Dalty needs more toys!

(Originally posted on Monday, April 9, 2007 by Tim)

Our storage system for Dalton?s playroom came in. We didn?t get any feedback from our vast readership so we went with our original design. The colors are custom. The white and red colors are a good match with the trim and couch in the room respectively. The yellow/orange ended up a shade light. I?m not going to bother taking up the yellow color with the manufacturer as I?ve been on an seemingly endless quest to get Home Depot to match our trim downstairs. It's just not as plug and play as advertised. That endeavor is probably it?s own blog post. I doubt it will get written considering my recent consistency in posting.

The entire system was shipped Fed Ex (ground I assume) and would have fit in the back of my car.* Accordingly, some assembly was required. I think we spent about six hours on the assembly once all was said and done. It was pretty expensive too. We probably shouldn?t have spent all that money on it. However, I?m convinced that if my parents had bought me one of these things, that I?d be the CEO of a multinational corporation right now.

All kidding aside, we?re very happy with it. Even Dalty loves it. It was especially rewarding to set him up next to it when it was done. The lower level is just the right height so he can hold himself up with one hand and bash it with a toy held in the other. Lots of smiles were to be had and those are priceless even if they are moderately abundant.

*Actually, I don?t own a car. Both cars are in Cat?s name. She reminds me of this often.

Happy easter!

(Originally posted on Sunday, April 8, 2007 by Cathy)

No real post, but here's today's best photo. Tim promises a long post on new furniture... later.

Long time, no post?

(Originally posted on Sunday, April 1, 2007 by Tim)

As you might have guessed, I?ve been a bit busy of late. I?ve been meaning to post about my New Year?s resolutions for three months now. It?s fair to say that real life set in when Cat went back to work. Despite having mostly quit video games and having hired someone to vacuum, dust, and clean our house every two weeks, my free time has evaporated.

It?s been a pretty good three months. Everyone has been relatively healthy. Dalton continues to progress in ?baby stuff?. He?s currently working his way up to walking and crawling, his top two teeth are coming in, and he?s discovered consonants. He even uses them some of the time.

Spring has arrived here and I?ve started working on the lawn again. I drastically trimmed back the grape vine and the roses in late winter. Both look to be leaving out in a healthy way. The four trees I planted a year and a half ago are also budding and leaving. I?m happy to report that the cherry tree is doing well. It is grafted to produce two types of cherries and both parts of the tree look good.

I was planning on planting 10 or more rose bushes down the front sidewalk this spring, but changed my mind when I started looking at different varieties. The problem is that I?m not going to go with the kind I planted last year. They were ?discount? roses I picked up while waiting in the checkout line at Home Depot. They aren?t disease or insect resistant and thus were a lot of work last year. Besides, I don?t know what variety they are anyway. They?re red and have tea shaped flowers. That?s all I?ve got to go on.

In looking over different varieties of roses, I picked out some that are disease resistant and have large flowers. However, there?s a lot of different kinds of roses out there and I won?t really know what they look like until I?ve grown them. The varieties I?m looking at aren?t cheap, but that?s not the real problem. It?s digging the holes. It?s a lot of work to dig a good hole for one rose bush much less 10 of them. The thought of planting 10 bushes and not liking them at the end of the summer is not all that appealing. As a result, I?ve decided I?ll put in three bushes of varieties that look good this spring. The two next to the house will be red and I?ll put one out by the mailbox that is yellow. If I?m happy with them this year, then I?ll carry out my evil plan to fill the yard with rose bushes next year.

The only post in three months and I STILL didn?t talk about by New Year?s resolutions. Sigh, maybe next time.

Today?s picture is of Dalton and our good friend Deborah who was over to dinner a month ago. When I say over to dinner, I mean she and her husband Rick brought dinner. Yummy, homemade, Moraccan food. Thanks again Deborah and Rick!

More teeth!

(Originally posted on Sunday, March 25, 2007 by Cathy)

No photo to document them yet, but Dalty busted out at least one, probably two top teeth today. There's a reason he's been a grump, apparently.

Photo is from Mom's visit last week, Dalty shows off his playroom

Photos

(Originally posted on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 by Cathy)

Sorry, we've been remiss in posting and photos lately. Let me at least correct things in the photo department. See below, and also http://www.chezmodi.com/chezmodi/blog/one-entry?entry%5fid=46834

Ice storm

(Originally posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 by Cathy)

Post? You wanted a post with your photo?

Dalty's Playroom

(Originally posted on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 by Tim)

Dalton?s playroom is coming along nicely. It was painted in the big pre-labor painting fiasco this summer. We then had new windows put in but the guy did a lot of damage to the frames installing them. I would say I spent a good 8-10 hours repairing the damage and repainting. I think we?ll hire someone else next time. I?ve also patched and repainted the mark/hole in the ceiling where the old overhead lamp used to be. Oh, and it has new carpet. I had to patch up some of that job as well, but most of that was replacing a piece of broken trim.

This makes it time to start furnishing the room. We?ve even already spent some money. The Grand, a furniture store near us had a sale this last weekend. We had a coupon for 10% off so we headed over to see if we could find a sleeper sofa for the playroom. We?re not usually sale shoppers and I realize that they probably marked everything up 20% and then sent us a 10% coupon, but we do need a couch in there.

We?re not likely to ever really take advantage of a clearance sale. We?ve gotten kind of picky in our old age. We wanted a specific color and fabric to our couch and we were willing to pay extra to have it customized. We also paid extra to have them put the stain guard on it. I?m not sure whether that was a good choice or not. I worry that stain guard is something like the extended warrantee on appliances, not needed but they sell it to you anyway. I also wonder if we could have done the same thing with Scotch Guard or some such. Well, in theory, stain guard is a good idea since it will be in the playroom and Dalty will be on it a bunch. We?ve also been of the opinion that we have much more money than time these days. It helps that we?ve saved so much by skipping on Dalton?s vaccinations.

So the couch is on order and we were trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the room. Cat wanted to put up some shelves or bookcases to hold toys and leave the rest of the room open for play. In surfing for storage systems, we came across this company that makes modules that you can arrange as you like. As a bonus, it's made in the USA which is pretty hard to find these days. I'd much rather help employ American workers than assist China in becoming the next superpower.

We?re quite smitten by the system and will probably order 18 or so blocks in a week or so. The pictured structure is designed to run along the wall and under the window. As such it needs to be one row high for those 6 boxes in the middle. It can only be 3 boxes wide on each side. On the sides, the height can 1, 2 or 3 and it doesn?t need the shelves (it could be solid boxes). The red matches the couch to be, the yellow matches the walls, and the white matches the trim. I?m providing all this information on the off change that you have greater artistic ability than we do. We're pretty happy with this design and colors, but we wouldn?t be surprised if someone else came up with something better. You can find a power point file with our design here for easy modification (if you have power point). Try to keep from going too nuts on triangle openings as we think it will be hard to place stuff in those cubbies.