Announcement... She's a Girl!

Abigail Bella Snell arrived 14 days early, much to Laura's delight. She was born Saturday, May 24th at 4:27 pm after less than 8 hours of labor. In this photo she's been in our world for about two hours. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 4 oz and she's 18" tall.

3 more weeks

Some friends have been asking about Laura - so here are updated photos. She's doing really well. She has one more week of work and then starts maternity leave. The baby is due June 3rd. Oops! Wrong date - it's supposed to be June 9th!! Sorry.

This week we had a group meeting with her mid-wife here in our home.

Laura's friend, Alison, is Ben's back-up on delivery day.

It won't be too much longer now!

Master Bath Remodel

Larry has tackled our Master Bath Remodel. He moved so quickly I didn't get any before photos. That's okay though because it was nothing special.

Let me see if I can set the stage. Just off the master bath there was a small room. In this small room was a mirror with a counter in front of it - meant to be a make-up area but really was just wasted space. Along the side was a closet - big enough for one person. Off this room was the bathroom - very basic: vanity, tub/shower combo and toilet. There you have it. Like I said, nothing special. And... by the way - our washer/dryer is in the basement. That's important to know as you'll see in a minute.

Enter, the first photo... An empty room - gutted to the studs. This is the doorway into our bedroom. I'm standing where the tub had been.

Now, I'm looking where I had been standing. See the area to the left where the studs have been removed? On the other side of that wall is our dining room. Soon this will be a big hole.

Now (a few days later), I'm standing in the dining room looking into the bathroom. As you can see, Larry is putting in the one piece shower... a big 3' by 4' shower! Eventually, the vanity will go to his right.

Now, the scene gets more complicated. Larry has built a wall, not in the opening like it appears here but a few feet inside of the wall. This is where our washer/dryer is going to be! (If you're thinking it's weird to have a washer/dryer in the dining room, you're right. But, it's a small house with very little options. It works for us!)

He has been working on the plumbing and electrical the last couple days.

Friday - May 16th

Some progress has been made. The plumbing and electrical are done and sheetrock is up. Larry's been taping the joints and my photos are already out of date!

Here's the corner with the window (if you want to compare to above).

And the opposite corner where the vanity will go. You can see the shower is in already.

And finally, the washer/dryer area. That hole in the wall will be made a bit bigger and it will become a pass through cabinet so I can fold towels at the dryer, put them on the shelf and then they can be accessed from the bathroom. Clever, yes?

Our BIG Maple Tree

Okay - so we've lived her for nearly a year and a half. But... we still have so much to learn about our neck of the woods. See woods below...

This big tree is on the NW corner of our lot. We were told it's a Maple Tree. As you can see, it's huge! It would probably take 3 or 4 people, holding hands, to wrap their arms around it's truck.

It's leaves look like Maple leaves - at least I am easily convinced they do. But do you see the flowers up there?

But do Maples bloom? I don't think so. Imagine my surprise when, while working outside the other day I noticed the tree is covered in tulip like flowers!

Pretty, yes? Come to find out, this is a Tulip Poplar. I had learned about them in the gardening classes I took in March. They're native to the Eastern US. They grow to 90' tall. In fact, they gave away a few saplings but I knew I didn't have room for one on my little chunk of land because I already had a huge Maple - ha! The jokes on me. This one has probably been on this land for a very long time.