What a difference a few days make!

By 12noon on Thursday, December 14th a powerful rain storm had entered Puget Sound and slammed us hard. I was in Everett training a class that morning and started my trek back to Seattle at 1pm. It took me WAY too long as the traffic was awful for two reasons. 1) The rain and 2) the Seahawks had a 5pm Primetime Thursday Night Football game at Qwest Field.

It was dark before I got home and the rain had been coming down for quite a few hours by now. The unpaved driveway was affected -- two large 'canyons' had been formed from the amount of water coming down. From the top of the drive a canyon cut through the graveled driveway to the eastside of the new garage and then cut North to Kim and Mark's yard. Sound Familiar? Yeah the grand canyon returned to rear its ugly head. But this time around it was joined by another canyon that ran perpendicular across the driveway. Note the first picture on the next post as you scroll down to see how the driveway SHOULD look, and compare it to this one.

Gary and I were out in the rain rerouting the path of the oncoming water to prevent any further 'damage' and it seemed to work... with the water.

By 12:30am, 68 mile winds arrived in Seattle and blasted the city hard. We were awakened by the sound of the wind and Abbey and Lucy jumping up on the bed as they were scared. We noticed the power was out and we could see the trees in the backyard bending almost sideways. With a flashlight in hand, we went to investigate. From what we could see, the howling winds were really ripping into the trees.

We finally made it back to sleep around 1:30am, but neither of us slept very well. Robert from Ideal Building called at 7am to see if we had power. Although it was pretty light out, we noticed that the clocks were off so we knew the power was still out. Robert let us know he didn't have power and it looks like Rob and Travis would not be doing any work today. So I got up and got ready for work as my office in Kent HAD power. After dropping the dogs off at Doggie Day Care, I made my way through the fallen trees that lined the streets to my office.

While I was at work, Gary spent most of the day cleaning the yard of debris. The Stone guys showed up late morning to install the countertops. We didn't think they would show, but sure enough they were there and they immediately got to work (without the benefit of power). By 1pm our power was back on, and the guys were still hard at work installing the counters.

As you can see from the pics, the counters look GREAT!! The 'tan brown' counter for the kitchen really pops against the cherry cabinets and once it is fully polished - it is going to be spectacular.


You can also see the contrasting stone that we are using for the window box above the sink. This is the same stone that we are using in our bathroom upstairs as well.

They were not able to put the raised bar counter in yet as the wall isn't ready yet to hold the weight of the counter, so they will come back for that. The Stone guys have to come back anyway to drill the holes for the fixtures and drains in both the kitchen and bathroom. But in this picture, you can see where the stove top will go and the partial wall where the raised bar is located. The counter for the bar is the same material that is used in the window box and in the bathroom.

Speaking of which, here is a picture of the bathroom vanity. We got the vessel sinks and I placed it on top of the new counter so we could get a picture of it. It looks great and I think we the stone pulls on the vanity cabinets this will look fantasitc when it is done. We have dubbed our bathroom "WoodStone" due to the use of materials here.

It is now Saturday, December 16th and I am finishing up this blog before I take off to due some errands which include picking up the new microwave (did I mention that we had to take the old NEW microwave back to Albert Lee to get a faulty button fixed?). Anyway, I am getting a brand new one today. Then I will cross the street and pick up our new television for the TV room before doing some Christmas shopping. Tonight I have a performance with the BEARatones and then another concert with the chorus on Sunday.