New Year, New Digs

Happy (belated) new year everyone! We have been very, very busy around here. I don't even know where to begin. Roger's sister Barbara and her husband Tim plus their daughter Amy and boyfriend Joe and everyone's dogs visited us over New Year's. It was a great way to polish off the holidays and prepare for the new year. Soon after they left, we began to pack up the house in preparation for our big renovation. But first, the girls had alot of fun playing with these cardboard houses and cars that everyone helped me put together. You can see Mary Clare has a future in architecture -- if she can ever learn to stay dressed, that is.

After their visit I had a whirlwind of meetings with the contractor, kitchen designer, cabinet people, tile people, floor people, countertop people, appliance people, . . lots and lots of meetings and people!! Then, last Wednesday we moved out of the house and into a townhouse that is actually owned by our housekeeper / babysitter / friend Oksana's brother. It has been a total lifesaver -- it's two bedrooms so the girls are sharing. Mary Clare is in a bunkbed and we brought Erin's crib over. They really seeem to love sharing a room, although bedtime is even more challenging than ever. Dylan (our dog) and Lou (our cat) are adjusting great, too The only one is having a hard time is Roger -- he's having the DTs missing his cable so I've arranged to have it hooked up on Thursday, much to his relief.

Here are the girls playing in a big packing box as I frantically tried to get the whole house!

Last Thursday movers packed *most* of our stuff into a big POD in the backyard. I was surprised and how much stuff kept going and going into that Pod and how much was still leftover when it was full. I spent part of Friday and Saturday cramming the last of the little stuff into the few nooks and crannies of the house we had left. On Friday a big orange dumpster was delivered and the demolition began. I could hardly believe how fast it went. By lunchtime on Friday the kitchen was totally gutted -- all the cabinets, the island, the fridge, the appliances, everything was gone. By the end of the day, the pantry was gone, plus one wall and the back of our chimney was exposed. We were hoping to find a covered-up fireplace but where disappointed to just find brick. I have some pictures and will post them as soon as I remember to dig out hte right cords and bring them over.

On Saturday we leave for a week at Disney World - so I'll probably have lots and lots of pictures to post in the next few weeks. Now that I've gotten back on-line at our new place I hope to have updates of our renovation and our vacation soon. Stay tuned!