We've created a monster

A banana eating monster! This little girl loves her mashed nanners. She eats about 1/3 of a banana each night at dinner with us. I think she's just happy to be sitting at the table and eating with us. She seems to love it as much as the bananas.




She's also working hard on rolling over. More to follow.

Cabinetry Hackery

This weekend we took the plunge. We have talked about adding a dishwasher for quite a while, but knew that there was no way we could do it with such low water pressure. The well is in now and the pressure is much much better than before. The drillers estimated 17 gpm (as opposed to our previous 1.9 gpm). I already removed the floorboard heater that was in the way (hadn't been used in years). Now all that stands between us and freedom a dishwasher is the cabinets....


The logical location was next the the sink. Unfortunately, in 1964, the didn't have modular kitchen cabinets, or at least not in this house. We knew what we had to do - modularize them. The theory was simple enough. Split the 36", 2 door unit off of the rest and push it ~24" to the left. Then we would have to replace some wood, match the stain, and put a new side wall in. Still, it seemed daunting. We called a professional cabinet shop here in town and had them come out for an estimate. $600-800. US. He was guessing that it would be about 8-10 hours of work @ $80 per hour. Suddenly, doing it myself seemed much more doable. The cabinet guy even recommended it.


Enough was enough. We consulted with Emily's Uncle Mike Lantz who knows a thing or two about finish carpentry, and he said we should be able to pull it off. That was all I needed. I bought a $12 backsaw to use for the fine, flush cuts, as well as some supplies to build the new pieces. I cut and cut and cut. 2 hours worth of cutting. There was no turning back once I cut the face of the cabinets.

Monday was all the cutting. We made a last minute change of plans to cut on the sink side of the cabinet. This would leave the 36" unit totally intact (surely easier to move), we wouldn't have to horse around with the cabinet shelf (finish nailed to the sidewall that would have been staying next to the sink), and the remaining cabinet would not suffer for the weight of the sink as the counter would still be supported by the traveling cabinet.

My handy backsaw for fine, flush cuts (blade is 0.5 mm thick)

Coming through the toe-kick.

A little help from an old friend.

Flashlight stand. West Lafayette style.

Tuesday after work, I unscrewed the countertop, removed the quarter round at the bottom for the linoleum, and moved the cabinet. Left over from Emily's sewing table, I had about 26" of countertop with a jagged edge. After trimming a half inch off it was a perfect fit. A perfect temporary fit. It won't be there forever. Anyways, we'll not only gain a dishwasher, but also 24" of counter space!

FREEDOM!

In it's new home.

The ghetto countertop extension.

Now it's down to finishing out the new pieces for the right side of the opening, electrical, and plumbing which will come from under the sink and not be nearly as difficult as it was sweating the valves on. Not so big on local water shut-offs in 1964 either. That was Saturday. Getting solder to flow up, not so easy. No leaks though!

Big Sister Addie

Happy Birthday Michael!!!!

If you can not tell by the photo, Michael did have a great birthday. Saturday he enjoyed the day by playing basketball, laying in the hammock with his two girls, riding bikes with Addie and then we finished off the day with a surprise trip to the beach. Addie and I surprised Michael by having a pizza ready to go at a local pizza place and we took it to the beach for an evening picnic. After we were done at the beach we went downtown to the South Bend Chocolate Company for some birthday cake. According to Addie it was the best birthday ever. Michael didn't say that but he did enjoy the day.

This weekend we also gave Margaret solid foods for the first time. We fed her mashed bananas. She loved it! It was the moment she has been waiting for, for a very long time. Real food. I don't think that she was disappointed either. At her doctor's appointment earlier this week she weighed 16 pounds even and was 26 1/2 inches long. She is very big for only being 4 months!

Friday evening we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had a campfire. We roosted hot dogs and marshmallows. We all really enjoyed relaxing by the firing. Everyone slept well that evening. Saturday afternoon I was able to get more of my garden planted. Right now I have peas, carrots, and onions that are doing great. Michael worked on removing the heater from the kitchen on Sunday. We have to have it removed to be able to make room for a dishwasher. We are hoping to add one to our kitchen once we get the well done.

I think that is all that is new with us. We hope that everyone is doing well. Please stay in touch!

Exersaucer

With bikini season coming, Marg decided she had better get in shape and told us she was ready for her exersaucer. This is the video we shot on Mother's Day, which was her first time in it. She loves it. Since then she has spend a fair amount of time in it each day and is getting more mobile in it all the time.

Well, Well

So it sounds like we are getting a well later this week or beginning of next! As most of you already know we get less then 2 gallons per minute with our current well and it has been that way since we moved in. We did attempt to put a new well in last year but after drilling two holes in our backyard we did not find water. This year we went with someone else who does water witching. They did "find" water in our front yard. Soon we will find out just how much water is there! We will keep you posted.

Today is a gorgeous day outside. The girls and I spent several hours enjoying the outdoors. I was busy working on some garden/yard work while Addie and Margaret played in the sun tent. We also went for a walk and as you can see in the photos the girls had fun playing in the backyard.




I took this photo yesterday of Margaret. I was trying to show how big she is getting. Today is her 4 month birthday! Once we go to her check up tomorrow I'll update you on all her weight and length but she is really getting big fast! There are some more photos of both the girls on our Flickr account. Hopefully tonight we will have a chance to get the newest video of Margaret off the camera and onto the blog. You will be amazed...

Addie's Bike

Addie got her big girl bike last year for her birthday. Lately, she has been asking about taking the training wheels off. Ok. None of her friends are doing this yet. Her friend Moira from down the block still rides a tricycle. But Moira's older brothers ride without training wheels. That's our Addie, always a step or two ahead.

This last weekend, our very close friends from Austin, John and Angie Gomez, came up for a visit - the John and Angie, as in the ones that Addie prays for every night. We had a great time and were so glad they could come by. With a couple extra pairs of hands, we thought it would be a good time to give Addie what she has been asking for - taking the training wheels off. Hold on to your hats, this one is a doozy.

Afterwards, Addie took a short spin with Emily as the co-pilot. Once they got a bout half-ways down the drive, Addie asked to put the training wheels back on. We did, but took them up a notch or two. She'll get there.

It was a fabulous weekend. We had a great visit with John and Angie. Beautiful weather here in SW Michigan. It hit 70 today, and we spent as much time outside as possible. It was also nice to open the windows and let some fresh air in. I got the yard mowed (first time this year), and finished Auntie Em's sweatshop sewing table. It has worked out nice so far, but we still need to add storage, which will be tricky. We'll post pictures soon, as well as some of the sewing room transformation.

We also had some of our first asparagus of the year - fresh from the garden. It was so good wrapped in prosciutto and baked. Mmmmm.

Check out the baby!

Okay, so I know that I'm teasing you with showing a photo of one of my flowers first. :) But I just thought that they were so pretty and unique. I'm not sure what they are called. If you happen to know please tell me. I found them around the edge of the ravine. They do appear to be a native woodland flower that would grow along the edge of the woods.

On to the baby... Margaret is getting so big on us. She is wearing 6-12 month clothes but I can not snap the onesies. Also, the skirt she has on in the photo is an 18 month. She had a great day today with lots of "talking", playing, and smiling. Here are some of the great photos I was able to take this evening.