Ruining the Door

It was a sad week for our new front door. The bottom was cracking and other parts of the finish were not up to par, so we had the company come to fix it. They made it a lot worse. The door was repainted and now it looks plastic. Not to mention the parts that were missed and the big drips. We still don't have the numbers on the house. Things really start to slow down now that winter approaches...

Having a normal week was really nice. We needed a break from working so hard during our vacation. Glad life works this way and not the other way around! The girls have been sick though, and they shared that with us, of course. Good thing we have an inhaler for Abigail...

I pretty much finished the third of three lights this week. Pictures to come. We are really happy with the third one. I will put all three online to see if anyone is interested in buying them. It would be great if we could get some 'product lines' off the ground...

Enjoying the new boots Aunt Claire brought back from Vermont.

Not a Vacation

This was supposed to be Fall Break! We ended up working harder than usual. The weather was pretty bad, so that gave us extra incentive to be busy inside. I finished up the second ceiling light, the garage door is finally painted, the hall is set up for winter now, and we got a lot of things organized and cleaned up. Still lots to do, but our house is a nicer place to be now!

We had a couple of nice visits too. One of my former students and her parents came all the way from Rotterdam and a couple friends spent the night as well. Visitors always give us a bit of incentive to make things a bit nicer around here.

We also found some time for a nice lunch in Deventer. That was combined with a test drive. At least we know what kind of car we are looking for now. It is just a matter of waiting for the right one. There is a big dealership in town that sells mostly to other dealerships, so we can get a car for a couple thousand less from them. We will just wait for the right one to turn up there...

Fun on the slide at the Donkey Farm!

All Alone

Naomi went to England for the week. Thankfully, she got back on time yesterday afternoon! She had a really nice week, and we had a better time around the house than I expected. I actually got a lot of work done because the girls were so well-behaved.

I designed and built a ceiling light this week. I really like it, but Naomi is not a big fan. Hmmmm. It was supposed to be a nice surprise for her. I am hoping people will like them and I can sell a few, but who knows.

Today is a beautiful day and this morning we painted the garage door, changing the color from white to green. I think it will look so much better! The girls are waking up now from their nap, and we will be heading to the Donkey Farm soon. They have really been looking forward to that!

A few touched-up pictures of the hall cabinet from last week.

My first original lighting design...thoughts?

A Quick Project

This week I was able to start and finish a woodworking project. Still need to take some pictures of it for the website though. It is a table for Naomi's cousin's entryway. The wood had been sitting outside for awhile, so it developed a grey patina that they liked. Nice to be able to wrap something up before Naomi left...

I won't be getting much work done this week as Naomi went to England for a school trip. She went with a group of teachers to learn about how to give better lessons in English. I am sure she will have a good time, but taking care of these two girls all on my own for a week is rather daunting. When Naomi had to do this it was summer vacation, and they weren't potty training, so that was a bit easier. We shall see how it goes.

Today I hope to finish up a little shelter to keep the grill and bike car mostly dry. I started it yesterday without putting much thought into it, so it hasn't been going the best. It is all from leftover materials though, so if it falls apart soon, its not like we are out much. Plenty of other things to do before the girls wake up though...

The hall table.

Fun at the park after dropping Mommy off.

Abigail in front of our school.

Electricity!

Naomi's cousin is an electrician. He has been helping to bring our house up to speed on the occasional Saturday since April. Yesterday was his last one! We are really happy because now the electrical systems are in order. The entire workshop needed to be wired up which took the most time. He also updated most of the switches and plugs, fixed some lights, and wired up half of the top floor. Now Naomi even has nice lights on either side of her mirror cabinet.

That all means that I really need to get busy with those cabinets on the top floor. It takes much longer than I expected, of course. Each 'board' that I make out of the maple floor takes 3 or 4 hours, and there are a lot of boards that make up a cabinet. I will be happy to leave the doors for later, but I want to get the structure made as soon as possible so we can de-clutter things up there. Now I have a project that needs to be done first for Naomi's cousin though...

The girls are doing really well. Amélie seems to be pretty much potty trained. Her diaper hasn't even been wet at night lately. We had a nice time at the Donkey Farm last night and even got a bit of unhealthy dinner there. Naomi also had a chance to clean up the garden. Our house just keeps getting better and better!