Odds and Ends

At the request of several folks, I thought I'd post a few more house photos. It may be immediately evident why the kitchen isn't featured on the blog more often: it is not exactly photogenic. The combination of ugly seafoam green tiles and brown cabinets have got to go! However, that is not a priority project for us right now, as it is functional. Do note the bar/countertop Mike just created on the right hand side. He used wood from the staircase, and as you can see it has doubled our counter space.

The 'bedroom' and 'living room' take up a good bit of the remainder of the first floor-- but they are both roomy and comfortable. The bed is placed on leg extensions in anticipation of the home birth. You can probably see Keska's new favorite spot underneath the bed.













Mike has been doing very well with his Dutch language skills, primarily because he is not afraid to practice. He conducts most business and errands completely in Dutch. In contrast and in fear of being misunderstood, I readily switch to English-- and the result is that my own Dutch is pretty awful.

Sometimes, Mike's attempts to use the language result in hilarious exchanges. This week he realized that he told a man at the hardware store "I have dug up the goat underneath our house and I need to connect our toilet to it". An almost perfect sentence, except for the mispronunciation of the word giet, which means castpipe, into the word geit, goat. The man smiled a little, but didn't really react-- and helped Mike with his problem.