Progress Report
My postings seem to be getting less and less regular as life itself takes over! The holiday season is fast approaching with Thanksgiving tomorrow, and the sales, although again this year, despite the economy, I am not overly impressed with the deals. The weather has been exceptionally mild here with temps still in the 50s and last weekend I was out putting up the Christmas lights in a t-shirt, and in the same breath I was preparing my snow blower for the inevitable.
Jan and Mads are coming for Christmas, with Jan actually coming for two months. We figured with the two kids now, it is going to be difficult for Lorraine to travel on her own. The plan is that Jan comes here, baby arrives, we wait until the two month check up, then she and Lorraine fly with both kids, and then I join them for a bit and fly back with Lorraine. So Charlie, I will be bringing my clubs and looking for some spring time golf!
Speaking of the baby, Cooper James will be coming along very soon....December 10th is the due date, although Lorraine is ready to kick him out now! The hospital won't allow anyone under 21 in, due to swine flu precautions, so we are really hoping he will stay put until December 8th when Jan arrives, and she can take care of AJ; but the bags are packed, the route planned (to the end of our street :-) and it's all systems go.
One of the reasons I have been so busy is that we have been moving rooms around in the house. Preparing the spare room for Addison to move into, swapping her with the guest room. Of course it was the only bedroom not already repainted, so that had to be done before she could move. So the last several weeks have been spent, painting, cleaning carpets, replacing trim, etc and we moved her in this week. The guest room, now the smallest, is a bit tight, but it works. CJ will get the other big bedroom so I think everyone will be happy!
As you know I was also working on a new dry bar in the family/living room, when I cut up my fingers on the table saw. I am healing nicely and should get the pins out of my finger on Monday I hope. The bar is finished for now. I still have to stain it and find a nice piece of stone for the counter tops, but that can wait until next year, when Lorraine is out of town (the stain really stinks). Click on the link to see a few more pictures of the bar along with the general house pix.
Most of you may not realise, given all of the work I have done on the house, that we don't actually own it. We rented originally for two years, which runs out in May, but decided that we would actually like to buy it. So we have placed our offer, been accepted and are working through the machinations of the process to complete the deal. With luck and a following wind, we will be homeowners in early December before CJ is born. Growing up poor in Scotland, I never would have dreamed that I would one day own three homes (technically Lorraine owns one of them). Wish us luck in the completion of this arduous process. The good news is that we qualify for the $8000 tax credit as first time buyers..yay! New kitchen in February I hope!
The first order of business though, if we do complete the sale, will be replace the old single pane windows (I know most people in the UK will be flabbergasted that house were still built here relatively recently with single pane windows!!). The government has an eco tax credit of $1500 for windows and other products that meet certain criteria, so we should get that back in February too.
That's about all the news for now, here are a couple of links to recent photo albums I posted if you wanna see some of what we have been up to.
Addison November - Leaf blowing and Fancy Nancy outfit!!
My Second Bears Game - They Lost Big Time!
Jan and Mads are coming for Christmas, with Jan actually coming for two months. We figured with the two kids now, it is going to be difficult for Lorraine to travel on her own. The plan is that Jan comes here, baby arrives, we wait until the two month check up, then she and Lorraine fly with both kids, and then I join them for a bit and fly back with Lorraine. So Charlie, I will be bringing my clubs and looking for some spring time golf!
Speaking of the baby, Cooper James will be coming along very soon....December 10th is the due date, although Lorraine is ready to kick him out now! The hospital won't allow anyone under 21 in, due to swine flu precautions, so we are really hoping he will stay put until December 8th when Jan arrives, and she can take care of AJ; but the bags are packed, the route planned (to the end of our street :-) and it's all systems go.
One of the reasons I have been so busy is that we have been moving rooms around in the house. Preparing the spare room for Addison to move into, swapping her with the guest room. Of course it was the only bedroom not already repainted, so that had to be done before she could move. So the last several weeks have been spent, painting, cleaning carpets, replacing trim, etc and we moved her in this week. The guest room, now the smallest, is a bit tight, but it works. CJ will get the other big bedroom so I think everyone will be happy!
As you know I was also working on a new dry bar in the family/living room, when I cut up my fingers on the table saw. I am healing nicely and should get the pins out of my finger on Monday I hope. The bar is finished for now. I still have to stain it and find a nice piece of stone for the counter tops, but that can wait until next year, when Lorraine is out of town (the stain really stinks). Click on the link to see a few more pictures of the bar along with the general house pix.Most of you may not realise, given all of the work I have done on the house, that we don't actually own it. We rented originally for two years, which runs out in May, but decided that we would actually like to buy it. So we have placed our offer, been accepted and are working through the machinations of the process to complete the deal. With luck and a following wind, we will be homeowners in early December before CJ is born. Growing up poor in Scotland, I never would have dreamed that I would one day own three homes (technically Lorraine owns one of them). Wish us luck in the completion of this arduous process. The good news is that we qualify for the $8000 tax credit as first time buyers..yay! New kitchen in February I hope!
The first order of business though, if we do complete the sale, will be replace the old single pane windows (I know most people in the UK will be flabbergasted that house were still built here relatively recently with single pane windows!!). The government has an eco tax credit of $1500 for windows and other products that meet certain criteria, so we should get that back in February too.
That's about all the news for now, here are a couple of links to recent photo albums I posted if you wanna see some of what we have been up to.
Addison November - Leaf blowing and Fancy Nancy outfit!!
My Second Bears Game - They Lost Big Time!
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