The Grill

Today I will finish the Grill Cabinet. Then I can finally set up the workshop. That will take awhile. It is also time to start using our grill. My parents will be here tomorrow, so I am sure that will happen.

We didn't do much unpacking this week, but a lot of other things got done. Spent a lot of money at the hardware store yesterday so that all the projects are ready to go for this coming week. I am confident that we will get a lot done with my parents help!

The timing of their arrival works out really well. Our house is in good enough shape to be lived in, but there are a million things that need to be done. We are wiped out and could really use the help!

Website Launch!

We started the project some 5 months ago, and the website is finally online! Naomi's cousins did a really nice job of designing it, I spent a lot of time adding text and pictures, and Naomi translated things into Dutch. We think the final result turned out quite nicely, but let me know what you think! If you have suggestions or see mistakes, let me know about those too.

http://cookcraft-woodworking.nl/en/

Also done unpacking almost half of the boxes. The house doesn't look a whole lot different, but we got a few areas cleaned up. Still mostly chaos. Only one thing broken so far - but a very important one - the subwoofer. Sad times. Brought it to the shop in hopes of them repairing it. Not sure if it was the move or something else that killed it...

Finished part two of three for the grill cabinet - the outside kitchen I am making in exchange for the website. Also have been busy trying to get the workshop a bit more workable. That will continue to be quite the process.

The girls continue to do well, but Abigail had two very strange looking brownish-orange dots the size of small peas show up the bottom of one of her feet last night. We will have to keep an eye on those...

Back to Work

On anything but unpacking boxes, that is. Our frantic pace has barely slowed down, but one wouldn't guess it based on the towers of boxes that still loom about. Naomi cracked into that monumental task yesterday and proved that starting is the hardest part. She was near tears at the dinner table. I am sure today will go better as she won't be the only one working on it.

In April I didn't get much of a chance to work on my business. Now it is catch-up time. Just yesterday I worked twice as much as the entire month of April. Project deadline, workshop to build, website, and taxes. Almost as overwhelming as the mess in our house. Teaching seems like an afterthought.

Our beautiful weather has broken down into cold and rainy days. I guess that gives us extra motivation to stay inside and clean up the mess - even though the garden is looking better. I even found the leak in our water system so now those evergreens are back to depending on rain water. Time to get busy - Sundays haven't been a day of rest for awhile.

Mission Accomplished.

It has been over two years in the making - our more permanent residence has finally arrived. We began thinking about a quieter place to live before the girls were born. The fresh air at the house we inherited was intoxicating, but it took a full year just to clean it out. Last year we were dealing with job applications, residence applications, and gearing up for a move out east.

Chaos ensued, but on Wednesday the moving truck came and we got all of our stuff (1/3 of what we had two years ago) into the house. Luckily we found out the day before, when the carpet was being installed, that the garage door did not open. The ceiling was in the way. So we had to rip it out before the movers came. Needed to be done anyway. It will be quite some time before the boxes are all unpacked and we are really settled, but we no longer depend on a tight schedule filled with workers invading our house.

The weather has been beautiful so we have taken some time to really enjoy the garden. There is a really nice pond with a stream that Naomi uncovered and we got that up and running. A lot of water seems to disappear from the loop though - still trying to figure that one out. The girls love playing in the garden and it is fun to watch them.

Not as far as we had hoped to be for our start of school tomorrow, but that is ok. No more schedule. We just get to things when we get to them. The last few days have been a little taste of summer!

Having fun in the sun room.

New flooring!

Big truck, small houses.

The piano.

Full garage.

Full sun room.

Full living room.

Tired Lady.

Paint.

That one word pretty much sums up our week. Only a couple rooms left to finish up. This is a big house for Dutch standards and we have gotten to know that rather intuitively through the act of painting. We brought in pros to do the ceilings as they had hadn't been painted before - just plastered with a design. They really needed it though!

Amazing how much of an effect a bit of paint has. Or a lot of paint. The house is looking so much better! Almost as if it hadn't been neglected for the past ten years. Still plenty more to do to make up for the lack of maintenance though. All of the wood on the outside need to be painted, much of it replaced, and we will get a new front door as well. One could kick a hole through the bottom of ours.

I have adjusted to our withering pace of work but Naomi hasn't. She is really wiped out. Glad the nasty, cold and rainy weather lined up with our week of painting. Things will be warming up inside and out this week as the carpet comes Tuesday and the furniture Wednesday. Friday we will even do some entertaining. I will need to get the workshop useable as soon as possible to hit a deadline with a project that the move postponed though. Our pace will not slow down much any time soon...

Yesterday was Naomi's birthday. Too bad there was so much to do - if it was a week later we could have enjoyed things a lot more. She still had a friend come over and we had some nice treats from the bakery. The little ones are doing very well. The other night they set a new record with eating - Abigail had 4 small glass bowls of a pasta dish Naomi made and Amélie ate 5! I think that was about the same amount of food that Naomi ate herself. I had a little bit more...