I Can (almost) See Clearly Now

We have 14 new windows at the house! It's extremely exciting, since they've been in boxes in the house since before Thanksgiving.

The pictures below show how a mama and her cubs came out from hibernation when the temperature hit 13 degrees today. We couldn't walk too far because Louisa's bus was to arrive soon, so we walked over to surprise Nate at the new house. I love how, in the first picture, you can just barely see Cora's owl hat and Nate looks genuinely surprised. It also looks like he's dancing. Sounds like the contractor should be back to install the rest of the windows and a few exterior doors (including the front door, which Nate is framing up now). Thank goodness for a heat wave!

Surprise!

Bundled up and ready to walk

My new favorite photo of these two

The dormer at the top has two windows coming

The east side and back of the house are eager for their windows

Oh Ries, you look so proper, not to mention cute

7 new windows on the west (driveway) side

Dessert Resolutions

Tonight Louisa asked if we could have dessert. Between my two verbal children, the question is asked about 75% of the time. I wonder if this statistic is inversely related with the frequency of me serving dessert. I suppose there would be a definite correlation if I served dessert every night, because then they wouldn't have to ask at all. But I don't do that. Gasp, I know. I bet we have dessert about two to three days per week.

If I have a new year's food-related goal for my family it would be to serve dessert more frequently, but still without pattern, to help Louisa and Cora be less dessert-centric. Although I don't know...it's not like they throw fits when I say no, so maybe what we're doing is just fine. Maybe I should give each person a night to be in charge of dessert. That might help burn up some of the extra dessert-thought-energy. But then I might find myself baking extravagant British pastries, since Nate and the girls love to watch The Great British Baking Show together.

So back to tonight. Louisa asked Can we have dessert? and I said No, not tonight. She asked why not so I explained that she had a special chocolate bar (Krackle) in her lunch at school. But that fell on the ground, she said. I looked at her as she spoke and noticed a slight smile on her face. I asked her if she was telling the truth. Yes, I'm telling the truth, she said, still smiling. I reminded her that it's not okay to lie. A few minutes passed while we brushed teeth. Mom, I was telling a lie. I hope I thanked her for telling the truth, but I actually don't remember what I said because I had an immediate flashback to this same situation a few months ago when I believed her and gave her another chocolate after she explained that when food falls on the floor at school, they have to throw it in the garbage. I remember believing her because she told me immediately after getting of the bus, whereas today she didn't mention it until bedtime. Regardless of whether she was telling the truth the first time, I guess I not surprised that she used this angle to get dessert tonight. 

It's worth mentioning that when Cora asks about dessert, she says, We have little zert? Oh man, we're going to miss her Cora-isms when she refines her speaking skills! She uses "at" when she should say "to," as in, We going at Oma's, we going at Oma's, a song she likes to sing on our drive to Marcia's. Today she made me laugh when she complained that Peter took her water bottle. They were in carseats next to each other, but with at least 1 foot of space between, so it didn't seem plausible that he could have taken it. I asked her if she gave Peter her water bottle, and she said yes. Maybe she was surprised that he actually took it when she teased him with it? I don't know, but I laughed. And on Saturday I took her grocery shopping and as we were parking at Hy-vee, she said, this not grocery store, this mail store! Who knew that she would recognize the U.S. Postal Service logo. She also recognizes Menards and likes to remind us that she calls it Yards.

Are you sure it's not Monday?

What a morning! It's only 10:12 am and it's already been a crazy day. Thankfully we had nowhere we needed to be. Well, I suppose Nate needed to go to work, but other than that...

• Nate discovers that the tires on our van can't handle the snow
• Nate kindly puts all the carseats into the Saab, so the kids and I can go to a gymnastics open gym at 9:30
• I find Peter with my wedding ring in his mouth
• Cora teases Louisa, saying, "I'm going to turn you into a prince" which is apparently very upsetting to Lou, because she yells at Cora, squeezes her and shakes her
• Louisa and Cora have time outs and we talk about what happened
• Everyone is bundled up, but Cora doesn't want to wear mittens and falls into a snowbank, making her very sad and cold
• We're in the car at 9:25, but the car won't start
• Cora, Peter and I come inside. Peter is thankful for the fiasco because he gets his morning nap
• Louisa stays outside, happily playing in the snow
• Nate comes back and turns the truck 180 degrees in a very tiny space between the Saab and the garage, so that he can jump the Saab
• Nate takes the Saab to buy a new battery, saying he will be back soon to take the van to get new tires
• Posting this now, hoping maybe it will end the craziness of this morning

Seldom Calm, Always Bright

It's Christmas Eve and the sun is shining! Such strange weather at this most wonderful time of the year. Every stage of this renovation will be so quickly forgotten, so we've been trying to pause and take photos as often as possible, and the sun offered great lighting for an outdoor photo shoot. I also took a bunch of photos inside, but most are too dark to be interesting because of the one inch foam board that's now hugging the house. Nate took out the windows on the west side of the house (as well as most of the front and back) and nailed on the foam. Then next week, fingers crossed, Tim will come and start putting in the new windows.

Merry Christmas to you. May your days be merry and bright!

No longer neglected, instead feeling loved

 

The west side, all buttoned up

New Eaves!

The east side will be warmed with foam next week

The new dormer, which is temporarily water-proofed while we wait for our new roof

View from the garage

Blue skies!

Enjoy the ship lap while it lasts, Chip and JoAnna!

An outlet for Christmas lights in the roof of the front porch

Taking advantage of the mirrored door

The glow of electricity

Our first working light switch

Just love that sunshine

Like most of the house, a little TLC will make a big difference

Sweet Three

There are some sweet faces that haven't received enough air time on this blog lately. I love you all dearly, Lou Bear, Bean and Buster Brown! 

This was only the second time they've all been in the bath together, so I called Nate downstairs to snap some photos.

The Advent season has been tons of kid-fun. Louisa and Cora love hearing and talking about the Christmas story, doing Christmas-crafts...gingerbread houses, paper chains, Christmas cards, ornaments, sugar cookies, and chewing whole candy canes in mere seconds.

Nate is not interested in playing Santa with our kids, which is fine, but until a few days ago, he had not yet broken the news to Lou and I was getting all sorts of questions about how he fits down the chimney and how he knows when we're awake. When the two of them went Christmas shopping earlier this week, she asked about Santa, so Nate said something like, "Lou, is Santa real?" "No," she answered. I'm sure there was some pleasant follow-up conversation, but I can't remember. Tonight she asked how he knows when we're sleeping and when we're awake, so I asked again if he was real. Again she said no, then went on to explain that "it's pretend magic, that's how he knows." Help! How do you answer these questions in way that lets a child believe in "magic" without letting them think that Santa actually brings presents to kids? Maybe the answer lies in Louisa's statement about pretend magic. Perhaps analogies might help? But if you explain that Santa is like the tooth fairy, what if your child believes in the tooth fairy? And then there is the whole issue of making sure Louisa doesn't spoil her friends' Santa belief, right? I guess there a bigger parenting problems, so maybe I'll just let Lou lead the next conversation.

In this last photo, Cora is trying egg nog for the first time (ever? or at least since last Christmas). She was surprised to learn that she likes it. Although a few nights later, Nate gave the girls more, and to stretch it for himself, he diluted it with milk and forgot to stir it, so the milk was sitting on top. Cora took a drink and said, "me no like. me have only milk" which is funny because she loves milk. Goes to show that what you expect to taste plays a big role in how it tastes. Cora's language is finally blossoming, and it's pretty entertaining at times. 

A Bit More Castle-ness, Please

Last night after dinner I was finally able to visualize the final heightened dormer in the attic. Seeing the work in progress (and the stars in the sky through it) was encouraging. Today I wanted to see how things were coming, so Peter and Cora and I walked over. Cora usually needs some convincing to change out of dress-up clothes and into cold-weather-gear, so I told her that we needed to go see the new house because it was looking more like a castle. She was not only convinced, but also excited.

Before

Before

Half-way to after?

One of the princesses in the castle

Doesn't it look so much better already? I'm thankful we hired Tim (the contractor installing our windows) because without his suggestion, I don't think we would have thought to open this up so much. It will look much better on the outside too and should be done just in time for our new roof in early January.

Before

Half-way to after

Our Front Door

It is cool to think that Nate is going to know every square inch of our new house. I, on the other hand, have been less intimate with the house since Thanksgiving or so. I think this has to do with the colder weather. I'm less interested in spending time at the new house because the few times I've tried lately, I've lost feeling in my fingers and toes. Luckily Nate is a bit more hardy than I, and also more dedicated. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the presence of our new front door in the living room for the past 3 weeks. But the end is near. By Christmas, the door will have been properly sealed and ready for the temperature swings we can expect in Wisconsin. More importantly, it will be out of our living room! Thank you, Nate, as always, for your hard work.

In other news, we've paid our downpayment for our new metal roof (to be installed the first week of January!) and Tim and his crew are hard at work fixing the eaves, installing windows and hanging foam insulation board on the outside of the house. Nate is 95% done with the electrical work too!

Applying coat #7 of 8

Such focus!

Due Today: An Update

I've been dragging my feet on this post for two reasons. The first is that life is busy. (Like most people, I can't believe that it's already December.) The second reason is that progress seems to have slowed and I don't want to be negative or whiny. I don't think it actually has slowed, I think it's more that we hired a contractor to install windows, the windows arrived, Nate prepped the outside of the house for the window and installation work....THEN....nothing. I guess in my head, I was thinking that once we hired a contractor, progress would triple or quadruple instead of remain the same. The contractor comes highly recommended and I trust that he's awesome at what he does, but he found a few things to add to his list AND we're apparently not his only project?!? WHAT? Kidding, of course. I know he is busy with other projects.

With my whinning out the way, here's what's really happening. Nate has been framing in the HVAC ducting to prepare for drywall. He's also nearly finished with the electrical install, which has required designing our lighting plan. Yesterday he texted me:

The first bubble was in response to my concern that one wall was letting quite a bit of rain in and wondering whether the attic was ready to be cleaned up. How could I resist the urge to sweep this?

But the reason for sharing this text exchange was to help explain my excitement when I realized Nate was asking me to pick something that seemed like such a "finishing touch." I might have had a moment of fantasy - thinking we were father along than we actually are. My second thought was that Nate wanted to make the powder room functional ASAP so he no longer has to walk home to use the bathroom. It turns out that a fan/light combo is similar to the blue outlet boxes in the picture above (and already placed in abundance throughout the entire house). It needs to be wired up now, but won't be functional until way later. Oh well.

Experience my excitement for a sweet second. Here is the fan/light combo I chose. Okay, it's not nearly as fun as picking countertops or a refrigerator, but it's something.

I'm resisting the urge to be negative again, but I should admit that part of the delay in getting the new windows installed was our first surprise of the renovation, i.e. something we didn't anticipate having to repair or replace. That something is the eaves and a new dormer in the attic. And because the dormer has to be roofed, we've been encouraged to re-roof this winter instead of waiting until next year. So I called four roofing experts in - 3 regular and 1 metal roofing company - and we're in the process of gathering estimates and hoping to have a new roof before Christmas. Merry Christmas Nate! Did you know that's what you wanted this year?

Progress! That's what we both want for Christmas and I'm sure we'll get it since we already have made tons of it since the first Center Ave Demo Day. That was back on August 1, only 4 short months ago.

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