Happy Valentine's Day!

This year I went all out with the lead up to Valentine's Day.  I made homemade decorations, stitched a little gift for Alan, hosted a dessert decorating party, and ate a whole lot of treats.  Now that Valentines Day is here, I feel a sense of been there done that, due to all the hoopla before the 14th.

I am particularly proud of all the decorations I made.  I used the old 1930s dictionary that I found at an estate sale and went to town making hearts. 

Here's my heart "mobile" in the dining room.  Andrew really loves to stare up at this cutie.  I love how it casts fun shadows on the walls!



I also repurposed a wreath I made at Sarah's craft night in the fall.  I just pinned a ton of hearts to it!

  

I also tried to jazz up our still sad fireplace by giving it a festive garland.  It was fun sewing this one together and trying to make it a random sequence.

 

I have a few other little hearts hanging around but that was the bulk of my handiwork.  I also chalked up a little message on the blackboard in the dining room.  It is a good reminder for me to remember the power of God's love and to strive to live that out as I deal with crying and messes.

For Alan, I made a little piece of sentimental art to put in our bedroom.  Sarah showed me the ways of hand-stitching on paper and I ambitiously took on this guy as my first project.  In case you're wondering the Chinese characters say "China."  I love the fact that I had the opportunity to travel the world with my sweetie before we became 3. 

And of course it wouldn't be Valentines without some sugar.  Andrew stole his first taste of chocolate from the beater when I was making a chocolate pie last week.  He enjoyed it a lot...

Finally some shots from last week's dessert decorating party.  We had 5 mommas and 5 baby boys.  The kids had fun climbing over each other and playing with Andrew's toys.  The moms enjoyed getting to know each other more!  I'm so thankful for our amazing kitchen island.  It makes for an awesome cooking party workspace.

With love,

Rachel

Go Lincoln!

Today I was off school, in honor of Lincoln's birthday......even though I also have Feb 20 off for Presidents Day, which also happens to honor Lincoln....  But I am not complaining.  Monday is the best day to have off from work, in my opinion.  The week will go by that much faster when you start on a Tuesday!
 
The long weekend afforded us some good family time.  A few home projects, hosting some old friends, and a night out to celebrate Valentine's Day with a babysitter at home watching Andrew. 

Andrew is giving us fits during diaper changes, but his mood about baths have changed considerably.  We abandoned the bathtub entirely, because he never liked lying down in his baby tub.  Instead, he sits up and splashes around in the kitchen sink, while Rachel has fun dressing him up in bubbles.

On Saturday, I successfully leveled and installed the second run of cabinets and countertop in the basement.  Next up - clean out the cabinets, seal the counter, and move on to the upper cabinets.  Lingering questions - do I need to do any patching of the brick on the wall before I put up pegboard?  How will I rearrange the lighting in the basement?

-alan

Workshop progress

I spent some time in the basement this weekend, for I had a relatively easy week and did not have much school work.  Rachel went to visit her sister on Saturday so I had plenty of free time.

Having previously attached support anchors to the flooring, I could now begin to install the first row of cabinets.  The were formerly wall cabinets, so I had to build a support base underneath them to lift them up off the ground and away from the wall.  Once leveled out, I then attached 3/4" particleboard to the top to complete the run of workbench along the wall.

Up next, I will install a base cabinet along the foundation wall, forming an L-shaped workstation.  Then I will add pegboard and some wall cabinets....and finally get around to organizing my tools!

And Andrew, be warned - I will be spending more time in the basement if you keep giving me these dirty looks!


-alan

Hey! Look what I can do!

Andrew turned 9 months yesterday and seems to be adding to his skill list daily.  Check out his progress in some videos below:


The first one features Andrew's newfound ability to pull himself up on the couch.

This one shows you how Andrew gets down after pulling himself into a stand.

Yesterday, Andrew was cruising like a big boy.  For those of you who don't know, cruising means walking while holding onto furniture.  He was motivated to move when he spotted the Kansas Day trophy his daddy earned.

 

Finally, I last night I was getting Andrew ready for bed as we watched the NU game.  He seemed really interested and I had to catch a little video of his cheering.  Too bad he wasn't wearing his purple diaper!

We have been enjoying the balmy weather and taking a lot of walks in the neighborhood.  Andrew loves seeing the dogs.  A lot of owners are kind enough to stop so he can get a better look.  One yesterday asked his age and I said he just turned nine months.  She replied saying he's now been on the outside as long as he was on the inside.  Wow.  My little guy is growing up.

-rachel

Kansas Day and home project update

Well everybody, it is time to put the jayhawk statues away, take off your red slippers, and throw out the decorative chaff.  Kansas Day has come and gone!

For the first time, we attended the Weddle's annual Kansas Day celebration.  It was no easy task; the previous day we got locked out of our garage.  I had locked up after getting some wood out of the rafters, and the next time I went out, the key turned in the lock but the bolt would not budge.  Not sure what to do, I went and told Rachel (getting some "I told you it was wrong" along the way) and left it until the next day.

Problem was, I could not open the garage door - the only opener was in the car which was in the garage.  There are two windows, but neither are designed to open.  That left one option (aside from breaking a window) - the roof. 

Eric had suggested via Facebook that I access the garage through the roof vent.  So I got on the ladder, scaled the roof, and with some difficulty tore loose the vent, exposing a 6" hole into the garage. 

Realizing that I had no trained squirrels with which to send in to open the door, I had to improvise.  I grabbed a 10' EMT conduit from the basement and duct taped a broomstick to it.  I poked around at the lock on the door, and was successful in turning the latch - but the bolt still did not move.  So I taped a PVC poker at a 90 degree angle to the pole and poked around at the garage door opener - and success!  Access to our car was restored.



We traveled down to the Weddles, quizzing each other on Kansas trivia along the way.  We talked housing (they are in the market), ate buffalo chili, and saw our studying pay off as I placed first among non-Kansans!  Not only that, but my escapades on the roof earlier that day earned me a second trophy.  They were VERY popular with Andrew, who clutched both all the way home.  I will take it as a sign that he is proud of his Dad!

 

On the home front, I got a little work done last weekend after several weeks of being up to my ears in grading and extra-curriculars.  Rachel and I have many projects in mind, but this is simply not the time to get a lot done.  That means prioritizing.  Let the debate begin!

  

Our living room is an issue.  The #1 problem is the fireplace.  The paint is partially stripped, leaving a mottled brick/orange/white mess.  It is an eyesore, but we have somewhat gotten use to it.  After Christmas, when the decorations came down, I decided to do something about it.  I picked a few rows of bricks along the bottom, and dutifully stripped/scrubbed them as clean as I could.  I got most of the paint off, but it was still showing residue in the cracks and crevices of the brick.  Chances of successfully restoring the brick?  Next to nil.  Back to the drawing board....

Option #1 is to paint.  But what color?  Not red, and it was already white when we moved in....so....?  So instead we (foolishly) chose Option #2 - rebuild.  When the time avails itself, I will try to dismantle the fireplace and rebuild it by turning the bricks around so that the previously hidden, unpainted sides show.  If this doesn't work, we will just take it out completely.  Neither of us felt comfortable with a painted fireplace this large, so this seems the best course of action.

After that, we can start to make the tougher decisions of furniture, built-in bookcases, fancy rug, proper window treatments, artwork, mantle decorations, etc.  All of those purchases are up in the air as our ability to create a master design plan for the room has been stifled by this fireplace.

However, the fireplace is on hold (too messy a job to spread out over a long period of time) and I am spending what little energy I have on the basement.  I worked down there on Saturday, framing a new wall on which I will start hanging cabinetry for my new workshop.  It was my first framing attempt (since working on a Habitat house in high school, anyway) and good practice for when we put in a family room on the other side of the basement.  I will be installing our old kitchen cabinets, which are still in good shape, as soon as I free up my schedule....

But no rush.  We are not going anywhere, and these projects will be waiting for me!

-alan

Happy New Year!

 Hello all!

This year is already underway and we have been neglecting our blog.  You may think we've been busy redoing our basement, but we are taking the slow track with that project :-)  Instead we've had a lot of fun cooking, eating, and playing.

Check out this silly guy!

This month I also celebrated my 30th birthday.  It is hard to believe I've been kicking for 3 decades, but I really don't feel any different.  I celebrated on the day of my birthday by making myself some yummy lasagna and Andrew was kind enough to help me open presents (thanks Mom II).  A few days later we had a small party and Alan made me an AMAZING birthday cake.  The lovely dessert consisted of chocolate ganache sandwiched between 2 chocolate cakes slathered with buttercream frosting :-) 

I also hosted a Chinese New Year Kitchen Playdate.  I was supposed to have 6 other moms and their kiddos, but only 2 showed.  I am kind of happy it was just an intimate crowd because it was low stress and there were plenty of leftovers :-)

 I tried to get in the festive mood with some decorations.  I made a few but mostly just gathered our many Chinese collectibles to take it over the top.  I know we lived in China for 2 years, and I have parents in Taiwan but we have a lot of Chinese tchotchkes. 

The main star of our party was the food.  I worked hard to prep all the veggies so that cooking would be smooth sailing.  I'm glad I did all the work ahead of time because I wore Andrew as I whipped up 4 dishes and oversaw the dumpling steaming.  The other two ladies worked their fingers to the bone filling and folding the dumplings.  After many hours of work we ate like queens and our sons ate like little princes!

It must have really worn both Andrew and I out because the next day we took a rare early morning nap. 

Andrew has been having a lot of fun these days scooting around the house, pulling himself up on couches, and playing with his toys.  Finally I am not the sole perpetrator of toy messes around the house. He is to blame for at least some of the chaos.  Below he had a playdate with his buddy Amalia.  She was doing most of the playing.  Andrew seemed very interested in her walking skills and gladly accepted all the toys she brought him when she decided to share with earnest.

 

 Well, if you are still reading at this point, you are a dedicated fan.  Thanks for dropping by. 

-rachel

Basement Reno begins

Vacation - 'tis the season for home projects!

This week I began work on the basement.  Up to this point, our basement has been a disaster zone - unpacked boxes, random unfinished projects, disorganized chaos...  As Rachel pointed out, the basement is not a place you want to "be" unless you have some specific purpose.

But in a basement, lies the promise of what could be.  A place to work, a place for chores, a place for play, a place for family - all are possible at this point, and if she has her way, our basement will one day serve all these purposes.

So where to begin?  Well, since I am the one providing the labor, I am looking out for myself first: a workshop.  The house had a workbench previously, but it was unattached, in the corner, and not suitable for big projects.  So I am cannabalizing the adjacent storage room and converting the area into a suitable workshop.

The idea is that once I make the workshop, I will have a place to store all the tools that litter the floor across half the basement.  From there, we will be able to pick away at other zones in the basement to get the place in shape.

So I cleared the shelves, and armed with nothing more than a hammer and flat head screw driver, demolished the room in a few hours.  There was quite a bit of old water damage to the wood, so most of it is not reusable.  I hate to throw so much away, but what else is there to do?  I am relieved that I did not find any critters, other than a couple of centipedes.  The only surprise was a small but long crack in the foundation, which I am not working to get patched up.

In the coming days/weeks/months (timeline TBA, obviously) I plan to frame the wall on the right with pressure-treated wood, hanging some of the original kitchen cabinets, making a new workbench, and storing all the tools.

In other projects, I installed some under cabinet lighting in the kitchen.  The room is closed off and short on natural light, so we needed to augment the overhead lighting in the room.  The puck lights (from Ikea) are wired to a transformer in one of the cabinets that is plugged into a wall socket I had previously installed.   We also did a little reorganization of the cabinets to make storage more efficient.  (notice the measuring spoons hanging on the door?)

Tonight our old Realtor is coming over to babysit so that we can go out to the Publican on a date.  Fun!  Meat!

Tomorrow I would like to take the Christmas lights down - better now when it is 50 degrees rather than later in the month when it is sub-freezing!

-alan