

Work is progressing at the house - lots of excavation outside and finishing of the drywall inside. We should get our kitchen cabinets soon!

Photosynth is a blast - here are a couple of new panoramas of casa LeGrow. Expand to full window size for the best effect. If you are curious about making panoramas, try out Microsoft ICE.

Okay - it has been a really busy month finishing school and getting ready to move so we've gotten a bit behind on the blog. But the progress on the house has been proceeding at a fast pace! The other day we were out there and there were probably half a dozen trucks out front and crowding the park down the street.

Since the last update we got insulation, the drywall crew came in, a trench was dug, an excavator invaded the yard and our posts were installed.

Insulation went up really quickly, they were in and out in about two days. The new fiberglass is a far cry from the sharp stuff I remember putting into the cottage as a kid. Back then there were actual shards of glass that would get stuck in your hands. These days it's almost as smooth as cotton! The guy putting it in didn't wear any gloves or a mask! We made a last minute change and decided not to reuse the old bathtub, the plumber got us a new one and install both the tub and shower in the kids' bathrooms. Drywall arrived in huge 12' sheets, there must have been 5000 lbs of it stacked around the house.

Electrical guys came back to start connecting us up to the powerline - we need buried lines for our renovation, so they had to dig a trench across our neighbor's property up to ours. We had a little problem along the way... remember the oil tank? He wasn't alone, yup, we found another abandoned tank... probably 60 years old... half full oil...

Show must go on, so while the excavators were digging up the oil tank, they also took a spell removing our front patio, somehow they got their excavator through the carport down in front of the house, then they did a little tour along in front of the house. Check out the video below (takes a minute to download).

Roofing guys were having a blast adding the skylights - they use torches to melt the new roofing material down onto the old one to create a waterproof seal. The skylights look amazing, they bring so much light into the  house.

And finally the columns have been installed - they look great!

Check out the interactive panorama as well, the room is really starting to take shape. The house was about 90 degrees today, they have heaters and fans all over to dry all the taping on the drywall.

The end of the school year is always busy for the LeGrow tribe and we've fallen behind on the blog (fortunately the work on the house has continued!). There's been a lot going on over the last two week. The windows have gone in (they look great!). The electrician has finished all of the wiring, he installed the can lights and has done all the low voltage: internet, phone, cable, more internet, security and speaker wires - Ian might have gone overboard on the CAT6 for the internet! Poor electrician, we had a lot of requests along the way and asked for more lights after he was done - this was really hard to visualize in advance. The plumber finished all the pipes and attached the valves in the showers. The heating guys also finished up with the furnace. Pretty much everything in the walls is done, we're almost ready for the insulation and sheetrock! Some bonus photos below of Kyle & Chloe as well.

We started looking at boats last summer. We looked at several brands and models and after seeing it at the boat show in March, we decided on the Cobalt 200. It is just the right size for our lift, has a great seating layout, and drives beautifully on the water. Last week they brought it out for a test drive (how's that for service!), then they brought it back on Wednesday so we could test out our boat lift (we were a little worried that the 13 year-old lift might not be up to the task!). It went up with no problem so we closed the deal today!

Another week of work at the house, it is exciting to see the progress, we are still heading out a few times a week to see what is going on. The furnace guy worked fast - in two days he installed the furnace and duct work (I think he was heading out to Hawaii on day 3!). The main duct line runs through the crawl space and saves us a lot of head room on the lower level. The plumber continues to be in and out adding waste water pipes. We've been spending time at tile showrooms selecting tiles and counter samples for our architect to review. It's a slow process but we are narrowing it down and beginning to make progress. We settled on dark sapele wood for the kitchen cabinets and a natural sapele for the master bath. Our tile and counter tops will be neutral.

The framing continues...our pantry and staircase half wall were some of the biggest changes. The weather was so beautiful on the weekend, we couldn't stay away and spent time on the water in our kayak. Our crazy little dog hates getting in the water but loves riding along with us!

This has been an exciting week at the house. Big changes! While some demo is still happening, there have also been a lot of new walls going up. It's so much fun to see them pop up where we've been imagining them all these months.