Settling In

After doing lots of little finishing projects, we've finally settled into our little home. Kerstin made this wonderful little island in our kitchen which really classes up the place and gives us much needed countertop space. The bathroom still needs a bit of work (shower doors and a heater), but other than that, everything else that we set out to finish this year is finished. Now we're switching gears from getting house done to getting ready for baby. I'm pretty enormous at this point and things are pretty uncomfortable now. Sleeping sucks, for example. Lots of aches and pains in the hips and lower back. And bending over... only a faint memory now. I for one am looking forward to getting my body back and meeting the little fellow that now fills every square inch of it. There have nonetheless been several requests out there to see photos of my belly, so I'm including a final picture of me to placate the masses.

I have intentionally cut off my head in this photo because there really is nothing nice to look at above the shoulders. That whole "beautiful glow" of pregnancy that everyone talks about is a crock. I am puffy, red, and full of acne. It's pretty frightening. I hope that I'll return to my former self once the baby arrives. Until then, no face shots!

First snow

We had our first snow fall December 3rd. About a foot accumulated. We were all toasty-warm in our house, doing chores and installing door-casing and kick-molding. The trim in the kitchen coming together, but it’s psychologically challenging. The trouble is that I have to mill every piece of lumber to form. All the wood I’m using is left over from the demolition. Its nice old pine, but it only has one finished surface and is 7/8 thick. Instead of grabbing a board – cutting length to size - nailing it to the wall – and painting it . I grab a board, check for nails, cut length to size, cut width to size, plane it to proper depth (3/4), do a quick sanding, nail it to wall, patch flaws, paint it. It takes more time and the garage is really cold these days.

We are sleeping in the house and slowly getting our things out of boxes. We don’t have much furniture or shelving yet, but the house feels good and we are making due. The living room, kitchen, and master bedroom are pretty much habitable. Other rooms will be habitable once we unpack the boxes. We are still waiting on part for our new stove too, so we can't use the cook-top. It's good to be in the house though, two thumbs up.