Photos: Samaritan's Purse, Shopping

DSC_4033

Lydia is riding a pink unicorn.

Dollar Tree in Edmonds, Washington

November 12, 2009

Note: After dinner tonight, we began our shopping for Operation Christmas Child, the largest Christmas gifting program for needy children in the world that is sponsored by Samaritan's Purse.

DSC_4036

Lydia removes Jergen's bar soap from the shelf so that she can place it in the shopping cart.

Dollar Tree in Edmonds, Washington

November 12, 2009

DSC_4041

Lydia is playing with some back massagers made of hard plastic while her mom looks for items in the store.

Daiso in Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Washington

November 13, 2009

DSC_9627

Lydia is placing one of twelve stuffed animals in the shopping cart.

Dollar Tree in Edmonds, Washington

November 12, 2009

Note: Half of the shoeboxes are designated for girls who are between the ages of 5 to 9 years old, and half the shoeboxes are allocated to boys within that same age frame. Although a number of gifts are the same for girls and boys, certain presents, like the soft toys, are gender specific. The girls will receive the stuffed animals.

DSC_9632

Lydia is running towards her dad.

Dollar Tree in Edmonds, Washington

November 12, 2009

DSC_9672

Lydia and her mom are looking at a necklace.

DSC-9679

After they finished shopping at Daiso, Lydia and SiowFong are posing in front of a small Christmas tree in front of the store.

Daiso in Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Washington

November 13, 2009

The Good Samaritan

November 12, 2009

The Good Samaritan

Even among a number of people who are not Christians, the example of the good Samaritan (which is found is Luke 10:25-37) is somewhat familiar. For example, a number of hospitals in America are named Good Samaritan Hospitals. In addition, many have heard about Good Samaritan laws in the United States, which "are laws or acts protecting from liability those who choose to aid others who are injured or ill. They are intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death." (Source: Wikipedia. "Good Samaritan Law")

In one of Lydia's Bibles called the Beginner's Bible, I have read to her the story of the Good Samaritan a number of times. The story is as follows:

"One day, a lawyer put Jesus to the test. He said, 'I know the law says to love God with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself. But who is my neighbor?'

Jesus told him this parable:

'A man was on his way to the city of Jericho. Some robbers beat him. They stole everything he had.'

'The man was hurt. He needed help. Along came a priest. The priest saw the man, but he did not stop. Along came a helper in the temple. He saw the man but did not stop. Along came a Samaritan man. When he saw the hurt man, he stopped. The Samaritan man cleaned up the man's wounds.'

'He lifted the man onto his own donkey and took him down the road to an inn. They stayed at the inn. The Samaritan man took care of the hurt man all night long,' said Jesus.

'In the morning, the Samaritan man gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, 'Take good care of him until I return.'

After Jesus finished the story, he asked, 'Which one of the three men was the neighbor?' The lawyer answered, 'The one who took care of the hurt man.' Jesus said, 'Go and do as he did.'"

Photos: Melody Final Class for 2009

DSC_4000

Lydia's favorite activity on this playground equipment is the swing.

Note: One of Melody's friends gave this playground set to her about a year and a half ago, and during the warm weather months, this is the children's favorite activity after class concludes.

DSC_4004

We arrived at Melody's class about fifteen minutes to twenty minutes early today so that Lydia could enjoy playing on the swing before class. Because of daylight savings time, the sun has already set by the time the class ends, so the only chance that Lydia has to play here is before class begins.

DSC_4031

Melody Xie, Lydia's teacher, and Lydia (who is finishing her snack)

Note: At the end of class is snack time, and because Lydia eats slowly and savors her food, she is usually the last one to finish eating.

DSC_9582

One advantage of coming to class early is that Lydia has a chance to play with the common household items that Melody uses to teach the children the corresponding words in Mandarin.

DSC_9586

Lydia relishes doing the ribbon dance with her peers.

DSC_9593

The children are sitting on top of Melody's back. In this lesson, Melody is teaching the students about verbs, including action words like sit, stand, walk, run, and crawl.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 11, 2009 at the Melody Institute in Seattle, Washington, which is where Lydia has been going to her Mandarin language and dance class since September 2008.

Photos: House, Graffiti

DSC_3820

Graffiti on plywood outside main windows in bedroom 4

November 6, 2009

Note: Joe Bergevin, our builder, informed us that graffiti unfortunately is not a rare occurrence at building sites. He surmises that the pranksters were teenagers in the neighborhood.

Joe reported that as a builder, he has been victimized. He disclosed at a previous new residential job site in Kirkland, Washington (his hometown), the criminals kicked in the locked front door and spray painted the interior walls (which had already been painted), kitchen cabinets, and granite countertops. At another new, nearly finished home in Bellevue, Washington, thieves broke down the doors, removed the stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and ran away before they could successfully to haul them away. When Joe returned to the home, he found the two stainless steel dishwashers in the garage and the very heavy 48-inch professional stainless steel range tipped on its side in the kitchen.

DSC_3823

Graffiti on plywood outside kitchen windows

November 6, 2009

Note: As a result of this unfortunate situation, Joe is increasing security at the job site by installing front yard and back yard floodlights that turn on at sunset and turn off at sunrise, making sure that all subcontractors lock the gate of the 6 foot high chain link fence that surrounds the entire front yard and part of the side yards, and having dummy video cameras with appropriate signage installed. If we experience more adverse occurrences, then live video surveillance will be the next step.

DSC_9553

Result of graffiti cleaning

November 10, 2009

Note: On November 9, 2009, Javier, Joe Bergevin's laborer, used graffiti remover to clean the area, but he was unsuccessful; as a result, he used a sander to finish the job. Due to the unsightly nature of this outcome, Joe asked Bren, his framing carpentry subcontractor, to replace the two pieces of plywood.

Note: All of these pictures were taken at the site of our future home.

Photos: Lydia and Stuffed Animals

DSC_9533

Lydia, Tiger (her favorite Tigger), and Miss Kitty

Note: While playing with her soft toys this evening, Lydia asked her dad to take some pictures of her with her companions.

Photo note: The December 2009 issue of Popular Photography magazine highlights its lead article, "Family Portraits: Tips for Every Generation". On pagges 58 and 59 is one tip called "Don't make it a big deal." 'I shoot my children not just during the holidays, but almost daily,' says Bing Liem, who lives in Ridgefield, CT. 'It lets me document their lives and physical development, plus gets them comfortable with having a camera around.' At the same time, Liem learns more about photography in a risk-free environment with willing models.'"

DSC_9541

Big Tigger, Lydia's favorite Tigger, and Miss Kitty

Note: Like many of Lydia's stuffed animals, these three were gifts from others. Big Tigger came from Dennis and Frances Woitte; Lydia's favorite Tigger came from Mary Dietsch; and Miss Kitty came from Uncle Mike and Aunt Helen Wan.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 8, 2009 in the living room of our home.

Photos: House, November 8, 2009

DSC_3958

The two, 23 and 1/2 feet long steel girders in the nook

Building note: "Steel is worth considering for applications where girder height is critical. . .Steel girders cost more than wood and someties require a forklift or crane to set in place, but if the equipment is available on site, consider the advantages of a typical 9-inch deep steel girder. It can replace four 2 x 12 boads put together with nails and glue." (Fernando Ruiz. Building An Affordable Home. Taunton Press: 2005. page 85)

The rooms (from left to right) are the family room, nook, and kitchen. To take advantage of the abundance of natural light provided by the southern exposure of these rooms, both the family room and kitchen have large openings for windows, and the nook has one large patio door (either a sliding door or a pair of outswinging French doors). In addition, not shown in this picture are four more windows (2 pairs of dual casement windows) on the east side of the living room to ensure that these three rooms will be cross lit. The benefit of cross lighting a room is that the room should receive light throughout most of the daylight hours.

DSC_3962

View of the area from the kitchen

Building note: In order to preserve a large open area that encompasses the kitchen, nook, and family room, we had to maximize beam size and the space between columns because of the absence of load-bearing walls in this part of the home; as a result, steel I-beams were the solution.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 8, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: With Friends

DSC_9456

Lydia and May Li, her friend who is 7 and 1/2 years of age, are playing a fishing game.

Note: Like Lydia, May also takes a weekly Chinese language class with Melody Xie, but her more advanced class occurs on Saturdays.

DSC_9460

Lydia and May are drawing pictures on Magnet Doodle boards.

DSC_9486

Group picture

(left to right): Jiu Li Song, Yihong Han, May Li (Jiu Li's daughter), Marshall (Yihong's son), Lydia, and Tom

Note: SiowFong met Jiu Li and Yihong through her work place years ago, and tonight we had the pleasure of inviting them to our home for dinner.

DSC_9499

Lydia is riding a horse (her dad) while May follows carrying Bobby the Bear.

Note: Lydia recently began asking her dad for these "horsey rides", which her mom says look more like elephant rides.

DSC_9500

Carpet is the floor covering of choice for these horse rides since the birch hardwood floors hurt Lydia's dad's knees.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 7, 2009 in the living room of our home.

Photos: House, November 7, 2009

DSC_3827

This vantage point shows the family room since that room is located at the northeast corner of the home.

Note: The lumber, which had been laying in the front yard, was moved to the garage earlier this week so that a crane could come to the site to place the steel beams in the nook and garage.

DSC_3875

Lydia and her mom are standing at the opening of the patio door, which is located in the nook.

DSC_3888

Lydia is scratching a slight itchy area on her left knee.

Note: Surrounding the plywood on which Lydia is standing is a pool of rain that had formed due to the steady precipitation that had fallen on this area this week.

DSC_3896

Family picture of the week, version 1

Note: When this picture was taken, the rain started again as a drizzle.

Photo note: Despite the misting, the lens stayed dry throughout the series of family pictures this morning because of its deep lens hood that protected the glass from the rain.

DSC_3898

Family picture of the week, version 2

Note: Lydia calls these interior wall studs as a "cage", so this is our family "cage" picture.

Photo note: Although most people do not like to take pictures when it is raining, some nice pictures can be made on drizzly or rainy days, conditions that result in even lighting, saturated colors, and the possibility of reflections (all of which occur in this picture).

Note: All of these photos were taken on November 7, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: House, November 6, 2009

DSC_3779

Roman (who is standing on the ladder) and Manuel (who is standing on the windowsill) of BCB, a structural framing company, are installing plywood on the exterior of the living room.

DSC_3803

Manuel and Roman are continuing their work on the exterior sheathing of the living room.

DSC_3807

Lydia is jumping up and down on a piece of plywood in the kitchen, which is one of her favorite activies at the job site.

Note: Rainy days have returned to the Pacific Northwest, which is typical of the fall, winter, and early spring months.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 6, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: House, November 4, 2009

DSC_3666

Wickman Construction dump truck and trailer

Note: On the trailer is the mini excavator that Erik Wickman, the demolition and excavation subcontractor, will use to dig the part of the front yard in front of the living room to hook up the house's new side sewer into the main sewer line.

DSC_3689

Lydia is standing in the den.

Note: On the stock plan, this room was meant to be a formal dining room, but since our current home does not have a dining room, we eat in the nook, which is what we intend to do in our future home. As a result, we changed the name of this room in the revised plan from dining room to den and enlarged it slightly so that is 12 feet long x 12 feet wide, and Lydia's dad will use it as an office.

DSC_3737

Bren and his framing carpentry team (John, Roman, and Manuel) are raising the exterior wall of the stairs.

Note: After Lydia's afternoon nap and post-nap snack of milk were completed, Lydia and her dad visited the job site before Lydia's Mandarin language and dance class. Both Lydia and her dad witnessed this process from start to finish, and although it resulted in Lydia being tardy for her class today, the experience was worth it because the wall raising procedure was fascinating to watch.

DSC_3746

By gradually raising the wall using two different pairs of jacks, bracing the wall with studs, nailing the studs to the plywood subfloor, repositioning the jacks, and repeating the entire process, the wall was raised within twenty to thirty minutes.

Note: According to Bren, our lead framing carpenter, this method of placing walls is considered old-fashioned, and he commented that one type of jack that he uses regularly is no longer produced. The newer method for framing large wall units is to use a crane, but that method is much more expensive since crane service costs about $ 200 per hour.

DSC_9353

Standing on a piece of piywood, Lydia smiles for this photo.

DSC_9361

"Look at me daddy -- I'm in a cage!"

Note: Standing in between the 2 x 4 studs of the interior wall between bedroom 4 and bathroom 4 that are framed 16 inches on center (which means that they are spaced 16 inches apart), Lydia eagerly poses so that her dad can take this picture of her.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 4, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: Ballet, November

DSC_3704

Lydia is adjusting the right sleeve of her tutu.

Note: We arrived about fifteen to twenty minutes before the Mommy and Me class began so that Lydia could play in the dance studio and so that I could take some pictures of her. Some parents do not want their children's pictures taken, so photos during the class are not allowed.

DSC_9373

Holding her tutu, Lydia is strolling around the studio.

Note: Lydia has reached the age where she is interested in wearing dresses and looking pretty. Sometimes SiowFong thinks that one reason why Lydia likes ballet is that it affords her the chance to get dressed up in a lovely outfit.

DSC_9397

Naomi's mom, Naomi (who is two years old), and Lydia

Note: The Mommy and Me class includes children who are between two to four years of age, and the developmental differences between the different ages is apparent during some of the activities in the class. For example, when Suzanne, the instructor, asks the children to slide sideways, older children like Lydia can execute that action pretty well whereas younger children like Naomi cannot do it.

DSC_9407

Holding a dandelion in her right hand, Lydia is standing beside the road sign for the Pacific Northwest Ballet after the Mommy and Me class concluded.

Note: Irrespective of whether Lydia does a few quarters at Pacific Northwest Ballet or a few years, one thing is apparent -- this experience has helped to build her confidence in dance. This development is most obvious in Lydia's Chinese language and dance class. Since she began her Mommy and Me class, she eagerly participates in all of the Chinese dances instead of avoiding them like she did within the past year.

DSC_9411

Lydia is blowing away the petals of this dandelion.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 4, 2009 at the Pacific Northwest Ballet school in Bellevue, Washington.

Photos: House, November 3, 2009

DSC_3590

View of the rooms from the northwest corner of the nook

(left to right): Kitchen, bathroom 4, bedroom 4, and laundry room

DSC_3600

SiowFong and Lydia made a surprise visit to the site this morning before they went to the day care.

DSC_9328

Bathroom 4 and bedroom 4

Note: Bathroom 4 is in foreground with its 2 foot wide x 4 foot high casement window (the near window on the left), and bedroom 4 is in the background with its main window (far window on the left) that is a double casement window facing south where each casement is 3 feet wide x 5 feet high and its three smaller 2 feet wide x 2 feet high casement windows facing west. The room on the far right of the picture is the laundry room.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 3, 2009 at the site of our future home.

Photos: House, November 1, 2009, Part 2

DSC_3463

Lydia and her mom are in the family room.

Building notes: Every builder with whom we spoke said that changes are inevitable during the building process. For example, Sarah Weight, our designer at Architects Northwest, had drawn these four south-facing windows as one large window unit on the plans; as a result, the rough opening of the window was 10 feet wide x 6 feet high. When Bren Mcaferty, the owner of BCB and a framing carpenter, reviewed the plans, he advised me that from a structural stability standpoint, it would be better to separate the four windows and frame them individually instead of framing them as one large window. I assented to this modification. In building jargon, it is a change order, which usually means additional fees, but in this case, it will not cost us anything extra even though it will require Bren and his employees more work.

DSC_3466

After a few test shots with Lydia and her mom, Lydia's dad participates in the family photo.

Note: SiowFong is really looking forward to using this window in the family room as she wants a window seat placed beside this window so that she can relax here, bask in the bright southern exposure, and enjoy the back yard scenery.

Building notes: "Windows cost about twice as much per square foot as an external wall, so eliminating unnecessary windows can save hundreds of dollars. . .Whenever possible, use a series of conventional opening sizes, such as 2 ft. by 4 ft., in sequence to achieve architectural effects. Three of these windows framed into a single opening with double studs acting a framed mullions costs less than one 6 ft. by 4 ft. window yet presents a similar appearance." (Fernando Ruiz. Building An Affordable House. Taunton Press: 2005. pages 19, 169) In this case, we are saving money by selecting this series of four identical (2.5 feet wide x 6 feet high) windows instead of choosing a bay window or a bow window of similar size.

DSC_3496

Two of the three walls of the garage were built this week.

Building note: Many architects and designers do not like the doors of a large garage on the front elevation because the size of the garage can dominate the appearance of the home and reduce its curb appeal. The eighty foot width of lot, however, was the limiting factor here since it virtually precluded homes with garages whose doors are located on the side.

DSC_3514

From left to right are the south, east, and north walls respectively. In the foreground from left to right are the family room (with the fireplace outcropping), stairs, and living room.

Note: We selected this stock house plan in the Architects Northwest collection called Harbor Heights (that we later changed) based on our need for a first floor bedroom and bathroom and because the rooms in which we spend most of our time when we are home, namely the kitchen, nook, and family room are oriented towards the south, which means that daylight will stream into those rooms during most of the day. This fact is particularly important during the many overcast days during fall, winter, and early spring in the Pacific Northwest.

DSC_3536

This is the view of the first floor from the northeast corner of the living room.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on November 1, 2009 at the site of our future home.