So, I’ve wasted some time trying to switch my domain over to ranchredo.com. It’s not working quite yet. Tonight I got some good advice from Merideth over at House Made and I’m hoping I might get a little further with my efforts in the next week. I’m learning all kinds of new stuff about code and other strange things I never thought I’d learn. What I won’t do for my houseblog.

In other news it’s been warm enough (too warm if you ask me) to finally finish painting the double-hung window in the kitchen. Of course, while I was painting it I slipped and caught myself on my new shutter (sorry dad). The shutter is not quite as perfect as it was before, so I’m going to have to take a look at it when I’m not pissed off. Whenever I ruin something, even in a little way, I have to wait about a week before I can fix it. If I try to fix it right away, I usually end up screwing it up even more. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll scrape the paint off of the window pane, and post a picture of the finished window. It’s about time.

I’m checking out the new Stylehive, a “social networking” site dedicated to shopping. It might work well to keep track of things I want, just ‘cause I always forget. I’m still pondering it.

Products from RanchRedo

Last night, after I’d updated the blog at 1 a.m., I climbed into bed and flipped through the pages of the new edition of Domino, my favorite magazine. I was looking for the “restore” section and when I got there I thought to myself, “Josh Shear.” And then I did a double-take. It’s a strange moment when you are casually reading a magazine and see a picture of someone you used to date! Anyway, I am happy for Josh because there was a feature in the magazine about a business that he and his wife own, Straw, Sticks, and Bricks. It’s an environmental building and supply store–perfect for housebloggers! I haven’t seen Josh since about 1995, so it’s great to see he’s doing well!

In other news, we were busy busy busy today. Somehow, I managed to complete a paper for class before 10 a.m. and then I spent the rest of the day painting the window and procrastinating. I’ve now painted the trim around the front door and one window, and Eric is worried it looks too tan (although our friend Ellie thought it was greyish green, which is what I was going for). It’s one of those colors that looks different in different lights. Anyway, I had to talk Eric down and remind him that we’re painting the door red, the porch red, the garage a dark green/brown, and that we’re adding a lot of “funky” stuff as accents. He’s worried that it’s too boring. Well, we won’t know until it’s all finished. AND, just in case it is too boring, I pointed out the next-door neighbor’s house, which is all cream color with inside trim and sashes painted red. It looks great on his house, and if ours is too boring in the end, I’ll go back and paint the inside trim of the huge picture windows red…and the sashes on the double hung windows.

Well, Eric spent at least 10 straight hours working on the yard. He was walking around like a little old man before going to bed tonight. Of course, I’m still up…really I need to go into business for myself so I can fully pursue my night-owl habits. I just love being up late, when it’s all quiet, and I have time to think. Anyway, today I scraped and primed one window in front of the house. Tomorrow I’ll paint it.

I know that photos always make a houseblog more fun, but it’s almost 11:30 pm and I’m up and just felt like writing, and so photos are out of the question. I’m not about to get out of bed (laptop) throw on some shoes, and run outside to take a photo in the dark of the front yard…but just so you know, Eric made quite a bit of progress yesterday. He ripped out almost half of the front walkway, and had Trevor come over and take a look and give some advice. As soon as Eric is done ripping out concrete and old paths, then Trevor will come in to set all the stone and build some walls for us. Trevor and his wife are expecting baby #2 soon, so we want to make sure to get him over here before he becomes overwhelmed with job and baby!

So, Cassidy, our bigger dog, has been staking out the back northwest corner of our yard with her nose pressed up against the fence. I love the way I can hear her breathing going in and out of her nose so loudly from the other side of the yard. She’s been smelling a lot of fun smells! Apparently the folks who live behind our house have a racoon and babies living under their shed which is right behind the back fence. Cassidy got into a fight with the racoon two days ago. Which Eric thought was funny, but then I wanted to know if he’d ever seen “Old Yeller”? Doesn’t he know it’s not good for family pets to fight with wild animals?? Just remember what happened to Old Yeller.

Eric met this racoon himself almost three weeks ago when he was sitting out in the hot tub, which is on the back northeast corner of the yard, late at night. Apparently the ‘coon came walking across the top of the wood fence, froze when it saw Eric, and then just stood there staring at Eric in the hot tub. Eric was a bit worried that the ‘coon was leaning forward and looked like it was thinking about jumping on him (I can just see Eric and a ‘coon fighting in the hot tub, sounds like a National Lampoon!). Eric quickly splashed some water on the racoon and he screeched and fell to the other side of the fence. I’d like to get the wilderness rehab people (or whatever they’re called) in here to trap the racoons and put them back in the wild where they belong. Apparently the woman who lives behind us thinks they’re cute and hopes they move off once the cubs are old enough to travel. Since they’re not living on our property, I guess we’ll hope they pack up soon!!

Well, I haven’t written much this week because we were visiting our homestate — Nebraska. And, of course, our ranch was never far from our minds, and we spent some time driving around neighborhoods in Lincoln and Omaha looking for ideas. However, instead of getting ideas, we were sidetracked by how CHEAP (beautiful, old, remodeled) homes are in the midwest. For example, while driving around in the Dundee area in Omaha, our favorite neighborhood, we found a beautiful home, completely remodeled, built in the 1920’s, with full basement, 12x20 shop, and 1500 square feet (not including basement) for only $208,000! There is no doubt that if that same home in the same condition were in Corvallis, it would be about $500,000. It was beautiful, and had a wonderful moorish front door.

But, we won’t be leaving Corvallis. As one of our friends said, “It’s worth the price of admission.” Eric could never live more than 60 minutes from kayaking, rock climbing, skiing, and mountain biking. And I just like the people of Corvallis. They’re so laid back. For example, I’ve never seen a person in Corvallis wearing a suit from 8-5 (unless they were doing an interview). And, I like the way every lawn in Corvallis is so different from the lawn next door (unless of course there is a crew that takes care of every lawn in the neighorhood). I like that one lawn is terraced, the next is grass, the next is wildflowers, etc. In the midwest it seems that every lawn looks just like the lawn next door (of course the tree varieties differ). I like variety. I think people like expressing their individuality with their lawns in Corvallis and much of Oregon.

Well, let us know what you’ve been up to while we’ve been away! We like hearing from our readers!!