October 2019

It took 2.5 months, but the kitchen is finally done and we love it! It’s an old house so we didn’t really know what we would find when we tore it down to the studs. There were some definite structural issues, some very uneven surfaces, and even some bowing of the front of the house. We also discovered that the ceiling was sinking, by 4 inches! Our contractor was amazing and propped it up, but not completely because it would have cracked the walls in Lauren’s room (which is right above the kitchen), which Dave redid a few years ago, as well as crack the tiles in the girls bathroom, also a project that we had done recently.

down to the bricks
studs from the wall that was diving the laundry room and kitchen

One the wall between the laundry room and kitchen came down we realized that it was built without proper support, so we had to get a beam put in the ceiling, as well as another vertical beam put in the basement to prop up the floor. Thank God we did this project when we did. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we waited another decade.

Wall down, horrible vinyl floor gone, Sheetrock up
Center island, cabinets and floors in.

We’re so happy with how it all turned out! We have so much more space now and I live on that Center Island. The kids sit there in the mornings for breakfast, and I can talk with them while getting lunches together. We’ve gathered around it for parties, holidays, get togethers with friends, etc.

We doubled the size of the door between the dining room and kitchen, so you can now see and talk with people in the diving and living room. Before the kitchen was really closed off from the rest of the house (which I have to say was not the worst thing… but this is better).
Dave made the bar backslash out of old wine corks (which we have an abundance of)

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We headed out to Milky Way Farm to pick our pumpkins again this year. It’s always worth the hike to get out there. The farm is beautiful, with farm animals for the kids to pet, hay rides out to the pumpkin patch, and homemade ice cream – the best part.

Although we brought the pumpkins home at the beginning of October, we waited until closer to Halloween to carve them because of the stupid squirrels in our neighborhood, which ravage everything in site and can devour a full pumpkin in about two days.

We’re ready for Halloween!!

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Dave, Don and I did the Waterman’s fall triathlon in Rock Hall again this year. Last year’s was my first tri ever, and I won the novice category. This time I raced with my age group – 40-44 and got third!

Here are our overall results:

Jess – place: 65th overall; 3rd in age group/ Total time: 1:26:34/swim: 14:13/bike: 46:17/run: 22:45

Dave – place: 68th overall; 11th in age group/ Total time: 1:27:18/swim: 14:59/bike: 43:00/run: 25:10

Don – place: 74th overall; 12th in age group/Total time: 1:29:15/swim: 15:02/bike: 45:29/run: 25:22

Here’s what we looked like a year ago.

The podium for women 40-44. Our “prize” was a cheese board. One of the more useful prizes I guess.

After the race the day was beautiful so we took the boat out for a sail and swim. The kids had a great time jumping off the side. It was the first time Liam and Oliver were on the boat and they had a blast!

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The second to last weekend in October was the Union League Yacht Club Fall Regatta in Annapolis. This was the first time racing the new boat. We had a small crew – just our family and Dave’s dad. We had a great time, despite a lack of strong wind and ended up taking 3rd in our class. The girls both had a chance to steer the boat, and it’s become a bit of tradition that Sophie steers us over the finish line in the ULYC regattas.

That evening was the party where we got our 3rd place plaque.

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