This doorway is going to be 5 feet wide so the dining room will be a little more connected with the kitchen. 

There used to be all kinds of kitchen cabinets here. The whole space looks so big without any appliances or cabinets. 

We will have the kitchen sink until a temporary one can be installed in the dining room. But what I am discovering is that it may actually be easier to use an upstairs bathroom sink.

The zippered door between the construction area and the rest of the house is cumbersome to use with an armload of dishes. That wouldn't be so bad except the cats are OBSESSED with exploring back here, especially last night when they could feel the cool air blown in from this window. I had to shut the window and let them satisfy their curiosity else I do believe they would have torn apart the plastic wall. But letting the cats back here means they will bring dust and dirt back into the rest of the house.

So, it may end up being easier just to leave the zipper closed and rinse dishes up stairs. We'll see if I still think so after the weekend....stay tuned. 

The bathroom is gutted except for the toilet which can't come out until the Porta-John is put in the garden. I didn't know until now that the bathroom used to be that red-orange color. The library was that color when we moved in and the kitchen was that color some time in the past. I like that color but do not think I would have wanted to be so comopletely surrounded by it in my home.

Look at the DUST! I haven't been able to wear my contacts all week and I think it is because of all the dust stirred up and created by all the demo work. I will be glad when it settles down. 

This was the old pantry/coat closet. Pretty color, isn't it? We are putting a built-in desk in this space and it will be very nice to have the light from this window. It was a shame to have it shut up in the closet. 

Here is the dining room. The black plastic has a zipper in it so we can get in here without having to go outside and around back. The door to my office is walled off. That is our range there wrapped in black plastic. We hope this room will be beautiful and elegant in 3 or 4 months but it is hard to imagine that right now!

House Renovation Progress, Sort of...

Today was our contractor's first day here to start our project. There are a couple of "before" pictures below. Somehow, I got the kitchen cleaned out. Pablo and Miguel moved the large kitchen sideboard into my front hall so I could put our food and dishes on it. The refrigerator is now in the living room.

I tried to heat up leftovers for dinner but when I ran the microwave, the circuit with the refrigerator on it went out. The front hall circuit did too but I'm not sure why. Since Lyra was screaming (she was hungry too) and I didn't want to try moving the microwave around the room to test different outlets. So, here are the kids eating cereal for dinner. Will wasn't really as happy about that as he looks in the picture.

Tomorrow is another day!

The movers have already been here and left. Can you tell? I CAN'T! Where am I going to put all this stuff? 

We moved a lot of furniture out of the house so we would have room to still live here while remodeling our kitchen, bathroom and dining room. The kids cannot believe how much space we have now that the dining room table is gone. 

We are getting ready to do a big renovation on the first floor. The renovation includes our kitchen, downstairs bathroom, dining room and refinishing the floors in the living room and library. We put a lot of stuff in storage. The pack and move effort has been a source of great fascination for the cats. They've checked out every box but that didn't stop our crock pot and dustbuster from accidentally getting packed and sent away just when we need them most!

Caldwell, Ross and Will spent a great deal of time creating this model of Courasant from the billions of Legos owned by both households. I wish I knew how to photograph these things to do them justice.

Look at Me!

Lyra has long eyelashes (which she, unfortunately, did not inherit from me). No teeth yet though I SWEAR there have to be some on the way. She looks like Will in this picture. 

The President of the United States owes this country an apology

Keith Olbermann has been delivering a series of Special Comments on MSNBC responding to various actions and statements of the Bush administration. This video is one of the best so far. It addresses Bush's response to Colin Powell's criticism of Whitehouse efforts to pass torture enabling legislation. Our country owes a debt to Secretary Powell for his moral leadership. Initially Senator Graham, Senator Warner, and Senator McCain showed similar moral leadership, but they have now put politics ahead of representing right over wrong.

Cookies for Sale!

Today we did a yard sale that included cookies, muffins and a lot of junk from around the house. Cheryl and Todd and Eric and Kevin came and sold stuff with us. The kids sold nearly all their cookies and muffins. I wish I could say we sold all our junk! Lots of it went to charity at the end of it all. But we had a lot of fun and met some neighbors we didn't know before. I am sure we will be doing this again in the spring. 

It Hatched!

Last week, we found a monarch caterpillar in the backyard. We put in in a jam jar and it immediately hung from the lid and created its chrysalis. It hatched yesterday morning. Poor Will stayed home from school because he was sick (yes, already, on the third day of school) but seeing the butterfly hatch made up for it a little bit.

First Day of School

Eva is very proud of her "second grade desk." She has one of the tallest desks in her first grade class. How did they know? 

Such a serious student! 

Happy Birthday!

Look! Mom is 24! So how am I 39? Oh yes, I am supposed to be lying about my age now.... 

Cousins Having Fun

It was fun to see Frank, Cristin, and all the kids for Mom's birthday last week. No one would cooperate for a posed photograph but that's OK. This is more fun and certainly more realistic. 

Podracing

In Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace , one of the great scenes is the pod pace where young Anakin Skywalker wins his freedom. I am not sure if there are any official Lego pod racers, but Will and his friend Charlie were able to go through our extensive Lego parts bin and come up with enough material for three excellent and very realistic pod racers.

Noelle

Noelle has made herself at home in the little cave at the bottom of the cat tree. KC never sleeps in here. Maybe he is too big. I think Noelle's eyes are beautiful. 

Sleeping Beauty Wakes up!

Sometimes it is easier for me to have Lyra nap on the floor instead of trying to get her in the crib. KC likes to nap with her maybe because she is so warm and snuggly. They were so cute sleeping side by side but Lyra woke up as soon as I got my camera out. She didn't want to miss a photo op! 

And She's Off!

Pretty much as soon as I posted on Tuesday, Lyra figured out a proper crawling technique that will get her to wherever she wants to go. This morning, she pretty much crawled the length of the house, with lots of encouragement from Will and Eva. Will calls her the "PT Cruiser." 

It is so difficult to take a picture of all three kids. Will lost another tooth so he is starting to look like a woodland creature and Eva is always putting Lyra right in front of her face. At least we can't see if Eva is hanging her tongue out. Lyra was getting ready for a crawling adventure! She definitely has the hang of it now.

Finally Friends

We didn't realize when we acquired a second cat that we were creating a "Will and Eva" dynamic in our pets.
KC and Noelle play together, fight with each other and follow each other all over the house. They eat each other's food and always want what the other one has. KC and Noelle call each other mean cat names. But when they think we're not looking, we can tell they like each other. Here is KC grooming Noelle.

Like Old Times

Yesterday, we went to Green Spring Gardens Park with Cheryl, Eric and Kevin. This is a beautiful garden where we used to take Will and Eva when they were little. It's our last week before school starts and Eva really wanted to go back here. We hadn't been in a long time.

Unfortunately, as I was looking at these pictures, I realized that my new camera had the @#)$*#) photo quality setting on 640x480 all this time. CURSE WORD! CURSE WORD! (Will and Eva are watching me update this so I must watch my language!) I have so many great pictures that won't work for a photo album now.