Kico!

As everyone already knows, when Azra returned last week, she brought Milada's dog, Kico. So now we have a dog! Azra is doing most of the work, but Miran is pretty thrilled and has been taking him out for walks a lot. He has been getting lots of love and attention!

Kico has been pretty anxious to get out, which wasn't possible before without a leash, but now that we have the fence, today is his first day being left outside. Its kind of a yucky drizzly overcast day, so he has been whining a bit at the door, but he has also been off exploring and chasing squirrels.

Over the week-end we picked up the dog house we ordered for Kico. We haven't placed it in the yard yet because we haven't committed to a location and want to get some stone pavers or concrete blocks to elevate it a little first. But Kico discovered it in the carport today and is checking it out!

New Fence!

Yesterday they workmen stayed until 6:30 (after dark) to finish our fence. The fence looks great and is well made and we like our aluminum gate across the driveway. There is also a 5' walk gate on the right side of the house which will be convenient for the trash cans and lawn mower.

But now I really want to have the house painted because the blue and red brick which I already disliked looks even messier with a tan fence and black gate. I need to pain the house and the fence gray!

Anyway, here are lots of pictures of it from all sorts of angles.

 

Extreme Makeover Week!

Mom and Dad and Cecilia spent a few days with me this week working very hard to transform the downstairs of our house into a new suite for Milada, Azra and Kico (Milada's dog). We were all quite sick but managed to push through and get an incredible amount of work done.

Walls got painted in Milada's room, Azra's room, their bathroom, and the family room ...

Dad stayed very busy installing two new light fixtures, a dog gate at the bottom of the stairs, and additional shelves in our shoe closet as well as assembling a couple pieces of furniture!

 Mommy and I painted a couple pieces of furniture white ...

 There was an assembly line of Roman shades being sewn and assembled by Mommy and Cecilia ...

Dad and Cecilia also helped get started on applying privacy film to the windows on the French door to Milada's room. This is a project I still have to finish. 

Cecilia and Mommy undertook the huge task of recovering the seats of the dining chairs with a pale gray fake leather to coordinated better with the new living room. I still have to paint the chandelier silver to finish the dining room.

And finally, the reveal ... including Azra's accent wall, new duvet cover, and wall art ...

A rose-colored bathroom with additional storage and new towels ...

New curtains, pillow covers, and throws in the family room ...

And the biggest transformation of all ... the former bright green bird room turned into a bedroom for Milada.

So downstairs is nearly done though Miran and I still have a few more tasks (bath hooks and shelves, a full length mirror, and a couple of pendant lights to be hung as well as the vanity to be assembled in Milada's room). We are very much looking forward to Azra and Kico's arrival on Tuesday and Milada's hopefully in a few weeks!

Christmas 2013

We went to my parents in Staunton for a few days for Christmas. Margaret and Cecilia and their families were there, but we didn't get to see Matthew and Lindsay.

We got the boys fishing sets and remote control cars and the girls archery sets.

Here is the parent paparazi later when the kids were opening their stockings.

We gave Mommy a crystal butter dish and bread server, which she cleverly converted into a planter centerpiece.

I put headlamps in both Miran and Dad's stockings. And Miran also got this nice blue sweater vest from me.

We got a complete new set of pans from Mom and Dad, which I tried out the first night we got home. We  also got a new cutco trimmer knife from Margaret and Matt to replace the one that disappeared last year. I am quite thrilled to have a trimmer again.

After Christmas, while still in Staunton some of us went to see Thomas Jefferson's house Monticello in nearby Charlottesville.

 And my sisters and I went up to Broadway to visit my cousin Megan and her husband John and their very cute new arrival, Ryu. He is a very sweet and happy baby. Here he is posing with his parents and proud new grandparents, my Aunt Lee and Uncle Jim.

 

New Bird Room / Office Done, Finally!

We finally almost finished the new bird room / office yesterday and moved the bird's upstairs. Here is the final project this morning with Miran at work and the birds exploring. 

Miran still needs to hang the rope perches from the ceiling, but they are still wet because I ran them all through the dishwasher yesterday. He also wants to install lights under the shelves that are over the windows. These shelves are hopefully to prevent the birds from chewing on the window frame. We also nailed plexiglass over the mullions and on the window sill to keep them from chewing on those as well. Notice also the shelf on top of the space heater on the far wall. It has tile on top so will be easily cleanable (unlike the heater) when it gets pooed on. We also got a plastic chair mat to put under the hanging rope perches for the same reason. And the new, built in bird table also has a tile top for easy cleaning and lots of storage space beneath. Finally, the cage is new. Its almost exactly like the old one, but that had a few rust spots so we got them a new one for the new room.

Here it is with the separating curtain drawn. A few adjustments to the curtain will be made when Mommy gets here - they have already been peeking through the top between the curtain and the rail, so that needs to be blocked. Also the whole thing needs to be hemmed. We also want to add some velcro to the walls so we can secure the sides so they can't get around the curtain.

 And a view of the office side:

And here is the abandoned old bird room ready for a serious cleaning and some cage deconstruction.

And here is Azra's room as storage depot with a lot of the stuff that will go in the old bird room when it becomes Milada's bedroom. 

I thought I'd include another picture of our Christmas tree now that it actually has some presents underneath.

And finally, here is Miran's target after a round of shooting yesterday - all four in the yellow. The second photo is taken from where he stands when he shoots.