*NEW HOUSE*: before

1948 cottage near Milwaukie, Oregon–a 1/4-mile walk down to the Willamette River. The house sits on 1/3rd of an acre. The yarden is beautiful. The previous owners lived in the house for 51 years. It is a quintessential grandma and grandpa house. Not for long . . .

It didn’t take us long to start fussing with the new house. We received the keys Monday evening and most of the kitchen and nearly all of the chimney is torn out. Paul’s been working like a madman to get the demo done before we reside in the house (after our friends return on the 3rd). Our collective families will be joining us for a work party this weekend. I’m hoping we can strip the wallpaper and paint the master bedroom and the pantry/laundry. That would make me very, very happy, but nothing happens as fast I would like and since others will be doing a lot of the work I can’t really complain. We are lucky to have such great families–they’ve helped us a lot on the adventure and we’ve only just begun.

To see more pictures visit my flickr site.