I often tease The King about the time he confessed that he was “making a commitment to the environment”. He made it sound like The Environment and he had kneeled at an alter, hands entwined, family and friends witnessing, and made a commitment to each other. They would now do everything they could to help each other become better.

The King + The Environment = True Love

While I like to make it sound like a joke, The King truly is committed to the environment. And he’s getting greener by the second. He has yet to switch over to an all hemp wardrobe, but he does wear eco friends shoes. (we found two pairs at Ross for $15.00. I kid you not!) It’s only a matter of time until he starts to grow dreads. So The King may not be the greenest person I know (would that be Kermit?), but he’s pretty darn green.

When we decided to build another house, we knew we wanted to take the green practices we used on the first house and take it up a notch with the new house. Plus, and I’ll be honest here, building a more green house would make it worth more money when we decide to sell it. Especially here in Seattle.

Our new house will be Certified Built Green, something The King is very proud of.

We used in-floor radiant heating in the first house we built. The King and I installed it, working together in the crawlspace to install the piping. While we have no complaints about in-floor radiant heat, we were anxious to try something new with the new house. Plus, with the years The King spent living in Europe, he feel in love with the European use of radiators for heating. He fondly remembers being able to put his clothes out on the radiator, on a cold winter morning, and have the radiator heat them up to a cozy temperature.

And so, we’re using radiators as our heat source. There are a lot of different styles of radiators out there, and we were able to find some that will fit with our modern house. We were also able to buy radiators for the bathrooms that also double as towel racks. This way, our towels will always be warm when we get out of the shower.

Another product that we learned about, thanks to the Europeans, was the dual flush toilet. A dual flush toilet is exactly what it sounds like-there are two different types of flushes. One button for #1 and another button for #2. This enables you to use less water to get rid of your toilet waste. These types of toilets are common practice around the world. But, for whatever reason, they aren’t very common in America. (Thanks to Jihan for hooking us up with all of our fixtures for the new house.)

Since this new house is being built where a previous (non-renovateable) house was demolished, we’re making sure to reuse as many building materials from the demolished house as possible. We’re using the old wood flooring as trim in the new house. The old paint and nail holes were planed down, and the wood is gorgeous. We’re excited to be using it as a way to reuse, and to save us money.

We’re using low energy light bulbs, we’re planning on utilizing as much natural light as possible (in Seattle?). We installed super efficient windows and doors. Our appliances are all EnergyStar approved and we rarely use the dryer for our clothing. We plan on planting more trees and appropriate plants. We are using the demolished house’s foundation as part of our landscaping walls. Our faucets will have low flow constrictors. We’re using recycled carpeting (and recycled carpet pads), where applicable.

We are recycling at the construction site and plan to continue recycling once we move in. The basement flooring is concrete foundation slab. No vinyl flooring or siding for us. We’re using cement siding and metal on the outside of the house. The roof is also metal. We’ll be using recycled plastic for our decking. All of our counter tops are concrete, made by The King. And we used extra installation.

While we aren’t doing as much as we could or should be doing, we are doing our part. The King and I feel that this earth was gifted to us to use. Part of showing our appreciation for this beautiful world is showing our respect and love towards it. And to help ensure it will be here for our kids and our kid’s kids to also use.

And if this means using flusable diapers and dual flush toilets, then sign me up.

So tell me, what are you doing to be more green?

When we built the first house, we moved in very prematurely. We spent three years living there without any painted trim and a master bathroom that wasn’t finished until the day we put the house on the market.

When we started construction on our new house we vowed to not move into it until it was completely finished. Completely. We didn’t want to have any trim pieces to paint. We didn’t want any doors left to be hung. It had to be 100% finished. (Well, except for the deck and yard. That could wait.)

The upstairs of the new house will be 100% completed next week. The tub in the master bathroom is done. The toilets flush. The shower room and vanity area are finished. Babboo’s bathroom has been tiled and the radiators are installed. The King hung the bedroom doors up last night. The carpet installation has been scheduled.

The main floor continues to be a work in progress. The refrigerator is plugged in and running and the range is ready to be installed. The new couches for the front room are being stored in the basement. There are no kitchen cabinets. No tile has been laid. No working toilets on this floor. No doors have been hung.

The washer and dryer in the basement are working and have been used many times. The bathroom is still being tiled. The spare room is being used as a storage for new furniture. The garage (which is half of the basement) is full of tools, saws, siding, paint cans, tile, and nails.

The outside of the house has areas that still need siding. The yards are muddy. The back yard is being held together by a gabion wall. The decking has been purchased, but is nowhere near close to installation.

The new house, it is still under construction.

The King works over there every night (except Friday, when we hang out as a family) and all day on Saturday. His part-time retired dad works there everyday while the rest of us are at work.
For the sake of this post let’s say that I make $100 a month. The King makes $110.

That means we bring in $210 a month. Our bills go as follows:

• Rent - $51
• Daycare - $49
• Mortgage (on the house we tore down, which we have been paying for years!) - $48
• Construction costs (on the house we are building) - $32
• Charitable donations - $20

That only leaves $10 a month for food, clothes, car payment, and anything else that may come up. In case you’re not good at math, $10 is not a lot of money. Especially when you need to buy furniture for a new house. Sheets, beds, curtains, art…all of that, are expensive. Our savings isn’t growing. Babboo’s college and Disneyland funds aren’t where they should be. Our retirement funds haven’t been added to in a while.

Today we’ll be signing another 3-month lease on our one-bedroom downtown Seattle high rise apartment.

The last week in April will be spent packing up our apartment, getting our stuff out of storage (finally!) and moving into our unfinished house.

Not because we want to, but because we have to.

People are usually shocked when I tell that that The King and I slept in a twin sized bed for the first two years of our marriage. Really, we did. And not even a real twin sized bed. We had a futon mattress. We also lived in a studio apartment, so we didn’t have any other options.

We moved to the first new house (you know, the one we built before the one we’re building now) and happily got rid of our twin size bed. We upgraded to a full size bed. But alas, we still rocked the futon mattress.

(Hey, futon mattresses are cheap and we were are poor.)

We’ve since sold the first house, as well as most of our furniture. Somehow in all of this we’re still rocking the same full size futon mattress that we bought over six years ago. And let me tell you, it’s not rocking us. Every morning The King and I wake up to find we’ve got another kink in our neck, or our back is all wacky, or we can’t feel our toes.

It was hard to admit it, but we finally did; we needed a change.

We started small. We bought new pillows. The new pillows rocked. We were both happy.

Suddenly the new pillows stopped rocking so hard. We were both back to hurting and sleeping terribly. I even succumbed to digging my old pillow out and using it again.

The King and I weren’t sure if our bodies were in pain because of the stress in our lives. I mean, maybe we were tensing up at night, thus resulting in a crappy nights sleep. Or maybe The King’s body was hurting because he’s building a house with his own hands. (I hear manual labor is hard. I hope I never find out if that’s true.)

Or maybe, just maybe it was the crappy futon mattress that we loved so many years ago.

Last week we came to a conclusion, we had to get rid of the futon. We had to suck it up and get a mattress made for the grown-ups we had become. We owed it to ourselves.

(Thankfully Macy’s was having an awesome One Day Sale! They practically paid us to take the mattress off their hands. Seriously.)

The night of January 19th will be spent sleeping on our new queen size real-life-mattress. And believe you me, I’ve got it marked on the calendar.

It’s going to be a joyous day.

So tell me, do you think a queen size will be big enough? Or should we have splurged for a California king? Dude, beds things are huge.

My family and I moved to Corvaillis, Oregon when I was a kid. My dad had hurt his back working at a printing press and therefore needed to go back to school to find a different career.

We moved into the house that will forever be known as The House on 13th Street. I guess because we lived on 13th Street. My family is muy clever like that. We all look back at this house with fond memories. It was, by far, the nicest house we ever lived in. It was newly built and was big enough to fit all of us. I even had my own bedroom.

The thing I have always remembered and loved most about The House on 13th Street is the stairs. It was the 70’s and the stairs represented that era. They were covered in dark brown shag and went from the upstairs into the dining room. Oh and the best part; they were floating stairs.

My older brother and I used to go under the stairs and hang from them. As I recall, my mom even let us. Come on, it was the 70’s. A less complicated time. A time when it was okay to let you kids ride their bikes on the freeway and hang from the rafters.

While this isn’t an actual picture of our stairs, it’s one I found online and it’s perfect. Nothing says the 70’s like fake plants and a puffy leather couch.

Bow-chica-bow-wow.

When The King started drawing up the plans for our new house, he asked me what things I wanted in the house. That was easy. There were only two things I knew were must-haves.

1. A window above the kitchen sink
2. Floating stairs

Of course these weren’t the only things I wanted. I wanted a shower and a flushing toilet. Maybe even 4 of them. As well as plenty of closet space and a laundry room. But those are considered goes-without-saying items in my book.

The window above the kitchen sink was easy. The King had no problem putting that into the house design. Granted the view of the neighbor’s driveway isn’t ideal, it’s better then nothing, which is what I have now.

He had a harder time with the design for the floating stairs. During the design phase he would keep me updated on the floating stair research. I would just nod and thank him for his efforts. All the while fully expecting to have floating stairs upon the completion of the new house.

I remember him telling me he had figured out how to do them and where to find the needed equipment to fasten the risers to the walls. I remember when he told me they had been delivered and then the actual installation of the brackets began. Which, I think, posed their own problems.

Eventually it has all worked out.

I never doubted him.

(Okay, maybe a little. But still, I knew he’d come through.)

We went over to the new house on Sunday after church. Drywall had begun that week and I was itching to see the progress. I was extra excited to see the installed floating stair brackets.

I just realized I’m boring myself with this post. Let’s take this up a notch.

Last night The King asked me what was the first thing I wanted to do in the new house once we moved in. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, so I responded by (jokingly) saying; “have sex in every room.”

“But wait, shouldn’t we have sex in every room of our apartment first?”

“It’s a one bedroom apartment, so I’m pretty sure we’ve accomplished that by now.”

“We haven’t done it in the kitchen.”

“And we’re not going to either. I’ve seen the floor in there and it’s gross.”

“Did we do it in every room in the last house?”

And then we both paused and tried to remember if we had, in fact, done it in every room of our last house.

We came to the conclusion that we’d done it in all the bedrooms, but not the office or the bathrooms. Does that count?

So tell me, does anyone else have lofty goals like this?

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Don’t forget to check out my latest New Thing, in which I will impress you with my awesome photoshop skillz. Word.

We moved into our 1 bedroom, high rise apartment in downtown Seattle when I was about 4 months pregnant with Babboo. We had just sold the house we had built ourselves. My emotions were a mess with the new pregnancy, an upcoming trip to Europe, and of course, packing up a house full of items (of which we sold most of or put into storage) and trying to cram ourselves into our little apartment. Neither one of us knew how long it would take to build our new house, so we didn’t know how long we’d be in the apartment.

It’s been about 18 months. The little apartment feels like home now. We’re settled. By now I’ve forgotten about all of my things that are put in our storage unit. (What was I thinking when I put all my pre-pregnancy clothes in storage? I miss them. I want them back.) I can’t remember what the furniture we sold even looked like. I don’t miss cleaning the 3 bathrooms. I sure as heck don’t miss weeding the yard. I don’t miss having to sweep dust bunnies off the wood floor in the spare rooms, or looking for Preston hiding in one of the closets. I don’t miss trying to locate a hammer in our massive 2.5 car garage.

But I do.

I miss having another bathroom to get ready in so that I don’t bother The King while he shaves (or poops, either way). I miss not having to leave my house to do laundry. I miss not having a room that I don’t have to share with a crib. I miss not having a couch to read on while The King watches TV on the other couch. I miss having spare rooms for house guests. I miss having grass and a fence. I miss not having to pay $200 a month, just for a parking space in our own complex. I miss having the quiet of my own house.

While it’s more money to live in a downtown apartment as opposed to one closer to where our new house is, I love living here. I truly believe that I have the best commute of anyone in the entire world. Bold statement, I know. I walk 4 blocks to work. The King walks about 15 blocks. Dude, you can’t beat that with a stick.

And while I complain that all 3 of us aren’t set up to share a bedroom, there is no way I could justify paying $800 (or whatever it was) more a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. No way at all. We didn’t even look at a 2 bedroom unit. We didn’t want to be tempted. We kept telling ourselves, this is only temporary.

Right about now I’m starting to get a lot of the when is your new house going to be done questions. I never know what the correct response is. Do I lie; we’ll be moving on August 1st, wanna help me pack? Or do I tell them the truth; I have absolutely no idea. Mostly I just say; The King is working as hard as he can. He’s over there every evening and every Saturday. Remember, he’s building this house himself.

When we finally get into the new house I picture it being like a fat guy on Thanksgiving. You know when he undoes his top button and his gut just hangs over and he breaths a sigh of relief. We’re just going to spread out and love all the space.

I really don’t know how much longer we’ll be in our high rise apartment. Maybe the end of the summer? Maybe until Christmas? Maybe by next spring? I don’t know. I try to not think about it.

Instead I try to find more places in the apartment where I can store my things. Pretty much the only available space left is in the elevator.

Do you think the other tenants will mind if I keep the boxes full of my winter clothes in there?

There are so many topics to discuss today.

First and foremost, what is up with Blogger this week? I know I’m not the only one that is having issues. My video was all jacked up (I guess I can only blame Youtube for that one, right?) and my side bar…heck, do we even need to discuss my side bar issues?

I’m pretty sure I fixed the video from yesterday. Go here if you are just dying to see it. (See, I have a problem with talking things up and then having them not be worth all of the talking up. I’ll learn.)

The World Cup started today in my second favorite Country, Germany. The Baby has the cutest little shirt to wear to show his support for Germany and all things soccer (thanks, Katja).

I heard an interview on NPR last night with a German journalist, in which he agreed that the German soccer players “play like tanks”, but they would never use that phrase because it has to do with war. And Germans don’t like to talk about war.

While addressing The Baby’s birth announcements this week, I decided I am not Emily Post and don’t know the correct etiquette for addressing envelopes. When it’s to a couple, do I write out “Mr. and Mrs. Moss”, or “Jason and Stacy Moss”, or “The Jason Moss Family”? Or is it “The Moss’” or “The Moss Family”? Dude seriously, I don’t know. I am sure a simple Google search would give me the right answer, but that’s much easier. No, I want to lay in bed after a midnight feeding and wonder about it. (Oh my gosh, is it “lie” in bed or “lay” in bed? Man, I really should have paid attention in English 101.)

The Baby slept through the night two nights in a row this week. TWO NIGHTS. Which I take to mean I can now tell people, “my baby sleeps through the night!”. It’s official. Of course, he woke up once last night. So all bets are off. But I blame this on the fact that he had his shots yesterday.

Today my folks are driving into the city and are taking The Baby and I to a museum. A museum that I used to live less than a mile away from, but never took the time to actually go inside of. We should take bets as to whether or not they will pay my way, or even pay for lunch? The King thinks they will, since my brother will also be there and he’s so good at getting the folks to pay for everything he does. I don’t think they will. That means it’s 50/50. Start placing your bets.

Today I dressed The Baby in the first 3-6 month outfit. And although it’s awesome and has John Lennon on it, it still makes me shake my head to think that my tiny baby is growing up. And apparently faster than the regular babies. Oh well.

I guess I’d better get used to it.