A Story of a Latch

This is the story of the antique latch on our built in dining room hutch. It's not likely an interesting story to anyone but myself and Mike. However, I'm so personally thrilled about this project that I'm going to bore you with the details anyway (unless of course you take my advice and stop reading now). If you've ever had any kind of household project that was tedious and difficult and you were able to overcome it with a fantastic result, then you'll have an idea of why I'm so excited about this.

It was approximately 4 and a half years ago that I bought our lovely home and knew that it needed a lot of updating. What I loved, though, is that it still had a lot of it's original charm, including lovely built in's like the china hutch. Unfortunately, the house had been rented for a while and things were beaten up a bit, including the latch on the china hutch which was missing a pin. So, for the last 4 plus years, the door has either been permanently shut (we couldn't easily open it), rubber banded shut or standing open.

The "Before" Latch Picture

Trying to figure out how to fix this has been occupying my thoughts on and off all of that 4 plus years of time. I've looked into finding replacement pieces, replacement whole parts (but nothing looked the same) or finding someone that did this kind of repair. None of the antique stores, online searches nor specialty hardware stores brought up anything that could help

Finally, last week, I spoke with the owner of a wonderful store in Boston called Restoration Resources that "saves" beautiful parts of old Boston homes and sells them salvage style. I'd visited the store before but their hardware section was hidden away so I didn't know they might have something that could help with the latch issue. However, I thought of them again since I've been on a renewed mission to get this latched fixed after my Dad and Mike installed the bead board in the interior...the latch was the only missing component to complete the hutch restoration

The owner of Restoration Resources I spoke to said "sure, we probably have something that can help you out...come on in." So, Monday a week ago I did only to find them closed (the hours listed on their web site are obviously incorrect). Mike and I went back last Saturday and another man that worked there said he had no idea what the owner might have been referring to but he didn't have anything like our latch. Great, two wasted trips. However, he did say he knew someone that might be able to repair it. While writing down the info of this person, he mentioned that he got some of the parts that they needed from the store. After I inquired further, I found out that they have a box of old latches in the back so I asked to look through them. Low and behold there was one latch in this box that had the same interior mechanisms ours was supposed to have and it was somewhat similar in size. So, we bought it for $5 and left

On Monday we attacked the project to see what we could do. After studying it for a while, we thought there might be a small chance we would be successfully able to use the parts from the latch we bought, so we started to take apart the latch we had purchased. Since trying to describe the interior fittings and the whole project end to end would be incredibly difficult, tedious and even more boring than this story has already been, here's the shortened version.

Several hours Monday, drilling metal, tin snips, metal filing, trips to Home Depot, Lowe's and a craft store for more supplies; Tuesday, a couple more hours, lots of hammering, more filing metal, weld adhesive, WD-40, lots of little tweaks and about an hour of Mike polishing, we had a working, beautiful, newly restored latch for our built in hutch! I can't even tell you how excited I was! It really made my week (sad, I know).

The Latch "After"....Beautifully Restored and Fully Functional

It's such an incredibly great feeling to have this long pending project completed. Yay!

Baby Luci

My parents recently shipped us the family bassinet (the ones my brothers and I all used as babies). Mike and I got it set up in the bedroom so it's ready for our baby. But, before baby boy Hines comes home, there's one other "baby" in the house that wanted to get some use out of it.

Yesterday, we found little Luci curled up in half of it. (The "junk" seen on the other side is where I've been creating my "to go to the hospital pile.") Isn't she a precious baby?!?!

The Happy, Expecting Couple

We didn't have one nice picture of Mike and I together with baby in the belly. On Sunday, we enjoyed a "cook-in" (it was pouring rain so Mike and his Dad were the only ones out braving the rain by the grill) at Mike's sister's to celebrate niece Emily's b'day, Mike's Dad's b'day and Fathers Day for all the fathers in the family (including Mike, of course). We took the opportunity of looking nice and having another person around to take a picture of us to get one. So, here we are!

Kara (at 37.5 weeks) and Mike

Viva La Revolution!

It's rare that I see commercials these days. With the miracle that is TIVO, I blissfully fast forward through their existence. However, this one caught my eye in super speed and I went back to watch it. I'm SO glad I did! Of course, I then shared it with Mike.

Being chinchilla owners, this commercial is flipping hilarious to us! However, we're going to refrain from letting our little feisty chinchilla, Smokey Josephina, see it lest she gets any crazy ideas. Enjoy!

Waiting Line for an IPhone? Who Would Do That?

Well, not me, but my husband sure would! In fact, two years ago he did just that and bought us both new iphones the day they came out. In addition to being a bit of a tech geek, he had also just gotten laid off by Palm, so I think it was also a move to "get back at the man" and get a smart phone from a different and better company.

So, we've had iphones since. It took me a while to appreciate this gift from him since I didn't think they were worth the money (yes, I was seriously bitter at the huge price drop a few months later) and since I quite enjoyed my Verizon phone service, which I had to give up for AT&T. However, 2 years later, I have definitely come to appreciate a lot of the functions the iphone has to offer.

Today is the big launch of the iphone. Let's step back a few months though, shall we? My tech geek husband has been religiously following Mac rumors and other blog sites dropping hints about the new phones. He also, very excitedly, read the live blog from the Mac meeting (or whatever it was called) a couple of weeks ago (?) announcing the new features of the phone and stating the official release day - today.

Let me tell you, Mike has been MORE excited than a kid at Christmas.....counting down the days with glee. But, is he waiting in line today like many others? Nope. He's actually got our new, activated, iphones in possession, courtesy of early reserve delivery! The phones got to our house this morning and he excitedly called me as each one arrived. Such a little tech boy at heart!

The Bright Side of the Dreary Weather

True, it feels like it has rained just about every day this June. It's been cloudy and rainy and a lot of folks are really over it. I must admit, although I would prefer to see Mr. Sun now and then, there is a huge benefit to the rainy weather I am truly appreciating - cool weather!

I have officially entered the hot pregnant lady phase. Even though I'm aware that it's not necessarily warm in a place, the air often feels stagnant, suffocating and I easily start getting overheated. Yes, just another joy of pregnancy.

When we announced we were pregnant back in December and folks asked about the due date, I would always respond, "July 8th.....I'm crossing my fingers for a nice cool June!" So far, I have gotten my wish!

Here's an exerpt from an article in the Boston Globe today about it:

Halfway through June, the weather has indeed gotten worse, according to the National Weather Service in Taunton. Compared with previous Boston Junes, this one has been colder, and, depending on how you measure it, rainier. "It doesn't look like it's going to hit 80 degrees anytime soon," said Neal Strauss, a weather service meteorologist.

Strauss said the average temperature this month so far has been 62.2 degrees, 3.5 degrees cooler than usual.

Though rainfall is also 0.45 inches below average, "that's misleading," said Strauss, "because the frequency of the precipitation has been rather high." In other words, he said, stating the obvious: "It's been raining almost every day."

For our current 10 day forecast, the highest high is still only 75, which means it still gets nice and cool at night....better weather for the hot pregnant lady to sleep in! And, although a lot of folks are bitter about still having to wear jackets, I have been leaving mine at home and just enjoying the comfortable weather! Now, if I could only get the air around my desk at work to stay cooler.

And a message for my Texas peeps. This is why I prefer to live here. Although winters can sometimes be challenging to get through, our summers are just grand! Enjoy your 100 degree weather!

Took a Nosedive

That's what my energy level has done, folks. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was doing my darnedest to keep up with my work out schedule (5-6 days a week) along with trying to lead a somewhat normal life in relation to work and social events. Now, I feel like just getting through the day takes every bit of energy I have.

Two weeks ago, I decided I could no longer attend my yoga class. It was a tough class. The teacher also taught prenatal classes (though not at a time I could take them) and was great about giving me alternate positions to accommodate my growing belly. However, I started to not be able to do some of the core positions the class required (like going from down dog and stepping or jumping to the front of the mat which we do about 20 times per class). Until about that time, I was also still going to my weight lifting class once a week (and yes, I looked pretty ridiculous). I may still try and do that one, but if I continue with the energy I've had in the last week, I'm doubting that will happen again until post baby.

Even the stationary bike is not comfortable (my knees pretty much hit my belly on each rotation), nor is the treadmill (my sciatic inevitably starts hurting after walking for a bit), nor can I do the elliptical for long (even with no resistance and moving pretty slowly, my heart rate gets up to high). So, I'm truly running out of things to do at the gym. I did get through my prenatal yoga dvd ok on Saturday and my prenatal cardio workout dvd the week before. Perhaps I still will be able to do some activity, but just stick to those things specifically designed for pregnancy. But, for the most part, it looks like I'm hanging up my gym shoes until the baby comes around.

Not to mention, my usual gym time is during my lunch break at work. One day last week, I opted to drive home and take a nap instead. I've gotten that tired. Even in my first trimester when I was more tired than I could ever imagine being, I could get through the work day somewhat ok. Over the last couple of days, I've been able to do things for a few hours in the morning but that's about all I've got in me. I guess just growing the baby this last little bit and getting this big pregnant body around my day is all I've got in me right now.