The Demolition: er, Remodel...Making it Ours

This post was going to to wait until after I returned to Michigan and took some more photos of the work Matt has done while we are gone....but, due to illness (Matt) and an exorbitant amount of "regular", paying work (Matt) and some impatient friends; I am going to post what has happened up to this point.

KITCHEN:

Here you see the kitchen as it was in November, just after our offer had been accepted. Notice the large center island and cabinets suspended from the ceiling. When I stood at the kitchen sink  and looked to the bar area, all I saw was cabinets. Matt and I dreamed of removing them and talked about recruiting my Dad this summer to help. Once we'd closed our good friend Dave offered to help paint the house. He came by to have a look at the house and get a good idea about work load and prep work, etc. He talked us into jumping in full boar and doing basically everything we want to do now, while the house is empty.

Thus we began removing the cabinets. The cabinets were installed in 1960, as we learned from an order slip taped to the top

of them, by the Amish. The Amish apparently make up for lack of power tools by using extra strong nuts and bolts and screws! It took us the better part of a day to remove the cabinets! Of course we had a dog and kids running around, but nonetheless it was a job. We removed the cabinets one at a time and then removed the framing.  Once the cabinets were out the amount of light in the work areas of the kitchen greatly increased and I didn't

feel like I would be cooking in a cave! We will repaint the walls and eventually (way down the road), we'll redo the floors and have the cabinets refinished. For now though, it will be the nicest kitchen I have ever owned!

DINING ROOM:

This is the wallpaper that was on the walls

in the dining room. It is actually quite pretty and I have thought 

many times that my mother would have liked it. The striped paper 

was on the lower half and the flower print on the upper half as you can see in the full room shot. Again, we weren't going to remove the paper originally because it still looked ok and I thought the removal would be horrific. However, the paper pulled off very easily and in a matter of 10 minutes it was completely removed!

Now there is a lot of prep work to be done if we want to paint it. I am not convinced that I want to. I think we'll explore some wall paper for the upper half and paint on the lower half, though you never know what will happen once the creative process begins.

Other than removing nails and spakling holes, we haven't done much. The whole house painting is planned for the 23rd and before then we have a lot to do!!! After that we have a lot to do!!! I am just feeling very thankful that it is winter and we can focus on the inside of the house before things start growing and need attention outside of the house...

A True Vacation

We've once again packed our bags and bounded off across the country to sunny California! Sam, Arlo and I braved the below freezing temperatures of central Michigan to fly (on two flights, one of which was 5 hours long!) here and visit my mother and father-in-law or a.k.a, Grandma and Grandpa for a week. The weather is amazing here! 65 degrees and sunny! I wasn't even sure how to pack for such warm temps. I am not complaining, in fact, I am so relaxed and the boys are sleeping so well from all of our park play!This afternoon, after more running and climbing at the park, Arlo is

 napping and Sam is having quiet time, Pat, my mother-in-law, is working and I am sitting by the window enjoying the sunbeams, a cup of coffee,

 and my knitting blogs. I had planned on knitting while the boys were occupied, but have since been inspired to post about my recent knitting projects and a few other things.

I finally finished Andy's socks! It was my goal to 

complete them before we left for this trip so I would only have to bring along enough supplies for one knitting project...and sure enough the library had Season 3 of the Gilmore Girls just in time for me to knit like a mad woman and finish two days before we left. I am very happy with how they turned out and they are in the mail on their way to my dear brother-in-law. And onto my next project....Playground Mittens for Sam! I am using some left over wool from a variety of sock projects past. It should be a quick knit and lots of fun as they will be my first mittens ever!

If you haven't figured it out already I finally got my Ravelry invite and have been adding to my notebook as I get pictures taken and time to do it. I am called 

NaturalKnits...come find me!

In between my homemade chocolate biscotti binges and park play outings I have been trying 

to help with the little bits of house chores here...including laundry! I took this photo yesterday morning and realized how big my first baby is

 getting. Even though he's been in underwear for months they look so small in amongst the heaps of adult laundry at home...here hanging on a laundry line, I realized how big they are...how big he is! The photo on the left I took in Washington. Arlo had grown out of his newborn cloth dipes and into the medium size dipes and I had a little teary realization that he keeps growing too...ugh.

I have many realizations while hanging laundry. I guess it is a sort of meditation time for me....

So a real vacation for me. We closed on the house the demolition began very soon after. It is chaotic there with our hearts in the new house and wanting to be there all the time, but our things in the rental and it is necessary to be there at least a couple times a day. I was packing lunches and dinners and toys and spending all day at the new house. I feel very relaxed and removed from what is happening there and I am going to enjoy it! I have some good photos of the progress, but I'll post that later with good descriptions of what we've found our plans for the Forest Road house...

Maybe I am KNITCRAZY!

Matt decided to tell me the other night he feels I am becoming knitcrazy! Or, obsessed with knitting! HA! I think it is all quite funny since I am not knitting as much as I want to be and I know there are folks out there who knit WAY more than I do. So, I am going to a gathering every week, so, I knit at least two times a day, so, I think about knitting whenever I am not knitting....does that make me knitcrazy? If so then I welcome it!

I am not going to yarn shops uncontrollably, though I'd like to be....I do have only one project going right now ( I know, tisk, tisk)...that is breaking one of the cardinal knitting rules!

In lue of the fore mentoined conversation,  I fully appreciated the Panopticon's recent blog post about Fibertariens! 

It's Closing Time...

We have an official and definite closing date....this Thursday at 3:00 p.m!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally.

Of course I can't wait and I am beginning to think about paint colors again and it still doesn't seem real! Whew, what a relief. More later....

One Year Later

We woke this morning to a thick blanket of snow and there is something about the city when it snows.  All the sounds are muffled and people rest.  After rushing around all day yesterday and then spending the evening with some close girlfriends; the anxious feeling I had all day is gone. 

I've been trying to decide the best way to acknowledge the one year anniversary of my mom's death. Such a strange anniversary to celebrate, but that is what I did last night. Matt is out of town and I put the boys to bed early. A few women I am growing to love came to help me celebrate my mom. It was really nice. We talked and drank wine and laughed...just what my mom would have wanted. Of course, all day I played the "one-year ago today" game and I imagine as the years pass I will continue to play that game and eventually it will get easier. This year has been such a time of change for us and I am looking forward to settling in and being still for a while.

Still no word on the house loan. We were supposed to close on January 22nd, but after the Bank of America bought out Country Wide Mortgage, our closing has been delayed numerous times. Our latest closing date is this Monday the 4th, but if we don't close then we will find a new mortgage company to work with. If that happens we might not close for another two week. The waiting game is hard and is beginning to be a stressful element in our lives. We continue to dream about the house and land and know that in a matter of weeks 

we'll be in and all this will seem like a distant thought! On Sunday we went for a nice walk in the woods of the Fenner Nature Center that borders our new land to the West and North. This photo was taken in the magical grove of trees just north of our land! It is such a wonderful place with amazing woodland energy. I can't wait to play in the trees with the boys this Spring! The walk was great too. We crossed paths with a number of X-C skiers...and right out our back door!

Arlo is now cutting about 4 or 5 teeth, as far as I can tell. He's been a bit cranky today wanting to nurse A LOT! You can see how I spent my morning! So sweet, but after the 10th nurse in three hours, I thought for sure I'd go nuts...my sweet boy is napping now, thank goodness.

He's also starting to repeat a lot of words! We hear him say "popcorn", "go", "more", and today I heard "daddy". It is pretty amazing. Our communication is so easy. He signs a lot and that fills in any verbal gaps we might have.

With Matt in Washington, I have been with the boys 24/7 and am hanging in there pretty good. I usually enjoy the first couple days he is gone, then I get tired! I hired a babysitter to come on Sunday afternoon so I can attend two knitting gatherings! I am very excited and I will be very ready for a break from the boys by then. 

Matt took this great picture of me knitting and cuddling with Sam last weekend. I love it. 

Andy's socks are almost done! I am about 2/3 of the way through the second sock. I'd like to be done early next week.

I am hosting our home school preschool group on Monday and have started some ideas. Our theme is "friendship". There will be more about that later...

It's Been One of Those Days!

...when I learned that I can fit almost 2/3 of a bottle of wine into ONE wine glass!

Twenty Things I like: A List.

1. Sledding with my family on a Saturday afternoon.
2. Trader Joe's "2 Buck Chuck" Merlot wine in large quantities.
3. Watching my 14 month old son walk naked across the living room floor.
4. Hearing my 3 1/2 year old son tell me I am his best friend (along with his brother).
5. Watching movies I borrowed from my library for free.
6. Hearing from my sister that she got her dream job (working for the America Cancer Society).
7. Learning that a close friend is pregnant by surprise when she didn't think it would ever happen, but really, really, really wanted it to happen.
8. Hearing my kids singing in the bath.
9. Nursing my baby in the afternoon with no sleep expectations.
10. Reading to Sam.
11. The rare passionate kisses I sometimes steal with Matt in public.
12. Watching the snow fall by candlelight at dinner per request of Sam.
13. Knitting and watching the Gilmore Girls.
14. Folding diapers and watching the Gilmore Girls.
15. Walking in a light snowfall in the afternoon when the city sounds quiet.
16. A nice lavender shea butter lotion when my hands are very dry.
17. Watching Arlo sign "bath time" with the sign that Sam invented and taught to him.
18. Laying in bed at night with my boys asleep, watching movies with Matt, the electric blanket on and knitting.
19. Listening to Matt play guitar, especially when he has either just written a new song or mastered a new Ray LaMontagne song...(he just figured out how to play "Be Here Now" and I love it!)
20. A hot shower, all alone without worrying that either boy is going to wake up, get hurt, or break something.