Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t… but you haven’t heard from us since the 2019 X-mas card. Whoops!
We looked at the calendar and decided “Hey, it’s 2023! Maybe we should let people know we’re still here,” so once again we are typing away at 10pm PST on December 31st, 2022 to get this out to you before the New Year!
We got married at the end of 2019, and kept it hush. We celebrated with an intimate group in March 2020; throwing a party of which, in hindsight, would be the last bash before the pandemic locked everything down. Come June, we’d put an offer in on a house up in Portland, OR. House closed in July, we moved out of San Leandro (with Smith’s mom, Yim), and work began on the basement the day we got the keys. Had multiple visits and volunteer labor from Adam, Rich & The Lipkas for basement projects.
Maggie’s sister, Emily, kicked off the series of friend/family marriage celebrations in North Carolina during Sept 2020. April 2021 took us down to the Bay Area for preschool pal Nicole’s marriage celebration (Nicole & Maysam visited us in Portland on their honeymoon shortly after). Former San Leandro neighbors, Mike & Lois, visited us in May during a construction mess of a house. June 2021 we were back down in the Bay Area for fellow Cal Bear Subha’s wedding (Subha & Varun visited us in Portland shortly after too). July marked 1 year in the new house, the basement renovation was completed & preschool pal Matt visited. In August we brought our 4mos old chocolate lab home; she imprinted on Smith in September when Maggie left for a Neilani’s bachelorette party in Nashville; and our final wedding of the year (Nori’s first road trip) was Franklin & Neilani’s at Lake Tahoe in October. The rest of the year went to the main floor kitchen + bathroom renovation work.
February 2022 we drove down to CA to meet up with Emily & her dog Jovi to camp in the Alabama Hills, Death Valley & Joshua Tree before her family moved from Oceanside, CA to North Carolina. Smith’s co-workers Norman & Dan visited us to see the progress on the house. In May our kitchen countertops went in, and we brought puppy # 2 home. We hosted a 4th of July party with all of our amazing neighbors + Maggie’s parents in the new kitchen; this same month, we left both dogs at home for a 48 hour trip to meet up with Franklin & Neilani in Vancouver B.C. for a birthday celebration surprise (and then they flew to us in August)! Maggie’s friend from work, Paige, stayed with us in September on her birthday, so we whipped out all the stops and did a day trip drive to Seattle for the Underground Tour, Public Library building & the Tacoma McMenamin’s basement tiki bar on the way home. Maggie’s Uncle Dave & Aunt Andi visited in September as well, so a day was spent at Portland famous Mother’s restaurant and the Japanese Garden.
Witnessed our first-ever Pumpkin Regatta up here in the Pacific NW in mid-October with our All things Fall Queen, Neilani, we hit the 5k event in the morning & viewed the pumpkin races after that. Imagine this if you will, gigantic pumpkins are carved out the morning of, pumpkin boats and rowers are decked out in costumes & then they are lined up to a start line in a man-made fountain to complete certain races/tasks in the shortest amount of time. We’ve come to fully enjoy some of Oregon’s eccentricities…and this is one we will absolutely repeat next year. In November we took our 7th trip of the year to Bend, OR (with the dogs) we met Rich + Patty for snowshoeing (but there wasn’t enough snow), and settled for chopping down a forest service x-mas tree on Mt. Hood on the drive back to PDX. Longtime family friend, Fei, visited us this same week in November, and got to share a laugh at how many retired San Leandro teachers we can pull into our new kitchen.
We have been surviving on friend and family visits since we moved (even if it’s a quick bite after a long workday, shoutout to Emilia), and we are so very often astounded that the community we moved from has stretched to meet us in Oregon over and over again.
Hope the past couple years have been good to you, and if they haven’t…then hopefully 2023 is your year!
We’ll be here in Portland if you should find yourself passing through! We really do love having visitors, we’ll even pick you up from the airport if you fly, and if you come now there will still be a bedroom (until Smith decides upon the next house project of course).
Cheers to the New Year!
Maggie, Smith, Yim, Nori & Eno
Photos of what we’ve been doing below.
Dogs – Eno & Nori
We took Nori home when she was 4 months old. 
She loves to travel. 
Nori loves the beach. 
Nori loves snow. 
Especially Bend, OR 
Nori loves lakes 
Nori loves hiking the woods. 
Nori loves the desert. 
Nori loves hotels. 
Nori really loves food. 
and sticks… 
and branches… 
and bones… 
and baths… 
and her best friend Frank who lives nextdoor. 
She grew up in a construction zone while her parents were fixing the house. 
She helps out when she can. 
She was a pretty goofy puppy… 
yep… 
She was having a good time as an only child. 
and then came Eno… 
We took Eno home at 7 weeks old. She was the runt and last to be taken home. 
she was small… 
She was the last of her litter to go home. 
She likes playing in water but not the bath. 
Eno loves bones… 
Eno loves the beach… 
Eno loves balls… 
Eno loves digging… 
We thought having two dogs would looks like this… 
and this… 
and this… 
and this… 
and this… 
and this… 
But honestly 90% of the time it’s this. 
and this… 
and this… 
But they have fun together… 
they have bunk beds. 
Eno learns everything from Nori. Nori is 20 months old. Eno is 8 months old. As of Dec 2022.
Original House Photos – Before
Year 1 – Basement Renovation: Bedroom & Bathroom
our backyard after digging out our basement 
When we bought the house, the basement was clean but everything was 90+ years old. 
Our goal was to convert the basement into our master bedroom + bathroom. 
We started by ripping out all of the plumbing, water and electrical. 
dug out dirt 
built walls 
built walls 
Add new stairs to be code compliant 
drywall 
bathroom drywall 
cleaning tiles for heated floor and tiles 
heated floors in bedroom and bathroom 
waterproofing bathroom 
laying down tile floor 
this took a while… 
bathroom tiling, lots of subway 
more subway… 
our vanity 
Finished Bathroom
Year 2 – Main Floor Renovation: Kitchen, Main Fl Bath + 2 Bedrooms & Windows
This was the existing kitchen. It was small and it was our plan to always move it elsewhere. 
That meant we needed to remove walls 
We removed a bedroom on the main floor and moved the kitchen to the other side of the house 
22 ft beam 
now starts the kitchen remodel 
big footings for a big beam. 
Nori was helping… or playin 
demo 350lb cast iron tub 
maggie demoing wall 
lath and plaster demo is not fun. every bag weighs 100 lbs 
open concept bathroom? 
the backyard during kitchen demo 
we replaced our main stack for the kitchen 
Added a new entrance to the backyard from the kitchen 
flooring 
bathroom roughin 
figuring out our kitchen layout 
laying out the bathroom 
main floor bathroom 
heated floors are a must in Portland! it’s cold! 
bathroom tiling 
bathroom has floors 
re-siding the front 
re-siding the backyard 
cabinets 
Nori approves the cabinets 
about to paint ceilings 
painting cabinets 
installing cabinets 
before countertops… they were hard to find during covid 
appliances in 
we needed a lot of storage 
demoing our old kitchen to convert into TV room 
other view of TV room. we really needed space during demo 
painting windows 
figuring out how to install a hood 
ended up drywalling 
and finishing it with trim 
countertops in 
Flowering Dogwood in the backyard
Maggie and Smith, I love love love your guys spirit and energy. I literally read and went through all your photos, the pups are adorable and I’m beyond astounded with the home remake. Thank you Maggie for sending me this link so I can catch up aka “spy” in on your journey, adventures, and projects! I miss our motivational chats and laughing with you. Cheers to 2023!!! Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Maggie & Smith – The pics are amazing and your dogs – OMG – Cuteeeeee!
Thank you for sharing these lovely memories. Love you 4 ever!
Very nice letter. Happy New Year! Please tell us how to put the pictures in like you have done. I think it might be easier than smugmug. Cant see any paper products online at this website.
Mom
Awesome! So very happy for you both!! Amazing work on your home – beautiful ❤️ Miss you Maggie – big hugs!!
Sara
Happy New Year to you! Your home is lovely, Maggie and Smith.
Love,
Jeni and Jerry
Whew! You two have a lot of energy and creative! We’re so glad you moved into our neighborhood!🥰
Amazing
Amazing job, love that kitchen and wow the basement is incredible. Great job.
Wow! What a nice review of your years of remodeling and fun! We’ll have to get up there! Congratulations on your beautiful projects. Stay dry……or not!