On September 4th with the help of Craigslist we brought home our new four month old puppy, Chester.
Lisa saw the listing on Craigslist earlier that day and texted Bob who happened to be in Reno for work meetings. After his meetings, Bob picked up Hannah from UNR and the two of them drove over together to see the puppy. They both knew he was the one. What a God-send that it all happened within a couple of hours!
Chester loves riding in the car with Bob.
Our new puppy is the perfect fit for our family -- cuddly and fun!
Chester is a Teddy Bear puppy, a hybrid designer breed between Shih Tzu and Bichon Frise.
Here he is after a couple months of growth and a new haircut.
One of the last big major home improvements we've been wanting to make to our home in Carson City was to install new laminate floors. We had them in our previous home in Henderson and just loved them. Bob had installed them in our Henderson home so we knew this was going to be a fairly big project. We worked on them on weekends this fall and they turned out great.
Before we began, we had to bring all the cases into the house to let them "acclimatize." As you can see, Chester is all about helping out!
The first section we worked on was the laundry room entry way from the garage.
Chester approves!
Another view of the new laundry room floors. The flooring is Pergo Outlast+ and the color is "Paradise Jatoba."
Working on the bathroom/bedroom hallway. Throughout the house we had to pull up all the carpets, pads, and baseboards, then repair and repaint the baseboards. We then had to match and repaint the lower sections of the walls, put down laminate underlayment, measure, cut and fit the flooring, fill and seal all the edges, and then reinstall all the refurbished baseboards and touch them up. It was quite a project, but a lot of fun too.
Turning the corner from the bathroom/bedroom hallway to the kitchen, dining room and living room hallway. As you can see in this picture, we changed directions when going from one hallway to the next so transitions needed to be installed. In total, we put in nine transitions.
In this picture you can see one of the transitions where we went from laminate to tile near the outside doorway.
As we worked on the open sections of the living and dining rooms, we moved the furniture from one side of the room to the other and then back again once the flooring was installed.
Bob putting in flooring. In front of him you can see the additional underlayment we put in. It wasn't necessary, but we decided to add it because it adds one more vapor barrier and makes walking on the floors quieter.
Throughout the process, Chester was Bob's buddy (sometimes too much! :)).
Lisa took this picture of Bob working away though the heart shaped cutout in one of our pieces of furniture -- very sweet!
The finished product in our living room...
...and dining room.
Another view of the living room.
The last room to be done was the den which we use as our office.
This picture is the beginning of the sequence we went through putting the floors in.
Here Caleb is cutting up the old carpet and padding to roll up and throw away after we've already taken all the baseboards off.
Once the carpet was taken out the floor was checked to make sure it was level and then thoroughly cleaned.
Then the lower sections of the walls were repainted and underlayment padding was put down.
Once the underlayment was put down we started cutting and fitting plank sections. In this picture you can see where we laid them out first to make sure the joints were all staggered.
As before, once we finished one side of the room, everything had to be moved over to work on the other side.
Dad and son. It is so great working together as a family.
All that's left now is to nail back in the refurbished baseboards.
The finished product. We are so pleased!!
In September, Bob made a trip to see his parents in Montana in conjunction with a work trip he had in Idaho. While there he got to spend time with his Dad doing something they both really enjoy, precision rifle shooting. Here Bob is helping his Dad sight in a new rifle he just picked up.
Having fun making shots out to 800 yards. Both Bob and his Dad lament they can't do this more often together.
Bob and Lisa spent a fun afternoon in nearby Virginia City, Nevada. We were there to check out the photo exhibit of our good friend Chris England at the historic St. Mary's Art Center. The St. Mary’s Art Center was originally the hospital for the Comstock miners and was abandoned for many years. But, now it is a beautifully restored and multi-functional facility.
One of the restored rooms in the old hospital. Lisa loved the place!
October 27th was Lisa's 55th birthday, and the 29th was Caleb's 16th.
We celebrated them together when Hannah was home for the weekend from college.
Hannah got Lisa a University of Nevada, Reno mug where Hannah is now a freshman.
Caleb opening his gift from Hannah...
...A Monty Python card game!
Bob took Lisa to The Edgewood Restaurant in Lake Tahoe for her 55th birthday. She loved it!
The view from our dining spot.
Watching the sun set behind Lake Tahoe and the fires glowing on the balcony was the most romantic birthday Lisa ever had!
And the food was fabulous!!
A shot of our pretty food -- every bite was amazing!