the tree is free

all the presents have been cleared from under the tree - the end to another joyous holiday

rough day

it must have been a rough day at day care. ben fell asleep sitting up on the couch while I was making supper

a time for family

missing a few, but adding another. we welcome Isabel to the family and hope to see her soon

national lampoon's Christmas

i never actually attempted this before, but where there is a will, there is a way. how else to get a 10' Christmas tree home. and the 30mph head wind made it all the more exciting

white suit and a red bow tie

time to dress up the house for the holidays

holiday lights

after 4 years of living in Newton, we finally made it to the lighting of the courthouse and the ensuing lighted parade on the square this year. it was nice, we only had to walk 3 blocks to get there from our new house.

santa came early

look what he left me. it is currently not functioning, but the problem seems fairly simple, I hope to have it running in the next few weeks. thanks santa

UPDATE: after a few hours working on it, fixing a short on the heater coil and a few disconnected wires. . . we now have a working piece of machinery. I pulled the first shot tonite, my own blend of brazil daterra reserve and 20% indian robusta. turned out excellent

I am thankful

grandma B, grandma Sue, Loni, Nick, Katie, and Lexy came down for the weekend and we celebrated Katie's birthday and thanksgiving. we had a good time

settled in

getting settled into our new house, and life has started a regular pace and schedule again. nice

arghhh. happy halloween

ben and claire were pirates this year. arghh, walk the plank

custom woodworks

the cabinet maker has some nice pics of the kitchen on his website. the slideshow utilizes adobe flashplayer, so some of you may not be able to see them.

www.customwoodworksonline.com

update your address book

217 S. 3rd Ave E
Newton, IA 50208

we moved out of the old house and into the new house yesterday and we are slated to close the old house with the buyers on october 31st. its real - we are finally moving! we now have a guest bedroom, come and visit anytime

it looks like a home

grandma and grandpa came down for a couple days to help with a few final details. painting and installing trim, hardware, etc.

claire started dance

can you see it?

the kitchen almost looks finished - just a few final details. there are a few more things to do in the bathrooms, but not much there, either.

I think the end is in sight

it's magic

refinishing some of the door hardware. utilizing some rust-oleum hammered paint. absolutely magical stuff, I have never seen anything like it. brush it on and in less than 10 seconds, wha-la a beautiful hammered finish.

disaster averted

I stopped by the house to mow the law at 6:00 tonite, everything looked good inside and out. went back to the old house and mowed, and then Chrissy and I went to get something to eat and drop off a few things at the house at 8:30. when I opened the front door I could hear a drip...drip,drip,drip...drip...drip. I turned on the light and water was coming through one of the light fixtures in the kitchen!!!!

I turned off the water at the main and depressurized the system. about 1-2 gallons had come through. about 1-2" around the fixture is starting to bubble, we will see in the morning

finally

the countertops went in today.

a little demo

the back entry was a little ragged, and the electrician needed to get into the walls to rewire, so tonite I went to work

my abc's

ben needs a little practice, but he has a good start

do you like oak

the cabinets went in yesterday, but he had a problem with one of them. he is trying to get it rebuilt by tomorrow morning so the countertop installer can get his work done

another project done

a BIG thank you to Lenny for helping out with refinishing the floors. 2000sf + 2 people + 3 days = ALOT of work. anyway, they turned out great

the state fair is over

it was a good fair this year. we made it out there probably 4-5 separate days. beatiful weather when grandma, ganka, jess, matt, reid, elliott, josh, and joni came to visit for the weekend. ben and claire took part in the twins contest - they didn't place this year, maybe next

tile goes in - money goes out

the tile installer was in the past couple weeks to install flooring in the kichen and baths. they didn't order enough for the tub surround in the master bath, though. estimated time of arrival - September 9. the air conditioner has finally been reinstalled, and was working well last night - it wasn't too warm outside (low 80s), but was very humid. triming around the new rough openings is complete. bathroom cabinets have been installed and kitchen cabinets should go in next week

a few finishing touches

I know it's early, but we are getting to a few of what I call the finishing touches. the tile layer is here installing floors and surrounds in the bathrooms and kitchen, and the floor grilles for the HVAC ducting came in. we have two of these 20"x30" units for the return ducts

cabinets

our cabinet maker has posted some pictures on his blog of our cabinets. he might try and post a few more as he progresses.

http://www.customwoodworksonline.net/

now for a little color

we got a little painting done on the house this weekend. really brightened it up and made it look one step closer to being finished. the tiler is coming this week to install the floors and surround in the kitchen and baths. bathroom cabinets the week after. and kitchen cabinets the week after that.

where in the world are Grandma and Grandpa?

Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Galen are in New Orleans on a church mission trip. here is the weather for today

time for a hair cut

claire had her first hair cut today - at 26 months old, it was getting a little shaggy. ben got his hair cut, too

the state fair is coming!

the fair is getting close. this year's t-shirts have been printed. i will try to get them washed a couple times before we wear them - cold and then hot

a few balloons

this afternoon we went down to Indianola with our friends the Nikkel twins to the balloon festival. if you ever get a chance to go to one, I would recommend it - they are spectacular

kansas city

this past weekend we traveled to Kansas City for a mini-vacation. it was kind-of a last minute deal, so when we gave cousin Jason a call and found out he was heading to Germany http://thebreuers.blogspot.com/, we were a little disappointed but decided to head there anyway. we saw a few of the sites and traveled around town. Ben and Claire had fun at the zoo, we would highly recommend going there

a little cabinet work

i stopped by our cabinet maker this afternoon. he is probably 75% completed with the frames of the kitchen cabinets. set to start on the doors and drawers later this week

aqui, manana

those were the only words I understood last night when I stopped in to check on the progress of the drywalling. a crew of 6-8 guys came in yesterday at about 3:00 and worked until after 9:00 hanging drywall. almost completed, though without electricity (i.e. lights), they couldn't get any more done. they should finish hanging today and get some mud up

eye candy

thought I might post a little something for Grandpa Galen. the owner objected slightly when I wanted to take a picture and he hadn't had a chance to wash it yet, but I wasn't going to be able to come back later - you will have to excuse the spots

Enjoy!

work on the house

not much photo-worthy progress on the house this week. new furnace installed and water and sewer roughed in. HVAC ducting to come shortly. electrical should start early next week, and hopefully drywall near the end of next week or beginning of the next

joel at custom woodworks has started on our cabinets, and has the plywood sides and backs cut. hopefully next week he will have a few frames and cabinets put together for me to see. he has posted our layouts on his website at http://www.customwoodworksonline.com/Kitchens.html if you want to see our kitchen

claire bear

just thought I would post this pic of claire that I shot with the 35mm

at the car show

we went to the BIG carshow in Des Moines on Sunday, Ben had a lot of fun. we made it almost 2 hours before he got bored and started playing more than he was looking at the cars.

and there was a hole

the end of the week showed we had less house than when we started, but that was a good thing. the hole in the kitchen/dining room wall in front of the sink was cut out. it really opens up the kitchen, and adds detail to the flat wall in the dining room

shakerato

Galen and Jeanne found a coffee recipe book called Coffee Cafe by Sherri Johns, and I have tried a few recipes out of it. I may have found a new favorite summer drink

shakerato (SHAKE - erato)

makes one 5 oz drink

1 shot (~1 oz) of espresso
1.5 tbsp sugar syrup or flavored syrup of choice - I use almond
3 large ice cubes

add ice cubes and sugar syrup to cocktail shaker (or improvised shaker with a heavy glass cup and another plastic cup that seals inside) pour espresso over top and let cool for 15 seconds. cover top and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. pour into clear glass and drink immediately

the foam at the top is the amazing part

tear out - tear in

the demolition on the house is nearly complete, and rebuild has begun. the kitchen and bathrooms are down to the bare interior walls and plumbing rough-in is probably 75% complete

the drop ceilings in the main floor have been removed and are ready for electrical rewire

ben absolutely loves going to the house these

days, but we have to plan on extra time for him to drive the tractor

parents again

Ben and Claire have returned after a week with Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Galen. it sounded like they had an eventful week of playing tractors, jumping in the swimming pool, and generally keeping everyone busy. on Saturday we even got to stay overnight in the new camper when we met them in Story City

we had a fun afternoon today, as well. listening to a little music from jason brown, chris kaegle, and others at the big country bash in Des Moines. it kept Claire bopping and swaying for a good 5 hours.

ahhh, progress

after all the financial, planning, layout, coordination - some progress on the house. the general contractor has started demolition, the HVAC & plumbers have demoed 90% of the mechanicals and have started the new install. a little bad/good news though - some of the downstairs has some knob-and-tube, which will need to be replaced along with the entire upstairs, which we had figured on originally

indy comes to town

This weekend the indy cars came to the Iowa Speedway in Newton for the Iowa Corn 250. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the stands were packed.

Grandma, Grandpa, Josh, Jess, cousin Reid and Elliott came down as well, and had some fun. They played outside in the sprinker, played in the park, and ran around our new house.

a little bit of water

Finally, the water has crested in Des Moines. We weren't very close to it - Des Moines is 30 minutes West and Cedar Rapids is 45 minutes east, but that is definitely close enough. On our way to pick up Ben and Claire after their week staying at Grandma Sue and Papa Joe's in Waconia, we snapped some photos of the ball diamonds on the north side of Des Moines.

Ben & Claire are 2!!!

Ben and Claire have officially entered the Terrible Twos. Double Trouble! Their birthday was May 26th and we celebrated with Grandma Sue, Grandma Jeanne, Grandpa Galen, Aunt Loni, and cousins Nick, Katie, and Reid at Bridges Bay Resort at the Iowa Lakes. We had a blast at the waterpark! Ben loved the slides and Claire loved the Lazy River. Nick and Katie went down the big waterslides and we finally convinced Reid to go down a couple of slides. We had Tropical Snows a couple of times (Ben's a huge fan) and ate Bob Dogs by Spirit Lake.

We celebrated with our Newton friends and "family" on June 1st. We had a bouncehouse and snow cone machine. I think both were big hits! We had about 70 people show up and the day was beautiful! And Ben and Claire made out like bandits again! It's a good thing we've got a bigger house to move into with all these toys! The day was a big success thanks in large part to Galen and Jeanne who came to help with yardwork, food preparation, and grilling. Thanks guys!!!

our new house

On May 30th we gained a new project - 217 S. 3rd Ave E. in Newton. Mechanically and structurally a good house, but needs some significant remodeling. We are assuming it was last touched in the 60s or 70s. It has has a few mechanical updates, to help with selling, but otherwise pretty rough.

We are planning on a complete gut and remodel of the kitchen and 3 baths, as well as refinishing the hardwood floors, stripping the dropped ceiling, completely removing all of the knob-and-tube electrical wiring from the upper level, and almost a complete plumbing overhaul. Whew - I am getting tired already.