Campbell Homestead

My recent acceptance into LumberJocks has me updating again.

Work has been crazy, my job has turned to 90% programming and 10% systems administration. We do have a lot of cool projects going on, several for the Navy and other entities.

Bump is fantastically huge now. He just turned 8 months old and is 90 pounds.

Christmas was busy… lots of parties over at the house. Some updated pics:

Another thing I’ve been working more on is woodworking:

How can you work on stuff without a woodshop?

And finally, possibly the most enabling tool of all– No more Saturn SC2. Hello ’07 F150!

Has been busy…

I picked up Bump Friday night and surprised Ondeya as she was gardening. He started out pretty laid back, but now that he’s adjusted to this place, he’s become more active (read: troublemaker).

On Monday, we took him and went geocaching with mom, dad, and Lindsay (GC14H2D, GC1W623, GC203W9, GC20679). At one point there was a torrential downpour, but minutes later, we were enjoying ice cream in the setting evening sun. On Tuesday, I put together the bikes I ordered from Performance Bike.

Wednesday was mid-week service at church and tonight was full of lawn-mowing and pool-vacuuming goodness.

I’m loving my somewhat-normal, usually-busy life.

So we’ve long-since been married now.. just passed 4 months. The honeymoon was great and we were scared of Oahu by the tsunami. While gone, the carriage house collapsed and its been a struggle to get that taken care of. Once we got home, the inevitable process of buying things began. Dell.com had a nice TV for cheap and I built a nice HTPC and put it in the closet behind the TV. A custom faceplate brought the bluray player through the wall. I got in contact with the previous owners of my desk and they had an oak table and a really nice buffet for sale, so I surprised Ondeya one day and we picked them up from Hamburg. We got a lot more done inside.. It’s looking quite nice.

Once the snow melted, our attentions turned from the inside of the house to the outside. In April, the greenery grew slowly and we spent time clearing land. Dad bought a tractor with a bucket and a mower deck, so he’s been helping out immensely. We’ve pulled out rotting trees, bulldozed unsightly hills, and cleared out a lot of the undergrowth and prickly vegetation. Japanese Knotwood (an invasive species) has taken over the back yard. I found a product that makes the leaves wither, but leaves the plant mostly untouched… In June, while my parents were camping, we took their dogs for the week. The cat wasn’t crazy about them, but they learned to co-exist, albeit on other sides of the house. During that time, we decided to get one of Kevin and Sarah’s puppies, Bump. He should be arriving this weekend. During that week of dogsitting, I turned my attention to making tables for father’s day. My dad got a mission-style table with a slate inset and Ondeya’s got a more Victorian-ish table with a blue marble inset. Both came out really nice.

So that’s about it for now. I just have to remember to keep updating.. I want to be able to look back in a few years and remember. I seem to have such a problem remembering things lately. I feel overwhelmed with details from everything that’s going on, that it feels like I’m losing memories. Time goes by too quickly.

Can’t believe the wedding is in 16 days… I don’t get nervous too easily, but thats exactly what I am right now.

I moved in to the house Jan 1st. Since then we’ve gotten a ton done to the house: cleared out the pantry and got the laundry room all hooked up, worked on the master bedroom, finished the living room and sunroom, got the computer set up in the den.. This site is due for more pictures. They will be arriving soon.

November and December have been busy months for both Ondeya and I. We closed on the house November 30th and I’m about 1/2 way in packing up and moving over.

All the work was completed on the things the bank required us to do. We’ve also gone about connecting the lines and drains for the new laundry room and have begun painting the livingroom. The paint is sitting idly by for the kitchen and porch as well.

A few weeks ago, one of the sons of Mark Stedman stopped by. I had mentioned before that I knew the sons. He walked us through just about every square inch of the property relating stories, facts, suggestions, and explanations of everything.

Work on the wedding is progressing.. Its hard to believe we’re only 2 months away from the ceremony… Time to get things moving again!

In the mean time, I’ll keep updating as we progress… another chapter is ending on my life, but a new one is starting.

We’re all exhausted after an entire day of working on the house. Paint is finally starting to go up and the change is dramatic to say the least.

Day 9 brings more pictures.. Work is steadily coming along

Sunday was day 5 of work. It also marked the last day any of us would be working all day on it (at least until next weekend). We’ve done so much work, we’re all exhausted. Many thanks to my Uncle Don, Steve G, Geoff B, Dad, brother, Brian, mom, sister, Hock K, and of course, Ondeya.

Got a lot more work done Saturday.. took some pictures:

Last night we got the tile in the bathroom done, the carpet measured for, and a lot of the paneling in the office done.. Pics below.

Tonight is the wedding shower, so the womenz are off to that and us guys will be working on the house.. My uncle is over, so he’ll be helping out.