Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Happy Christmas Adam!

When I was a kid, I felt it was rather unfair that Eve "got a day (Christmas Eve) and Adam didn't." So for as long as I can remember, in my family we have called December 23rd "Christmas Adam." So with that, I wish you all a happy Christmas Adam!

A little "construction" update-
We ripped out our driveway hoping to get a new one in with proper drainage before the rain hit. We did not succeed.

"WHY WON'T IT COME OUT?!"

Bringing in the big guns.

Seriously, look at how this these chunks of concrete were! A driveway should be around 3" thick, there were places where ours was 18"
RIDICULOUS!

The carnage.

Despite our best efforts, the rain has come, and the driveway has been put on hold. I bet our neighbors LOVE us.

True to Redding weather, we went from 90 degrees and sunny to 39 degrees and rainy essentially overnight. Sometimes I feel like we are failing at this whole remodel business, because we also managed not to get an HVAC unit installed over summer. Which means that for the last two months we have had no heat, in an old stucco home, in 39 degree weather. We have been VERY VERY cold. As in "see your own breath in the living room" cold. Not okay. The only source of heat we had was a very inefficient fireplace.


Thanks to an early Christmas gift and some amazing generosity, we now have a brand new fireplace insert, which miraculously (and beautifully) heats our entire house.


My favorite part about it (other than the warmth), is that it sits flush with our fireplace, and has a huge window. I really didn't want an insert that stuck out 2' from the fire and took away the visibility of the flame. This insert is seriously amazing.