The Journal - Ryan and Leah's New House

So much has been happening while we've been enjoying our summer and our NEW DECK (yes, you heard it here first — the deck is complete and BEAUTIFUL). Seems the house blog tends to fall to the wayside when life gets busy. Sorry, house blog. You deserve better.

(My keys are there for perspective. I did not grow keys. Though that would be interesting.)

Look how HUGE that zucchini is! As far as the garden is concerned, this time of year is traditionally "Season of Neglect" for me. Not sure why this happens every summer, but it's like clockwork. Plant, weed, eagerly await crops in the spring...then ignore, forget, and let weeds grow tall in the heat of the summer.

So anyway, I was surprised to glance in my zucchini patch this afternoon to find this HUGE zucchini looking back at me. Opa, I hope you are impressed, because I certainly am! I also had a bunch of grape/plum tomatoes to pick (not pictured), and my regular tomatoes are not far behind. The bean crop surprised me, too, because last time I had checked — nothing. Maybe they were hiding, or by "looking" I meant cast a glance that way on my way out the door.

So here's a question: Does anyone else get super itchy from picking beans and squash? I think I'm going to have to buy gloves up to my elbows, because every time I stick my arm in there to harvest something, I have to run inside and scrub with Dial soap because I get all itchy and bumpy until I do. It's so strange! At least it goes away quickly. Anyone else have this problem, or is it just me? And are gloves the only solution?

I promise I will post photos of the completed deck. But this is not that post ;)

With both the extra bedrooms being occupied by cribs and little people and little clothes and toys and just cuteness in general, we realized we needed to move our office out of Jacob's room and downstairs somewhere. It wasn't convenient not being able to get online whenever we wanted, and babies? They sleep A LOT. So the office is now in the dining room between two nice, bright windows. Smooshed next to the curvy, big oak dining room table set:

We hardly ever use our dining room to feed people — I guess we're not really "formal dining room" people after all — and our kitchen can seat eight, with five at the table and three at the counter. So it made more sense to have office first, formal dining room second...or fifth or eighth.

So Ryan did some research online while I was out running errands, and decided we should get rid of our current table set and buy a special EXPANDING table — a table that is only there when we want it to be. See what ideas pop into my husband's head when he's left alone? I come home to, "Leah, it's the coolest thing ever!" (OK, so maybe he wasn't QUITE so excited.) I look at my normally logical husband. Um, what? Sounds like a total gimmick.

But as we settle into our downstairs office, and I'm in there throughout the day with the kids and the diaper changes and the e-mails and the "Mama, watch wheels on the bus! Wheels on the bus!" (gotta love YouTube), I start to realize: More space would be nice. So I give in. And we purchase said amazing expanding table.

Did you see it in the picture above? I bet you didn't. Look again. Notice the nice Mission-style changing table on the left?

If you need a little more space, the top flips open and it becomes a square game table:

(I can't see that we'll be using it at this size very often. It's too similar to our kitchen table.)

Finally, for all those times we host large dinner parties (haha) and need to overflow into the dining room, the table pulls apart...

...And up to two leaves are dropped in, making it a table that seats up to eight people!

(Oops, no photo of the table with the leaves acutally in! Some grand finale this is. But here's a photo of the two leaves just to satisfy your curiosity:)

I'll be honest: I thought this table was going to be awful. I thought it was going to be cheap, weak, and not worth our money. But I was mistaken. This table is beautiful. It is HEAVY. It is solidly built, the color and hardware are just our style, and my one complaint — that the table had no support in the middle once all put together — was rectified once we discovered the support leg hidden among the leaves:

Pretty clever! Still not so sure about the actual surface. We thought it was going to be stained wood, but in actuality it's a laminate, so we'll see how it holds up. I'll report back if we have problems.

In case anyone's wondering, this is a Stakmore Mission Convertible 3 in 1 Table in Fruitwood finish. Now all we have to do is sell our old table...maybe on Craig's List? Never tried that. Anybody out in Internetland want a nice solid oak table with one leaf? Purchased new by us about eight years ago (not pictured with leaf):

Maybe once the old table is gone, we'll be able to somehow squeeze the pullout couch down here from Jacob's room, and have office/guest room/dining room, and Jacob's room will finally be his own. Hmm, some day...

abigail goedecke from va beach said the following on 07/25/2009 at 08:47:36:
love it. where did you get that table? we also never use our dinning room except a few times a year. what a great use of space. and we love watching kids videos on youtube too!

Benai Dickinson from South Brunswick, NJ said the following on 08/25/2009 at 12:07:27:
Hi Leah, House looks great! Love the new island! You and Ryan amaze me with your energy and creativity! Post pics of the new deck when you get a chance. Take care!

Andy from MA said the following on 08/08/2010 at 03:21:22:
deck!? is it done??? pics please!

Joyce from Tennessee said the following on 11/09/2010 at 17:36:49:
Hey! I've enjoyed your blog this evening. I was looking for reviews on American Woodmark cabinets and your blog came up. So, I looked through it to find the part about the cabinets. I ended up totally enjoying your huge home improvement adventure. We have had similar experiences although not to the extreme you have gone through with the remodeling. My husband and I raised two daughters in our first home while we went through remodeling and gardening events too. I felt a lot of sentiment while reading about you all. I just meant to be looking up info about cabinets and found myself pulled into your writings. What you all did with that house is amazing and I'm very happy for you and your family. Hope everything is still going well. I really would like to know what you think of your cabinets now. Thank you!