Brinley Turns Two!

Sunday was a rare day - one where friends who don't ever seem to get together all wound up at the same place at the same time.  Apparently all it takes is for one of their kids to have a birthday!

Brinley, basically our "adopted" granddaughter (she and her cousin Elizabeth are likely to be the ONLY grandDAUGHTERS we will have!) turned two this week and though she lives in Colorado, she (and her parents) were able to come "home" to Washington to celebrate.

Lucky for her I just happen to know the best cake decorator in the world - JENNY!  Which was also good for us since that meant a quick visit at gma and gpa's before heading over to the Churchills for the party.  Since the weather was so nice the boys got to take the Mustang out for a little drive in the sunshine.  Jax (now 3) has certainly improved since last year - he can actually steer!  And go in reverse!  (These are HUGE improvements over last year and make all of us adults watching far less nervous when he takes Shay along for a ride!!!)

Our window of opportunity for visiting here was short this weekend - only long enough to have Cathy & Dan  (Gerry's sister and brother-in-law) drop by to pick out some of our "former" kitchen cabinets.  (We've got to get the garage cleared out so that the new appliances can be delivered!)

There were TEN GU ALUMS!  I think we achieved "quorum"
 for an  official alumni meeting!

Then it was time to get over to the party.  The majority of adults in attendance were either Gonzaga grads or had financed said grads so the party started with a bit of commiseration (the Bulldogs had lost the night before) but with FIVE kids three and under (Jax was the old man of the gang!) things picked up speed in a hurry!  It was a lot like "parent orientation" day at a preschool!  

Youngest boy: Thatcher (on the right) is 6 MONTHS younger
than Shay (on the left!)

Not so much...

Having a good time...

Brinley & Jax in love...again!

Finally, after what must have seemed like an eternity to Brinley, it was time for CAKE!  Jenny really outdid herself once again - this was an adorable polka-dotted cake with the cutest elephant and a purple "zebra" design inside.  It was AMAZING!

After cake there were a few presents to open and with Jax supervising, Brinley got thru them fairly quickly and had just about 10 minutes left for some additional playtime before everyone had to hit the road.  The kids were sad but perked up a bit when they learned that we would be getting together again on Wednesday to visit the Children's Museum of Tacoma!

~later, tw

They're Here! And They're Beautiful!

...or rather they will be...when they are uncrated and installed that is.

Yesterday morning the cabinets arrived.  To prepare for this event, Gerry spent some time Sunday night moving everything he could to the back room, leaving only the sofa in the TV room (or as we're now calling it the "Cabinet/Cupboard Acclimation" room).





These photos should come with a warning:  "Carpet appears much cleaner and in much better shape than it really is."

And so I had the guys put down some protection for the floor before the cabinets arrived (not so much because the carpet is more fabulous than I originally thought but really because there's no way that we will be able to AFFORD new carpet after this remodel!)

And then the guy with the really big truck arrived and it didn't take long for the three of us - Todd, master electrician, Nathan (we'll call him construction intern - he's a college kid who's worked for our builder between college classes at SPU) and me - to figure out this guy was having a pretty rough day.  Nathan said he seemed to be the guy who got up on the wrong side of the bed MOST mornings and I couldn't disagree.  Obviously snapping a photo of him delivering the many boxes was absolutely out of the question.


And there were a LOT of boxes (56 to be exact - or at least I hope so because we didn't actually count them and he didn't seem inclined to wait for us to do so).


With two left to go, the formerly-known-as-TV-room was packed.  Naturally the two remaining were the largest - the 8 ft. pantry and it's near twin 8 ft. china cupboard.

Trying to make his day a little brighter I told him that maybe we should put these two large boxes in the piano room (thereby avoiding the step-down TV room).  He didn't seem nearly as grateful for this idea as I would have hoped but at that point I was just trying to expedite the process and get him on his way to making some other family happy with their delivery.

Clearly our TV watching evenings are over until such time as these can be uncrated and installed (probably not until next week).

Meanwhile, the room needs to be finished before this can happen.  First up, while Todd completes the electrical happenings (finishing relocating outlets and light switches, etc.), Nathan began work on the hardwood floor.  It's a back breaking job but somebody has to do it (thankfully the lowest man on the totem pole - aka the intern).







Gerry happened to get home before Nathan had quit for the day and watched him selecting pieces of wood, carefully lining them up, pounding them into position and using the nail guy to secure them.  He was really impressed at the kid's expertise and asked how long he had been doing flooring.  Nathan looked at me and asked "What?  Since about 10 am?"  [Today was his first day actually doing flooring.  Fortunately for all of us, he's a) a great kid; b) a quick study; c) part of David's team which means I never have to worry about any of this being down right the first time!]

It's going to be gorgeous when it all gets refinished (though I might find reasons to escape during at least some of the process - it's pretty noisy around here these days!)

~later, tw

Sunday Breakfast

Weekday breakfasts are usually just utilitarian and/or totally healthy: cheerios or oatmeal.  Basically a little something while we read the paper.



Weekend breakfasts, on the other hand, are typically a bit splashier - something to savor and linger over with another pot of tea.  So this Sunday we had banana pecan pancakes.


Not so unusual for a beautiful Sunday in March...



...unless you consider that the griddle is now located directly in front of our front entry door.







Which makes it incredibly handy as it is only a few feet away from our "dining table" (also in right in front of the door - please don't come by at meal time!)

Meanwhile on the construction front, we enjoyed a bit of a surprise on Friday.  March appears to have come in like a lamb but the lion made one more roar before (hopefully) surrendering to spring:

The hardwood flooring is here and ready for installation in the dining room (no more carpets under the table...or the HIGH CHAIRS!)

And there is LIGHT once again!  Many of the new lights in the kitchen are now functioning (which makes it a lot easier and actually safer to head out to the gazebo for a hot meal!)

~later, tw

Lookin' a Bit Cheesy Just Now!

Here's the ceiling in the kitchen area now:

It's looking pretty (Swiss) cheesy as Todd, master electrician, is taking down the old lights, making way for the new lights, checking to see where the vents, water (yeah water in the ceiling - I mean, how else would we get water to the master bedroom?), air ducts, etc. were, are, evermore will be.

And in his spare time, if you look really closely at the right side of this photo you will see that we now have light switches for the TV room ACTUALLY IN THE TV ROOM!!!  I'm really starting to love that man!

I'm trying to do my part too (to hasten construction because the allure of making meals in the laundry room has already rubbed off!) so yesterday I went "shopping" with Sue (the designer I'm working with).  Those who know me will understand when I say it was a long, grueling...morning (I really don't like to "SHOP" so I was not disappointed when it only took a matter of hours to select: granite (yeah, GRANITE - and there are reasons....REALLY GOOD REASONS why granite is the best choice), tile, cabinet hardware, door hardware, faucet fixtures.  I had to re-select the cabinet hardware today as I apparently had too good of taste yesterday (read that as "REALLY EXPENSIVE" so we're opting for some different, but beautiful none-the-less...or I guess actually none-the-MORE ;0) ) hardware and I still have to pick out a couple of light fixtures but the bulk of my decision making it hopefully behind me.

~later, (going to the laundry room to find some crackers to go with my cheesy ceiling) tw

PS:  For those of you who saw Jenny's video yesterday (and didn't get it!), LISTEN to the song in the background!

PPS:  If that didn't work, consider this:  we'll now have the starting line up for our basketball team!

PPPS:  IT'A BOY!!!!!  And we're delighted!!!!

Hey Now, Let's Be Careful Out There...

[from the "you-just-can't-make-this-stuff-up files"...]

'Zip-related genital injuries' send thousands of men to ER each year

"An estimated 17,616 people wound up in U.S. emergency rooms between 2002 and 2012 because they caught their genitals, almost always penises, in zippers, according to a new study." 

Which naturally begs the question...Somebody funded a study for this???

~later, tw

One Small Step For Man...

...one large tumble out the back door of the house:

This is the few from the backyard looking at the beautiful brand new doors into the dining room (where the big picture window used to be).  There aren't any stairs just yet so it would be a pretty big step out but it's still WONDERFUL!  Both the doors and the side windows have mini-blinds inside the window themselves!

The view from the dining room

I liked it so much when I saw it at Jenny's apartment that we are having ALL the doors on the back side of the house replaced:

The door from the kitchen nook.

Other changes are starting to gradually appear -  there are now holes in the ceiling where the lights will be moving to, cutouts for the future appliances and on the floor, the outline emerges for what will eventually become the island (the focal point of the kitchen).

The outline for the island (lower left floor)

Cupboards will be coming this week and appliances probably the next (but first I've got to pick out some counter tops!)

Can't wait!!!

~later, tw

But we still gotta eat...

The demolition of the kitchen took hardly anytime at all.

That's the good news.

But in the interim (~ two months), we still gotta eat.  And unless that means eating every single breakfast, lunch and dinner in a restaurant (not incredibly affordable if we want to still be able to pay for this remodel and even if we take full advantage of the Red Robin Loyalty program), a make-do kitchen needed to be created.

Let me walk you through it:

You've already seen the relocation of the refrigerator.  Conveniently relocated to the foyer, it is close at hand to the "large pantry" which is now residing in the "piano room."  This is the cupboard from the dining room where we house the bulk of items we elected not to pack (plates, silverware, cereal containers, small appliances such as the rice cooker and crockpot, cashews - what would life be like without access to cashews?  Unthinkable!)  We have also collapsed the small table from the nook and two folding chairs.  We move this out into the foyer for breakfast (the light is better for reading the morning newspaper - while we still have a print edition!) and back into the "piano room" for nightly chess games.



The balance of the kitchen has been recreated, if considerably scaled down, in the laundry room.  It's incredibly "cozy" when we're all in there trying to find something for dinner.  Chris had to finally move his clean laundry to his bedroom so we could put the microwave in there and the dish rack.


Gerry cleared out some of the laundry supplies (to the floor) and we were able to put some supplies - peanut butter (MUST HAVE!), cookies for his lunch, a few other staples.  Even the laundry chute has been repurposed to store tea, bread, chicken/beef stock packets (usually my lunch on cold days - I'm reluctantly becoming accustomed to water heated in the microwave - which BTW makes lousy, but doable for now, tea).





Naturally this move is causing a bit of stress (so MANY questions constantly being thrown at me -
Which wall comes down?  Where do you want the outlets?  Where do the light switches go and what do they turn on/off? Don't you want another heat register in this room?  Do we have a plan for dinner?) that I knew I had better carve out space for a make-shift mini bar.



As we were packing we were able to actually put some thought into the process.  We moved at a pace that was consistent, unhurried, and ... ruthless.  It was surprisingly easy to designate things into one of four categories:  KEEP OUT (for temp kitchen), PACK IT (for storage), GIRLS (things that won't be moving back into the new kitchen but maybe the girls might like), "TRUCK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD" (for donation).

And we did move at a pretty good clip while doing this...until... the spice cupboard.  I had saved this for last since I knew it was going to be difficult.  Trying to determine which spices would be allowed space in the temporary kitchen and which spices I would have no access to for two months felt a lot like asking a mother to pick her favorite child.  (Which of  course is truly ridiculous since I have such little actual cooking capabilities - exactly how will I be able to use ANY of these spices?)

As I stood there, rather forlornly (and more importantly to Gerry, not seeming to be doing anything), he said, "bring 'em all" - and so we did.  (I imagine that he will actually be happier than I to have access to them since I figure all our "home cooked" meals will either be slow cooked, nuked or BBQd!

And so, we have an interim kitchen (and fortunately a friend who has offered to feed us during our remodel - a favor that we will be happy to reciprocate in April when she begins her kitchen remodel).



later, (off to make cold cereal for breakfast in my temp kitchen) tw