Stair Facelift

As many have seen our stairs were horrible!  They were treacherous (have the scars to prove it), they looked horrible and were certainly not close to code.  I had something in my mind that I wanted however with many of my projects (especially in Alaska) it was way too expensive so Ryan drew it out and his dad welded it for us and shipped it up.  We ordered a bunch of the pieces off Amazon and after several years of planning it is finally is done!

The stairs with their lovely curve

The down stairs group

Ripping the carpet our

Straightening them and before we reframed/dry walled.

Ok it was a bit dangerous for awhile

Stairs stained and everything installed!

Kitchen Remodel

We have been working on the kitchen on and off for about a year now, you probably remember seeing pictures from last spring with the island.  For the most part it is completed!

Before

The wall the was ripped out and now is the island.

Before

 a

The living room side of the wall which was removed and is now the island.

Messes and messes!  Ripping out the wall.

The old curved stairs.

After tearing out the wall I glued the old 2x4's together to create a dining room table.

Finished product

Boxes of cabinets.  

Changing out the window on the coldest day of the year!

Tile installation - white subs with a dark gray grout.

The finished product

After

After

First Earthquake 2016

–We finally got the snow machines and the skis out and made a trip to one of the nearby public use cabins.

This cabin was just re-built last year and they did a great job. 

Tried out our new ice fishing shanty - thanks to uncle Greg!

I think there will be lots of ice fishermen out shopping for some Twisted Tea due to our marketing. 

Managed to land a couple of nice burbot (24-30") - but didn't get any of the pike we were looking for. 

There was a mysterious chunk of glacier ice on the lake.

What else to do except for make cocktails!

At 1:30AM we awoke to a violently shaking cabin...later to be confirmed as a 7.1 earthquake. There were a couple of good aftershocks to follow as well. Once the sun came up, there were fresh cracks in the lake ice visible all around the shoreline of the lake. The ice is about 24" thick right now, so there wasn't much concern.

Water and mud shot up through the cracks - up to 10' away in some areas (luckily we weren't out fishing in the yellow shanty at the time). There was another lake in Kenai where some fish and other aquatic critters died from being forced up through some similar cracks. There are some good videos of the quake on the inter-web. 

Hawaiian Christmas

We finally made it over to Hawaii. It was 12 degrees when we left Alaska and 80 degrees when we arrived in Kona (felt like 120). Our "tree of beer" behind the condo on Christmas morning - Santa was nice.

The Place of Refuge archaeological/historical site - some of the best snorkeling on the island. We got to swim with the sea turtles.

Waipio Valley. Need 4WD low gear to get down the steep road into the valley.

The "wet side" of the island looks a lot different than the "dry side," where we were staying. 

The old highway going through the lava flows off the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanos. 

The steam vents near the active volcano.

The Kilauea volcano crater.

The glowing crater at night. There wasn't any flowing lava while we were there.

Ancient petroglyphs along the Kings Trail near our condo in Waikoloa. 

The Lava Lava club for happy hour.

Akaka Falls. 

Zip lining through the banana plantations.

The last zip line of the tour is a monster. 450 feet over the canyon. Takes over a minute from start to finish.