Randar's Stream of Unconsciousness

12 weeks old already

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:54:00 +0000

Yes, you read that correctly. Maybe it didn't seem like it went that fast to the rest of you, who have instead been wondering what happened to your summer, but it has flown by. It seemed as if things were just kind of cruising along. Kayla would have a few really calm days (as much as a week and a half at a time) and we would all sort of settle into a schedule. Then she would have 3 days or so where should would be irritable, eat enormous amounts, and not sleep well. I have to be careful here, because in general she's been a champion sleeper, usually sleeping around 8-9 hours overnight with only 1 or 2 wake-up feedings. After these little irritable bouts, Jenni and I would both comment how she would just look like she grew overnight. Turns out, she pretty much was! She was 11 lbs 8 oz at her 2 month checkup and she's continued to sprout periodically.

Until about 3 weeks ago, she's basically been an eating, pooping, and sleeping blob of cuteness. Suddenly she's started knocking off all kinds of developmental milestones. A couple weeks ago she started really being able to hold her head up on her own and look around. Now she really only wants to be held facing out so she can hold her own head up and be able to see everything.

Then this past week, while I was traveling to the UK for work, she turned herself over from her back to her front. Jenni put her in bed on her back and came in to feed her in the morning and she was sleeping comfortably... on her belly! This continued for a couple days and when I returned, she showed me how it was done. So exciting! She even managed to roll over front to back once. So strong!

Now in just the past 48 hours or so, she has gotten into babbling mode! She's started trying to make sounds directed at us. Just the usual baby babbling, but it's uber-cute. Here is are a couple videos of her babbling with Jenni just a few hours ago:

On Saturday evening we went off to Kayla's first White Sox game against the Baltimore Orioles. We had great weather and were there early enough to do a little tailgating and get into the stadium for the first pitch. We had a great time, and Kayla (except for a hunger spaz attack in the 7th inning) was actively observing all the goings on. We had front row seats along the 1st baseline and we were on television a couple of times. One of the security guards also brought us a foul ball! Kayla gets one in her first game and I've never gotten one in 30 years! Lucky girl. Here is a shot of us from the TV feed in the background and one of us with the foul ball:

Here is a pic of us after the game and then a pic of Kayla watching intently at her first fireworks show after the Sox victory.

A few days in and hundreds of pictures later!

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:46:00 +0000

Kayla's almost a week old. Wow. It's crazy saying that since it seems like she was born just yesterday. We are totally in love with this funny little girl and she's just a riot to watch change every waking minute. Her expressions certainly remind us of my own with her furrowed brow, sleeping with her mouth open, and her "sour puss" face when she scrunches up her mouth.

Kayla's 2nd Day:

Kayla's first day home:

We've also had quite the introduction to parenting. After our first uneventful pediatrician appointment and first lunch out, we had to induce her first bowel movement since we've had her home from the hospital. Comical and eye-opening to say the least. Let's just say that I will have a terribly embarrassing story to share with her pre-teen friends one day.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention what a blessing it's been to be home with momma and baby for this first week (and for the rest of June). It's a luxury most don't get to share. While being layed-off and unemployed can be a very frustrating experience, the fact that I already have a job lined up and have this time with Kayla and Jenni, things couldn't have worked out any better.

Here are some more Kayla pics:

Welcome Kayla Marie to the family

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:15:00 +0000

At 7 am today, Sunday, May 31st, Kayla Marie Brace was born as a happy and healthy 7 pound 8 oz and 20 inch baby girl. Baby and momma are healthy and resting after a relatively brief labor which started at 10 pm last night.

As some may know, Jenni's official due date was May 24th. We had several "last dinners out", "last grocery shopping", etc, but on Saturday night we were convinced we were destined to be induced early this coming week. All of this after a very encouraging doctor appt on Wednesday where our doc predicted labor within 24-46 hours and Jenni was already 3.5-4 cm dilated. By Saturday night we'd all but given up (despite Jenni having some light cramping), so we went to dinner at Maggiano's, visited some friends for a few minutes, and returned home around 9:30 with the intent to finish some laundry and watch a movie we've been meaning to watch for about 6 months now. 10 minutes into the movie Jenni bent down to grab a towel and said something to the effect of (sorry, events are already somewhat blurry) "UhOH, I think my water just broke". No, not a huge gush like the movies, but just a little trickle that was no-doubt her membranes rupturing. Within 10-15 minutes, she had her first contraction and they were 5 minutes apart and 30 seconds long right from the start. 40 minutes later things were obviously progressing and by 11:50 pm we were walking into the maternity ward at Highland Park Hospital (which has amazing facilities, huge birthing/recovery rooms, and an outstanding staff, btw). Here is a pic of Jenni from when we had checked into the hospital and contractions were still mild and 4 or 5 minutes apart. Still smiling!

From there, things progressed quite well and Jenni continued to have accelerating contractions. Being the middle of the night, things were quite serene and we were really able to focus on Jenni's breathing and relaxing between contractions (with the help of calming ocean sounds television on the hospital TV network, we didn't even need the iPod). The hospital had an egg shaped Yoga ball that was indispensable. Jenni was able to stay on her knees during contractions and lean over the ball while staying in bed. This was by far the most comfortable position for her even though the baby was positioned perfectly. Here is a pic of Jenni on the Yoga ball during labor. She is deep into her breathing and was basically meditating between contractions and focusing on her breathing and a little stuffed animal that looked like our dog Chomper. It was pretty amazing that she was able to do all of this with no medication and even without an IV. She was awesome.

Jenni was having a little break in the contractions and some light urges to push. I looked into the little trusty "manual" we got at the birthing class to get some kind of indication into what stage we were in and lo and behold, she fit the description of just having finished one of the most difficult stages of labor (transition) while barely breaking a sweat. Sure enough, the doctor came in shortly thereafter and Jenni was ready to push. After 2 tough hours of exhausting contractions and pushing, out came our beautiful little girl. A couple little cries were enough to ease everyone's concerns. Here is a wonderful pic of her nursing (which came quite naturally) immediately after delivery. Jenni looks like she's been at the spa for crying out loud!

There are a few more pictures with mother and father, grandparents, etc if you click on any of the pics and go to the Flickr site (no need to register).

And with that, I'm off to try to catch a few Z's while I can. Goodnight!

Long time without an update

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:40:00 +0000

I admit, I've been delinquent in my duties as the official biographer of this pregnancy thing. As anyone who still reads this knows, Jenni is preggo and due May 24th (any day now). We have taken a few "bump" pics along the way, but as you'd expect here in the final days, Jenni has gotten quite round (I might be in trouble for putting it that way, LOL). We have taken all the appropriate classes, are going to try for as natural a birth as possible, and we have indeed picked out a name for the little girl (and no, we aren't telling anyone the name, so don't ask). I have included a picture from the baby shower that shows Jenni a couple weeks ago. I also want to thank my Mom, mother-in-law, and Aunts Sheree and Kay who worked very hard to put together a very nice shower for us.

I will try to be more diligent in updating the blog and posting baby pics to Flickr or Facebook (we have been more active on Facebook than the blog lately). Other updates include the purchase of half a buffalo in January from a ranch in northern Michigan (about 300 pounds). We have made a lot of tasty meals so far that include meatballs, chili, burgers, steaks, fajitas, etc. Pretty sweet. Also, in a desperate attempt to get into shape before the baby comes, I have been doing p90x workouts (you may have seen the infomercials). Let's just say they are crazy-hard and have worked pretty well. I have 17 days left to go to finish the 90 days and have lost or relocated some much needed weight and feel great heading into sleep deprivation cycle. I surely would have lost more if I had been more careful about diet and cut down on the beer, but how is that any fun? If interested in learning more about p90x, see the p90x Official Website. We also made one last trip out to San Diego to visit my sister and a couple of friends out there before my sister moves to Ohio this summer. Here are some pics from the San Diego Zoo with Jenni and our friend Jim, his wife, and step-daughter.

In other news, the company I worked for the past 4 years decided to get out of the cellular business and closed up shop after several failed attempts to sell the division. As of April 24th, I have been happily unemployed. The good news is we had a good severance package and the better news is that I already have a job lined up to start at the end of June. This will make for a nice pre/post baby paternity leave that also coincides with some beautiful weather. This time and weather has given me the time to get the yard and garden in prime condition. We are about to transplant all our little seedlings we started indoors (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, herbs, zucchini & squash, etc). Meanwhile, spring is in full bloom and I was able to take a little photographic tour of the garden flowers/plants. You can click on this flower picture to get to see the whole collection.

As usual, we are in the middle of a renovation project. The Master Bed/Bath/Closet are currently in disarray as we reconfigure the size of the closet/bath as well as entirely redo the bathroom. We are waiting to finalize our refinancing (hopefully for the last time) before making the major purchases (tile, vanity/top, heated floor mats, etc). The closet has been re-framed and drywalled and we are sort of stalled here as the baby is due to pop out any time now.

Mother's Day is also when we usually celebrate Jenni's cousin Justin's birthday, so here are some family pics from the dual-celebration event.

And in final news, my little brother Derrick graduated from UIC with a BS in Mechanical engineering last weekend. Here are a few pics from the event. Congrats D!

It's a girl!

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

On the first Monday of January, we learned our fate. That's right, we're having a little girl! Jenni has been convinced it was a boy, so much so she has been calling it "him". So inevitably, it had to be a girl, hehe.

Here is a snippet of her face from the 20 week ultrasound:

So, needless to say, we are still happy and excited and just thankful that all tests have come back normal and she appears to be totally healthy. Jenni is hungry all the time, wants to sleep 9 hours a night (that may be normal for her though), feels like a whale (center of gravity is different so she struggles to turn over), and reacts in amazement daily about the size of her giant preggo boobs. She's excited that she is finally starting to "look" pregnant to the average passer by (as opposed to just looking "fat", as she has complained about).

In other news, we are busy as usual. Jenni (along with some ridiculous contractor estimates) convinced me to renovated Jenni's parents' bathroom. This was just a normal 5x8 bath, but it was in similar shape and age to those in our house. We didn't get a good before picture (it was scary), and the sink and medicine cabinet are not yet in, but here is a picture of what it looks like today (well, a couple weeks ago). Jenni's family might be a bit shocked since there used to be a window inthe middly of the tub surround. We removed and boarded it up and my siding guy will fix it this winter. All this work has also gotten me back into the home renovation mood. Winter has us stir crazy and the serious planning for the master bath renovation is in full swing. This weekend I ripped out the tile and tub from the surround and began exploring the plumbing plan.

We have all kinds of pictures from the various Xmas/New Years functions (and lot's of pictures of our 3-month old niece, Isabel) and fun. In chronological order (click on any picture to go to the matching album):

Weiss Lab Turkey (and anything else you can think of) Fry:

The Menu included mixed root veggie chips, mushrooms, zucchini, tempura veggies, risotto balls, pierogies (homemade by Jenni & her mom), bloomin' onions, a 20 lb turkey and all kinds of other non-fried stuff. Good stuff.

Jenni's Dad's (Ejka)family Xmas party:

Jenni's Mom's Family Xmas:

Randy's Family Xmas

New Years at our house with Vedders and Stewarts (a 4-dog night):

And on a final note, we love our new camera, but it can be time consuming to do all the post-processing of the images when taken in RAW format. They turn out so much nicer I keep telling myself it is worth it.

Camera training and baby preparations...

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:28:00 +0000

For years Jenni and I have been missing our old SLR film cameras and all the interesting pictures and flexibility it gave us. It has been many years since my old Canon A100 bit the dust and the point-and-shoots have been great for taking candid shots. However, recent trips to Yosemite and elsewhere has highlighted what I have been missing. Artistic flexibility.

So, with the bun in the oven, we broke down and bought a Canon 40D last week when the price finally dropped to what we deemed "affordable". Figuring that we would be taking many baby and kid pictures in the future and having the dogs to practice on, this is going to be a 6-month crash course before the baby arrives and our free-time is centered around it.

That being said, having had 2-3 days to play (and already 200-300 pics under my belt), here are a few dog and other pics I have snapped with the also new 60mm Macro lens (that's perfect for garden closeups or portrait shots).

As for Preggo, she is doing well and although she is starting to feel "big", it's only the beginning as we approach 16 weeks.

Some news on Turkeyday

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:40:00 +0000

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all (and any that still read this), but on to our news. Jenni and I are expecting a little addition to our family in May. No, not another little fu-fu dog. While we are totally excited and thrilled, we also recognize that we are in no way prepared for this (as any first-timer should readily admit).

So, while this means many new things for us, we are only now thinking of how we will be prepared for this. We just bought a new Digital SLR to record as many of the upcoming moments as possible and I am planning for the renovation of our master bath/closet (since I figure to have little time on my hands for a project this large in the near future). Currently, though, I am working on Jenni's parents bathroom and I am squarely in the middle of that project.

So Happy Thanksgiving [our last in peace :-)]

Garden is gone, cold weather setting in, house projects on hold

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:49:00 +0000

Well, not too much to update everyone on these days (if anyone even still reads our delinquent blog). We have been uber-busy with weekend events since my 30th birthday mixed in with mass garden production, canning veggies, and generally just trying to keep up with the normal home things. Our autumn has been filled with football, a new niece, a couple of rocking concerts, and lots of chillin'.

All of that being said, as the financial and housing markets leave much to be desired, we still have a few unfinished projects going on and new ones we'd like to get underway. I started painting windows only to realize the wood windows we have will not fit back into their frames easily and I think I will be spending some spring days/nights scraping the paint off and staining/lacquering them instead. This, of course, also puts some time delay into our plans to finish the trim and molding throughout the house. I think I can still do baseboards and doors, but window trim will have to wait :(.

In addition to these projects, I would also like to get started on our master bathroom/closet remodel and I have started drawing up some schematics and plans for said area. This, of course, will be a huge project, but if we are ever going to get it done, we probably have to start sooner than later. The good news is that most home improvement stores are so desperate for business there are plenty of good deals to be had. But, before any of that can go forward, there is considerable drywall, framing, and lighting work to be done, so you can see this will be a winter-long project in all likelihood.

No pictures this post, but we will try to put some up on our Flickr site, so check back later!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes and More Tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:31:00 +0000

Sorry for the long delay between posts. We've been busy! We've been working hard on our huge garden this year. At the moment we're up to our ears in tomatoes, but we've also had huge crops of peas, green beans, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, broccoli, and lettuce. And I almost forgot, the gazillion types of pepper plants that Randy managed to sneak in behind my back, and the reason we ripped up half the yard, Randy's hops!

My butterfly garden has also been doing well. Chomper loves to walk through the flowers in hunt of butterflies. While she loves to chase them, she can't quite catch them! Dusty on the other hand, has been busy terrorizing (is that the origin of "terrior") the neighborhood. Add four bunnies and a small bird to her list of "defeats".

Randy's been busy finishing up the hall bath. Which is finally completed and looks beautiful! Also works beautifully (an added bonus). We also had carpet installed in the guest bedrooms. A huge upgrade from plywood subfloor. And we finally have doors! Our plan is to finish up the trim and get a final coat on the doors. Then maybe we'll think about the master bedroom updates..... Maybe.... Other than, just enjoying the beautiful Chicago summer, and celebrating a few birthdays (celebrated my 30th in June and gearing up for Randy's 30th party this upcoming weekend.

Chicago-to-Telluride-to-Rome-to-Yosemite

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:57:00 +0000

What is going on here? Yes, a ski trip to Telluride with some friends and a planned family trip to Yosemite has now been mixed with a trip to Rome next week. I'm heading out for 4 days to Rome and hope to be able to see a few of the sights in the little bit of free time I will have. Jenni is, of course, jealous, but the inside of a conference room looks the same in just about every country.

Having never been to Rome and having only a few days to research, I am a little pessimistic about really getting a flavor for the city and the historical sights. Luckily I will be with a few coworkers who have spent some time there and there is the outside chance of getting a "behind the scenes" tour of the Vatican.

I will have pictures when I return, but for now I will have to amaze you with the pictures of Telluride. Skiing at 12,000 feet and sleeping (in a 6,000 sq ft "cabin" down the street from Oprah and Dan Quale) at 10,000 feet makes for an easily-winded vacationer!

Also, I will have to continue to replace renovation pictures with vacation and beard pictures... We're still working on the upstairs bath, recently had carpeting installed in 2 of the spare bedrooms, and have a garage full of solid pine doors sitting around waiting to be painted. At least spring is here so I can start building my hop trellis and working on the landscaping (dripping sarcasm).

Enjoy!

Festival of Beards 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:19:00 +0000

Well, the time finally came to shave my scraggly cave-man beard. After about 3 months of "torture" (as Jenni describes it), the photo-documentary of the second annual Festival of Beards follows:

The shaggy beginning:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Back to the grind...

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:32:00 +0000

We had a great New Year and Holiday season, spending tons of time with family around the Chicago area and Michigan. Now, with the Holidays over, the extra 10 pounds of "middleware" I am carrying around, and Jenni and I both being back in the old work routine, I figured it would be a good time to give everyone an update. Here is a Xmas picture with more up on the Flickr site:

I have pictures from the kitchen up on my Flickr site. If you have seen the pre-renovation pictures but have not yet seen the finished product, you should take a look. It is quite the transformation. The same could be said of the floor and new stairs, so here is a picture of each (click to follow to more).

Now we are on to what we hope is the home stretch. I am in the process of tiling the upstairs hall bath and we are picking out carpets for the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms. After that, we have doors and trim left to do this spring. We are probably going to wait a while to do the master bathroom, but we will see how the rest of this goes. Here is an in-progress picture of the tiling of the bathroom.

No pictures until after the Holidays...

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:43:00 +0000

Well, as things are coming together, I figured I would stop osting pics until after the Holidays. We are hosting several Holiday parties, starting this weekend with Jenni's lab. It will be our second Turkey Fry of the season, and we intend to start up some more home brew to ensure we have plenty of variety and quantity on hand for the later parties.

I figured between Jenni's family, my family, and any other slackards I may be seeing over the Christmas season, I don't want to spoil what will otherwise be a shocking transformation of the gloomy, badly-painted, extremely dirty home we purchased in August 2006, into the "still coming along" home we will have ready by Christmas.

I still have some drywall repairs to make, a little electrical, the tiling of the upstairs bathroom, and we have to pick out and have carpet installed. All in all, still a lot of work to do that probably won't ALL get done by the end of the year.

We're going to host Christmas? WHA!?!?

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:32:00 +0000

Well, that's what Jenni told her family! So I guess we are going to be busting our butts from here till then to make it happen.

Kitchen is basically done (minus the backsplash):

The stairs company (Cooper Stairs) was here today starting the stairs after we demolished them this weekend with help of friends Tom and Stewbie:

Progress so far:

Jerusalem redux

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:08:00 +0000

Well, I never got around to posting much about my trip to Israel. We spent most of our time just north of Tel Aviv. This is about a 2-hour drive from Jerusalem. Some comments or observations:

- Much more modern than I thought. Tel Aviv is a very modern city (supposedly the most "Western" city in Israel). Large boardwalk on the Med and tons of excellent restaurants and bars.
- Israel, for the most part, seems to be free of conflict. There are a few hot-spots, primarily in the occupied territories (Gaza, West Bank). Israelis go about their daily business just as you or I might. The only difference seems to be the security in certain areas, but it not an inconvenience.
- Most Israelis feel that they would give Palestine their own country in a heartbeat if they could trust that the conflict/violence would end. Most would even give up Jerusalem as long as it remained open to all. One sign that I wish I could have gotten on film before we passed was of an American Indian character with a saying "Ask me about land for peace" with an outline of Palestine super-imposed over a bullseye with an arrow in it... I think that was pretty symbolic of the lack of trust between the sides.
- The Old City is amazingly small. You can walk through it in no time at all. We took a guided tour for a few hours and covered most of the primary spots. The Wailing Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Arab and Armenian quarters, etc.

Here is one picture and click on it to see the whole list of pictures from the Old City.

Well, things are still moving forward, despite the lack of posts

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:29:00 +0000

I figured I would update the blog before heading out of the country for the next week. I will be traveling to Tel Aviv for the next week to attend some meetings for work. Luckily, we will have the better part of a day to go on a tour of Jeruselem. We are staying at a hotel right on the Mediterranean and the weather is supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny every day. I will have pictures and commentary when I reutn.

But, we are moving along with the house. We have the finishing touches on the kitchen left to be made and we are waiting for our custom staircase to be completed. The company doing the stairs estimates it to be sometime around Thanksgiving they should be ready to install. In preparation of that, we are on the hook to finish the hardwood flooring throughout the rest of the house and painting. I took Thursday off to address some unlevel flooring issues. I had to rip out a huge chunk of sub-floor and then add strips of ripped-down 2x4's to the top of the joists and sand them to level. Quite a tiring day of work. The upstairs bath is roughed-in and the sheetrock and cement backer for the tile are both in as well.

I keep thinking we are right around the corner from being finished, but I have been thinking that for the past few months. Hopefully once the stairs and floors are done, it will seem much more "complete." Also, having a new finished bath upstairs will be a big relief. Hopefully we will be done in time to host some fun Christmas parties!

Here are some pics to have a look at and click to see more:

Kitchen updates!

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:57:00 +0000

Here are some updated pictures from the kitchen renovation. We had the granite installed on Wednesday and the Advantium fixed and oven installed on Monday. Last night, I installed all the plumbing fixtures and we now have a "working" kitchen. All that is left is to get the dishwasher, hood, and cooktop installed. The we can order the last few trim and door pieces that are needed!

Oh, and we have started on the upstairs hallway bath. We installed a new ceiling and lights with a new ultra-quiet vent fan. Hopefully we can get the bathtub in very soon, so we can start on the walls and tiling the floor!

As usual, click on the picture to take you to our picture site and view the rest:

40 days and 40 nights...

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:08:00 +0000

In keeping with the biblical references, I just had to comment about this unbelievable series of storms we have had here in Chicago in August. The recorded average for rainfall in the month of August in Wheeling, IL is 4.84". As I am sitting here in the pouring rain being stuck at work, we have already had 15.19" of rain this month (at least another inch today and more rain on the way tomorrow). I have had a tough time tracking down the record monthly rainfall for anywhere in Norther Illinois for the month of August, but this has got to be a record. I have never seen anything like this.

We have lost power twice within the last 2 weeks in huge overnight storms and today a funnel cloud was seen over the city of Chicago. This has been a real test of our modified drainage strategy and re-sloped landscaping. We have had a little bit of water weaping through a crack in the foundation, but for the amount of rain we have had in several of these storms, we have done pretty well. Most of the people I know that have finished basements and backup systems have even been having issues.

Ok, now on to more exciting progress on the construction. Last post showed the installation progress of the floors. As of this Monday, the cabinets have been going in. Slowly but surely, they have been going in. The fridge is being delivered tomorrow and the rest of the appliances are already on-site. The granite installer will be over to measure the space on Tuesday and within the next 2 weeks, we should have a "finished" kitchen.

Floors going in slowly but surely

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:33:00 +0000

With the kitchen cabinets delivered Friday, Aug 17th, and schedule to be installed beginning Monday, we're rushing to finish the floors in the South half of the house (family room, kitchen, dining room). I took a few days off work, despite some hectic work schedules and projects ongoing, to make sure enough is completed for the kitchen work to continue.

Here are a few pictures of the in-progress installation and finally, a couple pictures of what we have complete right now.

Here I am working the power nailer. Unfortunately, Brazilian Cherry is almost 2x as hard as Red or White Oak. This is great for durability, but it makes installation a pain in the butt. The wood is too hard for the power nailer to fully drive the nail into the tongue of the planks. This means I have to go by hand and set every single nail. Ugh. You can see the hardness ratings of hardwoods at the following link:

The Janka Hardness Scale

Measure twice, cut once!

And here is what it looks like in a larger room:

On the 7th day, Randar said, "Let there be light!"

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:59:00 +0000

We have finished installing the electrical, plumbing, and re-routing the ductwork so the drywall can be installed next week Monday. Tuesday morning the carpenter will be in to build the half-wall where the raised seating area will be and he will add 2" spacers to the the studs on the wall where the refridgerator will be so that it will be plumb and square.

Here are some pictures of "the warehouse" (click on the pictures to go to a bunch more):

Things are starting to hit a stride, I think. It seemed like we would never be getting this finished, but as the cabinets shipped from the factory on Monday, we are going to have to kick it into high gear to get everything done in time.

We still have a few minor items to resolve, such as insulating the exterior walls, but I think we are essentially ready. Once the drywall is installed, taped, and sanded, we will be rushing to get the floors installed. This will require a lot of work on a very uneven subfloor as well as some prep work for my eventual "Staircase to Heaven" that will be hand-crafted from Brazilian Cherry planks, handrails, and wrought iron ballusters. This of course is of far less priority than finishing everything that currently stands in our way of having the kitchen finished. I think we are already tired of walking to the basement to fetch anything from the fridge or eating pre-cooked and frozen meals.

We're not going to meet our August 15th deadline (one year from move-in), but we are still hoping to be done by labor day weekend.

By the way, this past weekend we went to the Eric Clapton Guitar Festival at Toyota Park and had a blast. We saw a legendary list of guitar, rock, and blues gods that is rarely assembled in the same location (Clapton last held this festival in 2004). Here is the list of attendees. I won't pick out my favorite, because the whole thing was simply awesome. We were probably 30-40 yards from stage and the concert lasted from about noon till 11:00 pm. What a day!

Here is a barely interpretable picture of Eric Clapton on stage:

New developments

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:05:00 +0000

We have the construction crew in house today working on the structural beam removal. When I left for work after lunch, they had the temporary walls in place, the new 3-part gluelam beam was going up one piece at a time, and in general, it was loud! Here are some "in-progress" pictures that I will update over the next couple of days. Just click on this picture to take you to the picture site that will list all the pictures for this project and I will add updates there even if I do not add a new blog post.

Also, since we have the ceiling off and we have access to all the plumbing, we decided, "hey, we don't have enough to do, let's renovate the upstairs guest/kids bath, too!" So here are some pictures of the demolition. We are going to go with a 1-1/4 inch hexagon marble tile for the floor and a crackled brick tile with some additional features in the tub surround. The tub is going to come out tonight I think, but I might have to wait for one of my buddies to come over to help me get it down the stairs...

More to come. Check back early and often!

where have we been for 2 months?

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Well, you might ask if we're still alive? Maybe we killed each other during a late night renovation session? Well, not to disappoint, but we've been busy re-grading our yeard, redoing the entire lawn and landscaping, and we've also been preparing for our kitchen/floor renovation.

As opposed to giving tons of commentary and stories, I'll leave you to the pictures, as 2 months of stories would take days of writing.

Here are some Landsaping photos after we roto-tilled the entire front and back, dug out a huge french drain and added a lot of new plants and grass. Click on this picture to go to a collection of about 20 others:

We've also been stripping out the remnants of our kitchen to do a lot of the plumbing and electrical prep work before drywalling and doing the floors before the rest of the kitchen is installed.

And here is one last set of some pictures of us removing the front closet. We plan to put a boot bench and coat hooks here to open the space:

Hopefully it won't be another 2 months before the next update. We should have lots of progress to report! (we hope!)

Been a long time

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:00:00 +0000

It's been a little over a month since the last update and we feel like the pace of progress has slowed to a halt. That being said, with the coming warmer weather, we're eager to get outside and enjoy going some manual labor outdoors! Over the past month, we have made some progress on various tasks:

We have begun to hang the laundry room cabinets, as pictured here. The sink base is not yet installed and the crown molding is not yet attached. That will be a quick day's work sometime in the near future (waiting on a part for the washer/dryer).

We have also been interviewing and trying to pick out our kitchen contractor, cabinets, appliances, etc. This is more leg-work than manual labor. With that in mind, we have to be ready to install our new hardwood floor as soon as we get a contractor in to replace a structural beam and we order our kitchen cabinets. From that point, we need to have all the flooring installed by the time the cabinets arrive. We have selected Brazilian cherry hardwood flooring and we will be going with white trim and white doors throughout the house. I think Jenni has looked at a few too many Pottery Barn catalogs, myself. But, I know it will turn out beautifully. Here are some progress shots showing the removal of the foyer ceramic tile and the hardwood in the family room.

With some warm weather we also have headed outside to get a little bit of yard work done. We plan to rototill the entire back yard and re-grade it to have a nice continuous slope away from the house. Right now I would call it "lumpy" at best. We removed a rotted cedar railing from the external access stairwell to the basement as pictured. What's left are 3 very deep post-holes that were filled with concrete that we had to break up and remove. We'll be replacing these within the next few weeks.

We also have been trying to figure out a way to get our sump pump to drain away from the house. With the current drainage pattern we have a mini lake next to the house (and in the neighbor's yard). We found a buried drainage pipe yesterday for just the use. Now we just have to try to figure out why it wasn't being used! However, with rain in the forecast and the weekend winding down, we didn't take it apart to determine its usefulness. This will be a nice task for a drier day in the near future!

More updates pictures to come soon. We have determined that we are very good at demolition, but rebuilding everything seems to be a much slower task!

Festival of Beards Week

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:18:00 +0000

In honor of my first attempt at growing a beard, this week was the first (annual?) Festival of Beards Week. After not-shaving for a week over Christmas, I decided to just keep letting in grow out of curiosity. Well, Jenni and I had both finally had enough of the "mountain man" look...

Here is the weekly array of beard configurations for Festival of Beards Week 2007:

Monday's neatly trimmed beard:

Tuesday's rendition of Chops & Goatee:

Wednesday's reduced chops and trimmed goatee:

Thursday's ridiculous Reno 911 style mustache:

Friday's soul patch and side burns:

Beer brewing and random house updates...

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:55:00 +0000

We have been dieing to brew our own beer for quite some time, and with Jenni's yeast experience, we figured we could make some kind of justifiable science experiment out of it in the process. So, for Valentine's day, I surprised Jenni with a pretty serious beer brew kit. This had big glass carboys and all kinds of tubes and whatnot. Northern Brewer is THE place to get all your homebrew supplies if you decide to give it a try. Seems pretty darn easy.

So, my friend Mike has been brewing his own beer since New Years and was in town for work, so we had a beer brewing night Wednesday night this week. Despite some work obligations we had until about 8:00, we still managed to get our Bavarian Dunkel (a dark German Lager) brewed and it is now fermenting in the basement. We'll see how it turned out in about 6-8 weeks! We'll keep you all updated and hopefully this and our other English and India Pale Ale brews will also go well.

Here are some pictures Jenni took while Mike, Tom (AKA Eddie) and I were siphoning and filtering the wort from the kettle, through a wort cooling device called the Chillzilla, and into the glass carboy, where it is currently fermenting:

As for the house? Well, the winter has taken its toll. Beer drinking/brewing, warmth, and sleep have taken over as our primary activities. We're still managing to make some progress. We are plastering and sanding the walls and ceilings in all of the bedrooms at one time. This has been a ton of work, as we have had to replace sections of drywall, fix damage from wall paper borders, the window installation, and a lot of general damage to the wall surfaces. The ceilings are essentially done (one more coat of paint, and the difference is already huge. As soon as we finish painting we're hoping to have the carpet and flooring work started. This may take some time, but it will make a huge difference in how we feel about the coziness of the house.

Also, as I previously wrote, we received our washer and dryer and are making progress on finishing up in the laundry room. The walls are finished, some ceiling touch-ups are required, and we're going to start installing the cabinets this weekend. Pictures to follow, of course!

If you have a few minutes, you should read this column about hanging cabinets. It's a really funny summary of what nearly every home improvement project entails to some degree. How to Hang a Cabinet