Picture of our trip to Bhutan in the New York Times!

Hey Everyone,

We thought this was something fun to share with all of you, our friend Kerry sent us a link to the New York Times to share a photo from our trip to Bhutan since it was one of the countries ranked as a top place to travel to in 2013.

We sent the photo in and if you scroll down to number 5 on the list for Bhutan and then look under the main photo you can find ours under "Readers Photos:)"  You can find it here if you want to see the other countries: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/10/travel/2013-places-to-go.html?ref=travel&_r=1& 

We hope you enjoy!  For those of you who have been there, or live there, you know how amazing it is, for those of you who haven't, it is definitely an awesome place to visit!

Christy and Amrish, New Delhi is listed as #7!  Wahoo!

Reader photos from Bhutan 

Willie and Katie Bittner

Taking in the beauty of the Phobjikha Valley in Bhutan. This valley is filled with beautiful hiking trails with breathtaking views. Wherever one travels in Bhutan, there are endless opportunities for seeing beautiful vistas and experiencing the rich culture of the country. -- Willie and Katie Bittner, La Crosse, Wis. (Submitted April 26)

Have a great day!

Willie and Katie

India, friends and time to go home

Our last couple of days in India we have enjoyed the company of our friends and wonderful hosts Christy and Amrish in New Delhi, and we even had a chance to meet their wonderful friend Sammy who was visiting from Paris.  It has been nice to catch up, relax and enjoy great conversation.  We even had a chance this week to travel to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal.  It is truly magnificent!  If you get a chance to travel there it is definitely worth seeing.

We hope you enjoyed the recent updates!  We will continue to blog once we get home, but will update more infrequently.  So keep in touch and let us know how you are!

Willie and Katie

Our last week in Bhutan!

We have been traveling and updating our blog on our computer until we found internet, but since we were in more rural areas we have not had access until now.  So below you will find a recap of the last week.  We hope you enjoy and we will update you more once we are back in India.

A few foods we have tried during the journey:
Butter tea – Hot tea made with yak butter, drank especially in the higher regions where it is much colder.
Doma – Beetle nut and lime (chemical) placed in a grape leaf and chewed.  As it is chewed the person’s mouth turns red.  This is a tradition for many people.
Ara – Basically the Bhutanese moonshine!  It is brewed either from wheat or rice and can be served with boiled egg in the drink.
Dried cheese – These are pieces of cheese dried until they are very hard and then dipped in yak milk.  It takes a long time to chew through one piece.
Ema datse – Their national dish made out of chiles and cheese.   It is incredibly delicious, but the level of heat in the dish changes depending upon where it is made.  Katie has dove in too enthusiastically at times and has spent the rest of dinner trying to cool down her mouth and stomach.

Paro Festival or "Tsechu"

We spent a few days in Paro, Bhutan to watch the Tsechu which is Dzongkha for “festival.”  People come from all around the area to watch intricate dances that tell the stories of Buddhism and the history of Bhutan.  We dressed in the national dress, the “Gho” and “Kira” because everyone attends in their finest attire.  The festival was wonderful and we even had time to visit their museum and learn more about the history of Bhutan and about the natural history, which was really awesome.

We spent the remaining part of the day resting up for our hike the next day to the “Tiger’s Nest” which is an epic hike up to a temple on a cliff.  Of course Wednesday, the day of our hike, Katie’s stomach decided to partake in its usual bug it gets while traveling.  Nonetheless we pushed through and hiked up to the temple which was amazing.  It is literally built on the edge of a cliff, so when you stand in the different rooms you can look straight down to the bottom of the valley, it is impressive!

The hike took much of the day, so after we returned Katie just rested in order to prepare for the long drive on Thursday.  Nobody wants to travel winding mountain roads while feeling queasy.  Luckily we woke up early on Thursday and Katie felt great, so we were able to start the nearly 11 hour journey to the east side of the country.  The distance is not really far, but you can never travel much more than 40km per hour, and in reality you are spending much of the time slowing down to 20km per hour to pass a truck, wait for cows to clear the road, or drive delicately over a wash out.  The drive was beautiful! We went through 4 mountain passes and had the opportunity to see different plant life as we drove further east.

We then spent the next day traveling to nearby cities, and just taking in the day.  We finished the evening with a mountain bike up to a palace nearby and dodging cows as we traveled.  The views were beautiful and it was so quiet.  After spending several days in the city it was nice to relax in the more rural areas.

Langur

Friday we continued our journey in the center of Bhutan going on a fabulous trek down to a river and then up to a temple.  The hike started seeing the white capped Langur which is a monkey in central Bhutan, and then we finished with seeing and experiencing a rowdy group of monkeys (different type) hanging out around the temple.  At one point one of the monkeys threw a chunk of rice at us from the rooftop, which is when we found out that they will throw many things at people including rocks, ha, ha.

Saturday we made the trip even further west and stayed at a guest house in the central part of Bhutan and spent the evening having great conversation with members of the company we are visiting.  Yesterday we finished up heading back to Thimphu to enjoy our last full day in Bhutan.  The day was full as we visited a temple, had tea with wonderful friends of Amrish and Christy’s and then enjoyed dinner with our friend we met last year.  

Our intro to Bhutanese Roads and Hospitality!

On Thursday we spent the day meeting with individuals in the capital of Thimpu to get their input on needs for Bhutan, and then finished the day meeting with the former Prime Minister.  He provided additional insight and thoughts he had for development in Bhutan.  It was really enjoyable to catch up with him and our friend about their time in the US and what they do for work here.

Friday morning we woke up and traveled to our next location.  We had been told about the flights into Bhutan, but nobody had told us about the roads.  They make the flight look tame.  We were delayed a little bit in the morning due to a rock slide, but eventually got on the road midmorning.  As we traveled we gradually increased in elevation the road width seemed to decrease and as a result could see more and more the steep cliffs we were traveling on.  Willie enjoyed taking pictures, while I held on to the seat tightly.  Now that a few days have gone by Katie has become more used to the narrow roads, wash outs, steep cliffs and truck drivers, but not the bathrooms as even the locals will not use them along the roads.

After arriving we had the first opportunity to bushwhack through the forest.  We were accompanied by a team of search and rescue professionals, which happened to be the first search and rescue team established in the country.  The route was beautiful, yet very steep!  At points they brought out ropes to descend to lower parts of the route.  Katie embarrassed herself by slipping twice on the same rock, and drawing plenty of attention from the team. 

We had a wonderful time, and then traveled the next day near the border of India.  The hikes we went on were nearly straight down the mountain and very rugged.  After we reached the bottom we had the great opportunity to visit a power plant. 

The nights at both places were fabulous!  Great company, drinks and delicious food!  Not to mention the most hospitable people we have ever encountered traveling.  We even were able to join in with their Bhutanese dance and song later in the evening.  Who knew we would even be graced with a John Denver song dedicated to Katie!

Tomorrow we are looking forward to seeing their largest festival in Paro!

Willie and Katie

International Day of Happiness!

Yesterday we arrived in beautiful Bhutan, and we were excited to find ourselves arriving on the first annual International Day of Happiness!  Bhutan started pursuing Gross National Happiness in 1972 as a measure of national health and quality of life (similar to GDP but also very different), and the international community has started to pursue this measure, which led to the International Day of Happiness.

Willie getting fitted for a "Gho"

As a result, people were in the streets  all day celebrating, and enjoying music, archery tournaments, soccer and the company of friends.  We spent the day walking around and enjoying the celebration with two of our excellent hosts here, as well shopping for the national dress which we will wear today to the government offices and any temples we visit for the rest of the trip.

It took a team to dress Willie

The national dress consists of a "Gho" for the man and a "Kira" for the woman.  Both involve layers of beautifully woven textiles from Bhutan, and a scarf (rachu for women and kabney for men) for traditional occasions.  We spent much of the day searching for a "Gho" for Willie because they did not have any long enough for him.  At the fourth shop as we dug through all of the options with lots of help we found a XXL Gho that suited him perfectly.  After the shopping we spent the rest of the evening eating delicious food, and catching up with our friend we met in Madison last year.

Our day also involved an amazing flight along the Himalayas and we were able to see Mount Everest.  It was a surreal experience, I don't think either of us could stop looking the whole trip, until it vanished into the distance.  

Mount Everest and the high peaks of the Himalayas

The flight was amazing, and the landing did not disappoint.  It was truly the most unreal landing we have ever experienced.  You can check it out on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlKApjc9T2U or search Paro, Bhutan landing, but nothing prepared us for what it is like to see the ground a mere couple hundred feet from the wing as you are banking into the landing through the valley.  As you come into the runway you are turning until the last second and then the amazing pilots have mastered leveling out the plane just as you touch down.

Arriving at Paro International Airport

Today we will continue our time in the Capital of Thimphu and then tomorrow we will journey out to the east side of the country to check out the parks in Bumthang.

We may not be able to update our blog for a few days, but we hope all is well you!
Willie and Katie

India!

Amsterdam airport nap!

We made it to India late Monday night after a long journey of traveling, and were picked up by our friends, Christy and Amrish to stay at their beautiful home in New Delhi.  The visit has been wonderful thus far, filled with relaxing, going for walks and eating wonderful food.  Now as you can see, really we have only been here just about 2 days, and with sleeping and catching up on jet lag (10.5 hours ahead in India), we have definitely had our time sleeping and resting, but even so we feel so relaxed.  Luckily we had the experienced advice of Christy and Amrish to relax and allow ourselves to adjust.  The first morning as Willie woke me up, I thought it was probably about 9:30am, turns out I wasn't even close, it was 2:30pm!  Nonetheless we stayed up and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and drinks with friends.

With our friend Ailen

Today brought us our first adventure traveling out into New Delhi.  Our wonderful friend Ailen from our time living in Argentina, happens to be in Delhi at the same time as us.  She has been traveling through India for the last 2 months and we decided to meet up during the short time we are visiting.  It was quite the adventure trying to track her down, and after nearly 24 hours we figured out where each other was met up.  With Christy's help figuring out travel Willie and I took an "auto taxi" over to where she was and spent the next hour or so catching up on life over the last 6 years.  It was quite the experience traveling around the city, and it gave us our first look at the day to day life in Delhi.  We made it there and back, and only got hit by two water balloons (apparently there is a festival this week and people throw water balloons at vehicles).  Since our vehicle was open we took the brunt of the water.  Other than that we met the nice gentleman hosting Ailen and then made it back.

Our vehicle in Delhi traffic

Tomorrow we wake up really early and catch our flight to Bhutan.  We are looking forward to learning more about the country and culture while we are there!

We hope all is well with you!
Willie and Katie

Off to Bhutan and India!

Off to Bhutan and India!

We know it has been a long time, far too long since our last blog, but we are back and excited to share our upcoming adventure.  We are leaving in less than a week to travel to Bhutan and India.  We connected with a few individuals from Bhutan last April at an Earth Day event.  
Flash forward nearly a year later, and we are just about ready to head out on the trip.  

Our journey will start with a couple of days in Delhi, India where we will be staying with Katie's friend Christy and her fiance Amrish.  We are fortunate not only to have time to catch up with Christy, but we also found out our friend and host sister from our time living in Argentina will be there at the same time.  We are only in Delhi for a couple of days on the front end of the trip, but we are looking forward to time with all of them.

After we settle into Delhi, we will be taking off for Paro, Bhutan.  We are both looking forward to reconnecting with the individuals we met last year, and meeting new people as we travel throughout the country.  Bhutan currently exports a substantial amount of their hydro power to India, and as a result they are looking to build additional infrastructure (schools, roads, etc.) with the revenue from India.  We are excited to learn more about this, as we have been reading about the culture and history over the last few months.

We will spend a couple of weeks in Bhutan before we return to Delhi to spend our last few days abroad with  Christy and Amrish.  After that we will return home and will look forward to catching up with all of you.

Our goal is to continue to keep the blog updated during our journey in both Bhutan and India once we arrive.  Now all we have to do is continue trying to get all of those little travel items into our carry-on bags before we leave:)

We hope all is well you! 
Willie and Katie

Please welcome Mr. and Mrs. Bittner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As most of you know and witnessed, we got married last Saturday, May 7th at the Living Green Expo!  It was so wonderful to have all of you there who could make it to celebrate our special day.  We will follow up with a more detailed blog post this weekend, as we are leaving technology behind for the next few days as we are on our honeymoon!


Here is a photo of the day, and the link to watch the wedding clip on Twin Cities Live.  Hope you enjoy! All our love, the Bittners:)
http://twincitieslive.com/article/stories/S2103060.shtml?cat=11215

How to plan a wedding in 4 days

Hello everyone,


As many of you know, we have been very busy planning our upcoming Green Wedding that will be taking place next weekend, May 7th at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds.  Many of you also know that the wedding had to be planned in less than a month, so here is our journey of planning a wedding in 4 days.


After we found out about winning the Green Wedding, we were given the email addresses for each of the vendors so we could make contacts with them and set up appointments.  Given that we are a couple of hours from the Twin Cities and that really, in a month there are not many free weekends, we planned most everything over one extended weekend. 


Friday, April 15
We left town early in the morning to head up to the Cities for our first appointments of the weekend.  The day started off with a stop in Winona, MN to apply for our marriage license.  Along with the application came the best question yet, "So, will you have to wear an edible dress?"  


Next we cruised up to Minneapolis where we meant with the delicious local/organic catering company and tried the most decadent delights that will be served at the wedding.  After maxing out our time eating our treats, we hurried off to pick out our rings on 394 near Hopkins.  Not going to lie, picking out a ring with a short window of time proved to be more challenging than we had anticipated.  Nonetheless, we found a great band for Katie and scooted off to the final vendor.  One might say, hmm, busy day, but no, we decided to throw in a swing through trip to the brewing company that was on the way to meeting with the flower vendor.  You know you have traveled a lot in a day when you have seen all three campus of the University of Minnesota.   


3 vendors down, 8 to go.


Saturday, April 16
We decided to "take it easy" Saturday morning, since the rest of the weekend was going to be busy.  As it happens, we ended up flying through tasks on the computer, and going shopping for goodies for the rest of the weekend.  At 11:00 Bill and Carol (Willie's parents) and Jori (Willie's sister) arrived at Katie's parent's house in White Bear Lake.  They had a relaxing 15 minutes to put their things down before we had to rush out the door to the thrift store, Lost and Found, where Willie would be picking out the suits for the groomsmen.  That is right, he had to pick out not only his suit, but two more for our friends who will be flying in for the wedding.  Our last groomsman, Erik, was able to cruise down and pick up his suit at a later date.


Suits, check!  Next, off to the hair and make-up professionals with Zaega and Aveda in Minneapolis.  We had a consultation, looked at fabulous hair styles, were able to try out some of their products, before piling in our vehicles for an evening out.  That is, the bride and bridesmaids headed out for a night on the town.  Willie and our parents headed back to White Bear, and Katie continued on with Alyson and Jori and met up with Sarah, the other bridesmaid and our friend Emily (girlfriend of the bridesman), to a quiet night at a POLE DANCING lesson!!!!!


Consider that a complete day!  5 vendors down, 6 to go, and 1 new skill.


Sunday, April 17
Off to dress shopping!!!!  The ladies all headed out to Goodwill to look at fabulous gown options for the wedding!  If you ever need a dress, check out the bridal show at the Twin Cities Goodwill, it is unbelievable.  There were dresses ranging from traditional to high end designer gowns!  We all were able to find beautiful dresses, including Jori who found a Vera Wang!


Next, we headed off to cupcake central at Bryant Lake Bowl and ate the most exquisite cupcakes!  After a delicious sugar high we packed up and met with the DJ in Uptown.  After meeting with the outstanding DJ, Nicholas, check him out http://www.generationnowdjs.com/, we made our last stop in Stillwater to look at photography.  Finally, 8:30pm, we are back in White Bear Lake.....
So tired.............ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!  Katie forgot she needed to finish taxes for 2 of the 3 states she had to file in.  Make that bedtime 10:30.


9 vendors down, 2 to go, and taxes for 3 states filed with the support of Katie's dad and Willie.


Monday, April 18
Wake-up bright and early!  Off to KSTP TV to film the final three segments for the show Twin Cities Live that is following the wedding planning.  What a wonderful day traveling around with the team and meeting with vendors to film!  We were even able to take time to talk with the electric car company to make plans for our honeymoon!  Need your Prius converted, check out ReGo electric conversions.


After a full day of filming, we left KSTP at 4:45pm to meet with our last vendor to make plans for the invitations.  Then, our trip back to La Crosse to snuggle into our own bed, in our own house.


Luckily we had our fabulous families to support us through the weekend and participate in all of the excitement!  Thank you to all of you for everything you do!  Steve, we missed you this weekend, but you are a major part of the whole adventure!


11 vendors down, 0 to go.....at least for that weekend.

Green Wedding Giveaway!

Many of you probably guessed with our last post that we were sending you an update on our "Green Wedding" and alas you found the adventures of Katie and Willie Portland style instead.  For those of you waiting, and those of you who do not yet know, we are going to fill you all in on our upcoming green wedding!


Our wedding adventure started less than a month ago when Katie's mom sent us a link to apply for a "Green Wedding Giveaway" at the Living Green Expo in St. Paul in partnership with the show Twin Cities Live on KSTP tv.  We decided to apply, which meant we had to write an essay about how we live a "green" and "healthy" lifestyle, how we got engaged and why we want to get married on May7th at the Living Green Expo.  To check out the contest more and our essay just click on this link: http://kstp.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?p=W&c=28532&s=7555442&i=1#SD


After we sent in the essay we waited, hoping to be one of three finalists out of the 24 contestants.  This past Monday, April 3, we found out that we made the top three!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We also found out we needed to head up to St. Paul for an interview the next morning.  


We headed up to Katie's parent's house that day, and interviewed with KSTP, Twin Cities Live, and the coordinator from the Living Green Expo the next morning.  They were all wonderful and made us feel so comfortable!  


That same day, we headed back to La Crosse and each went about our day, Katie at work and Willie at meetings.  When we met up at the end of the day we realized each had been struggling the entire day with focusing and not constantly thinking about the contest.  Minutes before Katie was to go to Jazzercise and Willie was supposed to head to a meeting we got a call......


"Hello, is this Katie Johnson from Katie and Willie?"  (Side note, there was another Katherine Johnson contestant, with her fiance looking very similar to Willie...).


"YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  (Insert intense amount of anticipation bubbling inside of Willie and Katie).


"I'm calling to let you know you won the Green Wedding Giveaway!"


"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


Now imagine Katie giving the biggest jump you could ever imagine (1.5 feet vertical), and both of us screaming our heads off, complimented by Katie repeatedly saying "I'm freaking out!!!!!!!"


Then we ran around the house yelling and screaming, while attempting to call family for about the next 15 minutes.  During this time Willie called at least 4 people, and Katie spent the entire time pressing "redial" on her phone and not getting a hold of her parents or sister....


Once she actually got through, the 7 missed phone calls had given away the surprise, so much for self-control on "redial."  Lesson be learned.


We won a green wedding to put on at the Living Green Expo in St. Paul, MN on May 7th, 2011.  The wedding includes everything!  You can check it out more at the website.  In addition there are video segments that will be shown on Twin Cities Live, on KSTP tv in the Twin Cities.  The segments will follow our green wedding planning, and eventually the actual wedding.  We headed up to Katie's parent's house yesterday with Willie's parents to film the first segment in White Bear Lake.  The first segment aired today, and you can watch it here: twincitieslive.com - Green Wedding Winners


We hope you enjoy our wedding adventure!
Love,
Katie and Willie

A mountain, a trek and a sleigh full of food!

This last week we headed out to Portland, OR to spend time with our close friends Derek and Ariel.  The following is our journal entry Willie wrote at the top of a fire tower in the Mount Hood National Forest.  We hope you enjoy:)

April 1, 2011

The idea of staying in a fire tower was mentioned to us by our friends who moved to Portland, OR for Ariel to attend Naturopathic Medical School.  Our vacation was planned, and now we just had to get ready for the trek to the fire tower.

We flew into Portland and spent the night with our friends.  The next morning we loaded up their compact car and headed for the Mount Hood National Forest. 

After renting snowshoes in Sandy, OR and getting local advice to head up towards a different, but much short route up the mountain.  We drove the car until we hit snow on the road and simultaneously the gas light came on, oops.  So we decided to leave the car at the snow line, grab our stuff and hope the nearest gas station would be within 30 miles when we returned.

Being from the Midwest and loving to eat good food and drink, we loaded up our purple sled and four packs (recently bought from Ace Hardware), and headed on our way.  The sled consisted of the following:

Starting our adventure

• 1 box of wine (5 liters)
• 12 pack of bottled beer
• 1 bottle of vodka
• 1 bottle of whiskey
• 3 buckets of food
• 2 liter of Sierra Mist
• 2.5 gallons of water

Even just doing the math on the water and wine, it most likely becomes clear to the reader that we had way too much weight.  However, for us and our enthusiasm we did not realize this until just over a mile of me and Derek dragging the sled over intermittent snow and road for the first half mile, and then another half mile of the sled tipping over becuase it was too top heavy.  However, Katie had mentioned several times the balance issue, but me, a stubborn German, did not listen until Derek and and I could not even go 50 feet without the sled tipping over.

Two Trempealonians pulling the sleigh

Feeling defeated I gave Katie the box of wine for her pack.  After pulling the sled no more than another 1/4 mile Derek gave Ariel one bottle of liquor and Katie the other from his pack and we took the beer off the sled and hid it for a treat on the way down.  This was after Katie put 4 bottles in her pack and snuck the Sierra Mist (we tried to leave that too).  

Now we were ready for the next 4.5 miles to the fire tower, or so we thought since we are adventurous and active people.  But we all agreed that the rest of the hike was on of the most challenging hikes we have done. About three miles from the fire tower Derek told me that he forgot the combo for the fire tower.  We kept it to ourselves until we were 1.5 miles from the fire tower (to keep morale hight), when Ariel asked Derek if he had the combo and he dropped his head and said, "that might be a problem."  At this point Katie and Ariel took the lead and we continued the rest of the hike picking out trees to hike to, waiting to see the gate around each corner.  Even thinking we saw the gate or tower at times.

Flagpoint Lookout

Then finally we saw the radio tower, and then even better, the fire tower.  At this point we had been hiking for 7.5 hours, continuously uphill, in snowshoes, and now it was dark and raining.  I led the way up the tower hoping to find the lock open, but no such luck.  With further investigating a carabiner wedged between the chain seemed to be the only thing holding the gate lock.  So with a little force and some fist hammering it opened!

We Made It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A feeling everyone has when making it to your destination!  with plans of doing hikes around the area we spent the next two days in the fire tower eating, drinking and playing games.  Derek cooked all the meals which were amazing as always they are when he is cooking and when you are camping.  But for real, the food was great, from mushroom tofu dinner, to soy sausage egg scramble breakfast.  We enjoyed talking about the hike while Ariel read us the other stories and adventures of other hikers.

Willie claims he finished the puzzle

Ariel and Katie even completed a Mt. Rainier puzzle while Derek and myself enjoyed cribbage and cleaning the place.  On Friday we headed back down with a much lighter load, and the change of having the sled pull itself back down, rather than hauling it up the mountain.  To put into perspective, the hike down only took 3 hours and 45 minutes.  

Once we packed up our gear, we managed to coast into the closest gas station on fumes...

What's under there???

Happy Blizzard Everyone,


Sorry it has been a bit, but we are back!  We have thrown ourselves into the excitement and craziness of home renovations, thus neglecting our blog, but building great stories.  This blog will focus on our new bedroom.

Post carpet, pre-linoleum removal

Let's start a month and a half ago when we bought the house.  Picture this; white walls, brown window trim, not 1 but 2 layers of carpet, and that is right, not 1 but 2 layers of linoleum.  With the help of our parents we ripped out the carpet, linoleum and disintegrating carpet padding from the room.  After that we pondered what to do with the room and tackled other projects in the meantime.


Flash forward to last week...


When Katie left for a week of training on the road for work, Willie decided to tackle the bedroom before she got back.  After much deliberation Willie decided to go the less than easy route of sanding the floor.  Did we mention the floor also had not 1 but 2 layers of paint on it?  It did.  After a mere 15 hours of sanding, 2 days of rental of the Varathane ezV Floor Sander from Menards and a layer of sawdust over the house, the beautiful pine plank floors appeared.  With four coats of Varathane Water Based Crystal Clear Floor Varnish  the beautiful yellow came out in the pine and brought back memories of our time in the old houses of Vermont.  It is hard to even imagine what the room looked like before, if not for the transition into the hallways where the memory of painted floors remains.  That is the next project on Willie's long list that is rapidly getting shorter.

4 hours into sanding, 11 hours to go

With the floor just finishing drying from the varnish and Willie still needing to trim the room, Katie returned from her week away and couldn't believe her eyes.  With a speedy finish we re-painted the window trim and Willie completed the floor trim (after Katie convinced him that after all the work he had done, it was okay to pay full price for pine trim from the store instead of paying half the price for non-matching oak trim at the re-store).  Then with a record breaking finish we completed a last minute room swap, moving all of our furniture from the extra bedroom into our new bedroom, and moving the guest furniture into the extra bedroom right as Katie's sister Alyson walked in the door for her weekend stay.  


As a bonus, Willie also found brand new Levolor cordless window blinds at the Habitat Restore for $6 for a pair with their retail value at $150 a pair.  If you ever need items for your house, check out the Habitat Restore in your area.  Also, it has been great to see those of you who have stopped by to visit, and we just want you all to know that you are welcome to stop by at any time.


Renovation costs include eZ Sander Rental and pads (2 days), purchasing a palm sander and pads, belt sander pads, varnish, paint, trim, and blinds.
Total hours of renovation = 24 hours
Total cost of renovation = $245.00


Check out the photos below to see the in progress, and after photos of the bedroom.  

post palm sanding the edges, pre-varnish

completed room

Home sweet home!

After 4 months of credit checks, a novel's worth of letters explaining our "nomadic" life situation, and Willie having to explain why his company, Great Lake Trailbuilders, is not listed in the outdated Yellow Pages, we finally closed our our house!!!!!

What an adventure!!!!

We met with the title company on Thursday, and after about an hour of signing a four inch stack of papers, the house was ours!!!  Ribbons, balloons and fanfare.....wait that part didn't happen, but it felt like it!

And then to make us feel right at home as new owners, Willie and his dad stepped into the house on Friday to a nice, cold............

Yup, that is right, our 26 year old Carrier 58CC furnace decided to poop out on us the first morning of house ownership!  Though we already planned to replace the heater, it would have been nice to make it through the first weekend without having to call a repair person.  Luckily for us, Willie found a great company, Schneider Heating and Air Conditioning,  that came to our rescue and got the furnace up and running before the impending -15 degree night which would have most definitely busted our pipes.  Another company, to be left unnamed, (rhymes with Mears), stopped by to give a quote, and only after an hour of ridiculously slow internet did he give a ball busting price quote and snub our lack of hospitality (sorry we don't we have cups we literally just moved in and our heat doesn't work).  Luckily for him Schneider left us with two space heaters to help us raise our inside temperature to a balmy 35 degrees when they came to look at our furnace and give us an estimate on a new one. The "Mears" salesman packed up his bags quickly when I put down the quote on the same furnace that was $1500 cheaper than his quote.

Nonetheless, the furnace is now up and running, and we just had a fabulous weekend with Katie's parents down visiting for the weekend, and a team effort by both sets of parents to conquer the first steps of fixing up the house.  Goodbye linoleum and shag carpet!!!!!

Thank you Robin, Randy, Bill and Carol for all of your fabulous help this weekend!

This is just the beginning of a whole new adventure for the two of us!

Enjoy!

Willie and Katie

Yes!

Happy New Years everyone!!!!!!!!


Where to begin.....


Well, we are still in the process of buying our place....wait!  You probably want to hear about the exciting news on New Years Eve!  We will update you on the house later!


On the count down to the New Year, as everyone chanted 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3..........2............1...............
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Willie got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


With a lot of excitement, a long pause, and Willie re-asking the question, I finally came out of my shock, surprise and excitement to tell him YES!!!!!!!!!!!!  He caught me totally by surprise, as he always does, a master surpriser!


I think everyone would have expected a hike, but Willie knew just how to throw everyone off for a wonderful proposal.  He not only surprised me, but he also found a beautiful ring with history behind it.  The stone is the national stone of Argentina, the Rodocrosita, which is my favorite stone.  We discovered it for the first time during our adventure living and volunteering in Argentina.  The ring is over 100 years old, and is made of white gold with leaves on either side of the stone with diamonds inside.

We wanted to share our excitement and love with all of you as we jump into, not only the process of buying a house, but now the excitement of planning a wedding!


As for the news on the house......hopefully.....hopefully we will close this week......


Happy New Years!  And we will be posting more regularly since Willie is now back, yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Katie and Willie

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our blog, the adventures of Willie and Katie.  Willie and I wanted to stay in contact with all of you and to share what we are doing in life, and hopefully get a chance to hear the updates from all of you as well.


First off, we would like to give a brief synopsis of our last year, which will then lead us into our current lives and where we are headed next....though, that is normally a hard one to pin point:)


This past year Willie and I made the big move to Vermont into our first home together!!!!  That is, unless you count sharing a twin bed, if that, in Argentina, and numerous bus trips together throughout South America.  While in Vermont Willie continued to work with his trail building company and provide his skills and knowledge to WisCorps and at trainings throughout the East Coast and Midwest.  My adventure was filled with learning about the world of education and having the awesome opportunity to teach alternative education just outside of Montpelier.  There was a never a dull moment last year as I learned the inner workings of high school, and re-entered the world of teenage life.  Throughout it all we met a wonderful group of friends, and I also, personally learned, that I cannot go out to Karaoke every Tuesday night until 2am, and then get up at 6am to teach.


Prior to heading out to Vermont, Willie and I joined Matt Brantner in an effort to start up WisCorps - Wisconsin Youth Conservation Corps, Inc.  WisCorps is now a full fledged 501(c)(3) nonprofit, that we both currently serve on as Board Members.


Life today...or life as we are currently expecting it to look like today, ha, ha:
After all of our fun on the East Coast, Willie and I made the decision to move back to the Midwest, specifically the fabulous state of Wisconsin (though not as desirable in the world of college and professional sports, Go Gophers!!!!!)


Willie and I are working on closing on our very first home together!!!!!  It is a fixer-upper in La Crosse, but will be a fun adventure for the next few years as we tailor it to our needs and desires.  The most interesting part of it is the car port-turned outside bar scene in the back yard.  You are all invited over for a party once the paperwork has been finalized.  


As we go through out home adventure, we are excited to keep you all posted on what we learn along the way.  As I indicated, Willie is, indeed, moving back to Wisconsin permanently, well that is subject to interpretation.  His residence will be in Wisconsin, but I am confident that I will still be rocking the life of a trail girlfriend.  For those of you not familiar, trail girlfriend = lots of solo time while your love travels around the country working on sweet trail building gigs and trainings.


Nonetheless, Willie is making his transition back the Midwest, and will be tackling many new exciting adventures as he takes on the Midwest in the world of trail building.  You can check out his website at www.greatlakestrailbuilders.com


Well, our first blog post is coming to a close, as I am sure blogs are not meant for small novel entries.  Until next time, please enjoy the post and let us know what you are up to.


All our love,
Katie and Willie