Update in Images

Things are coming along on Center Avenue. Take a look!

Electrical = common sense

HVAC ducting

New garage pad and driveway, piece by piece

Basement entrance and mud room / screen porch

Tear down a front porch? "Easy!" (says Nate on Monday night)

We've decided to keep the same address :)

Goodbye Sunshine. See you in May

Last week, we started our Halloween celebrating by running the Haunted Hustle, a 1/4 mile kids race. Cora made it about 1/16 of the 1/4 mile, which I anticipated and thus brought a stroller because that's how her first 0.15 mile kids race went in August. It was fun though, and both Louisa and Cora loved the jack-o-latern finisher's medal they received after crossing the finish line. I had suggested to Louisa that she go as a sunshine, but she chose Little Red Riding Hood, which was fine. Sometime in the past year or two, I learned that it's not worth arguing about simple details like which costume a four (or two) year old is going to wear. I only suggested the sunshine because I sewed it two years ago and it still fits Louisa. So anyway, this part of the story is important because of what happened at the next costume-wearing-opportunity.

Cora choose to go as Raggedy Tinkle Bell

Nate surprised himself and us by catching an early flight home from Shanghai, so he returned around 4 pm on Wednesday instead of 5 pm on Thursday. We ate dinner together and then everyone, except me, was asleep by 8 pm. I considered going to bed too, but decided, in typical mom fashion, to stay up and enjoy the peace and the chance to do whatever I wanted. So I watched some HGTV on Netflix and daydreamed about our new house. After Small Spaces Big Design was over, our screen saver came on, showing a bunch of photos from our 3 years in California. I almost instantly felt this longing to be back in California, where the sun shines 355 days each year. To counter this sadness, I made a cup of hot tea, put on some Smartwool socks, and curled up in a blanket - things I always missed doing in California because it never got cold enough. While this warmth helped a bit, I was left with a feeling of regret. Did we make the right decision?

Of course it was the right decision, it's just that winter has finally arrived here in Madison. I knew the weather transition would be difficult, and yesterday was the first rainy, windy and cold day we've had since we moved back on May 24. That I know of (I was inside at work all day), the sun didn't shine. Finally around 10 pm, I went to bed, partly because I was tired and partly to stop dreaming of the California sunshine with my rose-tinted glasses.

I think I dreamt, but it wasn't about California, and I woke up slowly, so thankful that Nate was back and willing to receive all three kids as they woke at their normal time of 7:15. He even made breakfast...lucky me! On my days off (Tuesdays and Thursdays), I like to try to get out of the house and do something fun before Louisa catches the bus at 11:15. So during breakfast, I suggested that we go to the Madison Children's Museum for a Halloween party. Without any prompting, Louisa announced that she was going to be a sunshine today and Little Red Riding Hood for trick-or-treating on Saturday! So sweet. It's like she knew that I needed some sunshine.

At the museum, as I was wrangling the kids to get them into the car so Louisa wouldn't miss her bus, an adult volunteer called out to Louisa, Goodbye Sun! See you again in May! Oh how sweet his intentions were, but how harsh his words were to me. I sort of felt like I got punched in the gut. It was a joke though, right?! The sun will shine again before May, right? Yes, in-fact, it is right now. I may be wearing my down jacket inside as I type, but the sun is shining

More Kitchen Design Talk

To the lovely ladies who shared their thoughts and some great links, here are Nate's drawing that offer more details to help you visualize our kitchen. The upper cabinets are not purposefully grey, although that's an idea too. And the counter tops are not purposefully black, probably just what was in Nate's mind because that's what we chose in our last kitchen re-design. 

We do plan to do butcher block on the island and the breakfast bar. The large window by the refrigerator makes it difficult to do anything too useful with that back wall, but maybe some open shelving between the window and the mudroom? There won't be a door to slam (knocking things off), just an opening. 

The two doorways on the adjoining wall are for the laundry room and pantry. That wall probably has some potential for open shelving, although it's also a thoroughfare, and will likely hold our spice rack.

Fun conversations! I'd love to host a kitchen-design party like our great friends the Cizeks did, but this blog chatting is the next best thing with you out of state and out of country folk!

Kitchen Design Time

I wonder if asking others for their opinion about kitchen design is like asking their opinion about unborn baby names. You know, like you tell someone what you're leaning towards, and they make a "oh, that's nice" face?

But I'm going to go for it. Meaning, I'm going to show you pictures of our kitchen inspiration. Be honest and brainstorm with us. Just don't be sad if we don't ultimately choose your design.

What I like about the first kitchen below (from The Inspired Room) is the charcoal grey lower cabinets and white upper cabinets. I like the way they look on hardwood floors (which we'll keep in our kitchen) and how they lighten up and modernize the look. Stained wood can be beautiful too, but I think we'll have enough of it on the first floor that the kitchen needs to be something different.

I also like the white subway tile with dark grout, but wouldn't be able to handle white countertops. Would something darker contrast too much with a white backsplash?

Another thought is making the upper cabinets with glass fronts, just so things don't look too whitewashed? We are planning to have small cabinets all the way to the ceiling, so perhaps just having glass fronts on the small top cabinets, like this:

Transitional Kitchen by San Carlos General Contractors Allwood Construction Inc

What do you think? Let's hear your honest feedback!

Picture (Frame) This

I always thought that if we had to pick a "hardest worker" in our family, it would be me. NO LONGER! Nate has laid this thought to rest over the past 3 months. He has put in so much time at the new house. Most recently, he's been framing our new spaces, including new window openings and basement stairs. When he's there, he's working incredibly hard, and when he's not, the mental energy he's using could fill a bazillion houses. If Louisa wasn't sleeping, I'd ask her to better quantify how much mental energy he's put toward this remodel. She loves to quantify intangible things, like love, saying I love you as much as 10 houses or 100 marbles. I know in her mind, 100 marbles is lots of love, so I don't explain how little that actually is or that it doesn't compare to 10 houses. I just take the love and try to store it up for days when I might feel under appreciated (not that a mother of three ever feels that).

Nate has to take a 10 day break from the house for some day-job responsibilities, and while he's away the heating and AC contractors are coming to do their heating and cooling magic. They will not only install a new furnace, air conditioner and all the necessary ducting, they will also haul away the old radiators and boiling that have been cramping my cleaning style. After the HVAC is installed, it's time to frame the back porch and install electrical and plumbing before the insulation team comes in. The windows and new front door have been ordered and should be installed before the end of November. While he's away, we expect our concrete guy to get the garage pad poured so we can attempt to host our second ever garage raising this fall.

For the most part, Nate seems fairly optimistic. There have been a few evenings when he comes home overwhelmed by his "to do" list. This is when I remind him to reflect on his "done" list, which is long and impressive. Louisa has spent some good quality time at the house with Nate and it's rubbing off on her...

Building a house at the Madison Children's Museum

Peter and Cora have spent less time in the construction zone, but are both growing up so much...Peter crawling and eating and Cora spouting off new words every day.

Barefoot at the park in October. What a beautiful fall we've had!

Please forgive the bib, but don't gift him a Packers one

It was a bit too dark to take a video of the progress last night, so I snapped a couple of photos instead. I hope that these photos help Nate realize the incredible job he's doing!

The View From Inside

Nate had a hard time pausing long enough to take this second round of photos, but of course we're glad he did! Someday we'll pair each of these mid-point photos with their coresponding "before" and "after", but for now, let's just enjoy all the STUFF that's been hauled out of our house! No one is more excited for the clean slate than Nate the engineer!

The front foyer

View from the living room, through to the kitchen

View from the play room into the dining room & foyer

The kitchen & dining room

The basement steps, which will eventually be moved to the outside wall on the left

Temporary red supports, on loan from a house-moving company

Drain tile has been laid around the perimeter of the entire basement

Going upstairs, where all 4 bedrooms are and will remain

Was a study and will become a bathroom

Looking from front to back, in second floor hallway

Who knew my husband could be so organized?!

The light-colored wood patch by the orange ladder covers the chimney hole

I thank God for keeping Nate safe while on this steep roof last weekend

Demo Days are (nearly) over

Today was a big day on Center Avenue. The dumpster was filled for the sixth time and demolition is mostly complete. There are some silly storage platforms in the attic and a chimney that still need to come down, but other than that, we're entering the rebuilding stage. Next up: shore up the main floor by replacing footings and support columns in the basement. Nate has hired a house-moving-company to temporarily hold things up while our concrete contractor pours the new footings. Shortly after, drain tile will be laid around the perimeter of the basement and the foundation/basement walls will be smoothed and beautified.

The windows will be ordered by the end of the week and we also need to pick an insulation contractor. We still haven't made a decision on siding, but we're leaning towards major restoration of the current cedar siding. Whatever the siding material, we're thinking a grey exterior with white trim. Something like this photo from Apartment Therapy, but with a stained wood door instead of orange. Although I kind of like the thought of a fun front door - orange, yellow or green?

Another tour of our progress!

Great Strides

All sorts of great strides are happening around here! The highlights:

• Demolition of the fixer-upper is nearly complete (another video tour coming soon)
• Louisa learned to ride a bike (video below)
• Peter has found a new vantage point from which to enjoy life (video below)
• Cora's vocab is in full bloom (I'll work on a video for this one)

About a month ago, Cora was still lovingly referring to Peter as "Der," refusing to add the "Pea" to the front, likely because we laughed every time she refused. Now we miss that nickname for our sweet pea, and the Amos Lee song I picked to go with Peter's sitting up video offered a nice little way to remember it.

In Lou's biking video, she is practicing at her new school - Lowell Elementary, where she'll soon join her fellow Lowell Lizards entering grades 4K through 5th grade. She met her 4K teacher, Mrs. Douglas yesterday and is excited to start school on September 2. She'll go Tuesday through Friday, from 11:30-2:30. The timing isn't amazing for our napping schedule, but we've already met a classmate named CiCi who lives across the street that we hope to walk-pool/carpool with!





Another highlight of late is the first few weeks with Helen, our new nanny. She is wonderful! Louisa and Cora love her because she lets them do crafts every day, Peter loves her because she feeds him sweet potatoes and other mushed-up concoctions, and I love her because she does an amazing job entertaining the kids while keeping up with laundry and dishes. I always come home to a calm, clean house, which is awesome. On that note, my new job is going well. I'm glad to be back at UW Health and the new hospital/clinic I'm working at is beautiful, with tons of natural light!

That's all for now...Cora's waking and Peter seems to be ready for nap #3!

Progress is Progress

I think the best way to amaze with progress is to just stay quiet for a while!

Lots has happened in the past 3 weeks. On Saturday, August 1, we hosted our first demo day. It's incredible what you can accomplish with the help of friends and family. So far we've been blessed by 14 unique sets of hands in addition to our own. This absolutely includes the hands that have prepared food for the crew and watched Lou, Cora & Peter.

This past Saturday, I learned how to remove plaster and lath. Once I got over the fact that I was going to get super-dirty, it was actually really fun. But I will take credit for far less than 0.001% of the total work that's been done. Nate is incredibly dedicated to this project, and for that I'm grateful!

Our hope is to be done with demo by the end of August, which seems attainable. In the next two weeks or so we have lots of contractors coming to give us bids on tasks like masonry work in the basement, the pouring of a garage slab and driveway, and siding repair or replacement. We're eager to hear whether repairing and painting the existing wood siding is the feasible, because the cost of replacing it with a wood-like composite comes with a bit of sticker shock.

Here are some photos from the first day of plaster removal. It was a family affair with my brother-in-law, Dan and my hard-working dad! And finally, a video. When we go back and watch home videos of our kids, we only regret not taking more, so to avoid similar regret once the house is complete, I asked Nate to take a house-video-tour before he locked up last night. He even narrated it!

More Thoughts on the Transition...

I've been trying to really reflect on the transition from two to three kids. After Peter was born, an old neighbor on Baldwin Street, who has two kids of her own, wrote this beautiful thought to me as a part of a congratulatory note that included a sweet invite to move back to Baldwin Street:

I like imagining that having three children is just deep immersion into chaos and the thickest kind of love. Enjoy all your moments.

I think I like it so much because it's not all lovely and sweet. The image it conjures in my mind is a bit messy, but also totally love filled. And perhaps even overwhelmed with love? As Peter approaches his 1/2 birthday - which is crazy, as baby birthdays always are - I feel like this statement perfectly describes life with three children.

I should say that right now, as I type, I'm feeling quite calm and sentimental because Louisa is at day camp, Cora is quietly lining clementines up on the kitchen counter, and Peter is sleeping. Of course life is not always so ordered and sweet, but for the most part, it's nearly impossible to imagine life before Peter. I do sometimes longingly watch mothers of one-child and feel a bit of nostalgia for that time in my life. Or even watch young, single friends make spontaneous, fun decisions, and sigh, wishing I could do that, too. But I love my children. You are all amazing in your own ways, and I wouldn't trade you for a million spontaneously fun outings. For these chaotic years, I'll just keep planning our outings ahead of time!

Here's a glimpse into some of our pre-planned outings. Clearly I need to take more photos of Peter. Sorry, Buster Brown, I'll work on that!

Belle's nail salon

Mask craft as a reading reward at the library

Rickshaw ride at the children's museum

Nate said I needed a selfie stick if I wanted to include all my kids

Cora said, "Beer!"

Concert on the Square with Oma

Art Cart at Vilas Park

The Henry Vilas Zoo

Donuts at the Farmers' Market

Breakfast at Stacks

Dress-up at Belle's