Pricing

It has been a rather exciting week for my business. Finished up the surf set for our kitchen, took a few pictures and posted them on Facebook. Then we had four people express interest in having their own. I am afraid the price will scare them away.

The problem is that it takes me around 20 hours to finish off such a set. That will go down a little if I do make more, but not too much. If I stick to a low hourly rate of 30 that puts the cost at 600 not including materials and taxes. I don't mind making them for less, but turning this business into something that is financially legitimate seems rather impossible. Who wants to pay for custom work when they can just order something nice, but mass-produced, for a fraction of the price?

I must say I am really happy with the results from this project. It looks great in our kitchen. I made a salad yesterday and it seemed to taste better. The knife cut through the tomatoes like they were made out of whipped creme. It gets nicer and nicer to make food around here - now we need to clean out the kitchen (again) and get rid of all that stuff we aren't using.

Kitchen Upgrade

I have been working hard this week on making a knife block and some cutting boards for the kitchen. They have been coming along nicely, but I will need to finish up the project next week. Naturally, it takes much longer than expected. I really like the maple/walnut combination though...

Abigail has been completely diaper-free again this week. She overpowers her diaper at night if she pees anyway, so we figured we would just stop giving her one. She hasn't had an accident yet...

We have been lucky with some crisp, sunny winter weather. Should make for a nice drive to Rotterdam today. We are going to visit Clifton and Karmen. Lets see how the girls do. Good thing they took a marathon nap yesterday. 4 hours. Abigail woke up confused, wondering why I was cooking dinner, because according to her it was breakfast time!

A nice walk home from the gym on Wednesday.

Still lots of finishing to do...but you get the idea.

Winter.

It actually seems a bit like winter this year. It snowed a couple times this week. Granted, it isn't much, and quickly disappears, but still. Nice to have the white stuff around. There is still a bit left from last night and I think we will check out the donkey farm this afternoon. It has been awhile. The sky is blue. Girls are waking up from their nap.

Things seem to be picking up with my business. A few projects that I am working on now for the house: cabinets upstairs just need doors and a few drawers, I designed a knife block for our new knives and they will need some cutting boards too. Naomi isn't a big fan of the design, but what else is new. I have a liquor cabinet for Claire to do, beds for some friends in town, a colleague might want a kitchen, a different colleague some furniture for their new house, and maybe even some work at school. Things could get a bit clogged up, but we shall see.

The first week back into a regular routine after the Christmas holidays went well. We are starting to be able to enjoy our house more and more because of the work we did. Still lots to do, but we have a feeling of being a bit more established now.

Opening a late Christmas present.

Getting ready for the walk.

Patrollin'

Snow

Yesterday we woke up to a bit of white on the ground. Strange stuff that I haven't seen in ages. Most of it melted by the afternoon, but we still had some fun showing it to the girls. They were pretty impressed, although Amélie only spent a couple minutes outside.

We finally have the feeling that we are 'over the hump'. The big things that were bothering us in the house got done during this vacation. What a relief. New lamps, functional cabinets upstairs, furniture brought down to the guest room, and a few car loads of things sorted out and disposed of appropriately. Even took apart (and put back together) the dryer to get rid of the annoying beeper. Finally time to relax. Oh, wait, school starts again tomorrow...

We had to cancel our trip to Rotterdam on account of the snow and ice.

Our little snow explorer.

Chocolate milk as a reward!

Happy New Year!

The fireworks kept us up for a little while last night...but we still got a good night of sleep. Very important for us. We got a chance to take part in a Dutch New Year tradition of making these donut-like treats yesterday called 'oliebollen'. Usually people just buy them, but they were fun to make with our friends in town who have twin boys that are 6 months older than the girls. Nice to spend time with them.

On Thursday, the girls went to daycare, and Naomi and I slipped across the border to visit some friends. They live in what used to be a Nazi work camp. Kind of a creepy vibe, but it seems like a nice community now. They have a baby boy now, so it was fun to meet him. We also got some knives that we had been wanting for a couple years. Fun to get them nearby to where they are made. What wasn't fun was the traffic jam on the way home. The highway was blocked up for half an hour with people who went to Germany to buy fireworks. We barely made it back in time for the girls.

It has been a rather exhausting week. We have made a lot of progress in the house though. Hopefully by the time this 'vacation' is over we will be satisfied with it for now. It is still a bit mess at the moment. Will definitely try to rest a bit more before school starts again...