Riley - 3 months

I can't believe he's over three months old already.  We're both madly in love with him and enjoying all the tiny changes you never notice until he's yours.  Rolling over? Cause for celebration.

Riley loves to fly like an airplane

We think he's going to be a bomber pilot!  Bonus points if he hits dad.

I did another diaper-on-our-feeding-blanket shoot.

Ri did a bit of a side-plant after I put him down sitting up.  Love the chubb.

He's definitely our cutest child yet

Update on bfeeding, since its been a while.... no update.  We're still plugging away.  My milk is back after its mystery overnight disappearance (thankfully, I had huge heart for women without milk... that's tough).  He sucks slightly better, so I pump less, but we're still not exclusive.  I go back to work in a few weeks, so I'm guessing we won't ever get it perfect.  But somehow in the last fourteen weeks, I started to enjoy it.  My twelve week self-imposed assessment came, and I found I was looking for reasons to continue, even if the limited capacity I am.  So I do, and Simon gets to give him bottles and we are all okay as it is.And when I go back to work, just don't ask what that moo'ing sound is on the other end of the conference call.

I never thought I'd still be doing this at 14 weeks, nor that I'd be okay with it.  I remember in my second week writing that most people with recessed chins have it figured out by 6 weeks and feeling like that was an eternity.  It has definitely been a ride.

Forget what the books say... not all kids grow into their jaws by 6 weeks.  Here's Riley yesterday.

Since we didn't end up going on any big trips and are now reno'ing, we've been exploring Vancouver, which is fantastic as there's still so much I haven't seen.  Nan came over yesterday and joined up in Lynn Canyon.  I love the suspension bridge there and all the waterfalls.

My reaction on the bridge is similar to tenge's - he gets flat on his belly, legs spayed.

Family shot.  I think I'm over-caffeinated  (on decaf!)

Walking with Melisa + Lil' Liam at Mundy

Finally, I know there aren't any smiling pictures of Riles.  He now does the cutest little giggle.  I'm crazy for him.  He especially giggles with dad around - this kid adores his father.  Unfortunately I can't stop looking at him enough to take pictures while he's being all gorgeous.  Yesterday I took a video but got a bit carried away when he just kept being cute for a whole 8 minutes.  Much as I love to watch him, I'll spare you the huge download.  Come for a visit and see for yourself!

Oh, and Vancouver, anytime you want to have the sun come out, feel free.  For anyone else, I go back to work June 11th.  You can plan on rain until then and perfect weather thereafter.

I love what you've done with the place!

I mentioned we had a productive day yesterday (thanks to Matt and Jenny).

Pictures to prove it:
Here's the old fiddle-shop in its temporary headquarters (I got the pic after one shelf was already cleaned out). 

As of yesterday, this has moved into the suite.

Here's the suite as it was two days ago

Suite last night.  Dad, I think you'll find the decor is just to your taste:)

Fiddle shop is now empty, ready for demo

Carport is almost emptied, and Matt made light work of the heavy-duty shelves at the back.

Summer plans

Si's brother Matt and his lass Jenny returned from Scotland and came by for a quick visit.  This bloomed into a full on project, moving the fiddle shop into the suite and emptying, demoing the garage shelves.  End of the day, they drove away with a truck full of material for the dump.

Please, feel free to stop by anytime you two. 

So our summer projects have begun.

What is now the fiddle shop will become an office. We're taking out one closet upstairs to get an extra 3 or 4 feet the length of the room, which is currently too small to be useful (we will get a new coat closet upstairs when we push the front entrance out 4-5 feet... maybe next summer?).  Demo walls and ceiling (plywood and drop respectively), Frame, insulate and drywall walls and ceiling, rewire, tile and paint.

The second project is to close in the back part of the carport to make a new workshop.  We're leaving the carport extension and closing-in to another year.  Demo walls, remove ceiling and insulate (currently the top of the garage/bottom of our bedrooms isn't insulated), add a window and two doors (one to outside, one to the carport) so we can lock it, frame in a wall to make it a room (currently just an open carport).  Rewire to add plugs, light.  Move drier vent to outside wall.  Drywall and insulate the whole thing, paint.

Goal is to have all of this done before I go back to work mid-June.  Just kidding.  But August 1st.  Seriously.  We're going to contract out some of it since Riley can't handle a hammer yet.  Then the tools get back out of the suite and into Si's brand new workshop and we get the suite rented for September 1st. 

No rest for the wicked.

1 year and loving it

We moved into our house one year ago today!  We couldn't have asked for a better location and are thankful for it daily.  Already so many great memories.

Yay!  It's ours!

I already posted our anti-progress in the yard, but had to repost the crazy fence picture.  That is one stacked truck!  Hopefully the non-yard pictures show some improvements.

We didn't get a bunch of before pics, so here are some from during the reno that at least show some of the progress.  The primary project was finishing the basement and making a suite.

The ceiling was nailed up plywood.  We insulated, most importantly against sound with SafeNSound for high frequency, a 1" metal channel drop for low frequency and 5/8" drywall.  Now you can no longer hear conversations, dogs nails on hardwood and there's a fire barrier.

A lot of rewiring was necessary.  

Thankfully Roger is a pro

The old bathroom was tiny (that's the old wall).  Notice the bare cement to the right - nothing was insulated.

And no before-after would be complete without the requisite yuk-mold picture.  Here's what we got when we pulled up the raised bathroom floor.

Dad working on the shower.  Space made it too awkward to use a standard shower base, so dad made it narrow but really long so it doesn't feel as small.

Matt tiling the shower

Nothing sexier than a man wearing workgloves

Cutting molding with Riley.  Crazy that that was him all along!

A new drain to properly remove water from our new furnace

This wall to close in the furnace was likely the hardest of the whole project.  No studs nearby, trying to save as much space as possible (hall is already narrow) and having to work around furnace pipes at the top.  Add needing doors to access the hot water and furnace filter, and we really appreciated dad's help!

Looking back at what is now the kitchen

Drywalling... we had a pro do the mudding and sanding.

The kitchen was contentious.  We bought a used kitchen for $400 off Craigslist - counters, hardware, sink, everything!  Guess whose idea that was?  Poor Si was stuck with putting it back together (and getting the corner cupboard through the door - had to be sawed in half and reassembled).   Their kitchen is larger than ours, and leftovers components also found in the pantry, the baby room and workshop.  While it was inexpensive, it was also tougher as we had to reconfigure the layout a fair amount, it got creative at moments.

Here's the after pictures.  Some temporary furniture for when our parents come to stay before its rented.
Bedroom

Yes, the "bedroom" has a fireplace.  It was too awkward to have the bed beside the kitchen, and plumbing/flow didn't allow us to flip the layout.  Instead of a wall, we used an expedit shelf as a room divider so the light still comes through.  This basement has nice high ceilings and plenty of light, fortunately. 

Bedroom looking into the living room

Living room into bedroom

Living room from kitchen

 Kitchen.. love the green tiles Si chose

Here's that horrible wall in the hallway. 

Bathroom

And dad's shower. 

This is a bit of a ballsup... the shower tap is too close to the side to allow us to use any generally available lever (the surround round thing around the lever is actually the problem).  Still working on this one.  Determined not to pull out the plumbing just to move it an inch or two.

Thanks to our families for all their help in the renovation!  One day I promise you'll be able to come for a visit without a "hey, can you just quickly help me with...".  For now, thank you though!

Next up:
This summer - Fiddle shop is to become an office.  Possibly close in part of the garage to make Si a workshop, but that seems like it may be more than we're able to take on.  Will likely move that to when we do a big reno...

And sometime soon - extend the garage 8", close it in, extend entry 4-5 feet, add covered entry and overset a peak to break up the roofline.  Here's something close to the idea:

Our existing home:

The "someday" renovations will borrow a lot from this - garage, added peaked roof on the left, extended and peaked entry.  This really helps to break up the style from the Vancouver split-entry we currently own.

I quite like how just painting and changing accents makes this house look better (ideally we can preserve our cedar siding).  I like the garage better on the one above.  If other Vancouver-ites see another split mid entry reno you like, send it along!  We're looking for ideas.

Finally, just a random.  Spot the pointer!  It's his personal mission to rid the yard of bees.

More pics

Just a few more pics as I've downloaded from the camera.  We're definitely in the quantity not quality photos bucket.

 Happy family

 Proud Grandparents

I like this expression