We went down today to feed George and take some more bedding down. Also had a nice surprise! We have more than a trickle of water! The toilet filled up again in less than half an hour and there is water at the kitchen faucet. Not much pressure, but it is an improvement!
Looks nice and clean too! Hope this will do us until we get the pump in!

The fridge went Kaput here in Cathlamet, so we had to go down and get the one at the house. Thank goodness Heather and Adam were here so they could help. Brian had to work! The road was partially flooded just past the Rosburg bridge...but we made it thru okay. Visited with and petted and fed George!
The road at Altoona is really sliding, but they had added some fill so the bump wasn't as bad. Made transporting the fridge a bit easier.

Have been down to the house quite a few times in the past two weeks. Checking on George and working on the water system. Still no water, so we are going to have to replace about 800 feet of line. Not what we want to do, but it will give us some much needed water. George loves it down there and is a great cat. Saw lots of geese on the road near crooked creek this last time. Always something new!

Well we went back down and tried blowing the lines with air and water for over two hours but still did not get any more water pressure! Very frustrating. We may have to lay new pipe on top of the ground if we cannot figure out a way to fix this problem. But one good thing....at least there was enough water to flush the toilet! And George loves it down there! He is now the official Dahlia House cat!

We just finished spending the weekend down at the house with Jahn, Em and Madi. The weather was crisp and cold but no rain so working on the water system wasn't as bad as it could have been. They were still very wet and cold when they came back down though! The system that Brian built to put in the stream works! He worked on it all week after getting input from Adam and Heather. So we think we have a trickle of water. The line seems to be partially blocked somewhere along the way, but a little bit is getting through. They blew it out with the air compressor quite a few times, but still no luck. Brian is going to go back down and try it again this week. This time with a generator to keep up a steady volume of air.
Madi and I took walks and played on the computer and fixed the meals for the hard workers. She even went up and helped them for a while. I spent most of the time vacuuming up zillions of ladybugs! Blech!
It was a great weekend!

Went back down to check on George and work on the water system. It was a perfect fall day. Crisp and cold and lots of gold leaves everywhere.
George is doing fine! He loves it down there and follows us around inside and out! Hope he is getting those mousies!

Adam & Heather & Zach came down last weekend and I watched Zach while the rest went up on the hill and worked on the old water system. Boy were they cold and wet when they came back down! But a little bit of progress was made. Hopefully we can finish it this weekend! Sure would be nice to have water.
Took our cat George down there! Hope he is going to discourage the mouse population! Go get them George!

Went down to the house to check things out and make sure all is okay before we leave on vacation. We saw a herd of Elk ou in the field just past Crooked Creek and then we counted 27 deer before we got to the house.
While we were there an Eagle flew over and Brian whistled at it, and it whistled back! That went on for a few minutes until it flew on! WoW! Way to go Brian!

We have only had time to make quick trips down to the house to check on things, water plants etc... Too much going on! Summer is passing by quickly and soon fall and winter will be here. So much to do and so little time.

We rented the back hoe again and Emily and Jahn met us down at the house and helped us to try and dig the ditch from the well head to the house. Not so easy!!!! The ground is so rocky that it was really hard to do! Could not get the pipe to go under the road so we will have to cut into the road at a later time. We did get the line dug from the house about 1/2 of the way to the well. Brian and Jahn took turns running the back hoe and the rest of us filled in the ditch with sand, water line and electrical cord. We also used the back hoe to get supplies up to the old water system to get ready to dam it up again. A frustrating day as we did not get as much done as we wanted to do, but it is a start!
Madi and Unah were there too and we all took turns going down to the beach with them. Wonderful sunny day! And they really enjoyed the water!

Went down to the house today to take a few things down and to visit with Richard and Marda and Kelsey. They were staying in our trailer for a few days. They are buying Phillip's property. Nice to have the property stay in the family! They will be great neighbors. Richards sister Liz and his Dad, Richard Sr. were there too so we had a great visit and gave them a tour of the house in it's state of "deconstruction".

Wow!  What a successful work party!  We accomplished so much more than I ever thought we would!  I put lists up in each room of what need to be done and the kids just dug in and ripped and tore and pulled!
 
The old poolroom has been stripped of all it’s old paneling and ugly 70’s flooring. The floors are awesome old fir!  Looks great!  (Thanks Heather and Adam!)
 
The front hallway and the stair have been stripped down to the bare walls and floor too.  Found a lot of damage near the front porch that will have to be repaired. And we found a door!  It used to go into the front parlor! How cool.  We are starting to see how the house once was, thanks to Adam, Colleen, Heather and Em!
 
In the kitchen we also found two old doorways.  One leads into the bathroom, the other into the bedroom.  Not sure why?  We also found some neat old turquoise paint on the lower part of the wall and a creamy yellow on the top.  The kitchen is talking to us now too! One of Brian’s cousins came up from California and helped us get the wiring figured out in the kitchen.  We now have lights again.  (Thanks Ben and Nettie)
 
One of the big jobs was getting the Gazebo moved into place.  Whew, we all sweated that one out.  But Brian directed and Jahn drove and it is now sitting on the lawn where we want it.  Next step is to lay the foundation and get it off the trailer.
We also got some bricks cleaned off and moved around to the front to put the base for the steps in. (Thanks Colleen) We also got a lot of building materials moved around and the yard cleaned up.  (Thanks Jahn and Em)
 
The granddaughters Madison and Maliah even helped a bit by packing stuff out to the garbage!  And helping to paint the steps to the beach. Thanks girls!
 
We had visitors on both days.  Cousins Fred and Marianne stopped by along with Marianne’s daughter Vera and her daughter A____(I knew I would forget her name! Sorry!)  Bob and Trixie Elliott stopped by to visit and bring a yummy grape salad to eat!
 
And of course my Mom with all of her yummy Irish bread kept us well nourished and she also tried to clean up after us!  (Thanks Mom!)
 
And………….we finally found water!  After two dry holes, they came up with what looks like good water down across the road.  Kind of far away, but at least we have some!  More work to go to get it up to the house. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !
 
We had great fun visiting with family and friends.  Lot’s of good food and conversation.  It was a great weekend!

We got down to the house about 1:00 today and they were hard at it in a new location down the driveway, but after 100 feet...no water! Tomorrow they try down across the road.
Got a few things done today to get ready for the workparty.  It should be a great weekend.

The well driller Art McMullen called and we met him down at the house today. It was exciting to see them get started....but as the day went on and no water was found.....it got very depressing!  They were down at 140 feet where the well witcher said to dig...NOTHING!  He is coming back tomorrow.

Brian and I and Colleen and Maliah went down to the house today to take down a load of new furniture that we bought for the house plus a lot of other little things. Moved some stuff around getting ready for the work party coming up next weekend. Maliah flew her new kite. Still waiting for the well driller to call!!!

Went down to the house today to meet with a guy from Home Depot. (Igor) He spent about 5 hours showing us samples and helping us design the kitchen. Wow! It is an awesome design! But not something we can afford to do right yet. Over $14,000!!!! We will have to see if it fits in our budget someday! Brian also mowed the lawn and I unpacked a few more boxes.
Only 2 weeks until the work party. We have so many things to get done!Must make lists!

We have been down at the house for the last two days. We rented a back hoe and Brian spent a good amount of time moving an awful lot of dirt!!! We managed to dig a lot more out of the back yard area, to create a level spot to dig the well. He also smoothed out the lawn and did some filling in where it was needed. I tore down more paneling in the front hall and worked on unpacking boxes and organizing stuff. A very busy two days for both of us!

We had the witching done today by Carl Blunt. Interesting process! He was able to mark a good spot for us! Brian and I both tried it and only when he held the stick along with us did it work! He said he has located over 300 wells and over 80 with the this latest stick he uses! Now to get the well driller down here to see how deep we have to go!

We were finally able to spend two nights in a row down at the house. Unfortunately Brian caught some sort of flu bug, so did not get very much done, but was able to get all my scrapping stuff upstairs in the office and get it all organized. I even started the Memory Book for the house with sample of wallpaper etc...Did a lot of cleaning and sweeping upstairs. Tried to do quiet stuff so Brian could sleep.
When Brian started feeling better, he went outside and worked in the yard for a while, got the lawn mowed again! It seems to grow a foot every week!
Art Mc Mullen came down and we are going to get him to did the well starting mid month. But first we have to get it witched! How nice it will be to have water of our own and not from Richard's property.

We went down today (May 11th)and mainly worked in the yard. Brian used the DR trimmer to cut the lawn (it looked more like a field), and I picked up rocks and lumber etc, and moved it out of the way. Also did a little bit of landscaping. Just made it look like someone lives there and cares what it looks like.
Worked inside the house moving things upstairs and organizing the office. So much to do!

Another trip down to the house to get some more stuff done. Took a few boxes of stuff too! We spent the night and worked all day Thursday tearing out walls in the bathroom. The room is now open to the new utility room. It looks funny now with the toilet sitting in the middle of the room!!! We found more old wallpaper in the bathroom. And also saw that there had been two windows in there at one time. More discoveries everyday! We also got some more cabinets torn out of the kitchen and some more of the old paneling down. The wiring is a mess and we need to get an electrician down there soon! So much to do and so little $$$ to do it with. But it will all happen in good time!

We went down to the house this morning for a few hours, and took a few more boxes down. Brian moved around some lumber while I tried clearing out a space to set up the saws and equipment inside. We are waiting for a few estimates from some well drillers, as that is the next must do on the project. The more I look at all we have to do, I am sure that our optimistic goal of having a bed and breakfast open next year is just not going to be a reality! But we will continue to strive towards that goal. If we only could manage a few days off together to be down there and accomplish something major. All our time and energy now is in trying to get the Cathlamet house spruced up to sell. We really want to put it on the market in June.

Brian went down to the house today (I had to work). He got the motion sensor light installed. That will be nice when we arrive or leave in the dark. That is one more thing to cross off the list of things to do. He also took another load of "stuff" down and worked on some other odds and ends.

We finally went down and stayed the night! Felt so good to be there! Then the next morning we tore into the bathroom and took out all the cabinets and the sink. And also opened up the door between the bedroom and bathroom. Brian worked out in the shed too, getting it organized while I went through some drawers and tore off more paneling. Brian says my nickname is "Linda the Destroyer" I will admit it is very therapeutic! I should be in really good shape mentally and physically by the time we are done with this project!

Brian and I went down to the house this morning and took some pipe and other stuff down. We worked on a few little things but it was hard to do anything as it was such a beautiful spring day. Just wanted to sit and enjoy the view. There were two deer in the yard! And later we saw a seal out in the river. When we got home I could not remember if I had turned off the stove or not, so Colleen and I went back down. It was off, but I would not have slept thinking about it! Colleen took Maliah for a walk on the beach and I tore down a few more sheets of paneling in the kitchen and some ceiling tile and paneling off the stairwell.

Oh my aching back, neck and arms! We worked from about 1pm to 8:30 pm down at the house. We were mainly in the kitchen, tearing out most of the cabinets, some of the old paneling and trim and all of the ceiling tile. Brian also worked on the fireplace area and got some wiring done to install a motion activated light out on the garage. It feels so good to spend this much time down there, and to accomplish so much!
It was also another day of discovery. The old grating vent was still in the kitchen ceiling, and behind some of the paneling we found the heights and weights of the first four grandkids. Henry thru Heather. So we can see that the paneling went up sometime after Heather was 6 months old. The summer of 1974. I am anxious to tear into more and see what other discoveries we can find.

Brian and I along with Heather, Adam and little Zach took a trip down to the house today. While Adam played with dead ladybugs and took some awesome pictures of them, Brian and I did a few things around the house. Tore down some old paneling in the kitchen, to reveal the old chimney in there. Also moved more things up into the office. Brian mowed part of the lawn and helped me measure the lower floors so I can do a blueprint of the house. Got quite a few things accomplished in a short time!

Finally got back down to the house for a few hours this morning!!!! We have been up in Seattle as Heather and Adam had their new little boy Zachary Allen Crockett! We moved a whole lot of stuff down there. Got the bed set up and some plants and a couch in the living room. Put away some books in the office too! Each day a little bit more. We may finally be able to spend a few days down there next week. Our schedules have just not worked lately!

Brian and I went down to the house and took a few more things down. We tried getting the bedroom ready for us to stay in, but forgot the bolts for the bed frame. So we just tore down the old closet and took out the carpet and cleaned a bit and found where the old closet under the stairs was, and the door into the bathroom from the bedroom!!! So it was a morning of discovery! We will wait to go down and stay until next week.

Brian and Colleen went down to the house with the other two bookcases, and a lot more boxes. Just a few more days and then we will be able to go down and stay for 3 or 4 days at a time. It will be great to be able to just keep on working on projects from one day to the next. And boy are there a lot of projects. I must start making lists!!!!!

Just got back from spending two days down at the house. We stayed in the big trailer down there. Boy did we ever accomplish a lot! I got Brian's old room all cleaned out and set up to be my office. Moved in a few desks and a bookcase, more to come! Also cleaned out the front room, (soon to be the Hummingbird Room) so it is ready to be worked on. It is down to bare walls! Then we tackled the back room and got about 3/4 of the paneling torn off. I think I must have pulled over 200 nails! It was nice to have the pool table gone and to be able to work in there. Brian also worked out in the shed, moving furniture around and setting up his new tool box. We also filled up the pickup bed with garbage and took a load to the dump! Just a little over 3 weeks now until we can move in!

Brian went down to the house today along with his friend Steve and they took the pool table out! Wow! Now we can start tearing that room apart!

Brian and Madison went down to the house and took some boxes down and Brian did some measuring in the kitchen and the cabinets and drew up some plans. We are looking forward to getting down there and tearing out the cabinets and putting them back up in a whole new design.

We went to Astoria today to pick up an OLD Murphy bed. It is all brass and we will manage to find room for it in the house somewhere. Took it down to the house and stayed for a while and worked on moving more boxes around. Found a few dead mice! Ick! Hopefully when we get all the walls torn down and the restoration work done, we will get rid of the little critters! We can hardly wait to move in!

We made a fast trip down to the house to take a pickup load down. Went to an auction last night and got a few things, an old stove and some tins, etc. Started moving boxes around to make room to set up my office in Brian's old bedroom. Today we saw an otter sunning herself out on one of the rocks in front of the house. It was fun to watch!

Went down to the house today and took our first big load of furniture and beds! Emily and John were here and helped us load and unload. Nice to have the help! We gave Judy a move in date of March 15th. Wow! It's really happening and soon!

Went down to the house and took a pick-up load of odds and ends down. Also checked out the pipes. Judy had one repaired while we were gone, but everything else looks good. We were lucky nothing else sprung a leak! A beautiful sunny cold day. Took a walk down the road to Richard's property and checked it out for him. Everything looks great. His grass is coming up just fine. He sure did a good job on the property. I hope we are able to get our grass planted this spring.

Judy e-mailed today to let us know the pipes were frozen. She is barely getting a trickle of water out of them. I hope that is all it is and that no pipes are broken! We will find out in a few days when it warms up!

Today I created this blog to attach to my website to make updating the journal a lot easier. Now if I can just figure out how to link it........we will be in business.
I would enjoy hearing from any of you looking at our web-site or blog!
I have also attached the old journal (2002-2003)

Happy New year!

June 30, 2002
Heather, Emily, Colleen and Madison joined us down at the house for a work day. With their help we really got a lot done. It was a great day except for Brian stepping on the nail!
June 13th
Took my sis and her husband down to the house for a quick look around and Brian tried out his new DR Trimmer. I think it is going to be just the thing to keep the brush down and open up the path to the beach.
June 15th
Brian went back down to the house today and cleared off a new path to the beach. He also cut down the lawn that was so overgrown, it looked more like a hayfield. Every day more progress!
July
Made many visits down to the house to work on the plumbing
September
Had some cat and backhoe work done, wow, what a difference!
October
Installed new stairs to the beach! How nice that we can have access to the beach again!
Stopped by the house on the way home from our vacation with our great friends from Germany to show them the project!
November
Got the new Gas tank installed, so now there is heat back in the house and additional hook ups for the gas range Brian wants and the gas fireplace I want!!!
Had a yard clean up day at the house, took a huge load of junk to the dump!
Worked on the water system…what a hike up the hill, but it was worth it for the view of the waterfall and the fall foliage!
January, 2003
Took a few trips down to the house to check on things and install a temporary window in the front of the house.
February
Tore off some of the old siding and got things ready for Ted Nance to build the new addition. He came down and did it in one day. Contracted with Weatherguard to put on a new roof. They tore off three layers of old roof and added plywood and the new roof. It is slate in color and has diamond shapes to it. It looks awesome. Now we have the top and bottom sealed and we can start working on the inside!! So much left to do, but so nice to see these two projects crossed off the list.
March
Went down to the house a few times this month and installed the new window in the utility room and put back some of the old siding. We also tar- papered the new addition to weatherproof it. Every time we go down we take a pick-up full of things from the house and the yard. Might as well not waste a trip down there. Not with the gas prices the way they are now! And we have 30 years of accumulation here to move (or throw away!) (or sell on e-bay!)
April
Made quite a few trips down to the house to take more things down there and to do some weatherproofing on the front window. Have been getting the gazebo ready to take down to the house. Brian has it all jacked up on a trailer and moved out of the back yard, it is sitting by the side of the house here in Cathlamet, waiting for it’s big move! The roofers took off the only spire left on the roof and Brian worked on it a bit removing old paint and getting it back into shape. Then we took it up to our brother in law Jim who made up three more to put back up! He did an AWESOME job!

May
Took some plants down, even planted the first dahlia!!!! Bought an old door in Cashmere at an Antique sale. It is awesome, and Brian is having fun taking it apart and re-doing it. Hopefully it will be the new door out to the side garden.
June 2, 2003
Went down to the house today and pulled off some of the siding on the back of the house. There was a bee’s nest in there……. which Brian got rid of, while I stood way on the other side of the yard! We also took out TONS of birdseed from in the walls. (The mice have been busy storing it up!) You know, I have been hoping in our restoration project that we would find some exciting things to relate the history of the house. However I did not expect it to be bees and seeds!
Then we tore out some of the boards and siding on the old utility room to make way for the stairs on the new porch that is going in this week. I can hardly wait to see the finished results!
June 4-7
Ted Nance built the new back porch! It looks great, so welcoming!
June 8, 2003
We went down and did some measuring for all the gingerbread that will go on the porch to make it look Victorian. Also laid out some stakes where the front porch and the gazebo will go. Sprayed for bugs and did a clean up on the back area. Brian did some work with the DR Trimmer and we pulled off some more of the siding on the old shed. Hope to finish the rest of it on our workday! Planted a couple more dahlias.
June 15-19th
Have been running back and forth to the house all week getting ready for the work party this weekend! Moved the big trailer down there, and the cozy cruiser. Cleaned everything out and made up the beds etc. Have been making lists and buying supplies. Not sure how many we will have but we should get lots of jobs done!
June 20-22
WORK PARTY! Well the work party was a success, with a full crew of 15 to 20 friends and family depending on when you were counting! We got so much done. I don’t think Brian and I ever thought we would cross that many things off our list in one weekend! There was a lot of dirt moved, and paneling and ceiling tiles torn out. We took two huge loads of stuff to the garbage dump. We got the bricks stacked, the metal siding on the old shed torn off and a lot of general clean up done. And the unexpected was a load of driveway rock that made all the difference in the world! Thank you Kevin! We sure could not have done it all without the help of everyone! A special thanks to the cooks, food servers and babysitters! You were the best!!!



July

Have made a few trips down to the house to work on the water system and take some boxes down. We had Conrad come down with his tiller and tried to get the front lawn ready to plant. But there were so many rocks it made for slow going! Will have to have a rock picking party and then have him back down. Guess the lawn does not go in until next spring!

August
More work on the water system! Oh joy!
Ted Nance came down and built the framework for the front deck and Brian and I went down and sprayed and painted the wood. Hopefully got it sealed from weather and bugs! We will have Ted finish it next spring.

September
With the help of big brother Henry we got the Gazebo moved down to the house. Whew! What a job! It was strange to see it heading down the road on the back of a trailer! We just have it parked in the back yard area right now until we decide where we want to put it.

October
Got a bit of a shock today as we saw a FOR SALE sign on Phillip’s property! He had mentioned a few years back that he may want to sell it, but it was sure a surprise to see the sign!

November
Made a few trips down to take some boxes of stuff down. Also made sure the water lines were winterized.

December 2003
Moved more boxes down, getting closer to the time we will move in. Just as soon as Judy gets her new home set up and gets moved out. Hopefully in March! Then we can really tear into stuff!