House in Progress

This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by SC Johnson's Right@Home.

It's hard to believe that this will be our sixth Christmas here since we first moved in.

It's even more amazing to me that in all that time we've only had one Christmas tree in all that time. Seriously.

Many years we've traveled to visit family, so I guess that's a pretty good excuse. Other years, though, it's often because we simply didn't have the space. Last year, for example, our dining room was our temporary living room and a big plywood barrier separated us off from the construction zone where we would have normally put the tree. In hind sight, maybe we should have covered the plywood with wrapping paper.

Anyway, all this simply means that because of our limited history of holiday decorating here at the house, we've got to reach all the way back to 2005 to find a photo we can share of how we've parepared for the holidays.

Without further delay, here it is:

Now that we've moved back in to our living room, maybe we'll finally get to do our second tree....stay tuned! :-)

Posted by aaron at 10:27 PM (0)

Just a public service announcement to let the readers of HouseinProgress now that we have not disappeared. We have not quit the premises. But we have been the unwilling recipients of 3-4 colds in a ROW. To the point that Aaron has now been officially diagnosed with walking pneumonia and Jeannie doesn't even want to know what she has now that the bronchitis is over. And Aaron never, ever gets sick. (Ahem.)

Except for a little dry cough left over from her cold, Grace is feeling feisty and fine. This, of course, presents a whole different challenge for her wheezing, fumbling parents. Namely, how to entertain a bored toddler and keep her from eating the butter right out of the dish when we'd rather snuggle up under the table with a vat of Theraflu.

And, yes, Houseblogs.net was not behaving either. (Though it is up now! Check out the new contest!) And all work at the house has stopped. Laundry and dishes? Don't ask.

We'll come crawling back at some point. We always do.

Posted by jeanne at 5:48 PM (4)

Today I came across a link to HomeVestor's 2nd annual Ugliest House of the Year contest. Even though it's been over five years since we first moved in to our own fixer-upper, photos like this one still give me flashbacks.

Thankfully, our place was never as bad as some of the places in this contest but it does look like some of the rooms in our house when we first took position. It all makes me wonder how we lived through it all...

Check out more of the ugly home entries in the contest here.

(Contest link found via Gapers Block)

Posted by aaron at 5:28 PM (4)

As some of you may know, in addition to this personal houseblog we also run the website Houseblogs.net. It's a bit of a labor of love that's grown over the years and is now somewhere between a hobby and a real, mainstream website that people actually use.

Unfortunately, the site did a faithful impression of the US Economy in the past few weeks--it crashed. Hard.

It took us a while to get it working again, largely because the side job status of the site makes it hard to carve out the time to dedicate to big projects. Also, it took some technical skills that we simply didn't have. Luckily, we have a number of good technical friends who came in to the rescue. Thank you to each of you.

So, the good news is the site is back up and running! You can see for yourself.

Now, if only we had a friend who was as good with macro economics....

Posted by aaron at 7:53 AM (6)

Aaron found this in the basement, among the things we still hadn't investigated that were left behind in the house when we bought it. (See more about THAT here.)

It's a hunk of rose quartz.

It's huge. Fourteen and a half pounds. Of rose quartz.

What would YOU do with this find?

Doorstop? Garden ornament? Sell it on eBay (if it is even worth anything)?

It is Grace's alternate birthstone (January), but I think it is a bit large for gifting, yes?

Posted by jeanne at 10:59 AM (12)

So, my bronchitis is finally on its way to someone else's house. I always seem to get something nasty right as school starts and this year was no different. Germs + Toddler = wanting to lie in bed and moan but gamely pushing Fisher Price people through the door of the Fisher Price house instead. Over. And over.

But, this morning, I'm huddled next to the fireplace with my laptop. Grace is off at the sitters for a few hours and I'm trying to get some work done. And I am oh-so-thankful for having a living room this year. This is lovely.

Continue reading "Chilly. Me Want Fireplace." »

Posted by jeanne at 8:45 AM (4)

Thanks for all of your kind concern in the comments on that last post (except for one poster who implied that I'm just not watching Grace closely enough. Now, at various points in the day when things go wrong, I yell out "WHERE'S THE SUPERVISION???!!!" and crack up. The guy at the Post Office didn't think it was as funny as I did.)

We've been doing the Montessori thing with Grace. Putting her plates and cups where she can reach them. Putting her healthy snacks on lower shelves. Giving her choices. And she has been a great sport about all of this, really. Things were going pretty well. And then, well, see for yourself.

Continue reading "My Toddler Proofing Dilemma" »

Posted by jeanne at 11:04 PM (29)