Elinor Ruth Furlo

Well, well well... It's been a little while since my last post. But it's for good reason! As you know, we had a daughter on the way. Due to Jessi developing Cholestasis, we decided to induce and deliver 3 weeks early and avoid trouble when going full term.

So, at 9:00pm on May 28th, 2015 Elinor Ruth was born weighing 6lbs 4oz at a height of 17.74 inches.

We are so thankful for everyone who supported us with prayer and support. It's been a long three weeks and I finally feel like I can barely bring my head above water and admit the rest of the world exists.

OK. Now for the part you really want: pictures! :)

Jury Duty

(Image: outbrain.com "I want the truth!")

This week I had the honor and privilege of serving as a juror for my local county.

In some ways it was exactly like the movies and TV shows. In other ways, quite different.

There was no background music unfortunately.

Also, they only selected 6 people instead of 12.

They started out by putting us in a random order. I happened to be #6 on the list. Then they only asked general questions to the entire group of 50 people. One of the guys in front of me happened to know one of the witnesses (the defendant shared the same doctor). They never actually asked me any direct questions. This took about 30 minutes. The lawyers and judge chatted in the chambers for about 5 minutes. They came out and announced the set of jurors - and I was one of them.

Totally random.

After everyone else left we proceeded to opening statements where I learned that the defendant was being accused of driving under the influence of alcohol where he failed his field test (after being pulled over for speeding on his motorcycle). BUT it turns out that he also had been in an accident months earlier where some brain trauma and coordination issues remained. So... did he fail the test because he was drunk? He did admit to drinking one beer 10 minutes before being pulled over. Or, did he fail because of prior health issues?

Further complicating things: he took a breath test at the jail house one and a half hours after being pulled over where he blew a 0.07 BAC and in Oregon you need to blow a 0.08 or higher to be legally considered drunk.

It was up to the 6 of us to decide this man's fate.

We then started with witnesses where the first was the police offer who pulled the man over. In addition to his verbal testimony and written report, we also got to watch a video of the entire event. Pretty cool! They explained what happened. Then play that part of the video, then ask clarifying questions. Having the actual video was very helpful.

Then came the cross examination which was pretty cool because that ended the rehearsed part. Overall, I thought the officer did a good job of explaining what happened. You could tell that he's done his job for a while and knew what to pay attention to. I actually thought that entire questioning process was extremely fair because both sides got to continuously ask questions until everyone was satisfied.

We also listened to the testimony from a CSI who explained how alcohol works its way through the body. We also heard from the man's doctor who explained that because of his prior injury he could not complete the physical field tests. We heard from many people who described the man as acting the same way during regular hours without alcohol as the way the police officer saw him.

It's strange. Everyone seemed to agree that he was impaired to the point where he should not have been driving, but the reason why was critically important. An injury doesn't count, but alcohol does.

"Are You Not Entertained?!"

I also needed to constantly remind myself that I wasn't being entertained. This wasn't Law & Order and I wasn't evaluating the attorney's presentation skills. Instead, I was there to discern the facts and determine if he broke the law beyond a reasonable doubt, even if I didn't agree with the law only using the information presented to us. This was a very difficult feeling to shake.

The entire process took two and a half days of selecting, testifying and deliberating. In the end, we came to a unanimous decision. I did what I do best: I created a framework the group used for determining what happened. We then put the evidence into the framework and evaluated. By the time we finished it became very clear, even after discounting his physical issues, that he did indeed drive under the influence of alcohol.

Another difference between reality and TV was the amount of information we get. Usually the show is from the lawyer's perspective where you, as the viewer, know all the facts (even what couldn't be shown), what's trying to be proven and what's on the line.

For example, I have no idea what his penalty is. I can guess from reading about it generally later online, but I don't actually know because the judge took us out of the room for all of those discussions.

I also later looked up a BAC chart to see if 1 beer would get a 190lb man anywhere close to .07 BAC. The short answer is no. So clearly he was stretching the truth when he said he only had 1 beer.

I don't know why they didn't use a table like this. There were other pieces of evidence I was surprised weren't included. I guess that's because including more evidence and witnesses takes more time and money that just may not have been worth it given the penalty.

Jury Duty is a Cornerstone of Freedom and Justice

The legal system was fantastic to participate in. I was honored to be selected to serve (even though it was random) and would be delighted to participate again as a juror. I highly recommend you do it if given the chance. I got a certificate of appreciation which I think sums op my feelings well:

"Your public service as a juror is one of the most important functions of our democracy. A right to a trial by jury is guaranteed by both the Oregon and United States Constitution and is a cornerstone of freedom and justice. You should not view your jury services as an obligation but an exercise of your right to participate in government. Your service assures the fairness of the judicial system and is a safeguard of the freedom we all enjoy. Thank you for your service."

Final Pictures of the Downtown Albany Apartments

It's taken some time, but we are finally done with the apartment project. Woohoo! It's hard to fully capture the size of this project, so here's a sampling of the before, the work, and the final photos.

BEFORE

We had a little bit of mold that required us to remove the plaster.

We also had places where the layer over the plaster was falling off.

All of the kitchens needed to be deep cleaned. We also replaced 8 appliances, including this yellow oven.

It took a massive amount of work remove all of the scum on the tubs.

The yellow trim was bad enough, but then the molding starting falling off. We removed the molding, added quarter around, and painted everything white.

I like this picture because it shows how dirty everything was when we bought it. The large marks on the wall were not uncommon either.

Here's the hallway, which was extremely dingy.

If you look closely, you'll notice the counter hangs over the cabinets a lot. We took all of these out and completely redid the whole thing with IKEA cabinets.

We also redid this kitchen. I love how the refrigerator blocked the entrance. Now it's on the other side of the kitchen.

The plaster was slowly, but surely falling off. The leak was repaired, but water damage was never fixed.

We also had a broken window, and other windows that leaked.

REPAIRS

I had the window pane replaced. If you look to the right of the person, you'll see we still had a lot of wall damage to repair.

In some cases it made sense to take all of the plaster off and replace it with drywall.

We did the same for the ceiling. Notice the dingy feeling.

A couple kitchens had carpet in them. We took the carpet out and installed allure flooring instead.

One of the units smelled like horrible cat urine. We sprayed everything down with Lysol and then painted over it with a germ killing primer. Yep, we even painted the floor.

Here are half the IKEA packages. We spent a whole week putting the kitchens together.

Some subfloors had a lot of damage and so we went and filled in all the little holes so the flooring sat flat.

So, it turns out that one side of the building had windows that were in between the standard blind sizes. You can have Home Depot cut them for you for 3 TIMES the cost (instead of spending $100 on blinds for this side, it would be over $300!), or you can buy this $20 tool and cut them yourself.

We replaced almost all of the carpet.

Carpet we didn't replace was professionally cleaned.

We also painted everything... including super hard to reach places.

At the last minute, Jessi thought it would be nice to paint the trim in the hallway. She was right - it looks great.

AFTER

Here's what the new kitchen looked like. No cords, no counter overhang.

All the bathrooms are scrubbed and clean.

Check out the hallway now. Bright and wonderful!

The rooms also look nice. We also installed ceiling fans in each unit. I'll save you from looking at 50 pictures of rooms that all look the same.

Here's the other kitchen.

 The downstairs hallway.

And finally, a couple side-by-side comparisons.

That's the project. It was very long, but well worth it. We took a broken building and made it much better. Here are the guys that did 99% of the work. Thanks Mark and Rich!