Kitchen: The Before

If you see a minus symbol instead of a picture, click on it and you'll see the picture. Another blogger oddity!

The remodel is getting really real. We’ve had our final pre-construction meeting and the schedule says demolition starts Tuesday! We continue to relocate everything from the kitchen elsewhere.
The final walk-through and closing is scheduled for Friday, February 3.
Here are some before pictures:

We will be retiring this dishwasher Monday night. It will probably sit in the living room until our new appliances are delivered and the old ones are taken away.

This microwave will serve as our main source of cooking during the next 5 weeks. We’re also planning to utilize our electric fajita grill, our quesadilla press and our crock pots.

The oak woodwork will be enameled to match the cabinets.

This will be the home of a new floor to ceiling cabinet.

Future home of the pantry!

When I come home from work on Tuesday, there will be a big hole where this closet is.
We’ll keep using this fridge until our new one is delivered. It will have a new home in the living room until the new one is delivered. This is proof that the second cheapest refrigerator at Sears can last more than 16 years. We have high expectations of the new one!

Christmas 2016–5 people and 3 cats

We had a great Christmas! It was Doug’s year to work Christmas but he was lucky enough to get Christmas Day off.

Our festivities started early with Katharina’s arrival. The first order of business was asking her to pose with her brother and sister’s pictures.

We had a fun day at the Raptor Center

followed appropriately enough by an evening of Chickenfoot.

We and everyone else in the world did the grocery shopping on December 23rd. Mom and Dad Berg arrived on the 24th in time for the glorious Packer-Viking game. We Skyped with the Grunau family and I was sure to mention the score of the game to Christoph. Katharina brought some cookies from Boston, the Grunau family sent some cookies from Germany, Mom brought some cookies from Wisconsin and we made some here so this is a photo of cookies from 3 states and 2 countries.

We went to late church on Christmas Eve and then went again on Christmas morning. After church, we opened presents and had dinner.

We were happy Katharina could visit and have some time to relax during her busy semester. She assumed the “Christoph position” on several occasions.

The cats have been taking full advantage of people being home and the fireplace being on all day. Mr. TW (no photo available) was also here for Christmas but wasn’t out and about much. He’ll be here for his long stay in a few weeks.

The kitchen remodel start date was pushed to January 3rd since the builders are only working 3 days this week. It made sense to not tear everything out and then leave for 3 days. It has also given us time to really organize everything as we move it out of the kitchen. It’s possible we’ll be able to find everything after it’s all over!

Prepare

So it’s starting! Winter Break and the Kitchen Remodeling project…. We are working with College City Design Build and have nothing but impressed with their work, their responsiveness to emails and the whole process. We are excited to really get started.

I started packing up what can be packed in our kitchen and closet. It seems like it would be easy to pack away all those things we only use twice a year. However, “twice a year” is now so some of it will have to wait. Since we have plenty of snow, it seemed safe to pack up the summer shoes. Since we have plenty of beer glasses, it seemed OK to pack up some of the extra ones.

The preparations took me to the local liquor store where I came home with some excellent boxes for packing and several bottles of wine. I wanted to reassure the young guy working that I wasn't wrapping presents for children in the booze boxes.

It all seems neat and organized now. We’ll see what happens when everything has to go.


Since my trip to Milwaukee was cancelled, I’ve had a few days to get super organized for Christmas. We’ll be 7 for Christmas this year – 2 Berg-Williams, 2-3 felines, 2 Bergs and 1 Grunau (hooray hooray!!) who arrives later this week.
Now that we have a house project and a fun visitor, look forward to a more active blog with fewer cat pictures.

Snow

6 or more inches... preparation for hibernation is underway.

Bachelor of Science with a Major in Nursing

Well, I finished it. I finished my bachelor’s degree in nursing, actually, apparently, “bachelor of science with a major in nursing”. I am now figuring out how to get my small pay raise at Fairview and my tuition reimbursement from Fairview for this semester’s expensive 6 credit class.

All done. Now, at work I am Douglas, RN, BSN.

At home I am Douglas, RN, BSN, ASN, MM, BM or spelled out: registered nurse, bachelor of science with a major in nursing, associate of science in nursing, master of music in composition and last but not least, bachelor of music in theory and composition.

The Bergs come back from Texas this afternoon meaning Tailwheel’s vacation in the city will come to an end.

Tonight I rehearse with my trombone quartet at Salem Lutheran. We are performing my hymn arrangement with their choir for Pastor Lynn Erickson’s last service before moving to Milwaukee to join her husband Bishop Paul Erickson. I’m excited to perform there.

 

Also, this Sunday my band is playing one of my arrangements with the St Pat’s choir at Advent Methodist in Eagan. We played it last Sunday at St Pat’s and now it is playing on a virtual continuous loop on Town Square Television channel 14 in Dakota County.

 

In five minutes I am meeting our new pastor intern Angela for a cup of coffee at The Caribou.

 

Look at Sue’s reflection in the ornament! Good boy Ravel!

Guest Cat

I think somecat is feeling at home in the city.