1st Anniversary

We took a very relaxing getaway weekend to Canoe Bay in northern Wisconsin for our 1st wedding anniversary. We slept a lot, ate fantastic meals, and got a little lost hiking in snow up to our knees. Thanks to Bryan & Melissa for the recommendation!

Merry Christmas!

We spent four days in Denver over Christmas with Jason's family. See photos on Picasa to the right. Jason's sister's new husky puppy was the belle of the ball and captured our attention most of the time.

We also spent time with Katie's Austrian relatives on a layover at the Denver airport. Thanks to United Airlines, they had to fly through Denver to reach Florida, so we made the most of it and shared a few drinks and laughs.

Later in the week, we headed to Wisconsin Rapids to spend a belated Christmas with Katie's family. We were blessed to spend time with all four parents and siblings in a week.

Painting is Done!

The exterior painting is finally finished after lots of bad weather and problems with our contractor. We both love the "french roast" trim, but one of us doesn't really like the yellow and rust colors and the other one says it will be fine through the winter. Thank goodness the changing seasons will make us take a break for a while!

Apples Galore!

We have been busy this fall harvesting and preserving apples from two trees in our yard. We've made apple pies, apple butter, applesauce, apple bread, apple pancakes, you name it - we've made it! Next year we'll be more prepared!

Repalcement Windows

Over the past couple weekends, I've been working on replacing the five worst windows on the main level. The first weekend was spent taping, staining, and sealing the interior wood to match our existing trim.



This weekend, I had two friends join me for the removal and installation of the new windows. Things went without a hitch, and the trim nailer I borrowed from my dad was a big time-saver when replacing the trim after the work was complete. For more photos, see our PicasaWeb photo link on the right side of this page.

New Furniture

Thanks to some generous wedding gifts from our parents, we finally have our long-awaited bedroom furniture. We got it from Logan Hardwood Furniture, a family company in Rochester, MN and each piece was handmade to fit the dimensions of our bedroom. We highly recommend their work.

Progress...

The carpenters spent three days here at the beginning of last week. They replaced a lot of trim, rebuilt the boxes at the points where our roof-lines meet, placed gable-end vents in our attic (to help ventilate to reduce our winter ice problems), and placed steel plates on the back-side of our roof-line timbers to undo the sagging that was starting.

The roofers were here Monday and Tuesday. They completely stripped and re-shingled most of the house in 12 hours. It was amazing how quickly they got it all done.

The siding guys came by today. They aren't moving quite as fast as the roofers (although there are only two siding guys as opposed to 10 roofers). I think it's looking quite nice thus far.

I'm quite happy to see the old TV antenna and lightning rods gone. I questioned the removal of the lightning rods at first, but the guy pointed out that one wasn't grounded to anything, and the other was grounded using a very tiny 24 gauge copper wire (bad news for that high of voltage).

Humans on a Stick!

Kate's brother, Nicholas and his wife, Sara, visited for the weekend and we took a Segway tour of downtown Minneapolis. Check them out at www.humanonastick.com.

Roof Project!

We are starting our roof replacement project. We took a few bids, and decided to not go with the lowest bidder. I think that was a good plan.

The work on deck is:
- Replace shingles, flashing, vents, etc.
- Fix all the fascia that is rotten and straighten out the roof-lines on the dormers
- Rebuild the boxes where the different roof lines meet - they are deteriorating
- Re-side the dormers and the three-season porch with proper siding

It'll probably take a couple weeks to do all the work.

Here are some "before" pictures. Please note the saggy trim, not-so-awesome tin patch job on one of the roof-line timbers, and the curling shingles in some areas. I've also got my eye on the TV antenna (the cable has been cut in the basement, so we couldn't even use it if we wanted to!).

1st Anniversary

We took a very relaxing getaway weekend to Canoe Bay in northern Wisconsin for our 1st wedding anniversary. We slept a lot, ate fantastic meals, and got a little lost hiking in snow up to our knees. Thanks to Bryan & Melissa for the recommendation!