70 degrees in December

Took advantage of global warming to clean our yard and porch. Harris cleaned out the summer kitchen. For some reason, we had three bags of charcoal. We don't own a charcoal grill.

A bunch of other stuff on the curb, in the trash, in the recycling bin.

Madeline and I used the leftover trim paint on the benches that Harris made last year from the bedframes left in the house when we purchased it.

Margot napped. And played. And pinched and screamed at Madeline for not letting her run into the street. Then they shared a granola bar and we're ok again.

Madeline and I also scrubbed, sanded, and spray painted the ice cream parlour chairs I bought last year while Harris was in rehab. I don't know what went wrong. we scrubbed and sanded until there was no more rust, then when we started spray painting, the paint started flaking even more. It's very odd. This will get them through the summer and we'll work on them again this spring.

Harris and Madeline hung the Christmas lights on the house. It looks downright festive.
Margot and I went to Target to finish the last of the shopping.

And yet - we're all sick with head colds and feeling like crud. How we got all of this done this weekend I don't know.

Comments

reflecting, thinking about what's next

Reading through the blog, mainly to look at the ruin that was our house and the wee little babes that were our babies, now walking, running, yelling girls and found this from January 2016 What's left - the girls bathroom, master suite, sunroom, tile patching in 2 bathrooms, butler pantry. Summer kitchen. Landscaping. We've completed the girls bathroom, butler pantry, and landscaping. The sunroom is ALMOST finished. After living in the house with three girls we've changed plans a little bit for the remaining work. We're opting to turn what would have been mine and Harris's bedroom, closet, and bathroom into a bonus room of sorts. We'll also leave the wall there and add the washer/dryer upstairs and some desk space so the girls have a place to work. We also will build a general storage closet up there so clothing doesnt have to go up and down to the attic each season. We've also decided we need a shower upstairs, so the clawfoot that is in bad shape up

Catching up

It's been a harder than expected winter. Hillary losing the election has hit our family hard. Many of our friends will be hurt by the policies being put forward, our communities will be damaged, and there are kids and adults all around us sad, scared, and afraid for what this means for our county. Harris works at the Jewish Community Center - his clients, friends, and families have seen Jews be vilified, images of their children in ovens, references to the Holocaust. Jews make up less than 3% of our country. Why are you picking on them? Why are you silent when you allies seek to hurt them? I get it, everyone disagrees about political ideas and concepts , but fundamentally, I'm not saying the religious right has no place in our society. I'm not saying that Republicans should all die and yet, the rhetoric I see from others is that immigrants don't belong here, that some people 'deserve' more than they are getting, that gay people are gross and shouldn&#

Budget

Dad was asking about the budget and how we're doing so far. Initially we had a total budget of about $350k for the house. As we negotiated the purchase price up and found more information about what the house needed that budget went to a maximum of about $415k. As of today, we anticipate spending around $400k or ~$111/sqft. As a comparison, Oakwood cost us $90/sqft and we sold for $106/sqft and the new owners are doing all kinds of neat stuff we dreamed about doing. So far we're under budget in a couple of areas, within budget but ahead of schedule in some (which can also be read as over budget...) and just going to be way over in a couple of key areas. Our original plan including making a temporary kitchen that we could live with, but would be massively overhauled within a year or two. Instead we decided to do it right the first time and enjoy it the entire time. To this end, our temp budget for cabs, appliances, and counters, was initally $5,600. However, that's g

Adventures at The Bunny Manse

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