House Chapin

Our last post was in March?!?!

2011-10-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

So much has happened with Eliza in the past several months. She's walking all over the place and her vocabulary has absolutely exploded. She says just about everything we say which has, on occasion, proven dangerous. Here are a few videos to catch you up on all things Eliza.

Fig newtons are her faves.

Eliza and Abby's moms have known each other for a looooong time. Over 25 years, in fact. And though we didn't know each other when we were this young, it's great that our girls can be buds from the start.

After what can only be described as a complete meltdown, Eliza relented when she made it clear that she wanted to put butter on her own roll by HERSELF, thankyouverymuch. The evidence:

We had a great summer!

There's Something About Eliza

2011-03-07T19:01:00.004-05:00

Eliza has not yet had a haircut. 16 months without a trip to a stylist? Wow! That's a long time! Her current style is au natural. No product, no conditioner, no gel. Just straight up California Baby shampoo. And some self-applied yogurt once in awhile. Her bangs are kind of getting a little out of control maybe. Wait, are bangs the part of your hair that's in the front of your head, or do bangs only mean a certain type of haircut? Anyway, the hair in the front of her head is getting out of hand. We've tried clips, but Eliza enjoys removing and hiding them.

So imagine our surprise when I picked up Eliza disguised as Cindy-Lou Who! Form follows function, we guess. That Frank Lloyd Wright definitely had this in mind when he coined that phrase.

Oh, and when we removed the hairtie thing Eliza looked like an extra on a Farrelly Brothers comedy. The one with Brett Favre.

What's so funny?

2011-02-02T19:09:00.002-05:00

We don't know, but Eliza sure enjoyed it!

Fine Motor Skills > Gross Motor Skills

2011-01-16T20:41:00.005-05:00

Some wise parent told us to be prepared for an onslaught of colds this winter. Eliza got a few last year, but we were entirely unprepared for this epidemic. She's nice enough to share some of them (sorry, grandparents). This latest one has her on some antibiotics that make for some rather, er, messy side effects. So we have instituted a diet based on the well-known BRAT method that we are calling the BRA diet: bananas, rice and applesauce. Eliza doesn't really seem to dig white toast at the moment. But that isn't the reason for this update. Beginning yesterday, we gave her a spoon to use with her applesauce/rice cereal/banana mixture and she picked it right up. We still have to work on the proper handling of the spoon, though.

Fun in the Snow

2011-01-08T21:40:00.006-05:00

Parenthood would have been nothing like we thought it would be, had we had any idea (accurate or otherwise) what parenthood would be like in the first place. Some stuff makes more sense. Some stuff has more or different meaning. We could get into some deep, philosophical/meta examples, but instead, let's turn to the old reliable cultural satire, The Simpsons.

Now, from time to time on The Simpsons (which, by the way, we haven't watched in several seasons for no particular reason whatsoever) there would be an episode set in winter and Maggie donned her snowsuit. The suit, which looks like a starfish with a baby face poking out of one of the arms, looked stiff, immovable and not entirely comfortable. I always thought it was a cute little depiction of a baby's snowsuit. NOPE. It's pretty much dead on, which I should have realized earlier, given the frequency that The Simpsons nails pretty much everything. I give you exhibit A, and exhibit B.

Maggie Simpson's snowsuit:

Eliza in her snowsuit (with friend Kelsey):

So while that doesn't look too comfortable, we assure you, Eliza is very much at ease in her new toboggan. While this next shot is from a more recent tobogganing expedition, Eliza is obviously perfectly happy being immobile in her toasty warm snowsuit. Not pictured - when the toboggan tipped over and Eliza found herself face-down in the snow. She did not like that. At all.

Birthday Slideshow!

2010-10-30T18:51:00.002-04:00

Just head on over to housechapin.blogspot.com and see the slideshow we premiered at Eliza's First Birthday Partay! Just about, oh, 250 carefully selected photographs from the thousands that have been taken over this past year. Just click the pumpkinhead below to see the pics!

Uh-oh

2010-10-24T09:12:00.004-04:00

It's a funny thing about video cameras. If you shoot video after video, but fail to move the videos from the magical disc inside the camera to the even more wondrous computer, you might as well have not taken them at all. It would seem that we are falling into the habit of letting these videos lie dormant on that little disc. Well, that ends today!!! We are breaking this habit! Now we need to break the habit of meticulously packing up the point-and-shoot, SLR (with 3 lenses) and HD video camera for events, happenings and outings, only to leave them in their tidy little LowePro case.

This first video is actually a twofer. That's like two videos and one. Oh, we could have shown you a video of Eliza saying, "Uh-oh." And we could have shown you another video of her using a spoon. But you're busy, right? You don't have time for that. We understand. And so we are going to show you both of those things....in one video! (editor's note: the first "uh-oh" is, in fact, Deacon).

Now, that first clip was a terrible example of keeping videos on the camera for too long. It just happened this morning. But this next video...this one makes that point a little better. It happened a week ago, and I have no excuse for burying this clip of Eliza riding a tricycle for the first time. If she knew about this...she'd be pretty mad, because she seems exceedingly proud of her tricycle riding skills.

Packing

2010-09-30T22:27:00.006-04:00

Eliza loves getting ready to go on "trips" by completely unpacking her bottom dresser drawer. You can imagine how much fun this is on laundry days...

FB friends, there's a video at housechapin.blogspot.com.

Car Talk

2010-08-30T20:50:00.003-04:00

Eliza seems right at home in her new car seat and new car. She has quite a bit to say on the matter. But before we get to her brief diatribe, let's rewind to about 5 minutes before loading up into the car. After a quick walk up to the peak of New Haven that is the East Rock monument Eliza realized she had the luxury of nodding off for the last mile or so. So she did:

You'd think this kid would load up into the car and return to sweet sleep. Nope. Instead she had an in-depth conversation with her mom. I'm not sure what about. I'm sure Todd and I are having a deep talk in the front seat about the relative merits of taking Cleveland's #3 WR as a sleeper.

I don't think I've mentioned that we are preparing Eliza for a position with the Spanish embassy so she has to practice early! FB folks - vids at housechapin.blogspot.com.

Eliza's First Swing

2010-07-16T22:04:00.003-04:00

It has come to our attention that the bulk of our updates of Eliza are related to her eating. While Eliza does spend a good part of her waking hours filled with the anticipation of eating, actually eating, or upset that she is no longer eating, we do other things with her, too. We've been hitting the Madison beaches pretty hard these last couple of weeks: playing in the sand or splashing around in the water during the day, firing up one of the beachside grills for dinner. The Surf Club has a little playground that we noticed had some swings that may or may not be appropriate for an 8+ month old. But we thought that Eliza would enjoy the ride and risk, so away she went on her first swing. Here is the video evidence - housechapin.blogspot.com if you're reading this on Facebook.

Also if a member of the Madison Public Works reads this blog - and I'm pretty confident at least 3 of them do - if you could shoot some WD-40 on the swings at The Surf Club that'd be swell.

We Never Did Get The Picture

2010-07-05T09:46:00.003-04:00

I didn't get the exchange between Michael and I where we agreed that this photo op would never happen, so you'll just have to take my word for it. But no one listens to ol' Deacon and Michael. Personally, I think the attempt of getting 3 kids under 2 years old to remain still for the 1/30th of a second it takes to snap a photo is asking a lot. Now, the ultimate result - that is, the attempt of getting these three bundles of unbridled kinetic energy to remain still for a moment while singing "Tomorrow" - was a noble attempt, to be sure. I'm just glad I got it on film.

Video @ housechapin.blogspot.com.

John Stewart Says, "Eat Quinoa"

2010-06-24T18:05:00.002-04:00

Up until the day before we shot this video (6/24) Eliza had eaten puree of a variety of fruits and vegetables. They all shared one commonality: the consistency of, well, baby food. Making her food amounted to (sometimes) peeling, chopping, steaming and using the handy dandy immersion blender that The Other Chapins gave us for Christmas last year. As I used the blender I might hear in the background the suggestion that Eliza "could use a little more texture."

This video is Eliza's first foray into the world of textured food. Quinoa. Delicious, nutritious quinoa. Doesn't every family feed their child a South American pseudocereal (thanks, Wikipedia!) as one of her first foods? We thought so!

Dining al fresco

2010-06-16T21:22:00.002-04:00

We doubt that Eliza really has a preference as to where she takes her meals. Who knows, though, maybe she appreciates the view while she eats her puree of cauliflower. Either way, here's a short video of Eliza noshing on some of that aforementioned cauliflower. Or was it parsnips? It really doesn't matter; she's eaten everything we've put in front of her, including some bits of paper plate when we weren't paying close enough attention.

Mornings

2010-05-26T20:54:00.002-04:00

Don't call her a cat person, but Eliza loves Bella.

For the FB viewers, check out a new video at housechapin.blogspot.com.

If only she were happier

2010-05-11T19:56:00.003-04:00

This is how our evenings have been lately.

If you're reading this on Facebook, head on over to housechapin.blogspot.com. There's a video.

First Rice Cereal And Now THIS?

2010-05-04T19:55:00.007-04:00

You're feeding me what?

I guess when we stop and think about it, avocado is kind of a weird first food. We sort of both independently thought about it, and when we suggested it to each other, naturally we thought it was a capital idea. As an added bonus, you don't have to do anything to it other than mash it with a fork to get it ready to feed to a 6 month old. As a second added bonus (this is where you can make up your own Goldman-Sachs joke), we happen to love avocado and will happily eat any of the leftovers that Eliza chooses to kick down to us. I don't think this will be true with, say, puree of pea.

Further, avocados have a ton of good fat, potassium, a couple of those B vitamins with the numbers after them, vitamin E, vitamin K, and, also important: fiber.

She seemed pretty excited to be eating - which is not unusual. She didn't seem to recognize the difference in color from her usual dinner of oatmeal to this bright green paste and took her bites quite readily. The end result: she finished an entire half of an avocado in about 10 minutes (a good part of which ended up on her face/bib/floor). She would, intermittently, seem to shudder as if surprised by what she was eating. Which makes sense, seeing as how everything she's eaten until this point had been devoid of texture and, mostly, taste. Round 2 vs. the avocado is tomorrow. Maybe a video (horizontally shot) is in order?

Hmmm...interesting.

Hey! Not too bad!

Your avocado. Give it to me.

We Are Hilarious

2010-04-15T06:00:00.003-04:00

Yep, we are hilarious. Obviously. This isn't news to anyone. Except Eliza. She's just discovering that her parents are the second coming of George Carlin (but without those "seven words" - at least, not in Eliza's presence. No, no, never). Forgive us if we're still getting the video thing down and you have to kind of tilt your head for the first half of the clip. You might also notice we're still using the point-and-shoot for video purposes. So we suspect when Eliza is all grown up and all she has is standard definition video of most of her infant life she'll assuredly think we didn't love her enough to invest in an HD camera. Anyway, enough with the words. People want to see videos.

Oh, and if you're reading this on Facebook, well, you'll just have to trudge on over to housechapin.blogspot.com to see the video. Apparently they haven't figured out how to import clips from blogs to Bookface.

Weebles wobble...

2010-03-26T17:28:00.002-04:00

...and they DO fall down. Here's Eliza working on her latest trick: sitting.

Don't adjust your screens, but do plan to turn your head to the side for the next minute.

Happy rolling

2010-02-17T20:50:00.003-05:00

And here's Eliza showing her latest and greatest version of rolling over. Much happier this time.

Eliza's Second Hockey Game

2010-01-31T11:32:00.003-05:00

We haven't gotten out to as many Yale hockey games as last year for some reason. We can't quite put our finger on it, but our time seems to be spent elsewhere... But we were able to carve out a Saturday night into our schedules, and able to get a great group of friends to join in, too! See:

Eliza seems to like hockey. And by like, we mean her eyes are constantly wide with what we presume to be stimulation overload. But she is certainly entertained for the entirety of the game.

Certainly the most exciting time of the game was getting hit by a puck. Just remember, if you are going to record some fast hockey action and are looking at your viewscreen to frame the play, make sure you have one eye on the puck:

Eliza's first words! Well, almost...

2010-01-20T07:50:00.006-05:00

Erika here. I'm not witty like Deacon, so I'll keep it brief. Just wanted folks to see Eliza cooing last week. She's a happy girl! Now if we could only get her to sleep through the night...

Did you just see that?

2010-01-04T21:10:00.005-05:00

We thought we were in for a night of some light reading, maybe some activity time, another chance for Eliza to spit out approximately 70% of the vitamins we give her and, if we were lucky, another blissful night of mostly uninterrupted sleep. Eliza had other plans. We had seen hints that she might be in for a big developmental milestone, but we didn't know it would come so quickly! So, we present as proof the Zapruder film of baby-rolling-over footage. Also she's pretty much crying the entire time so I set it to what I think is a more appropriate soundtrack...

Eliza is a Recluse

2009-12-19T19:41:00.008-05:00

Our pediatricians have put the fear of H1N1 in us; we're told that if Eliza is exposed to a group of 5 or more strangers in a public area that she'll catch the plague and will suffer developmental consequences that will restrict her to a school like Vassar. The horror! Don't fret - soon enough we'll have some pictures of Eliza (and, maybe us) that aren't in our humble abode. In the meantime you will all just have to take the ones at good old Princess Drive.

"Sup."

Eliza knows how to get comfortable.

We did ask Leigh to sign a standard release so we could use her pic.

Not our Christmas card. But it could have been!

Some morning activity time with Mommy and Grammie...

...which Eliza finds hilarious!

Quite a stare and...

...quite a smile!

Busy day! Quality napping time!

Faces

2009-12-05T21:53:00.005-05:00

Eliza will go through an entire 3 act play's worth of facial expressions in the time it takes for her to make a fresh diaper...not so fresh. That is, to say, rather quickly. Here are some of our favorites from the past couple of weeks!

Surprised:

Unhappy:

Pondering:

Approving:

Hysterically laughing at something we said:

And finally, one of our favorites - sleepy:

Update!

2009-11-28T10:30:00.006-05:00

An update of sorts, because it will be mostly pictures. That seems to be what the people want, as opposed to the two of us going on and on about diapers, late-night discussions with Eliza about how we sleep at night, baby clothes, seriously considering buying stock in whoever makes baby wipes and keeping her sequestered from the omnipresent H1N1 virus.

So, on to what people care about: new(ish) pictures:

1st Bath and not happy about it.

Future Wildcat?

Future Mary Washington roommates?

Eliza needs a matching #12 jersey!

All ready for her 2nd Thanksgiving!

1st photo released from shoot!

2009-11-13T09:48:00.001-05:00

Our friend Erik came earlier this week and shot nearly 600 photos of Eliza who, by the way, was quite into being photographed. She made nary a peep the entire shoot. There were a couple of shots that Erik wanted to get while she was sleeping but she was quiet and alert for the 3 or so hours that Erik was at the house. Even a mid-shoot snack didn’t get her to doze off. Thanks, Erik, for your time! Erik’s blog is linked on the right hand side and his professional website is http://www.erikmaziarz.com/. Look him up if you have anything you want photographed!

Home!

2009-10-30T22:49:00.008-04:00

On Wednesday the two of us took a little car ride into New Haven. Today, three of us left for home. Yes, the nice people at Yale snipped off the baby anti-theft device/anklet and off we went. We still haven't been issued a baby license yet, so I'm not entirely sure this whole thing is totally legal, but we're going to lie low here until the heat wears off. Until then, here are some shots from the eventful past few days.

Erika needed double confirmation that Eliza was, in fact, a girl.

2 tired girls!

Eliza and Gramma.

2 guys and a girl.

3 generations.

Dana + Eliza.

Todd couldn't wait to hold Eliza! Seriously.

Shelly regaling Eliza with tales of Joe Pa.

Lauren is a pro.

All ready to go home!

First steps in the house as...a dad!

Almost time for sleeping. Or not.

Eliza is Here!

2009-10-29T10:31:00.003-04:00

Here we are at Yale-New Haven hospital, just the three of us. Many more pictures to come - thousands, likely - but here's the first one of the newest Chapin family! This is literally minutes after Eliza arrived!

The Nursery

2009-10-24T19:24:00.009-04:00

For whatever reason I've been procrastinating on doing this nursery blog. Maybe it's because I am awesome at procrastinating and do so whenever I can. You would think I'd have learned by now. Nope. Anyway, today is Erika's due date and so far the verdict is NO BABY. So we're going to go out to dinner, I'll slip a jalapeno into Erika's beet salad and we'll see what happens. In the meantime...check out where this kid is going to spend the first 65% or so of its first few months.

This kid better be a good reader! Many books courtesy of our friends at Hopkins and Watertown High School!

Erika's rocker - quite comfy, by the way. I see myself spending time there, you know, not breastfeeding.

That is one SHARP changing table!

Note the vintage old school Red Sox cap. That's mine!

Changing the Changing Table

2009-10-24T11:40:00.001-04:00

There are a couple books written on what kinds of things to buy when you're expecting a baby. We've now read them all and are currently rereading they just in case we missed any gems of wisdom. One of the near-universal suggestions in these books was that we didn't need to buy a separate changing table. So we didn't. What the authors of these books apparently didn't have was a mother that saved a changing table for 30 years!

When we picked up this table things looked pretty grim. But, as we've proven with our house, a coat or three of paint can work wonders. We consulted our books a ninth time to see what kind of paint we should use so the baby wouldn't contract scurvy or plague from the paint fumes and proceeded.

Which is dirtier: the table or the outfit?

This project looks pretty easy. You know what's not easy? Trying to sand, prime and paint in the little crevices of 87 little dowels. There was a point where I thought we might just go with the "distressed" look, saving me the time of priming. And there was another point when the primer itself didn't look so bad. But we ultimately decided that our kid deserved a painted changing table and the job was seen to completion.

Much better! Plus, no dirty Redhook shirt!

...And After

2009-09-28T22:17:00.007-04:00

So it's not totally finished - the electrician still needs to come and do some electrician stuff - but it's mostly done. You know, kind of like how Cary Elwes was mostly dead in The Princess Bride. But it's functional and we're approximately 187% happier with this room than we were with it's drabby former incarnatinon. It's weird how you get so used to something that you don't realize how really, really bad it truly is. Such was the case with the "before" version of this room.

Unlike the previous bathroom renovation, we hired people to do most of the work. Again, I'm fine with paying someone to cut and install the tile. They're quick, competent and nice to work with. For this job the only work that was done ourselves was the demolition, vanity and counter installation, faucet installation and...that might be it.

Anyway, this project will likely put renovations on a bit of a hiatus. The baby is due in less than a month (and I'll say this again: we're always late so this kid will probably be, too). We have this house in a state where it's comfortable, functional and livable. And that's not really even giving it enough credit.

Anyway, on to the after pics:

Those wires are supposed to be there!

Slightly nicer counters...

I installed the curtain myself!

Probably could have used another shelf.

Before

2009-09-26T12:56:00.005-04:00

We're pretty hesitant to post these pictures as our master bathroom was such an embarrassment. We should have called this blog "Look How Shitty Our House Was!" It's amazing what you don't realize when you look at a house and decide to buy it. While doing a walkthrough of this place we were told (by someone very wise and sagelike), "You know, you're going to have to paint all this wood trim." We though it was no big deal...100 hours later, we realized the implications of this fragment of the project. Anyway...away from that digression and back to the crappy bathroom.

It was a lovely shade of blue that brought to mind a beautiful sky or a rolling ocean. I imagine it was supposed to be tranquil and/or peaceful. I don't even think they sell this color at Benjamin Moore anymore. Check it out; this is why we debated just showing the "after" pictures.
I am more certain that they don't manufacture a toilet in a matching color. The original interior designer of this room found a shower stall that was closely matched, but not quite. I had to do some work on this shower awhile ago and pulled out a hair clog that was older than me. I named it Carl (no pics, though).
The sink was supposed to look like a single slab of marble that had been carved out to create a sink. It was a joy to break apart with a sledgehammer, though. We tried to casually put the marblesque remnants for the garbagemen to pick up but they politely declined. The toilet is still in our garage, awaiting its final destination of the Madison-Guilford waste transfer station. Call me quick and you can have it for your throwback blue bathroom.The water faucet thing is because someone told the previous owner that she had bad water. We had it tested and it was great. I tossed out the filtration system - didn't want to bother with selling it on CraigsList.

Everything came out really easily: vanity, mirror, sinkcounter, floor. The total cost of this room when it was built in 1972 was definitely around $1k. Hopefully our take on this room will come out a little better, and last a little longer. More to come...

Almost Meatless Potluck

2009-07-28T22:28:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the Almost Meatless potluck dinner at House Chapin: Spinach and Chickpea Pouch edition! If you don't know what the heck this hullabaloo is all about, read about the project at Tara's blog.

If you've spent any amount of time with Erika or me over the past few months you have assuredly heard of us talk about our new favorite cookbook: Almost Meatless. Of course, we're a bit biased as our friend Tara is one of the co-authors. We might have also tested some of the recipes that made it into the book. That said, we've put quite a culinary dent in this little tome and have yet to run across anything resembling a letdown.

Recently Tara asked us to make a recipe and document the outcome. We had our choice of a couple different recipes. We chose the Spinach and Chickpea Pouches because it was something we wouldn't typically make. I've not used filo dough very often. It's one of those "ingredients" that I don't put to much thought toward, but whenever I use it I'm pleased with the outcome. It makes the finished product look like you've put a lot more time into it than you actually did.

This recipe serves 6 and uses only 8 ounces of ground beef. The filling also contains spinach, garlic, fresh oregano, roasted red bell pepper, chickpeas and feta. It calls for a 1/4t of dried chile flakes, but that ingredient was vetoed by my heat-intolerant assistant. We roasted a fresh red pepper about an hour prior to beginning this dish - I cannot recommend this enough. A fresh roasted pepper is a few worlds better than the jarred stuff. It's like comparing fresh herbs to dried. There's just no comparison. I highly suggest that if you choose to make this that you take the extra 5 minutes to make the tzatziki - so easy and so good!

Making this took about 30 minutes of actual prep time including roasting the pepper. It's a complete dinner, but is also good served with a simple green salad. Anyway, here's the finished product:

Reprinted with permission from Ten Speed Press and the authors.

The Last Ultrasound

2009-06-22T21:58:00.003-04:00

Yes, this is Deacon!

I've seen these sonogram images before. Usually I'm looking at them, trying to make out what it is I'm looking at exactly and scrambling for something meaningful to say, but all I can think about are things like, "Hmmm...is 'The Office' new tonight, or is it a rerun?" They all kind of look the same, but after getting them done for us...they still don't look very different than any sonogram image you can Google search. I don't think I'd be able to pick our sonogram out of a bulletin board full of other people's sonograms. Still, it's a pretty cool experience and we're kind of bummed that the 20 week ultrasound is our last. Of course I like to point out that our baby is so advanced that we had its 20 week ultrasound at 18 weeks. We're at the appointment for our ultrasound and the midwife came into the room and asked what we were doing so early for our ultrasound. Erika kind of looked back at her with a sort of "you made the appointment, expert" look and then everything worked out. All the femurs and hearts and pancreases and brain halves showed up just fine. I would seriously go with Erika to these appointments every week if they let us. But this is it...the last time we see our kid with or without the help of sound waves until Octoberish.

As Promised

2009-05-05T10:35:00.003-04:00

First of all, I'm going to start using "he" and "she" interchangeably because I feel kind of weird calling our baby "it." We are still not finding out the sex, at least, not on purpose. Our friends Lauren and Brandon, though, just had an ultrasound at about Week 20 and said it was kind of obvious. If we have a notion one way or the other, don't worry, we're not going to guard that information like a top secret cryptogram.

There are a multitude of these websites and books that tell you essentially how far your baby is in its development. "It's Week 6, your baby is beginning to develop the top half of a small intestine" or "it's Week 9, your baby now has a gall bladder!" Well, we are currently in the throes of Week 15. What does that mean? Apparently not a lot goes on in Week 15, actually. Let's see...our baby is developing taste buds and he or she can sense light. The latter development is kind of useless information, considering our baby's current environment. Pretty dark in there, I suspect. Not sure I want to even learn how we came to the conclusion that at Week 15 a baby can sense light. This week is apple week, by the way. They have these other websites that tell you how big your baby is and they usually use fruit as examples. This one website did use a shrimp as an example a week or two ago, which was kind of weird. Are we talking a curled up shrimp? One stretched out? We talking 31/50 count shrimp? Or maybe U8 shrimp - those are pretty big. Anyway, we seem to refer to each week as "apple week" or "lime week" rather than what number we're on. This seems to confuse the people at the OB/GYN.

This image is from a couple of weeks ago. We went in for that triple screen test, which we debated getting for awhile but now are glad we did. The tipping point in the decision to get it or not was, I think, the "free" sonogram. It was a pretty lengthy sonogram, too, because they had a new technician who hadn't used that particular type of equipment before. Unfortunately, they only gave us 2 images, and one was either a hand or a foot - we really couldn't tell which - so I'm not posting it. This time we saw legs and arms flailing about, the baby was rolling around...it was pretty amazing. Yeah, it looks like every other sonogram I've ever seen...but it's ours!

Another Project Completed

2009-05-03T22:46:00.009-04:00

A half bathroom is usually the smallest room in one's house, and our former travesty of a half bathroom was no exception. This room was as depressing as it was tiny. It really needed to be put out of its misery. This was one of those rooms that, when we first saw it thought, "well, at least it's clean." To call it an embarrassment would be like saying GM is "financially challenged." To say that it was outdated would have been like Erika going to work in a hoop skirt and bodice. Let's take a look at what we had to work with:

Three things kind of stick out. First, I don't even know what kind of floor this is. Is it supposed to look like cracked marble? Like little dingy interlocking stones? I have literally no clue, but it appeared perpetually dirty, no matter how much it was scrubbed, mopped or wiped down. Next, the tile on the wall was that classic 1970s harvest gold. It might have been a touch lighter than that, but you get the general idea. Here's a confession, though: I actually thought we could leave this tile and paint the walls a bright orange. Erika pointed out that this might cause either seizures or flashbacks by anyone confined to our bathroom for more than 2 minutes. So we took the tile down. Finally, you can kind of see the wallpaper, but you'll have to take our word for it when we say that all 3 layers were completely unpalatable.

Ah, there's a better shot of some of that wallpaper. Whoever patented that design must have made a fortune because I've seen that crap everywhere. There was actually an additional, hidden layer under the mirror that was a kind of neon green paisley - which I am sure actually did cause someone at some time at least a mild seizure. The mirror/medicine cabinet/lighting combo is one that we see elsewhere in our house. My theory is that the contractor either had a relative working at the store where these were purchased, or he got some sort of 3-for-2 deal on them. If you like them, let me know quick, because the remaining 2 in our house are not long for this world.

The vanity is another piece that we have more of in our house. It's made, I think, of cardboard. And while your eyes might be telling you that the counter is carved from a single piece of creamy yellow marble, joke's on you! It's not! Actually, I don't know what it is made from, but I think some sort of polymer was involved in its creation. And while it's in the picture, has anyone else taken up a toilet? I thought there would be some intricate, secure connection between the toilet and the pipe that takes stuff to wherever. Yeah, the toilet just kind of sits on this hole. All that stands between a dry floor and utter, awful disaster is a relative thin ring of wax. Luckily my father was able to walk me through the proper removal and reinstallation of this thing.

So there you have it: the before shots. Now to the after!

Obviously we needed to repaint, adding to the current tally of repainted surface in our house. Instead of tile we put up beadboard or wainscoting (heard it called both and I use both terms interchangeably). The tile is, well, tile. I think it's marble but I honestly don't know.

Little bit of an aesthetic upgrade in the vanity/sink department. Although I feel a little hypocritical because we got a very similar vanity for our master bathroom, just as the original vanities in our house seemed to be from the same litter. No medicine cabinet because it's a half bathroom and it seemed superfluous. The granite is this really cool (in our opinion, anyway) piece that looks like a cross section of a fossilized river bed. We spotted it in our original stone safari when we were looking for a surface for our kitchen but didn't think it looked right in that kind of setting.

So that's it. We did everything ourselves except for the floor. I'm sure at some point I'll learn to cut tile, but until then we have no problem paying someone to do it. Sure, it took a little while, but it came out pretty darn good. Only two rooms to go now! Still...Dad, if you're reading this, I'll probably need just a little help on those toilets, too!

We're Positive! Now with FAQ!

2009-04-16T21:29:00.004-04:00

The Latest Chapin

Yes, this is a sonogram from our first visit to the OB-GYN back on March 18th and I'm sure a lot of you have many, many interesting and insightful questions. So we are going to anticipate some of the more popular and intelligent questions and answer them for you right here, right now!

What the hell is that, a blurry gummi bear?
That's a picture of our latest creation: a child! After some practice we figured things out and managed to create some new life. It totally looks like a blurry gummi bear though.

Don't you have a newer, better sonogram picture?
Why yes, we do. But we want you to revisit our blog in order to get more and more "unique daily visitors" so that we can implement Google ads on our blog and pay for our child's college education. Unless our child masters the French horn, in which case we're all set. So revisit the blog at a later date and we'll have fresh, new sonogram pictures that look like an actual person.

So, are you going to find out whether it's a boy or a girl?
Yeah, no we aren't.

Any names picked out?
If it is a boy it's Samuel Robert. If it's a girl...we actually have no idea what we'll name it if it's a girl. We're currently taking suggestions.

How's everything going so far?
Surprisingly well, especially given some of the 1st trimester stories we've been hearing. Erika has been doing really, really well. No nausea, no getting sick, no weird cravings. There was a 4 week stretch where she was napping within approximately 35 seconds upon returning home from work. There was also a time at Hopkins where for a few minutes she didn't feel 100%, but then she felt better...

So are you guys ready?
Not at all! We have a nursery ready to fill up with stuff, but so far we're still researching cribs, car seats, changing tables, playpens, diapers, child care, baby monitors, books, glider rockers, mobiles, bouncy seats, onesies, twosies, pacifiers...all that stuff.

What's up with those pirates in Somalia?
Weird, right? Who knew that there were still pirates in the 21st century. Yarrrr!

So Erika's doing well...how's the baby?
So far, so good! We've taken a a couple tests and screenings and so far everything looks great!

OK, when's this baby arriving?
We have a tentative due date of October 24th, but since we are usually late for essentially everything, and assuming tardiness is genetic, it might be early November...

Worried about the Red Sox?
No, and while you're asking, we're probably not going to name our kid "J.D." However "Drew" is on our list of girl names, but the loose association with the current Boston right fielder did cost that proposed name a few points. "Dustin" on the other hand...

Late October...aren't you two school counselors? And isn't that a busy time?
Yes and yes. What's funny is that we thought we could plan for a July delivery but obviously that didn't happen. Apparently these types of things don't quite operate on a schedule.

How excited is cousin Emma about all this?
Funny you should ask. We had the chance to sit down with Emma this past weekend and she had this to say:

"I am quite excited about meeting my cousin and anticipate the two of us having quite a bit of fun together. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Uncle Deacon and Aunt Erika on the new addition to their family."

Anything else?
We have never been more excited about anything. We are so thankful for each other and our families and their love and support. The pregnancy has been really wonderful so far and we are cautiously optimistic that it will continue to be. We can't wait for October!!!

Spoke Too Soon.

2009-03-24T12:26:00.003-04:00

As we were sitting down to a lovely dinner together, Erika and I decided that our bathrooms are horrible. They're straight out of 1972. I feel like they should be decorated with a disco ball, a "Keep On Truckin'" mural-poster, a lava lamp and bright, fluorescent green paisley wallpaper. So we are redoing them. Totally. Gutted to bare walls and rebuilt from the ground up like in that show with the million dollar man. We have pics, including, ironically, bright fluorescent green paisley wallpaper.

Done with Painting?

2009-02-19T07:40:00.004-05:00

I think we're almost hesitant to declare that we are done painting stuff in our house. We recently thought about it, and we have literally painted every square inch of this place. Actually the banister in this picture is perhaps the last bastion of the characteristic dark wood that used to permeate our home. No more!

These stairs were it. Although we'll be wiping down shiny white kickboards for the remainder of our ownership days here, they needed to be painted. Also, we had a little Satin Impervo leftover and really needed to use it. Finally, the appearance of these stairs were giving Erika flashbacks to the house in the Berkshires where she's been known to fall down a flight twice in a 2 day stretch.

It had been awhile since I'd worked with oil-based paint. I was sort of careful while painting - I mean, I used tape - but some paint did drip from time to time and I neglected to wipe it up. No worries, I figured, I can go back later and clean it with paint thinner. Did you know that paint thinner does a great job of cleaning up dried oil-based paint and floor finish too? It's true! So after trying to clean up one or two "errors" I realized my folly. We still haven't resolved this minor detail, and the end results really do look sharp.

housechapin On The Road

2009-01-28T22:12:00.002-05:00

Once upon a day in Monteray, Massachusetts Erika and I found ourselves with time to do whatever we'd like in western Massachusetts. Shelly and Todd went skiing, but after 3 ACL reconstructions I formally announced my retirement from that sport during a lightly attended press conference. Chris and Lauren had a date at a nearby spa but we had no such aspirations. Given our shared profession, we decided to hit up a nearby college - Williams. Sure, it was snowing - heavily - but it looked so close on the map. We punched in the address on our GPS and braved the elements.

The GPS had already tricked us into rolling down a one lane, unplowed "road" on our way to the Bershires cottage. For some reason, we thought it would never lead us astray for a second time. Erika was driving slowly and carefully. We again found ourselves on what appeared to be a less-than-serviced road. We passed a van at one point and continued down the road until...the road stopped being plowed entirely and a sign informed us that the road was closed in the winter beyond that point. So...we turned around and began to head back. Shortly after we came to the same van we had passed, only now he was sideways on the road, with a healthy portion of his van embedded in a snowbank. Being the good samaritans we think we are, we decided to help this guy. Erika approached the van, only when she tried to brake the car didn't stop...it continued very...slowly...down the slope and into the van.

The good news: the van was now dislodged from the snowbank.
The bad news: there was quite a bit of damage done to our cars.

At this point I was thinking I should have just gone skiing and torn another ACL. We had nearly no cell phone service, save for a 1'x1' square on the side of the road. We successfully got in touch with the local police - that's singular, by the way, as there is literally one police officer in that town. It took him 3 hours to get to our accident scene. 3 hours. No exaggeration. When he finally arrived he looked at both vehicles and said, "Well...I guess I can write up an accident." report." If you are looking for something excruciatingly painful/boring, try sitting in 10F weather with nothing to read but a road map. Also, you and the person you're stuck with have exhausted every talking point from favorite vacation spots to which NPR show we'd cancel (mine was Story Corps, even though it's a part of Morning Edition, I really, really hate it).

All in all, we lost a day of vacation, our insurance rates might go up a bit, and we had to pay the deductible to fix our grill. But the grill was looking kind of faded anyway, and it looks brand new now.

Choppin' Wood (Not Broccoli)

2008-12-17T17:00:00.004-05:00

We live in the woods. I guess this is a rather blatant fact that we somehow overlooked when we purchased our humble abode. This reality was made quite clear this fall when approximately 245 bushels of leaves fell onto our version of a lawn. Speaking of the lawn, we should have also recognized the relative lack of grass where one might expect to find those thin green blades. On the one hand it makes mowing quite simple. On the other, it makes playing bocce difficult. We decided that in order to theoretically play bocce we would need a lawn. Lawns need sunlight. We had very little, due in large part to the varieties of deciduous trees canvasing our canopy. Flora-related sacrifices had to made.

It so happens that Michael went to high school with someone who would go on to attend Paul Smith's College, a school in upstate New York that is renowned for graduating students who are trained in the art of felling trees. We consulted with Robert (formally known as Burt) and decided upon a trio of trees that would have to be felled. Of course, the week before he was to complete this mission, the largest tree - assuredly in protest of its sentence, dropped a rather large limb upon the power line that supplies our home with wonderful electricity. That ordeal left us without power for a couple days and led to some heated discussions with Connecticut Light and Power.

Burt came to the rescue. He expertly landed our trees, along with a couple dozen smaller ones, in a matter of hours. We were left with a large quantity of wood on our lawn and no means by which to reduce the severed sections of tree trunk to pieces that would fit into our wood-burning stove next year. Luckily, our fathers both possesed chainsaws and both came to assist in the sizing of our soon-to-be fuel. More pictures to come, but my favorite is Erika learning the art of axe-swinging - a skill that is likely taught at the aforementioned Paul Smith's College but one that Erika is still working on honing:

The Blog is Back...and so is Wallpaper

2008-11-25T18:57:00.003-05:00

What the heck have we been up to? If I've learned anything from The Wire and LOST - and I'd like to think that I have - we can't just tell you all at once. We need to tease it out ad infinitum. At the same time, I'm not really sure why it's taken so long to update this awesome blog. Maybe it was because I overheard students talking about how blogs were "old fashioned." In any case, it's not just around here where things have changed:

* We have a new president. Or, at least, light at the end of this dark tunnel come January 20th.
* The Red Sox lost in the playoffs. Shocking, I know, but those pesky (and healthy) Dev...er...Rays were just the better team.
* The stock market has made a little correction.
* The legislature is arbitrarily giving out b-b-b-billions of dollars.
* 24 returned. No idea if this season is going to not suck. Entourage finished what turned out to be a pretty good season.

Back on the homefront:
* I kicked pneumonia's ass...finally...after it beat me senseless for several weeks.
* We invited Mike's high school friend to take down several trees. It's like beating back nature...we live in the middle of the woods.
* Erika finally got her chaise lounge.
* Painting continues. Very, very slowly.

Finally, I think - I THINK - we have taken down all of the wallpaper we need to take down. At nearly the same instant we took down the last shred of glue-laden floral-printed paper, we learned that wallpaper is making a comeback! Now, I don't know if this is true or not...but I do know that if wallpaper is indeed coming back into style, it sure as hell won't look like the abysmal crap we took down. Sorry, Mrs. I-forget-your-name-former-houseowner, but taking down your old wallpaper was awful. Had we known, we probably would have lowballed you an additional $5k or so.

No Camera, No Pictures

2008-09-28T23:09:00.002-04:00

Erika took the camera to Seattle. And then the battery died. So no new pics from this coast or the other. Just do a Google search for "Seattle." I bet there are plenty of beautiful pics of that fine city elsewhere on the intarweb. In the meantime, check out Mike and Cait's blog. I hear a rumor there is a video of Emma floating around where she is clearly saying "hi."

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it...if you ever try to embed a stapler in a Jell-O mold make sure that you quadruple the amount of Jell-O for best results. Just sayin'.

Arbor

2008-09-21T20:06:00.003-04:00

There are so many positive things that came out of our housesitting gig. Things like not having to pay rent or mortgage for a fiscal year or two can really open doors. Stumbling into that little opportunity certainly helped us open the door to our house.

If there was one drawback to our job as semi-pro housesitters it was that we had to store our stuff for the duration or our tenure. We like our stuff. That's why we have it. Of course, at the same time, we helped to fill the dumpster that was parked outside our place while we were doing the renovations with stuff we realized we didn't want. So after we heaved the stuff we didn't want anymore into the dumpster, we could turn our attention to the stuff we did want. This arbor is a perfect example.

We were married over 5 years ago, at a winery, on a little hill overlooking the Hudson Valley. As picturesque as the panarama was, Erika asked her father to build what would turn out to be this arbor for us to get married under. At the time it looked like part of the landscape, but the next day we returned to the winery and dismantled the arbor. Eventually we brought it back to New Hampshire (where it remained in storage), then to Portland (where it remained in storage). Finally, now that we're in a place that we plan to stay in for a decade or so, the arbor assumes its place on our property.

Ground Pork

2008-08-20T21:06:00.009-04:00

OK. The ground meat entry begins in South Berwick, Maine, continues (paradoxically) nearly 100 years ago "down south" and ends in our kickass kitchen.

While in graduate school at UNH (the real UNH - I'm looking at you, University of New Haven) I supplemented my student income of $0 with a job at a local Dover, New Hampshire eating establishment. I became friends with the executive and sous chefs who told me that they would be leaving to open their own place. I was asked to come with them and agreed. They opened Pepperland Cafe in sleepy South Berwick, Maine with a set of simple principles: make everything from scratch, build bridges to local suppliers and farms, recycle as much as possible. My favorite example was that the compost was picked up by the farmer who supplied them with fresh eggs and pork and used to feed the pigs - a quintessential symbiotic relationship. After closing the place down on Friday nights, I'd return a few hours later for an early Saturday morning trip to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Farmer's Market with Popper and Kevin, the two chef-owners. We'd take a lap around, looking at what was good and bounce ideas around for an entrée if, say, someone had a large quantity of garlic scapes. It was here that I learned that developing a relationship with farmers can go a long way, whether chef or mere culinary amateur. It was here that I learned that an extra $1.50 per pound of tomatoes is so worth it.

Nearly 100 years earlier my great-grandmother purchased a meat grinder from a company called L. F. & C. of New Britain, Connecticut and used it, presumably, for many years while raising my grandmother "down south." Recently passed on to me by my mother, this useful, simple and effective device reminds me that hamburger patties are a convenience and charcuterie was wasn't just the culinary method du jour. I love things with a sense of history, things that have been around longer than I; this fits that description.

When I was doing my opening lap at one of our local farmer's markets I spotted something that reminded me of Pepperland Cafe and ground meat: squash blossoms. They were one of those commodities that, when walking the market with Popper and Kevin would cause Popper to ask the farmer how many they had. Regardless of the answer, Popper would utter his favorite response: "I'll take 'em all." I purchased enough for Erika and I. After, I walked down a few booths and picked up some fresh local pork - I wanted to try to recreate the tempura-fried pork-stuffed squash blossoms that Pepperland would run as a special.

It was successful, though the result mattered less than the process. Buying from the producers feels like you're doing something right. I realize that I won't always have the time to, say, grind meat and that convenience foods are near necessities for some families. But for now, the time I have at my disposal to do things like that is my convenience.

Darn the Internet

2008-08-19T17:21:00.003-04:00

I had a great posting all finished up. I was uploading some terrific pictures. Then, Firefox decided to crash. I'll rewrite it once the bitterness subsides. In the meantime, here's a picture of Erika and I at a recent visit to our alma mater.

House Chapin Update Teaser!

2008-08-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

The next addition to the wildly popular House Chapin blog will include...ground meat! Details and pictures to come!

The Newest Chapin

2008-08-01T13:58:00.006-04:00

There hasn't been a whole lot of news from this Chapin house. We're enjoying the summer, spending time with friends and family. But...there is most definitely news from another Chapin house! Mike and Caitlin welcomed Emma Margaret to the world on July 30th at a little before 1:00 in the afternoon. According to Caitlin, the nurses and doctor agreed that Emma is a "solid" baby...she weighed less than 1 ounce short of 9 pounds! We are so happy for Mike and Caitlin. Our biases aside, Emma is pretty much perfect. She's happy, healthy, and even remains mostly silent for minutes on end.

The birth of a baby is one of those events that brings everyone together. It's like a wedding, but without the formality and the open bar. It's one of the happiest times that we can experience - and this is no exception. If anything can be said about Emma it must be that she will have no shortage of love around her. Mike and Cait seem like natural parents already! We suspect they must have been taking baby lessons somewhere.

It's a good thing that babies aren't self conscious because people can't help but to stare. Somehow, they're more entertaining than a Judd Apatow comedy or a live Broadway show. They're like, as Mike put it, staring at a campfire - they're the most interesting thing in the world. Anyway, enough of my drab prose. To the pictures!

I don't know who she looks like, but we've unanimously decided that she has Mike's big toe (not pictured)!

Caitlin (in stylish HospitalWear) + Emma (with pink "party hat")

Rare picture of smilin' Mike.

The Grandmother

Aunt Erika

The Dharma Initiative

2008-07-08T13:52:00.005-04:00

"You seriously named your cat after LOST?" our friend Shelly asked. Well, yeah. To be honest, we were having some trouble thinking of a name, until our friend Katie suggested Dolce, which had a nice ring to it. But, when we went to pick up Unnamed Cat from her foster home, we noticed that a pattern on her back was in the shape of a large arrow. Well, The Arrow is one of the stations on LOST...so Dolce became Dharma.

I've told Erika that no one likes to hear stories about your cat. And it's true. No.one.does. So we're going to keep this posting brief so as not to be hypocrites. I will say that she is frickin' cute as hell and if you want to meet her, well, you'll just have to visit. And we promise that when you do visit...no cat stories.

Before and After, Part Two

2008-07-02T19:40:00.008-04:00

This was our first project. Erika and I began to tackle this room all on our own, but we soon became discouraged at our lack of progress. If the previous owner of this house is reading our blog - seriously, four layers of freaking wallpaper? Didn't see that quaint little feature mentioned in the realor's listing. Anywho, Matt and his painting associate came to the early rescue and showed us a few little tricks. That kept our morale up for about a day. My mom did a fantastic job of keeping us focused. That got us to approximately this point (note chandelier upgrade between pics):

Then, near the end when we were ready to finish and accept the imperfections that our amateur eyes would gladly look past, the mother came to the rescue again to make the job look professional.

I think I've mentioned before in previous posts that parts of the house were livable. Well, the dining room was pretty terribly awful. Really, truly awful. We're pretty proud of the work we did in here. The color is actually a historic color called Covington Blue. Why does that name sound familiar? I'm sure it's because the Covington Blue Sox of Covington, Kentucky were the shortest-lived franchise of the Federal League, opening on May 3rd of 1915 and folding by June. And yes, I found that out courtesy of a Google search. Also, the color matches our Ceramica china.

Finally, here's a pic from today of Mike fighting a baby striper. No, you may not have the location of our spot:

Before and After, Part One

2008-07-01T20:51:00.011-04:00

Remember this situation? This historic picture was taken about 1 week into our "project." Note the "stained glass" chandelier, the dark cabinets, the classic black appliances, the brown tiles, the floral soffit. This was stuff we were honestly willing to live with. It turns out that we were, in fact, not willing to live with this stuff.

The kitchen has a convenient little room that might have been a pantry at one time. The previous owner used it as a laundry room, and we decided that was a pretty nice feature. Matt noticed that some of that laundry room might be well suited to house the new, rather large refrigerator. We cut open an area and framed in the space that would be the fridge. As a sidenote, when I use the word "we" I use it as a sports fan might when describing his or her team. For example, a New York Yankees fan might currently say something like, "I can't believe how bad our starting pitching is and how many games out of first we are." Of course, I'm making that snide example as we're losing to the Tampa Bay Freakin' Rays, who are suddenly respectable.

I know I've also posted this picture before. This entire post is kind of like those "new" episodes of The Simpsons or Cheers that is 10% new, but the plot revolves around numerous flashbacks of old episodes. For instance, Marge might be cleaning out the closet and find the Mr. Plow jacket and we get 5 minutes of a clip from 4 seasons ago that we've seen 28 times in syndication...yet we still laugh. Anyway I just liked this picture because the floors look shiny and things are beginning to turn.

Here you can see the refrigerator sitting flush within the laundry room. It took Erika a loooong time to prime and paint those now-white doors. Those entire doors are her project. She even replaced the hardware.

Yep. This is it. All that is missing now are a couple of bar stools. The counter space is excellent. The lighting is great (recessed, by the way, in case you were wondering...which you probably weren't). There is enough room for everything and then some. We love this room and everything about it. It makes us excited to come home because that's what it feels like.

18 Boxes = 1 Walk-in Closet

2008-06-14T21:40:00.008-04:00

I mentioned in an earlier posting about the wonderful product offered by the fine people at EasyClosets.com. You log onto their website, enter the dimensions of your closet, and use their site to create a well-organized closet. When the 18 boxes of various shapes, sizes and weights arrived at my door I began to question the accuracy and appropriateness of this company's name. The instructions were generic - not written specifically to my closet. Quite unlike the picture-happy IKEA diagrams. Luckily Mike explained a crucial part of the instructions (it's all about the track). Get this first part right and you literally cannot screw up the installation. They've been in for a full week and are still in place!

Camera Has Been Found (Stop Looking)

2008-06-10T08:11:00.000-04:00

I found our camera.

Looking for Camera

2008-06-06T12:40:00.003-04:00

Have you seen our camera? It's somewhere between Portland (CT, of course) and Madison. Hopefully, it's in one of those 2 towns.

Some random, imageless musings...

If you ever get a closet system from EasyClosets - and we recommend that you do; it's like California Closets, but you self-install - don't be daunted by the 18 boxes that they send you. The UPS guy asked me if I ran a business out of my house and that, "I must be used to getting deliveries like these."

There comes a point where you just can't eat another wrap.

Still not getting used to living on a street called "Princess" anything. I mean, the Princess Bride is a great movie, but I wouldn't want to live on Buttercup Lane, either.

On a night when the Red Sox have yet another bench-clearing brawl against the Dev...oops, the mighty Rays, and Paul Pierce pulls a Willis Reed impersonation in Game 1 of the NBA Finals is a bad time to be without cable. Oh, by the way, there's still room on the Celtics bandwagon.

I don't think I've ever had "bad" Chinese food. It kind of all just tastes the same to me.

How I am able to install an entire closet organization system, yet become befuddled at the subtle intricacies of putting in a window unit air conditioner is unfathomable.

Stove Looking for Name

2008-05-24T07:28:00.003-04:00

This stove is quite heavy. So is the matching 7' fridge. Luckily, my brother Mike had some flower-sellin' muscle come in to move these appliances like a "Brighten Your Day" bouquet. It was still pretty difficult. Matt did a fantastic job of measuring everything up - the stove and fridge fits with a fraction of an inch to spare.

The floors are done, the counters are in and the paint is...painted. All that is left for us to do it reattach some lighting (I hope it's as easy to do as it was to remove), hook up the dishwasher and stove to water and gas (respectively!) and move in. Well, that's not entirely true - we will have enough "trivial" projects to keep us busy for approximately 18 years.

We've moved most of our belongings, such as they are. Unpacking is kind of fun. We haven't seen a lot of this stuff for about 2 years. Unpacking is going to be like a vaguely familiar Christmas where we recognize most of the stuff but are still marginally surprised.

Counters Make Us Happy

2008-05-19T06:15:00.002-04:00

That's right. Kitchen counters are the kind of thing that we look forward to. This really is, though, the centerpiece of this entire project. When our contractor, Matt, took us to the granite warehouse (those in the trade call it a stoneyard...and now I will, too!) in New Haven he told us that some of the pieces in there were better suited for hanging on a wall as a piece of art than as mere kitchen counters. Luckily, those particular types of exotic stone were easily ruled out due to...financial considerations. But we found a piece from Brazil that we thought suited us (and our "budget"), the same country that brought us bossa nova, Carnaval and Ronaldo. Although it sounds redundant, the piece we chose was very "rocky." Some of the pieces in the stoneyard looked like bamboo, others looked like a cross section of a riverbed. Pictures, sadly, don't do it justice, kind of like that photo album of your vacation that you show at work and your colleagues feign interest.

Gyula, our granite fabricator, did an amazing job of matching up 2 pieces near a corner so that they look like one, lining up a couple of veins and matching color perfectly. The length of our counter made it impossible to cut a single piece. It was close, but I guess Green Ocean slabs aren't as long as some. And because Erika and I are so environmentally conscious (oil-based primer and paint aside), we used the entire slab of granite! Of course, if we were really committed to being green we could have used concrete or glass or recycled spotted owls for our countertops...

Our island has its piece resting on top as we have yet to fix it to the floor. After the stove is installed in we will move the island (and amazing granite top) to its final resting place!

Cabinets in the Kitchen

2008-05-07T20:40:00.001-04:00

Seems that we are finally taking some steps forward. In reality, all the work that we've done (and had done) could be filed under the heading "Forward Progress," but to our untrained eyes this is the most visible evidence that we're actually close to being finished with our little project. We're not total amateur homeowners...we did have homeowners' equivalent to a stint in the minor leagues when we had our c. 1850 duplex in Dover, New Hampshire. Now we have a house, though, that we actually want to live in for a while, without the added benefit of sharing a wall with a tenant (friends and family welcome anytime!).

Back to our tangible progress. When we first moved into the house the kitchen, as I've said, was workable. Sure, the countertops were installed during the Reagan administration (the first one), the workspace was dark and the appliances were purchased when the Mets last won a World Series (it's nice to be able to make that reference now that the Red Sox have won 2 World Series in 4 years). If push came to shove we could have used it. We decided not to, and picked out some cabinets and countertops that we felt would be a huge improvement. Before that, we tore everything out: walls, floors, ceiling, appliances, cabinets. It looked pretty grim.

Then...the moment we were all waiting for. Actual cabinets! Note the 60 inch space in the back for...it occurs to me that this stove is going to need a name!

The Neighbors Must Love Us

2008-05-05T20:58:00.000-04:00

Fridge on the porch. Boarded up window. Mantle leaning up against the house. Industrial-sized dumpster parked in the driveway. We're not quite at Appalachia levels yet, but we're working on it!

Hard at work!

On the interior front, I think we turned the corner as far as our work (and our subcontractors') making things look worse rather than better. Most of the trim in the house has evolved from dark wood to shiny bright white. Rosin paper (and a thick layer of sheetrock dust) throughout the house is covering beautiful, mirror-finished red oak floors. The 1970's era paneling in the family room is now a nice white drywall. The downstairs ceilings - previously a great representation of 70's era style - are now nice and smooth, the swirly texture covered by approximately 900 pounds of joint compound!

Next on the agenda (or, Coming Soon!): cabinets in on Wednesday! After the cabinets are in, our granite fabricator will come in to make templates of the counters. We'll go to his shop in East Haven and decide which parts of the granite slab we've bought will become the island and other parts of the kitchen!

Rock On!

2008-04-22T07:42:00.000-04:00

This is the type of granite that we chose for our counters from EleMar, the granite supplier that Matt pointed us towards. We'd narrowed our choice down to this type (Green Ocean) and another (Green Hawaii). We had initially thought we liked one called Green Butterfly, but we found out it was a pretty common color and after seeing some of the stone at EleMar we quickly changed our minds. Also, the more exotic stones at EleMar were only a few hundred dollars more than the (apprently) mundane Green Butterfly!

We think we know the exact slab of stone that we've bought. Our next step is to have it picked up by a fabricator, who we'll meet and decide exactly which section we want for our island, our corner, and so on.

This is the first blog with links; we're getting quite savvy here!

Let There Be Floors!

2008-04-21T21:01:00.000-04:00

When we first looked at this house a mere 2 (or was it 3?) months ago, we noted that the floors, while worn, were workable. At the time, we decided we didn't need to refinish them. Well, this entire process has been a learning experience and, above all, we've learned that it is always easier to do stuff when the house is empty. The floors were one of our "big ticket" items but we decided that they would well be worth it. As it turns out, we were right. We saw these floors after 2 coats had been applied and 2 more were to be put down. The entire house was brighter, newer, livelier. The transition between the new and old floor in the kitchden was totally ambiguous. It's just another step in the road making this house ours!

Floors in 3 Hours!

2008-04-17T18:33:00.000-04:00

This is our kitchen at about 8:00 AM on 4/16/08. I took down the drywall and removed the insulation. I found what appeared to be the tomb of the resident mice, complete with little skulls. Assuredly a future posting will be of Erika and I bringing home a pair of kittens that we will raise and train to be feline ninja mice assassins. Anyway, the piece of plywood represents our island - should be a perfect position as it's close the stove and whoever is sitting on long side to the right will be able to reach back and get beverages from the refrigerator!

Soon after 8:00 AM 3 workers showed up and almost instantly began to work. Hard. They didn't stop to talk, drink water or take breaks. This what they did the whole time:

When the floors are refinished you won't be able to see where the old floor met the new one. They "wove" the floors together. It's red oak, by the way which, apparently, is the most popular type of flooring in the US. Who knew?

The Case of the Missing Kitchen

2008-04-06T21:54:00.000-04:00

Who needs a kitchen, anyway? Here we are a few minutes after our closing. Don't we look happy? Sure, we just wrote the 2nd biggest check of our life. But we had this nice new house, some champagne, and what was a workable kitchen.

One of the biggest selling points of this house was that it wasn't a raised ranch. Not that there's anything wrong with the architectural phenomenon that is the raised ranch. We just decided that it wasn't "us." Another selling point was that everything in the house was fine as it was. We'd just be changing things "to taste." As it turns out, we decided that one of the best ways to make the house our home was to take on the kitchen as our first big project. Matt had some really good ideas - new cabinetry, an island, a recessed refrigerator. There was a wall separating the kitchen from the den. It had a larger doorway and a "window" cut out. We thought that it would make a huge difference to knock that wall down (our realtor Pat's favorite suggestion - "just knock this wall down!") and blur the line between our kitchen and our den. Make it a kitchden! That's right, I just invented a word.

The previously existing kitchen was, as you can see, fine. Functional. Dated.
See where the wall used to be? Yeah...that's gone. Still, not a bad kitchen, right? Sure, the stove and dishwasher are a touch on the old side. The fridge could use a replacement. The tile isn't all that bad, is it? The cabinets are actually pretty nice, too. Solid wood, and they'd look great with newer hardware. Well...how about we just blow the whole thing up and start over!
Where'd that kitchen go?!?! Erika and I arrived one day, ready to tear down wallpaper or sand stuff or paint or something and someone took our kitchen! So we went to the cabinet place last week and chose some nice new custom cabinets out, asked about granite countertops, and held our breath for the quote. We're turning blue right about now waiting for that oh-so-reasonable price tag to arrive. We might have to hold off on that trip to Fiji.

The First Project

2008-03-30T20:53:00.000-04:00

The dining room had wallpaper. Apparently wallpaper can be difficult to remove. It becomes exponentially more difficult with each additional layer. Our house was built in 1972. There were 4 layers of wallpaper in the dining room. Thus, wallpaper styles seem to have a shelf life of approximately 9 years. Peeling through the stratigraphy of our wallpaper was like a little tour through the past 3 decades of wallpaper technology and style. The top layer wasn't really all that obtrusive. Each subsequent example of wallpaper became more and more disturbing. I bet the bottom layer really made some people lose their appetites in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, here's our initial attempt to remove this evil stuff. We tried it all: steamer, water, fabric softener, yelling at the wallpaper, DIF wallpaper remover, scoring, scraping. This first picture represents a couple hours of work. Suffice it to say we were ill-prepared. Our scrapers were awful and we had no idea what we were doing.

Just looking at this picture makes my scraping hand hurt. If anyone asks you to help them remove wallpaper (and you don't foresee yourself asking them to return the favor anytime soon) politely - and in words of your own choosing - tell them to shove off.

The more we worked on this job, the more we hated wallpaper...but also the work became easier. Matt's suggestion to "paint" the DIF on worked quite well and sped things up. The picture above shows most of the wallpaper removed. Sometimes Erika and I, in our wallpaper-removing excitement, would dig a little bit into the wallboard. To make sure the finished wall looked nice and smooth I spread joint compound over the rough patches. After it dried I sanded it all down so most of it looked smooth. You can see how excited we were to get rid of this stuff by the amount of joint compound now on the wall.

Finally, here's the near-finished product. Sure, it's only primer, but it's in a tint similar to what it will eventually look like. Erika and Mom/Lindley matched the color to one of our Ceramica plates. We removed the trim to see if it would be easier to paint it outside the room - we'll see if it helps!

So far this has been a nice, manageable job. It finally appears as if we are getting things done!

The Closing

2008-03-17T09:26:00.000-04:00

Are 2 1/2 hour closings typical? Do lawyers usually put the buyer and seller in separate rooms and run hurriedly between conferences? Is it good when the sellers attorney says he thinks the title agent is "wrong?"

Disclaimer: our prior experience with closings is exactly 1. That closing (in New Hampshire) was fairly smooth. We all sat around a table, the seller brought her infant son, we signed some papers, a few checks were passed around and we left the meeting with a couple silver keys.

So the outcomes were the same. We left the closing with a few keys and the creeping realization that some mortgage company actually let us finance a couple hundred thousand dollars. It was almost like we got away with something...like at the end of The Usual Suspects when Verbal Kint slowly becomes Keyser Söze.

We drove to our new house and took it in. It looked bigger. There are projects, to be sure, not the least daunting of which will occur in the kitchen. But it seems manageable for some reason. After a few minutes alone, Matt (our friend and contractor) pulled up and we got to work with what would be done. My mom and Robert brought cold champagne and tortilla chips and guacamole (an excellent combination, by the way). Mike and Caitlin soon arrived, Mike with a housewarming gift of every power tool we'd need for the various projects detailed in a how-to book from the mother.

Sitting around - actually, standing, as we have no chairs yet - sipping champagne, looking around at that we change and what we leave...that's what made me enter this crazy world of blogging. And by the way, blogosphere is on my list of most hated words. I will not be using it.

So here it is!