Kitchen Stage 1

I am so excited about the progress Jeremy is making on the downstairs.  We are reconfiguring the space to take away the two long skinny rooms that were our living room and kitchen (what Jeremy called "The Double-Wide").  I keep calling it a kitchen remodel, but really it is the kitchen, living and dining rooms that will all be different.  So far, he has torn out and rebuilt the floor in the living room, removed all of the old cabinets, and yesterday took out the majority of the dividing wall, except for the significant support posts and beams that are needed since it was a bearing wall.  I believe the next step is to redo the current kitchen floor so that both rooms can be unified with one flooring type. Goodbye ugly linoleum! Then there will be drywall work, wiring, the new cabinets and plumbing...  How lucky I am to have a husband who can do all of this!  Obviously I can help very little with the project, except the tough jobs of picking out cabinets, tiles, flooring, and paint colors...

So this is what the kitchen will look like, sort of. A portion of the dividing wall will be retained at the far end of the room to form one wall of the u-shaped kitchen area, with the dining room on the left side - in the far end of the original living room.  The window visible on the right hand side of the first photo will be smaller, and can be seen in the layout image. The other ends of the old living room and kitchen will become the new living room area, though I am not sure if the necessary support post in the middle of it all will add character or make it difficult to furnish.  We'll worry about that part later.

New Background

Instead of posting last night I played around with my blog design.  It is still not exactly how I would like, but I do like being able to use one of my own photos as the background.  Although it has to be tiled, which I do not like so much. There are just too many variables I guess.

In other news, I got my diploma in the mail yesterday.  That is the physical proof I have been waiting for that I am really, truly done with the Ph.D.  I already knew I was done but somehow the mind doesn't want to get fully comfortable until the diploma is in hand.  So now I guess it is time to move on.  Except my advisor would want me to consider the publishable journal papers to be created out of different chapters, to really make my mark.  Maybe soon...

7th Month

A friend up in Fairbanks is being induced tonight.  By this time tomorrow she should be holding her new baby girl.  I am starting to think about the end of this pregnancy and if I am going to be ready.  I still have over 2.5 months, but I have scarcely thought about the reality - that we will have a new baby girl in the family, who will be the center of the universe for a while, needing all of our care and efforts.  I remember with Emmy the first month was pretty desperate.  By month 2, her personality was beginning to show, we got into a routine, got some sleep, and began to feel sane again.  That time frame is what I look forward to at this point - I am in a smooth part (relatively) of the pregnancy, but things will get tougher physically until the birth and for a while afterwards.  But it becomes worth it in a short time.  Here's to our next adventure!

Winter tragedy

Last night Jeremy was called out to help search for a person on Island Lake we have known for many years.  He had gone ice skating and did not return. The story does not have a happy ending.  We slept little last night. It has been such a strange day.  We feel so terrible for his best friend and his wife, and all of the other people that will be affected by this.  The whole situation was very erie. Tragedies like this remind you not to pass up opportunities to spend time with friends and family, since you never know when something like this will happen.  And it also reinforces the importance of communication and safety precautions, as common situations can quickly become dangerous and deadly.

We are moving...

...upstairs.

In preparation for the remodel of our kitchen and living area, which I am WAY to excited about, we are moving our living operations up to the apartment in our house.  Emmy has already had her bedroom up here since late summer, but I have been resisting moving the kitchen and living operations up here, mainly because I am used to spending my time downstairs, and that is also where the dishwasher is.  However, it is fully set up here, with the exception of a full-sized fridge, which Jeremy and Ben will be moving up from the other kitchen today.  Everything is a bit more compact, but most of it is in better shape than the house is downstairs, as Jeremy has already redone the flooring, moved up the furniture, and put in a wood stove.  With our main living room furniture up here as well, we've been basically camping downstairs, using a park bench as a couch and a weird uncomfortable chaise lounge for an easy chair.  I guess it is about time.  These photos are of the scene up here this morning, but if you have been in our house you will notice that the photos are reversed.  Photo booth reverses my pictures for some reason...

With Jeremy tearing out the cabinets, the drywall, and even the floor (not just the flooring - the actual floor!) before we can start reconstruction of things down there, the next few months will be a mess downstairs.  The result though will be a completely renovated, beautiful living area. My hope is that it will all be completed by the time Baby Laura gets here in mid-April.

New Year's Resolution

I usually don't do resolutions.  But in the spirit of all the big changes in my life, I decided to do one this year.  My resolution is to be mindful of the fact the much of the stress in my life comes from within.  In my work there are often stressful situations - saving a language is no easy task.  But I can choose how I respond to those situations, and I can choose to internalize less of the stress.  So that is what I will be trying to do.

So far, I have been doing pretty well.  Things are busy, some might even say stressful.  But I am kind of enjoying being back at work for full days now that I am not working on school, able to focus my energies and get a lot done.  It is a good feeling.  Let's hope this lasts!