Real Early Spring

This was Febuary 22 and it was 60 degrees. That is our plum tree already flowering like all the other fruit trees in the city. If you look closely you can see that daffodils are not only up, but blooming.

The Sisteen Garage

At the beginning of March we got very excited because a muralist in Ballard said he would paint our alley garage. On a lark, we sent him an email because we had seen his stuff on various buildings, and structures in Ballard and Fremont. We really thought it was fun and bright, innocent and cartoon like. But it also looked just unique enough to have a specific voice.

His name is Ryan Henry Ward (more about him here: http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/400609_muralist19.html). And he showed up this weekend and painted these AWESOME murals on all four sides of our garage.

He is friendly, has a cool dog, and cool back story. He's been painting in schools in the area this winter, but as the sun came out this month, so did he. We were lucky enough to be on his list.

Yesterday, 8 different neighbors came by to check it out. Apparently, we're going to get some traffic down our alley. That's cool and all, but we're mostly excited for Farrow to name her new pet Sasquatch.

Thanks again to Ryan for finding time in his schedule to transform our molding, battleship gray garage, into something bright and whimsical. We hope to see him around.

We're on a Roll.

So, these murals have been popping up all over Ballard in the past year. They are painted by a local artist named Ryan Henry Ward. I've noticed them a lot because I pass a couple of them everyday on my way to work. They're fun and bright, lighthearted and are big enough they really brighten up the neighborhood. I really like them a lot. Info here:

http://www.myballard.com/2008/08/12/murals-popping-up-around-ballard-fremont/

Anyway, on the same day I sent an email to the radio show about Iceland, Teri read about this guy and decided to write him. He's been written up in Seattle Magazine, The Stranger, Seattle Times and couple ofhter local blogs.

You see we painted our house a while back but didn't paint our garage because we thought we might someday push it down. Well, that hasn't happened, and it needs to be painted. And after a nice email from Teri, Henry has decided to do it. All four sides this month however he wants to do it. Here are more of his murals:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ryan+henry+ward&m=text

We are basically getting this done for free and are really excited. I have no idea if it is going to be robots or weird animals or what. All we asked was that it was bright and cartoon-y. Photos when it is finished. Anything to keep our home value up!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It snowed Saturday night and at midnight I took this picture of our house. Needless to say, Teri could not be happier (unless she was not pregnant).

Snow and cold all week. Christmas is here. The baby is close.

Halloween with the Davis Family

Meet the Davis Family. Katie, John and Ava are our friends and next door neighbors, though it is probably more appropriate to call them our roommates. At least twice a week we eat, hang out, or do something together. If you have visited, you have met them, or seen Wrigley, one of their dogs, jump the fence and run into our house. They are new friends, but close ones, and it has been really great to watch them raise Ava. Their advice has been invaluable, and it is exciting to think about our kids playing together in the next few years.

We have a tradition, albeit new, that we spend Halloween in our front yard with a small fire and hand candy to kids as they come to our house. Last night we did this for a second year and everything started out great. Many of our neighbors came by with their kids, some stayed and chatted about what was going on with the election, or our collective lives. Some asked about Teri's pregnancy or our house projects. And others still came by to introduce themselves to our group of 5. It was really a nice evening.

Then the Fire Department came. Some jerk neighbor (I think it is the old hag piano teacher across the street) had apparently called them on us. Our fire, though contained in a Home Depot clay pot, burning clean wood on a ground freshly wet from 2 days of rain, scared some neighbor to the point she called the Fire Department. There was no warning or conversation of "Hey, that tiny safe fire worries me, can you put it out?" Nope, none of that. Instead it was just a chickenshit call to 911. Ahhhh tax dollars. The big truck, with four firefighters in full gear stopped at our house, walked up to where the five of us were sitting, looked puzzled and asked about the pit. Turns out the law is that you need to have food and a metal grate in order to have an open fire pit. So they made us spray it down. You could see the embarrassment in their eyes, as the smoke rose and the fire was put out. We weren't there to cause trouble, and they were just answering a scared bitch neighbor's call.

Luckily, we had reinforcements. Armed by the Davis's fire pit (with a metal grate) we started a fire anew. John and I cut some more wood. Teri and Katie continued to hand out candy, and our neighbor, Jan the mail carrier, brought a pound of frozen ground beef still in a bag and we continue our evening. More neighbors stopped by, asked about the commotion (then laughed at its ridiculousness), our fire continued, and we had a pleasant evening.

In the great words of Chumbawumba "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You ain't ever gonna keep me down."

Especially on Halloween.

The New Basement

So finally, after a couple years we are putting the finishing touches on our basement. This week the trim work and carpet were finished, a new tv and couch arrived and we finally moved Teri down to her new office. My reward? A month to do the nursery.

But seriosuly, we are really happy with how this turned out. We now have added a den, an office, a large storage hall, and an enormous guestroom that sleeps four to go along with the bathroom and laundry room that were already there.

WE have a few things to do like attach the face plates and hang some curtains, but we have enjoyed some movies on the couch and DirecTV comes tomorrow.

On the right in the house projects part of the this website you can see what the basement started out as. Below is a link showing you what it looks like now.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mattyoder/NewBasement#

Thanks to the following people who helped me out for beer, pizza, and enjoyment.

Tyler Espinoza, Keith Van Essen, Jake Geiger, John Davis, Tim Ramseyer, Shaun Fullmer, Teri Yoder, and my dad, Jim Yoder.

Now it is up to all of you to come visit. See you soon.