1008 Front Street

An interesting house has been going on and off the market in Marquette. It finally got our attention last week when we decided to schedule a viewing, but were too late. A different offer had been accepted. That one fell through as well, so the realtor reached out to us, we toured the house digitally (Dad was there in person) and we put in and offer just before the other potential buyers were able to. It was accepted!

It has been a busy week as the girls were home from school with Covid and we have been dealing with lots of emotions and decisions about this house. Got an inspection lined up for Monday and the bank is working through our mortgage options. Fun to think about all the possibilities! 

The house needs tons of work, but it also has tons of potential. Enough space for a workshop in the basement, the ground floor as a rental property, and we can live on the top two floors. It is a big house. Ideal location apart from the busier road, but it is a 10 minute walk from the beach, downtown, and the university. Even closer to 3rd street - lots of little restaurants and shops. Closing on March 31. Super excited!!

Covid Surprise!

I forgot to write yesterday as we ran into a positive self test - Abigail has Covid! She was feeling a bit sick, and yesterday was definitely a couch day, but this morning she feels happy and healthy. Amélie went in the opposite direction. Now she is grumpy and tired. I will stay home from work today to take care of them.

Yesterday we also played another game of Settlers of Catan. Fun that the girls are old enough for it now! Abigail especially likes the game, although she always tends to lose. Still working on that strategy bit. Amélie is just so lucky with dice that it doesn't matter what she does, she gets plenty of points in the end.

It was nice to finally be back into the normal week after having more than a month off. Bummer that it gets disrupted already! Oh well, a bit more time to work on planning some trips here. Lots of traveling to do this year!

All three girls got their ears pierced in Rotterdam - quite the adventure!

Abigail got to start dance again at their new location!

Finally finished up the knife blocks.

Patching & Sanding

It was good to get back into the workshop this week. Those knife blocks have really been dragging on and I hope to finish them up today. The mistakes I made are definitely visible, but the final product is shaping up to be a bit better than I had expected. It will be good to have a clean workshop again. Not sure what the next project will be though!

The girls were happy to get back to school this week. On Monday their sports can start up again and they are really looking forward to that! Luckily figure skating was a bit outside, so they were able to do that the last couple weeks. 

Naomi started her gut microbiome treatments this week. She has to grow some bacteria for 24 hours in a thermos at body temperature, but it wasn't staying warm, so she devised a system of warm jars of water next to the thermos wrapped up in lots of blankets. That is working well! Hopefully this treatment will help with all her food allergies as it is meant to fill the bacterial gaps that showed up in a test. 

Filling in my mistakes. 

Down Time

We didn't actually get that much down time - it has been a busy week! Maybe it's a good thing our trip to Berlin needed to be cancelled. Lots that needed to get done around the house. Could use a few more weeks of this, but the girls are ready to go back to school! Thankfully they decided to open them up.

Our booster shots happened on Thursday. Now we need to figure out if we want to have the girls vaccinated or not. Unsure what is best. 

Managed to get back into the workshop. The knife blocks are getting there. Lots more gluing to do and trying to patch up my mistakes. Then the final sanding and a bit of tung oil. It will be nice to have this project done. It was fun until I messed it up, now I feel like I just need to finish it so that I can move on. 

Amélie got a delayed Christmas present from Auntie Kalia! Fun books.

She also managed to put together a puzzle, but of course, one piece is missing. 

Scandanavia

We had a great trip up North! Denmark reminded me a lot of Wisconsin with all of its farms and rolling hills. We spent the night near Copenhagen and got up early the next morning to enjoy the city. The car park was right out of the future - we drove into a box, left the car, swiped the card, and watched our Volvo disappear underground. A lift dropped it quickly a few stories and then it was taken away. When we got back from a lovely and sunny walk around the beautiful city of Copenhagen, we just had to swipe the credit card again, and the car was returned out of the depths to a different box under protest - the car alarm went off. Fun experience. 

It took an hour and a half to clear customs at the Swedish border, but the view from the bridge was great. Reminded me a bit of the Mighty Mac. Swedish drivers were slow and kept their distance. What a pleasure! It took about 7 hours to get to our rental near Stockholm. We were surprised to find that the house was a part of an eco-village. We had fun touring their operation and learning a lot about how they did things. Even got to spend an afternoon with the founders. Playing with their dog and the snow outside was the highlight for the girls!

They have some pretty interesting systems, like a septic system on steroids that separates out all the poo for fertilizer, lots of solar power (even though it started getting dark around lunch time) and plenty of heat pumps. He said geothermal heat pumps are standard in Sweden, and a problem they are having in Stockholm is that so many houses use this technology that the ground is developing permafrost. 

Our tour of Stockholm was great! It is a city built on 14 islands. We started at the oldest one and enjoyed the medieval streets. Then we took a boat tour which the girls didn't really enjoy, but I liked being able to see the city from the water. After that we went to the Pippi Longstocking museum which was really cool - there was a narrated ride that brought us up, down and through models of all stories the author wrote. 

After that we entered the most popular museum in Scandinavia. Back in the 1600s, the Swedes commissioned a powerful warship designed by a Dutch expert. The government wanted lots of guns, but the designer said to chill out a bit with all the weight up top. They didn't listen. A couple hundred meters into its maiden voyage, it tipped over and lots of soldiers in full armor drowned. It stayed at the bottom of the harbor until a few decades ago when they salvaged the entire vessel and reconstructed it, building a structure around it. Very impressive - pictures don't really capture the scale. 

On New Year's day we got up very early and had a quiet ride back down south to the Swedish coast. We found a spot where it was possible for 10 weeks out of the year to walk into a seal preserve. After a couple hours of walking along a beautiful beach and skipping stones, we made it to the peninsula where the seals live. We watched them swimming in the water for 10 minutes and then hiked back to the car. A three hour walk in total! The girls did great. 

The next morning we got up very early once again to catch the ferry. It was a really cool experience. What a nice way to travel! It was a six hour ride and we got a table right up front. Best setting ever for a game of Monopoly. Traffic in Germany was bad, but we still got to enjoy flying down some nice stretches of the Autobahn. Unfortunately we had to cancel our plans for Berlin due to Germany's new travel restrictions. It is good to be back home though. 

Copenhagen was great! Lucked out with sunny weather.

The oldest island in Stockholm - we had 'fika' or coffee in these colorful buildings.

Christmas moose.

The Vasa Museum.

Watching the seals.

More from Copenhagen.

Abigail woke up early and wanted to let everyone else sleep, so she found a quiet spot to read.

Sunrise over the eco-village.

Great walks in the forest!

So dirty.

The royal palace in Stockholm.

'Fika' in the colorful buildings.

The boat tour in Stockholm.

Pippi Longstocking museum.

Touring the eco-village.

The ferry ride from Sweden to Germany.