New Windows

A few weeks ago, we (well, technically a contractor) removed the old, original 1940s, wood windows at the front of the house and replaced them with fancy new dual glazed windows. We added the grills on the new windows to keep with the original aesthetic of the house (changing to non-grill windows would have totally changed the look of the house...something I was NOT going for). In total we replaced 7 windows at the front of the house including in Ellie's room, the living room, and the dining room.

The living room before:


The original windows were single pane (so no actual efficiency was going on there), did not open, and were not in the best shape. Especially the living room front windows. The way the original windows were constructed is that they are made up of several small panes of glass. So looking at the photo above, each diamond is a separate piece of glass held together by over 70-year old wood, deteriorated joints and "structural paint". As much as I love historic building materials, these windows were no longer functional. We couldn't get the diamond grills for the new living room windows, but the square grills look good, keep the original intent, and match the dining room and Ellie's room (which originally had square grids to begin with).

When the contractor first arrived, after unloading the truck, they immediately covered everything in plastic. Then they got started removing the original windows.









The front windows proved to be a little tricky to remove given their condition and the 70 years worth of paint that had permanently sealed them shut. But with a little creativity and teamwork they were able to remove the windows in one piece.












You may think I'm crazy (Nick kinda does...), but I asked the guys to be careful during the removal because I wanted to save all the windows. They were very careful and placed them in the backyard for us. I have these big ideas of cleaning at least one of them up and hanging it in the living room. If they can't function as windows, at least the original historic fabric and aesthetic of the house can remain as art.


All the windows are now installed. They look great and it is so nice to have operable windows at the front of the house. The dual glazing has made a difference, especially in Ellie's room which gets the most direct sunlight. And the house is much quieter. We are all really happy with the results!



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Happy 90th Birthday Great-Grandma Van

On August 11, Great-Grandma Van celebrated her 90th birthday. Nick, Ellie and I were fortunate enough to celebrate with her. We all gathered at Grandma Van's place for some cake and fun.

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Van!

Nick Wins an Emmy!

Recently, Nick and his coworkers who write, produce, direct, and deliver the KTLA morning news won an Emmy for the best Los Angeles morning news program from 7am to 9am.

Congratulations to Nick and his coworkers!!

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The Pasadena Public Library...not just for books!

Towards the end of the school year, Ellie was really starting to get interested in reading. She would ask us to teach her how to read at night and come home from school excited that she had moved up to the 4-letter word work at school. Also, she has pretty much memorized every book she has so she also needed to be exposed to new books. So I figured maybe she was old enough for a summer reading program at our local library. So we checked out our local branch of the Pasadena Public Library.

Apparently it's not just for books. Ellie really enjoys doing the puzzles they had. She does them by herself, starting by putting the corner pieces in the 4 corners of the table.













There were also lots of stuffed animals to play with. Ellie often would clean up the stuffed toys that other kids had just strewn about on the floor (I think she got that from her dad...).







The library also has a butterfly garden. They had caterpillars at the beginning of the summer and now they had monarch butterflies hanging out around the pretty little flower garden with a fountain. However Ellie's favorite part is a giant hill that she likes to run down...



But yeah, the reading program and the books were the highlights of the library. So this summers program had a healthy food theme, "Reading is SOOOO Delicious!"

To participate we just had to sign up and Ellie got a little "passport" document. Everytime we visited the library she would get a sticker in her passport, where we also would list all the books she read (or had read to her) from the library. At her second visit she got a little plastic duck and on her 4th visit she got a special reward, but we'll get to that.

Part of the program also had the kids write or draw book reports. Ellie drew a couple pictures of her favorite parts of some of her favorite books. Then she would describe the picture she drew to the librarian. For every book report she turned in, she got a pencil.







The book report below is from Harold and the Purple Crayon. You can see that Harold is back in bed and the moon is in his window.







Now after her fourth visit, which was this past Tuesday, she got a special reward, after getting her 4th sticker. She got to pick out a book and take it home! We went through a box of eligible books and, no surprise, she picked the book with a pink cover and a little girl dressed up. She also got a special certificate. She was pretty excited.


Of course, there was plenty of "reading" while at the library. She would pick out a book and choose a seat and flip through the pages.






We really enjoyed our summer visits to the library and participation in the summer reading program. I liked that kids could draw pictures for book reports and little kids had the chance to participate. The librarian was great, always excited to see Ellie and other kids when they came to the library. They have lots of programs, crafts, shows, story tellers, etc but unfortunately they all seem to happen at Tuesdays at 10:00am...alas, they don't work with our schedules. Nevertheless, we have become regulars at our library and it is somewhere that Ellie really enjoys.



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