To the left is evidence that there was one a window for the
dining room.  See below how I remedied that.

These pictures of the porch are all from March when I gutted the space.  The drop ceiling in the picture was hanging from two 2x4s that would not qualify as joists in any way.

One of the "joists" holding the entire ceiling.

The porch is now the best insulated room in the house.
Alisa's dad helped me for a few days getting most of the space
re-framed.

Smaller Awning Windows allow for better light, privacy,
security (can leave them open when away or sleeping), but most
valuable was the space gained to build storage.

Peter spent most of his summer with trucks.

The Kings Fair happens in our neighborhood every two years.  Far superior to any other Fair in the nation I know of :)

Micaiah was Calvin and Peter happened to be a Tiger so the opportunity to get a Calvin and Hobbes picture was critical.

Phoebe was a "Planet Princess"  Alisa is sweating what she will need to sew for two kids next year!

I never pass up an opportunity to show the
general public what we are capable of
doing on a bike.  I hauled 2 bales of hay
from a park in St Paul about 5 miles home
last week.  Always an adventure.

The best donuts in Mpls--still warm.
I don't know if I've ever had something so wonderful
as a warm pastry like this.   A Baker's Wife.  The
bakery is next to a craft beer bar, and
a bike shop (unfortunately one I don't like).
This street could be all I'd ever need :)

My dad helped me cut these cabinets.  Full sheets
of MDF Fir ply is not a one-person job we found.
After he left, I got the boxes all set and face-framed.

Here is some final trim work.  I still hope to build a cabinet left of the mail slot and below the windows, but first I hope to tackle the dining room window pictured above.  I have some stain mixed to match the old casing in the house, but we'll see.  It'll be a challenge to get it just right.

 In March we went to the North Shore.  Go figure, no one is up there.  Hotels were cheap.  Weather was both springlike and winter-like in a matter of 24hrs.

Last weekend the kids and I travelled down near Northfield to visit a sheep farm where we've had a cheese CSA share in the past.  Phoebe fell in love with the lambs.  Peter wanted to run up and down a hill of composted manure.

My brother flew out to ride the Fulton Gran Fondo.
We rode 103 miles together yesterday.  

And some additional fun we had . . . our college band from 20
years ago played with John filling in on drums. We had many
friends and neighbors present to BBQ and enjoy the music.
Perhaps a link to the video will be added here soon.

 I know I'm way behind on posts but here you go.  I'm dipping back to Halloween here folks. My apologies.  But we've been busy as you can see.  Alisa's had a busy busy fall making Phoebe's costume and followed that with sewing a new skirt and shirt Phoebe wore to her winter piano recital.

I've been brewing a lot with my good friend Mark (and enjoying the outputs), working a lot writing professional development curriculum and mentoring two young and very talented teachers at a local German Immersion Charter School.  I spend a lot of my evenings writing and it's tiring yet very fulfilling and fun.  I'm learning a lot and getting the opportunity to tap a lot of the research I would never otherwise due to time.

My neighbor Rolf and I took our girls (and his older son and another
neighbor boy) climbing over the Christmas/New Year break.  They loved it.
It was fun to dig out my old harness and consider how many years I need
to wait before getting my kids out on real rock!  

Phoebe's life is packed: swim lessons, gymnastics, piano, cross-country skiing lessons, and school.  Peter, well, he just spends his day dumping liquids from pot to pan and unpacking everything but his own toys.  He's awesome, but he's a lot of work.  We have busy days around here to say the least.

First visit from the tooth fairy happened a couple weeks ago!

Last week we visited "Ice Castles" down in Eden Prarie.
Very awesome.  There are a few across the US.  The kids had
a lot of fun for the hour we were there.

We've been trying our hand at some double/imperial
ales lately.  On the right is a Double Black IPA (Cascadian IPA)

My winter office.  It's great having the basement to work, but soon
I will be kicked out by a need to start our garden--the grow lights are
good office lighting for now

Our family photo for church.  This is as good as it gets folks. 

Eli came over for a good chunk of the day a couple weeks
ago and showed up with his shovel.  His dad (Mark, who's
finishing the cement in the purple shirt below), told him I needed
help digging out my sidewalk for forms.  They made a good dent
in the first 4' of 80'

Forms running along the side of the house

A lot of time was spent thinking about water run off in the
design here.  I'm mostly proud of my curve mixed with some
polygons.  I thought for sure Alisa was going to call me on that
and ask for all smooth curves or all polygons.  As a
geometry teacher, I wanted both in the project.

We all learned a lot this day.  A lot.  Like mainly
that I bit off more than I should have and got
lucky because I have amazing friends
and neighbors who helped finish this job.

I'm pretty sure I've shed some pounds lately prepping and pouring this new sidewalk.  We poured 3.5 cubic yds yesterday (260 sq ft).  Cement is my kind of work.  There's no time to think.  There's massive pressure to work fast.  I love that.  Seriously.  There was a point yesterday where I started remembering things people were asking me and I know I wasn't responding.  I was in a complete zone and it was pretty cool.

All that said, I clearly took on more than I should have.  But we pulled it off.  I spent a few weeks prepping the yard: digging out the path.  Building forms.  Packing the dirt base.  But yesterday Mark and Matthew showed up an hour early and I started to think we weren't going to pull this off.

The driver was a godsend.  He coached me/us through a few different points in the project and told us when to shift to different roles based on how hard the cement was getting.  A couple neighbors jumped in and did a lot of the finish work and cut all the seams.  I asked the driver "so, you have seen dumber than me and this crew, right?"  He smiled and with a raise of the eyebrows: "Oh yeah!"  Thats all I needed to know  It turned out great.  Pictures to come.

Next, we landscape.  Right now we're having a near flash-flood type rain and I have no silt fence out there.  Pretty good chance that dirt yard you see is mostly in the street and on it's way to the Mississppi.  But the new sidewalk is shedding water like a pro!  Go concrete! :)

Alisa's been picking out some plants and we hope to just mulch and plant--no more grass.  If we do put some done, Prarie Moon offers some varieties with deeper root bases that will hopefully help drainage and not need as much mowing.  But we hope to cover the yard mostly with prairie plants and whatnot.

In other news, Alisa's been at her new job a few weeks now and it seems great from my point of view.  She's been home for dinner more often and has Tuesdays off!  It feels a bit more in balance already, but we need to give it a few more months as we adjust to this and of course Kindergarten.

Phoebe loves her school and her teacher.  The class assistant gave a great compliment the other day about her.  She's very into school and it's super great picking her up each day.  We walk or bike to school and Alisa is biking to work now.  It all seems to be coming together.  We are very happy with the life our location allows us to live.  I'd love to get rid of a car and just be a one-car family (so that one can sit and collect dust too!) but Alisa is assuming she'll need to drive this winter.  We don't live in a good place for transit, unfortunately.  All the good busses and all trains are just a bit too far to walk to.  Anyway, someday.

Peter saw Phoebe do this with her bowl.  Now he thinks this
is just an acceptable way to eat from the get go.

Peter's been wanting to drink my coffee.  This
is just water.  I'm hesitant to give him a taste of
coffee as he may like it.  I tried that with baking
chocolate (thinking he'd never want choc again)
and he wanted more. 

The tag-along has been the preferred way to get to school.
Alisa's been carrying on to her new job most days.
We talked the other day about how satisfied we are living
where we are, having Phoebe close to home at school and
now Alisa biking to work regularly--I'm still trying to
convince her that winter biking is pretty fun.  Help me out please.

I'm getting blasted with ice . . . of course. 

On her way to her first day of Kindergarten.
Her school is awesome.  I love picking her up
and seeing many close friends there with their kids
too.