Mark it, Feb 7th move in day!!!!

Tonight will be the Williamson's first night in our new home! Words do not discribe the feeling of this, but it is AWESOME! Here a just a couple pics, more to come once we have cleaned up a bit and unpack the camera charger. Feel free to stop by anytime and check things out.

Bye for now...

J

House Update Jan 16th

First off, I have no pics to show you today, but use your imagination.

The last blog was when we started laying the hardwood floor on Monday the 7th and finished the dinning room. On Tuesday Ron, Brian and Brian and I extended the hardwood into the kitchen and family room. On Wednesday Brian D and I finished the kitchen and family room. On Thursday Brian W, Blair, Steve and I finished the front room and started the hallways. On Friday Krista and I finished the hallway leading to the master bedroom (fitting that Krista and I did that together). On Saturday Steve, Dave, Brian D and I finished the rest of the hallways and front bedroom to complete the laying of the hardwood. My best guess would be a total of 88 man hours went into that flooring, all of which was after hours or weekend time.
Special thanks to all those who helped on that project, and the wives & girlfriends that let them help (Marcy, Sarah, Karen, Beth, Tina and Avery).

Also going on on Saturday, Brian W hung our last door leading from the garage to the house and my dad and mom started our finished electrical. (If you need outlet and switch plates hung, my mom is pro at it.)

Sunday we rested!

Monday brother Brian and I hung our siding on the front of the house, while my dad kept moving on the electrical.

Last night was base board night. Justin, Brian, Brian and I blew through 98% of the baseboards. We would have finished but I under estimated by one stick. Mean while, but dad kept rolling with the electrical and Matt Ely came by and hung all of our registers HVAC.

Today between 1&4 we will have our counter tops installed and tonight we will install some closet doors and door knobs.

I'll post some pics as soon as I can.

House pics as of Jan 8, 08

Here are a couple of updated pics (low quality camera phone pics) of the latest happenings at the Williamson house...
Brian Douglas, Brother Brian and I started laying the hardwood floor last night...only the living room, family room, kitchen, hallway and front bedroom left to do...

The blur you see is Jaime finishing up the grout in our master bath...

House Pics as of Jan 3 08

It has been a long time since many of you have seen any pictures of the house, so here you go...

Here is the front of the house with a close up of the door. The door looks a little purple, but that is just the primer and will eventually be black.
Moving inside you can see the paint on the walls, which is similar to Restoration Hardware store colors.
Front entry area...

Here is the dinning Room...

Guest Bath...

Kitchen...

Family Room...

Master Bath Tile Floor...

Master Bedroom....

View from the back yard. Door on the right leads to the master bed, the door on the left leads to the family room...

We are hoping to be moving in the house within the next 4 weeks or so...assuming the weather doesn't hold us up...

Rose Bowl

Jan 1, 08, Rose Bowl USC vs Illinos.
It was a great way to start the new year off...Thank you Brad!

We started the day off with a breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Waffles anyone?

Then we hopped on the bus for a relaxing, no-stress drive into the Rose Bowl, the only way to travel.

After bypassing all the general traffic the bus pulled right up to the front of the Rose Bowl and headed over to the Hospitality tents.

Of course you can't get in without one of these...

Once in we headed over to the ESPN tent and found a nice corner of the tent and got comfortable and watched Michigan take care of Florida in the Captial One Bowl...

Brian was able to catch a quick nap before the game.

Off to the game...

A fly bye is always a great way to start a game!

Thanks to our new friend Brian from ESPN New York for snapping this shot. Keep us posted when you come back to So Cal and we'll get you to an In N Out in a nice part of the state.

We left a few minutes early, but the game was clearly in hand by over powering USC team.

Good time had by all...unless you are Illini fan.

Thanks to ESPN, DirecTV and Bradly for making this all possilbe.

House update

Well we are finally moving forward, after about a month of set backs. With any luck we will be able to get our framing final this week and get this house wrapped up. Here are a couple picks.

Front of the house with the front door...finally!!!

It's still wrong, but we are working on that....Here is a shot of the Family room...hopefully you will soon see a picture with a new plasma TV hanging over the fireplace.
After a long hard day it will be nice to take a dip in our master bath...6ft long and 3ft wide...plenty of room to relax...
Sorry for such a delay in house pics and updates, but this last couple of months have been VERY frustrating and I did not want to rehash all that frustration on our blog...so there.

Stay posted...
Jim

Bass Lake 2007

I have just noticed that the formatting I am trying to do with the pictures and text is not working out too well. Sorry for the awkward read on the last two posts. I will get the hang of it soon.

Every year we try to go to Bass Lake with the Bentley/Williamson clan. We don't make it every year but this year we did and it was unlike any other year.

We always know that going in late September is a gamble. No crowds, great lake conditions for skiing, wakeboarding, etc. but we never know about the weather. We start checking the weather sites at least a week in advance, hoping that we can somehow control this factor by being aware early. This year there was to be a freak storm in the area for only about 3-4 days. Of course those were the 4 days we were to be there.

Jim and Ben on a walk.

So we started preparing for a "different kind of trip." Normally, we spend all day everyday out at the beach. We pack lunches and then we just do absolutely nothing planned. We float in the water for hours chatting, take boat rides when we feel like it, play beach games, nap--basically just enjoy the WEATHER and the water. Since we knew this year would be different we decided to lean into it and change our expectations. Allie (Jim's cousin-in-law if you don't know) and I decided to bring stuff to make cookies and Aunt Karen made all kinds of pumpkin bread. We roasted smores around a campfire every night and took long walks. It was a wonderful fall vacation. We relaxed and enjoyed the lake in a different way.

One of the guys wakeboarding. Justin, Luke, and Brian enjoying the boat ride.

The most amazing thing about it for me was experiencing the beauty of the lake in a way I didn't expect. Threatening a downpour at any moment the sky would change from ominously gray to bright blue with cotton-ball clouds. Nobody was on the lake (except for our crazy boys who still took a few runs a day on the wakeboard and skis) so it was completely calm and glassy and the gray sky made it look almost charcoal in color. On our walks we hiked around the lake on barely visible paths through tall grass and mud, sandy beaches and pine trees experiencing the beauty of God's unspoiled creation.

future wakeboarder

My favorite part was the thunderstorm that we got to watch all together through the huge windows of Duecey's grill at the Pine's Resort. The lightning would crackle and snake across the sky in the most brilliant ways and we just sat at our table eating dinner and talking while we watched. It was pretty amazing! But God didn't stop there. The next day we took a boat ride and got to enjoy two complete rainbows over the trees on the banks of the lake.

Allie, Foreman, and me on a walk. Ben liked sitting on the special "chair rock."

Needless to say it was one for the books. Next year I hope it will be hot and we can lay out and float in the river like we always do but I wouldn't trade this year at Bass Lake for anything.

The annual dock picture with the Forks Resort in the background.

Camping

We camped again this year at San Clemente. Last year, our trip was in November so the weather was much nicer this year!

Avery brought Sam's firetruck playhouse which was hours of entertainment.

Ben officially loves to camp. I asked him if he would rather camp or stay in a "vacation house" (hotel or condo) and he said camp. I guess I am out of luck.

So it is a good thing that I went and bought the big air mattress. It's huge when it is just Jim and I but it ended up being a bit cozy for three.

Can't a guy get a little privacy? Ben's makeshift potty room made for an accident-free weekend. It also saved us trying to keep him clean in the camp restrooms--yuck!

Sam felt that Ben needed a little help riding his bike and probably so since Sam can walk and even crawl faster than Ben can ride forward.

We had so much fun and the boys loved getting dirty together. It just showed us that we need to camp more. Wish us luck!

DISNEYLAND!

The Meguiar's company picnic this year was at Disneyland--good choice!

Ben didn't want anything painted on his face but loved his arm paintings of Mickey Mouse and a football.

For all of you who were worried, Ben informed us that he is no longer afraid of the hippo in the Small World because he "is a big boy now."

Thank you to Libby, a coworker of Jim's, for these light-up ears!

If you see him, ask Ben about his favorite ride. He will give you a full rundown of the Matterhorn complete with hand motions and sound effects! Did he like it--YES! Does he want to go on it again--NO!

We stayed to the very end and saw the fireworks. It's a good thing we brought bear!