Traditions.....

We got the news last week that Matt's Dad has cancer, his yearly October pilgrimage to Virginia will have to be postponed. Matt flew to Illinois to spend a long weekend with his family, it was the first time in 6 years that they were all together. It was a good trip, Thursday we get the final diagnosis and treatment plan. Isn't it funny how one phone call can change everything?

When Marty was born we started a tradition of taking a picture of the 3 generations of Eykamp's on the front porch. Let's hope we can continue that tradition in 2010.

New Porch Swing!

For an early birthday present the kids gave me a new porch swing (Yea!). It's very nice, too bad it's been so hot I haven't been able to enjoy it! We're going to get the table cleaned, oiled and put back on the porch this weekend (the chairs that go with it are in the background). I would like to get an outdoor rug but think that will have to wait until next year. I also need to get some furniture for the upstairs porch. Louisa saw this on one of our trips and really wants me to get it for her. It's really cute but a little small - I don't think she will get a lot of use out of it.

Sleeping porches

Since we got the house painted the kids have been allowed to go on the upstairs porch (I wouldn't let them go out before because the paint was peeling so badly!). They asked (begged) me to let them sleep out there, so we got the air mattress and sleeping bags out and let them have a "porch camp-out". It was cooler last night thanks to a small storm that passed through so it was great weather for sleeping (we were able to turn off the a/c in the house too.). I'm not sure if the original owners slept on cots or just took their mattresses outside but I'm sure they didn't have blow up mattresses and Ipods for comfort! We've come a long way, baby!!!!!

Painting complete (for now)

The painters are finally done and gone - yea! I'm not going to put any of the furniture on the porch for a couple of days (I want to make sure that it is dry!) and besides Louisa wants a new cast iron table and chairs!!! Here are couple a of before and afters....



Downstairs porch before.

Downstairs porch after.

Double porches after

Back wall before

Back wall after

Back porch ceiling before

Back porch after.

If you have 4 porch ceilings and three are painted light green, what color would you paint the fourth???? I guess we weren't specific enough when we said "Paint all the ceilings green". Oh, well... at least it has paint on it. As you can see they did scrape the paint off the door windows (not the best job in the world). I'm thinking this fall I'm going to take the door off and strip it so I'm not too worried about it. The best news is the city said we are off the hook for the peeling paint!

We have a painter!

I am totally stealing this joke from "This Decrepit Victorian's" blog (because I laughed out loud when I read it!!!):

A guy meets a hooker in a bar. She says, “This is your lucky night. I’ve got a special game for you. I’ll do absolutely anything you want for $300, as long as you can say it in three words.” The guy replies, “Hey, why not?” He pull his wallet out of his pocket, and one at a time lays three hundred-dollar bills on the bar, and says, slowly: “Paint…my…house.”

We just hired someone to paint the double porches, side and back of the house! Yea!!!! He will start in the morning. He was painting the house 2 doors down and I stopped and asked for a quote. It's nice to be able to see someones work before you hire them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they do a good job and it doesn't take too long (we won't be able to use the pool for a few days).

Back of the house looking into the kitchen. I'll have to take pictures of the porches before he starts. Wish us luck :-)