Wiring the Range

The stove is up and running.

First, it needed to be properly wired.  The old box was outside of the wall and the old stove was hard wired.  The wiring was in the middle of a chimney and duct work making it impossible to put the entire box in the wall, but Chris got it in best he could up against a stud.  

We were worried about this because the right side of our stove is exposed and we could have had a huge gap between the stove and the wall because of the protruding box.  Luckily, everything worked out.

Chris loves the fridge & Erica loves this stove.  Double ovens - enough said!

New Refrigerator Renovation

At first, we removed the over fridge cabinet and the refrigerator fit - that was easy!  But, the new fridge has French doors and the left door couldn't be opened fully.  So, we removed the trim around the adjacent doorway and the divider between the fridge and cabinets to gain some space.

And the door still couldn't be opened fully.  Here's the new situation:

Turns out, this wall was extended a couple inches, and a door and trim were added.  Chris opened the doorway back up to the original dimensions.  

The fridge works!  And we had room to put the divider on the right side back in.

As for the other appliances, we discovered our stove was hard wired to the electrical box and our dishwasher has been tiled in (we knew about this, at least).  

We'll either be in the kitchen, at Home Depot, or eating out this weekend.  And even though this is all a little painful, the new appliances are awesome.

A Little Demo

Last night we started making preparations for new kitchen appliances.  The new fridge was going to be too tall for the cabinet surround.  Nothing we couldn't handle.  Bahahaha - nothing is ever simple...

Our Micro Vineyard

We are trying our hand at grape growing.  This is a $10 "table grape" that we picked up from Home Depot. Grapevines will be perfect for our trellis and if this one does well, we will pick up some more.

Flower Baskets

We got a super deal on these hanging baskets at Costco.  Costco is the best.

And, after some really hard rain and hail this afternoon, the sun came out for 2 minutes!  It has been rainy & dreary for weeks.

Early start to the Weekend

We grabbed a late lunch at one of our favorite spots, Hops and Pie, to get a leg up on the extended weekend.

Nurse Chris

Zoey's anal gland looked healed up, but the antibiotics didn't kill all the infection and the abscess is back.  It is very painful for Zoey, and the vet decided not to lance it for that reason.  Instead, we were prescribed hot compresses and stronger antibiotics.  

Hot compress in action!

The Girls

Bye Bye Liddy

I just got home after a week in Chicago hanging out with Emily & Lydia (and Andy).  We all had a really nice visit.

Tia Caca

The story goes, Emily used to pronounce Erica as CaCa when we were little girls.  Emily had her little girl, Lydia, on April 1st and I became Tia CaCa.

Wall Flowers

Erica planted 23 new plants along the front yard retaining wall today.  We picked out hardy ice plants, stonecrop, and creeping thymes.

ZZ's No Good Very Bad Day

We had another episode of ruptured anal gland today.  We first noticed the abscessed gland last night at 11pm.  It ruptured this morning before we could get to the vet.  Another round of antibiotics and she will be good as new.

The vet isnt ready to call it a chronic problem yet and we haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary as a possible cause.  Poor Z.