McCall

Bill and I had never been to McCall, Idaho so we were really looking forward to the fly-out there.  It was about a two and a half hour flight from Vancouver to get there.  Fairly uneventful flight although I was a little taken aback when a plane flew under us and we hadn't seen him and flight following hadn't warned us that he was near us.  I sure hope he had seen us and knew avoid us.  If not, God was certainly looking after us at that point.

We left as early as possible in the morning to get there.  As with the Portland area, the McCall area was also near the 100% totality zone for the solar eclipse so we were advised it was going to be a little crazy there and to arrive early to get a parking spot at the airport.

We got to the Shore Lodge too early to check in so we ate lunch at the restaurant in the hotel before heading downtown to kill some time.  Shore Lodge has been in McCall since 1948 and is a beautiful hotel.  We ate in a newly remodeled part of the hotel with a new restaurant overlooking the lake.  The outside seating was already taken up so we ate inside but it didn't seem as if we were inside because the whole outside wall was open-felt more like we were sitting under a covered deck.  We had lunch with Ron and Janet May.  We took off from Pearson just ahead of them and waved at them as we left but they arrived before us because their Dakota is faster than our Skylane.  We could see them ahead of us most of the way with the sun glinting off their plane.

My favorite part about the hotel was how inviting the view was from the lobby.  It is hard to tell from this photo but you could see Payette Lake through this etched glass.

The view was so spectacular.  

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant just down the road.  Bill and I decided to check out the pool area and went into the hot tub for a bit after dinner.  Again--beautiful view of the lake from the hot tub.  We didn't take advantage of the beach or make s'mores at the fire pit but there were a lot of fun things for kids to do there.  It is a very family oriented resort.

Bright and early Friday morning, the folks from Salmon Rafting based out of McCall picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the Riggins area to go whitewater rafting on the Salmon River.  I have to admit that I was more than a bit apprehensive about going on the rafting trip.  Not so much that I wasn't going to go at all but enough to have healthy respect for the river and plan accordingly.  I have PTSD from inter-tubing down the river in Lava Hot Springs-getting hurt and losing my glasses and shoes.  I was extra cautious about what we took with us.  I took nothing with me that I was willing to lose.  Took my old glasses from two prescriptions ago, had croakies on my sunglasses, took off all my jewelry and took my old camera instead of my new one in case it went overboard.

We had a total of six rafts, three one-person kayaks and one two-person kayak on our trip downriver.  We put into the river at Spring Bar--about 10 miles upriver from Riggins.  There was a forest fire just a few more miles away so our morning was very smoky and hazy.  It did bother me a bit.  Especially my eyes.

Bill and I happened to be in the raft with the owner of the company.  We enjoyed our trip very much as we floated and maneuvered through the various rapids.  The river and mountains on either side were beautiful.

We stopped on a sand bar near Riggins for lunch.  It was quite the production.  The six guides prepared our lunch.  The tables that they put the food on were the seats on the rafts.  They all had a job putting together the fixings for making sandwiches, salads, etc.  It was a fabulous meal.  No restrooms in the middle of the river on a sand bar so you had to find a spot somewhere that you were willing to relieve yourself.  Guys have so much more of an advantage in that department than we women do.  I went with the flow though.  I didn't want to have to wait until we got to the end of the trip so I found a spot to just sit in the river and go with it.

One of the kayaks became available that afternoon so Bill decided to try it out for the very first time.  We were just getting ready to go through a Class III rapids so I was really nervous about him deciding to do it.  And of course, he went out of the kayak on that first rapids as I was afraid he would.  But he got back in and didn't want to give up.  He spent the whole rest of the afternoon in (and out a few more times) the kayak.  He equated it with learning to ski.  He wasn't going to learn if he didn't try and get bounced out.  He did hit his bottom on some rocks and got pretty bruised up but otherwise had a great time.

We pulled out of the river at Lucile Bar about ten miles downriver from Riggins.  It was probably about five o'clock when we started heading back to McCall.  We didn't get back to the hotel until after six o'clock and had just enough time to take a very quick shower to get to our dinner reservation at six-thirty.  Luckily we didn't have far to go--just across the street from the lodge at the Lardo Grill.

Saturday was a plan your own day.  Ron and Nicole Runyan decided that they wanted to go hiking somewhere in the McCall area and asked how many others might want to join them.  Bill and a few other adventurous souls went with them to Snowslide Lake and hiked to Snowslide Summit.  It wasn't a very long trail-just 2.3 miles one way-but it was pretty much straight up with a 2000 foot elevation gain to the summit which was at 7900 foot elevation.  Kevin Padrick and Bill hung out together and enjoyed their day.

I decided to go hiking at Ponderosa State Park which was in McCall itself.  I took the city bus on its loop around the city and arrived at the park 40 minutes later.  I had thought that I would only spend an hour or two at the most there but I ended up hiking for about two and a half hours and met back up with the bus three hours after the driver left me off.  I took the Peninsula Trail which was a well paved bike path for the first part of my hike.  It was a pretty hike with views of the lake.  From there I took the Lily Marsh Trail which was not paved and fairly rocky.  There was a bit of up and down hill climbing as well.  I was really hoping that I would see some deer or other wildlife while I was hiking but no such luck.  I had seen a doe and two fawns in someone's front yard while I was on the bus but no such luck in the park.

I'm not used to walking that long or far.  In fact according to my Fitbit, that was the most I had walked since I got it with more than 25,000 steps for the whole day.  So I was a bit stiff and sore at the end of it all and didn't want to attempt walking to the downtown area without knowing how far it was.  So I waited for the bus to pick me up and take me there.

I elected to have lunch at Veg'd Out-a salad bar restaurant at the Hotel McCall and then caught up with some other folks that were wondering around town and talked with them for a bit while they enjoyed having some ice cream.  I was a little jealous.  I was trying to be good having a baked potato and salad bar but the ice cream looked so good and I wasn't going to have another opportunity to go there before we left--sigh.  By the time I had sat and rested for awhile, I was ready to walk back to the Shore Lodge.

On the way back to the hotel, I saw three deer.  I was up close and personal with a couple of them and was afraid that they might get spooked and run into the road in front of all the traffic but they seem to be pretty used to urban living.

This one was in the hospital parking lot and eating the bushes there.  I've never seen a deer scratch its ear before so that was kind of interesting.

 This one was also at the hospital but taking advantage of the shade.

And I wasn't far from this one either.  I just couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a closeup.

We had dinner at the Anchor Restaurant that night.  We were seated out on the deck with a wonderful view of the lake.  I watched osprey dive into the lake to get their dinner and we watched the sunset.

We came home early Sunday morning so we could see Chris.  He decided to come home so he could see the eclipse.  It was a fabulous weekend full of new experiences and fun with our flying club friends.  I don't know if we will ever go back again but if the opportunity presented itself, I certainly wouldn't be opposed.  Beautiful vacation spot.

The Big Remodel

I have been wanting to remodel for nearly 20 years.  We have actually made several incremental changes over the years.  We had dry rot from a leaking dishwasher in 1994 so we replaced the gold dishwasher and floor at that time with a lovely 90's floor which has since become well worn and more water damage.  We eventually needed to replace the gold range when the oven gave out.  But we still had the ugly gold sink, the ugly fake brick back splash, the chips in the counter tops that were there when we moved in, the dropped ceiling with half the fluorescent lights never working, and cabinet drawers and doors that were breaking and starting to not look so good from years of dirty fingers damaging the wood finish.  It was definitely time but budget and the knowledge that it was a huge undertaking kept us from making any big changes up until now.  Our inheritance from Bill's mom made the financial part possible and after three years of an intense schedule at work starting to wind down to a dull roar, I was able to devote some time to finding a contractor and making decisions of what I wanted.

I have to admit that I was more than a bit taken aback when I started talking to contractors about what I wanted to do.  The sticker shock was very real.  As I got used to the idea that it was going to cost a whole lot more than I anticipated after talking to several contractors, I just accepted that it was going to cost a lot of money and went with it.  While I don't LOVE my neighborhood, I do love the convenience to shopping, the hospital, freeways, and the airport.  And with the market the way it is in this area, we may have been able to sell the house as is but wouldn't have gotten nearly enough money to buy into a new home for the amount that we could remodel.  So remodeling was our best option no matter what.

The sacrifice you have to make to do it is also very real.  We were losing our kitchen and two of our bathrooms for six weeks.  Bill got cold feet more than once before demolition actually took place until it was actually gone and there was no turning back.

I took this picture just before demolition.  Demolition day was July 5th.  I had already packed up as much as I could and the contractors had already moved our refrigerator to our living room.

We put as much of our kitchen into the living room as we could.  We took the leaves out of the kitchen table and snugged it up as close to the wood stove as we could and that was where we ate although we did eat out on the deck as much as we could to get outside and away from the crowded conditions as much as we could.  The microwave and blender went on file cabinets and TV trays.

Fortunately, the contractors were able to drill a hole through the wall to the refrigerator to keep our ice maker going.  That was extremely important to Bill to have ice for his drinks and especially his shakes on his diet.  We also had the wire rack that we have been using as our pantry in the living room.

What a weird feeling to come home to this sight after demolition and see everything gone.  And see dry rot that had probably been there for more than twenty years under the kitchen cabinets.

Our contractor was nice enough to consider that having a kitchen sink available to us was important to Bill and installed a temporary one in our hall bathroom until it was time to do the dry wall work in there.  It was nice to have that sink for a couple of weeks before we had to start washing everything upstairs in the bathroom sink or shower in the case of our blender that was too big to wash in the bathroom sink.

Staying on track with our diet was also very important to us.  A lot of people talk about how much they have to eat out when remodeling and that wasn't really an option for us.  I bought a pan that I could grill veggies and fish in and used that a lot along with microwaving our packaged meals through the diet program.  I also bought a lot of the chopped salad packages and pre-cut fruit and veggies to make getting our produce requirements easier.  Some friends also invited us to their house for a few salad meals at their house.  There was really only one week that patience and lack of imagination (aka bored with what we had been eating) prevented us from staying on track. We went out several times that week and didn't stick to the plan very well.  Given we didn't have a kitchen for six week, that wasn't too bad though.

Certain milestones were very exciting to me.  The day that they put the cabinets in was really exciting to finally catch a glimpse of what things were going to look like.  The day the floor went in was equally exciting.  Counter tops, plumbing and electrical were all milestones that were one step closer to being finished and loving everything about what I saw going in.

With the exception of a few small details like putting in the bathroom towel racks which didn't arrive in a timely fashion, our contractor was right on the money with his timeline and prediction of being done by August 15th.    I know these things can drag out so I was grateful that things moved along as quickly as they could.  Nearly six weeks is a long time to be without a kitchen but I know it can last longer than that.

I was itching to move in before they were done.  Putting things on counters to see how they would look and pulling them out because we still needed all the electrical and plumbing finished.  At last things were finished enough for me to move back into the kitchen and I spent most of Friday night and all of Saturday moving everything out of boxes and back into the cupboards.  I am not complete done yet.  Wading through all the cleaning products and junk drawer "stuff" has been a little bit overwhelming so I haven't gone through that yet but we have a fully functional kitchen now anyway.

I've had people ask what my products were so this is what I picked out.  We got our custom cabinets from Northwood Cabinets.  I picked out red oak wood Shaker style cabinets with coffee color stain.  I had originally wanted to go with something darker but we were trying to preserve as much existing trim work and doors as we could and when I put the samples up against the water heater closet door, the color I had picked out didn't go well at all with the rest of the wood in the house.  I compromised and went with a color just slightly darker than what we already had.  I debated going with the same color again but wanted something different if I was getting a new kitchen.

The counter tops are white laminate with some gray in it.  Despite wanting to keep to a certain budget, my contractor did talk me into getting crescent edges to give a nicer look and I am happy that I did.

I didn't want hardwood floors but there are so many options with vinyl sheeting, vinyl planking, and tile that look like wood that I knew I could get a wood look that would make me happy without the expense or maintenance of wood.  I ended up picking out vinyl planking that looks like gray barn wood and it looks really nice.  I really didn't like that my old white floor showed absolutely every speck of dirt and was hoping that gray would be the way to go.  I actually planned all my choices around wanting a gray floor.

I picked antiqued glass tiles for my back splash.  It it so pretty!  I had originally been drawn to something similar but with more blue in it.  I found the colors I wanted in larger tiles when I was looking but they were twice as expensive and was definitely going to put me out of budget so I went with these that I knew I would also be happy with.  I also went with a single basin sink this time.  I got so tired of not being able to soak pans flat.  I keep a wash basin in the sink to limit water usage when washing dishes but definitely wanted the flexibility of being able to let big pans soak on a flat bottom.

The contractor did run out of tile and it was on back order for a month so I had to pick a different tile for our master bath.  Luckily I had a photo of some really similar tile that I had considered in a photo and we used that.  I am really pleased with how that looks in the bathroom.  I actually really like that there is more brown in it and that is goes so well with the cabinets.  I still liked the gray look for the kitchen and hall bath but for some reason this went better with the master bath and am glad I was forced into making a different selection.

This is our hall bathroom.  Love the new look.

I did some new artwork for the bathrooms.  I was inspired by wall art that Katie Pertiet sells.  She owns the Designer Digitals company that I buy all my scrapbooking products from so I used her products to do my own layouts and had them printed to frame.  Excited to have some changes on the walls as well.

So happy to be done, have it look so nice and have our house back.