This spring & summer, we've got two new adventures brewing. The greatest is that we're expecting a child, our first, at the end of August. We've all three been healthy and Brita's pregnancy has gone nearly as well as possible, so we count ourselves lucky and we're eager to meet the new baby! Friends & family have generously shared their leftover baby things—and some new ones as well—so we're materially well prepared. We continue to read about birth & parenting, and we've got a great doctor to help with the birth itself up at OHSU.

Brita on a mountain road above Hood River, in the gorge.

Everyone keeps asking if we've got the nursery ready, which leads me to our second adventure. Since one can only count on dry weather for a few summer months each year here, and since we're reluctant to expose an infant to a major house renovation, we decided this spring to take the plunge and do phase 2 of our planned changes to our new house. We're calling it our "fairly aggressive nesting project:" convert the house from improvised duplex back to single family home.

Brita muses over the demolition progress, which exposed the original 1906 fir panelling upstairs.

We're gaining some kitchen & family room space, moving the staircase from back porch to the middle of the interior, giving up a bedroom on the mail floor but gaining a bedroom & bathroom upstairs. Best of all, we're bringing the back of the house—which suffered most from past remodels—up to code with modern structural members, insulation & plumbing & wiring, and a family-friendly floor plan.