The Beauteous Donnie Has An Adventure

After months of being trapped inside the house, I allowed Donnie (who unlike our other cat will go outside and not venture far) to have a short interlude out in the late winter sunshine. He is a most photogenic cat!

How Fortunate We Are...

...to have a pair of Cardinals living in our fir tree. They feed at our feeder in the cherry tree (the squirrel baffle that protects it from non-bird predation from above is mounded with fallen snow in the photo below), they provide chirpy music that I have learned to recognize (and always reminds me to check the feeder and make sure it is stocked with birdseed), and every time I see them in my backyard I feel extremely lucky and blessed. Here is the male, beautiful bright red against a recent snowstorm:

Bathroom Remodel, Part II

Here are some more pictures of our progress. What can I say other than - it is simply divine to have a tub!

Our new tile. What a change from the old icky green tile from before!

The new tub! We expanded both out and up. We expanded into a walk-in closet/nursery to give us more room, and we also got rid of the dropped ceiling (which was so low it blocked off the top level of glass in the glass block window), which makes the room seem bigger and more airy, plus exposing the top level of glass block brings in a lot more daylight. In this photo, we do not yet have the shower enclosure, sink or toilet in. But we do have a little critter enjoying his very first bath in the tub.

Pure delight. A happy baby, splashing in the tub!

Bathroom Remodel, Part I

We have been remodeling our upstairs bathroom since April 2008. And actually, if you count when we had the new glass block window installed (on an extremely rare for Chicago, warm day in January), it has almost been a year. But...I see the light at the end of the tunnel! Late this afternoon, Paul (with a little help from me) installed our new claw foot tub. The shower attachment has not yet been installed, but at 5:15 PM tomorrow, once the silicone sealant that Paul applied to the drain is fully cured, we can turn on the water to the tub!

We decided that Tyler will be the first to take a bath in the new tub (although I confess I will be chomping at the bit to have a lovely bubble bath soon after). The poor darling has been having his bath in the kitchen, on the floor, in a too-small baby bathtub with his knees scrunched up! The rest of us have been showering in a deck shower in the basement-brrr! So we went to Toys 'R Us tonight to buy Tyler's Christmas presents, and we also picked up a toddler-sized Thomas the Tank Engine hooded bath towel, and Elmo faucet cover (to keep little kids from bumping their heads on the faucet, plus he adores Elmo) and some fish to play with.

I will post pictures of the new bathroom as we install the new fixtures, etc. bit by bit, but I wanted to show a couple of construction photos so you can see some of the work we did, starting with a few "Before" pictures. In a nutshell, our bathroom was cramped, dingy, falling apart, icky, old, and awful!

Paul getting ready to work in our tiny bathroom (6 1/2 feet by 7 1/2 feet, pre-expansion/construction), by taking down the shower bar. Note his little "helper". And the 1950's avocado-green bathtub. I love the 50's as an era, but a 28" wide, cramped tub with the finish worn off so that it takes a massive amount of elbow grease to get clean does not fit my view of retro-charming.

The icky ceiling with the space alien heating fixture. The weird spot in front of it was where we had removed the oldest ceiling fan in history-eeew.

The sink and toilet. And the helper.

A good chunk of the refuse that came out of the bathroom, including the non-charming green bathtub.

A view of the new ceiling joists. The cross bars were put in for extra support since this is where we expanded into the room next door, giving our tiny bathroom a little more than an extra foot of space (sounds tiny, but in a bathroom as small as ours was, even a mere foot can make the new space seem huge!)

The floor after expansion, with the old plumbing still in place.

Now the old plumbing is out and some of the new is in. You can see a bit of Paul there with his stubby craftsman-like pencil, meticulously figuring out the placement for the rest of the plumbing. Stay tuned for the transformation!

When Life Just Seems To Be Too Much

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."
Abraham Lincoln

That just about sums up my day today.

Beatrix Potter Tea!

At last I had my Beatrix tea. I had been planning to have it for months, but one delay after the other prevented it. But my tea ladies and I met in late September to enjoy a luncheon followed by a viewing of the movie Miss Potter with Renee Zellweger. It was a lovely afternoon, filled with great conversation and a totally delightful movie. Here are some highlights:

My "Tea Ladies"

(L to R: Sandra, Colleen, Alexis, Me wearing my Beatrix outfit that I sewed, Barbara, and Lisa)

The tea table with my Peter Rabbit teapot in the middle

Desserts, including tiny carrot cakes (how appropriate!) that Colleen brought

A gift from Sandra

Decorations gone awry! I had purchased these darling Beatrix character Beanie Babies from a seller in England to grace the side table during my Beatrix tea. Once my grandson saw them, my little tableau was absconded with and an hour of delighted play ensued!

Both Tyler and I love Jeremy Fisher the best. Tyler, because he loves frogs; Me, because I love his Regency costume. Jeremy had loads of fun driving the choo-choo full of Beatrix toys!

Cousins!

A once in a lifetime thing, that the odds of success seemed astronomical, but they pulled it off:

All of the first cousins who are the children of my sisters and me got together and went to a White Sox baseball game. We didn't think it would work because my eldest sister's son lives in Indiana and works long hours and rarely is able to visit. My middle sister's oldest son is married with two children and another almost due, and he also works long hours. My son was able to get out of football practice early for the trip down to the South side, and my two daughters and middle sister's younger son just happened to be available too.

They went to the game, had a blast together, caught up with each other and in some cases, really got to know each other for the first time as adults/near adults. Too bad the Sox lost. But the bonding of the cousins was the inportant thing. Here they are:

L to R: Lenny, Steve, Kristin, Julie, Robbie, and Dave