Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

We hope that 2009 will be a wonderful year for all of you.

I do not have any grand resolutions for this year. I do hope that we will get to travel to at least one interesting place. Renovating the upstairs bathroom would be great. Losing weight would be nice, but I am not sure that I can commit to the gym at 5:00 am.

I hope that Cooper will continue to grow his Golden personality and find more moments of calm when he seems truly content.

One thing that I have learned is that you never know what will happen tomorrow, let alone in 12 months. My wish is that only good things find their way to your door !

Exhausted

Our family arrived on Christmas Eve and left this morning.

When my niece walked in carrying a fish bowl in one hand and a bird cage in another, I knew it would be an interesting few days.

Cooper barely glanced at the fish but was fascinated by Morris, the love bird. I guess this is not surprising, since Cooper is a bird dog and chases birds any chance he gets.

For the first day Cooper just stared at the cage, creeping ever closer. Every time Morris sang, Cooper looked ready to pounce. Our niece kept saying. "Morris is not a toy".

To distract Cooper, our niece ran with him several times a day. As you can imagine, after all that exercise, Cooper is exhausted.

Santa brought Cooper several new toys for Xmas. The squeaky ball lasted exactly one minute before it was in pieces.

Merry Christmas

While everyone is sleeping, I enjoy a few moments of quiet reflection. I know that we have been truly blessed. Not because of the bounty of gifts, but because of our family and friends, having two good jobs and most importantly good health.

The presents are wrapped and sitting under the tree. I have a feeling that with two kids in the house, we will be getting up early to see what Santa brought.

Cooper has been sniffing the brightly wrapped boxes. The Christmas lights reflecting off the foil paper drive him to distraction. After years of neglect, Cooper will finally have a happy Xmas.

May this Holy day, celebrated with those you love the most, be a reminder of how precious and wonderful life is.

Merry Christmas!

Trim Complete

The window and floor trim has been completed.

After the New Year, we will order the glass shower enclosure.

The granite counter top should be installed in about two weeks.

Now that the bathroom is nearly complete, there will be fewer blog updates. I am sure that everyone will be glad to see this project end!

Almost Done

When the hard and fast deadline of Christmas Day was set back in November, I like to joke with Valerie that I'll be hammering in the last piece of trim as Janet & Mark walk through the door. Naturally, Valerie would look at me with those "don't even joke about it" eyes. Snag after snag kept pushing us back but I thought I had plenty of time.

Fast forward to December 23rd at 10:07 PM. Our company will be here tomorrow. I had one final piece of trim to put up on the window and it just didn't fit right. I could force it, but that would really bother me down the road. So I decided to trim off one of the ends and repaint the fresh cut. Oh, I'll make it all right. I'm getting up at "oh dawn thirty" as my Southern friend used to say. If everything works out just right (famous last words), it will be done by the time our company comes. Check back at noon on Wednesday for the reveal.

(The clamps on the window are holding two glued pieces together. I've got a story about the clamps too, if it ever gets posted.)

Mirror

The mirror and light have been installed. I think that they look great together.

I tried hard to coordinate the trim on the cabinets, light and knobs, but I am not sure you can tell in the pictures.

Jeff said, "I will need a lot of beer before I will agree to renovate the hall bath". I laughed, but couldn't disagree.

Snow

Snow came to Wilton over the past few days. About 7-8" in total.

61.5

Cooper now weighs 61.5 pounds.

Dr. Duffy says his ideal weight is 62 lbs. That means we will have to be careful about what and how much we feed Cooper.

Everyone says that Cooper is looking bigger and better. I guess that is true.

Contrast

My good friend Wendy sent these beautiful flowers to brighten a sad day.

The flowers have a wonderful smell and remind me of spring.

This is in strong contrast to the heavy snow falling outside.

Plumbing

The toilet has been installed.

The shower fixtures and radiator have also been installed.

Aunt Judy

Jeff's Aunt Judy sent us this beautiful needlepoint for Christmas.

The stitching is meticulous. I know she spent many, many hours sewing this.

This is the third Santa that Judy has created for us. The other two (pictured below) have been framed and are displayed every Christmas.

Once the Christmas craziness has ended, I will take this to be framed.

Thank you, Judy!

99/1

Cooper has this little tuft of fur on his nose right between his eyes. It looks like he just pulled off his old-man spectacles and they left an indentation in his nose.

Valerie likes to say Cooper is 99% Golden Retriever and 1% Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Trim

Work on the door and floor trim has begun.

We cannot complete the floor molding, until the plumber comes on Thursday to install the radiator.

The hardest part will be finishing the window.

Vocal

Cooper is finding his voice. I am not sure if this is a good thing.

Previously, when someone rang the door bell, Cooper would bark once and then go back to watching shadows.

Now when someone pulls in the driveway, Cooper barks LONG and LOUD.

Yesterday afternoon, I heard a fierce growl and found Cooper staring out the back door. Deer were eating the plants at the edge of the deck. I let Cooper out, since the gates on the deck were closed, and he raced out barking.

The deer ran into the woods and stopped. Cooper just stood there barking - making it clear that intruders were not welcome.

The other day at 4:00 am Cooper began to bark. All I could think was he must have heard some animal outside.

I wonder if he is beginning to feel more protective of his home ?

Vanity

The vanity is installed.

The granite installer will be here on Friday to create the template.

Linen Cabinet

The linen cabinet is installed.

It will be nice to have some storage space in this bathroom.

Driftwood

The bathroom has been painted.

The color is driftwood.

Grout

The floor and shower have been grouted.

I think they look great!

I would definitely use Ciro ago for tile installation.

Any time Coop

Any time Coop.....

Let It Snow

When we woke up on Sunday, there was an inch of snow on the ground. I wondered what Cooper would think of this white fluffy covering.

Cooper stepped into the snow and immediately took a lick. For the rest of the walk, he stopped continuously to take a bite of the snow.

Cooper did not seem to mind that his feet were wet and cold.

I told Cooper that it was a good thing he started to grow his belly hair or it would be a very cold winter!