Hot times in the .... winter? Progress vers printemps

What a week! Temperatures in the 80s, magnolia petals everywhere... and more and more decisions to make. Windows are almost all ordered, HVAC is partially priced out. Ten words there that belie the hours and hours we've spent talking, designing, getting opinions, looking at photos... It's a good thing neither of us had to work this week. (Well, good until you factor in all the money we were spending rather than making!)

The dormers are built and feel pretty spacious from the inside. The new roof is papered. The many mounds of dust and old insulation have been cleaned up from the inside. The contractors had just cut holes in the ceiling and swept it all down through.


We've found two potential French-speaking babysitters and owe two of our daughter's naps this week to one of them. This is more related to the house than it might seem: our failure to get our children to sleep quickly and easily is directed related to our ability to find the time to actually talk about any of this stuff with any semblance of focus.

But who can sleep when it feels like June and there is suddenly an extra hour of daylight in the evening! Circadian and seasonal rhythms be damned!

This post is being composed to the background music of wailing and complaining on the floor above such that we are counting the days until these ridiculous redheads have their own bedrooms. There is tile to choose and flooring to finalize, but before more time goes by, I want to be sure to get recorded how things are going.

So what's up in the air, and what's up out of the ground (besides that hot pink hyacinth and baby girl's elbows?)

The front room -- mudroom and family office
The left side of the former bedroom closet will have hooks and cubbies, probably in an L shape, building out a wall in between the left section and more office-type storage at right

Daffodils in the woods behind our current house (which is to say ten feet from the woods behind our future house)

Family room and dining room looking into kitchen

Front living room looking into kitchen

The place where old and new come together is where I expect to have the family organization station: calendar, bulletin board, etc.

Our magnolia in all its glory!
If it weren't so bright, you might be able to tell that we'll still get to see it from the new place (and we won't have to slip on its slimy petals all over our lawn!)