Last night we took the first step to improving our kitchen.

Now I know some of you out there are aware that we’ve been talking about projects to do around our house and we’ve listed projects such as recessed lighting downstairs or putting pass through in the kitchen wall.  Well, let’s just say our focus has changed.  That wall has got to go, assuming an engineer confirms that it is not load bearing.  Damion is pretty confident it isn’t but we’d rather be safe than need a new roof.  So the current plan is the wall is out, more cabinets, an island and filling in part of the wall between the dining area and lower living room…..that was as of last night and I’m sure there will be several variations between now and the final result, but not much.

I’m sure some of you are also thinking that this renovation (project seems more smaller scale than what we’re doing) seems pretty extreme to jump into feet first with not much of a plan, so let us travel back to the weekend of November 4, 2005.  I came back to Illinois for my sister’s play and found Damion had done this –

Before - White space was cabinets

During

After

The final kitchen was wonderful.  Unfortunately we only lived in that townhouse with its wonderful kitchen for about 2 months before we moved back to IL.  This time we’ll get to spend a lot more of time with this completed kitchen, once we get there.  So join us on this fun journey and enjoy the pics.

Damion & I were talking about a clubhouse for the kids. Anna was obviously for this addition to the backyard. A couple of nights later at dinner Damion was talking about his plans for his office shed to which Anna said, “No! No! Clubhouse first. Clubhouse FIRST!” To bad she doesn't know what she wants, eh?

A couple of weekends ago a guy in the neighborhood threw out some wood (looked like he got rid of some garage shelving). Damion & Anna went and picked up a bunch of wood. That night we started building the kids' clubhouse . By the end of the night the house was framed and had three walls. We moved it to the backyard (nothing like saying hi to your neighbor at 10 pm as he's leaving the house and you're carrying a clubhouse) .

The next morning Anna was excited to see it and Jack ran toward it but got distracted by his lawn mower. Problem was there were crickets in the clubhouse. Anna DOES NOT like bugs and would not step foot in it. That night it was relocated and the next day she was willing to sit in it.

The other night Damion & I started to build the floor for the clubhouse. This afternoon Damion left work earlier to finish the floor/decking. With some “help” from the kids and a quick trip to Menards (slight miscalculation for determining the amount of decking needed) the clubhouse is now level and secured to the decking and lattice is up to prevent something or somebody from crawling under it.

Stay tuned for status updates and more pictures will be posted as the clubhouse progresses. Oh and while you're looking at pictures of the clubhouse don't forget to look the fun pictures of Damion playing with the marching band set he got Anna & Jack.

Back on June 28 Damion & I removed the carpet from our living room because we could not handle to puppy smells that had permeated the carpet and padding and would not go away regardless to how many times we cleaned it.  The end of July we finally purchased the new carpet and padding.  It was picked up on August 9, the exact date Menards said it would be available for pick up.  After much frustration I’m happy to report that we have a gentleman coming Monday afternoon to install it.  Only problem is that we needed to replace some of the underlayment and seal all the underlayment before the installation could take place. 

Can you guess what we did once we got home from a bike ride?  First, a picture of the kids 10 minutes before we got home.  

When we got home Damion dealt with a work related problem while Jack & I started to seal the floor.  Jack & I did the first 2/3 of the floor and let it dry.  After Anna woke up Damion replaced the underlayment.  After dinner Jack went to sleep for his much needed nap so Anna & I did the last 2/3 of the floor.  I know 2/3 plus 2/3 is more than a whole room but there were several spots from the first part that needed a second coat.  So, off you go….enjoy the pictures .

Greetings from the guy writing code... and sadly, it's not being written in an office shed yet.

I hope you like the direction we're going with the site layout.  To be more exact, the direction I'm going.  Jess will have to comment on her thought (and she will) later.

There are some upgrades in the works.  Joomla has release a couple of patches that I will apply this week.  All in preparation for the upgrade to 1.5, the latest and greatest version of Joomla (actually 1.5.1 is the newest, but who's counting)! That probably won't happen this month.  I've got to get the test site setup, do the upgrade, and then test everything.  Only when that succeds will I upgrade the site that you see.  Remember, safety second...

The idea behind the layout change is that we were a little dated with our "fixed width" that was setup for the old 800x600 monitors of yester-year (2000)? So, I've changed that to a variable width that will flex with the 800x600 and the 1920x1600 that "some people" have.  Additionally, the template used with Joomla is now all CSS (no tables).  The code generated by Joomla probably isn't though.  So, you'll still see some tables out there.  The last thing is that I just want us to have a new look and feel.  Keep people on there toes, huh?

I've put up a poll to see if we get any responses for the new layout, but please keep in mind that it is not finished.  Only the structure is here.  The icing and sprinkles will show up later... 

Really, where am I going with this?  I don't know... it doesn't help Jess have time to get pictures of the kids up, does it?