Sailing

Last year November we decided that we need to make use of the fact that we are living so closely to the fifth biggest lake in the world and purchased a small sailing boat. Our new place in Waukegan is three minutes away from a Marina at Lake Michigan so you can imagine how we spend our summer weekends and weekday evenings....We love it!

Visitors from Amsterdam

We had a great time with Marysia and Reinier who visited us for the last two weeks.
They were the first guests in our new place in Waukegan and were kind enough to help us with some of the last projects (assembling the bbq, cuttin a dead tree into pieces (thanks Reinier!), planting seeds, etc.).

We had drinks in the signature lounge, picknicked at Ravinia, went sailing and generally enjoyed the time together.

Finished!

After a too long renovation project can we finally enjoy our new, old house.

Pictures say more than words:













More pictures about the inside soon...

And a new roof...

And on top of all that, we also decided to have a new roof put on. First they were supposed to start last Tuesday, but there was a heavy thunderstorm alert. Then Wednesday, but there was rain forecasted (which did not come). On Thursday, a crew of 6 Polish guys arrived to attack the roof. They tore off all the all old shingles, repaired the underlying wood in some spots, fixed part of the roof that was damaged during the demolition of the addition and then covered it all up again with new shingles, flashing and vents. Everything looks good again and the most important thing is that we should not have any leaks any more. The inside decorating can begin!

New veranda...

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New chimney...

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New kitchen door

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New windows...

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New support wall in basement

One of the first items on our renovation plan: replace an old wooden support wall in the basement with a stronger brick wall. After a week of work, this project is almost finished and our house will stand strong for another 150 years!

More renovation...

Slowly we are making progress with the renovation of our new old house. Before getting to the nice part of installing the new kitchen and bathrooms, some more demolition inside needed to be done. The kitchen floor, ceiling and part of the walls had to be removed. So, that's what we did. Since the weather has picked up considerably, ie it was like summer today, we also spent some time in our garden-to-be, raking leaves and planting roses. It will go really fast now that the temperature is going up and before we know it, the street will be all green and lush. A very welcome change! Hopefully we will get our chimney to the fireplace opened this week, a new roof next week and then the interior part can start. We can't wait!

Work in progress

Yes! We have heating in the house. The installation of our new boiler started on Monday and today we switched the system on and finally it's nice and cozy when you come into the house. The nice weather of the past couple of days also contributed to that, but now the chill is definitely out of the air inside. Yesterday we filled the system with water to let it stay overnight and see if it would keep the pressure. If it would not keep the pressure that would mean that there was a leak in the system. So it was a very nervous Anita who came to the house this morning to hear the verdict. Everything OK! In the picture you can see our new beauty of the basement. While the installers were working underground, the demolition of the annex plus brick up of the open spaces on the ground floor went on. Our kitchen is now officially closed off with a brick wall. For the time being a piece of ply wood is functioning as a door, which can only be opened by an electric screw driver, but soon a real door will be placed, allowing light to come in from the back. On Friday they will start with the other underground job: floor jacking. We will keep you posted.

We zijn begonnen!

Het huis is van ons en nu is het tijd om de handen uit de mouwen te steken.
Op een paar kleine tegenvallers na (gesprongen waterleidingen en een kapotte verwarmingsketel) gaat alles tot nu toe redelijk volgens plan. Demolition Mike is druk bezig om een van de twee annexen te slopen zodat we op deze plek een mooie veranda kunnen gaan bouwen.

Volgende week gaan we de centrale verwarming updaten en misschien kunnen we later die week ook beginnen met het verstevigen van de vloeren.

Cold!

We received the below message as a weather warning today. It's -20 degrees Celcius (-4 fahrenheit) on the thermometer right now, but the windchill results in a 'feel' temperature of minus 37 degrees!

When you look outside, the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Fantastic winter weather!

BITTERLY COLD ARCTIC AIR WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE REGION THROUGH TUESDAY. LOW TEMPERATURES TONIGHT WILL DROP AS COLD AS 10 BELOW TO 15 BELOW ZERO WITH NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH. THE COMBINATION OF THE WIND AND BITTERLY COLD TEMPERATURES WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS OF 25 BELOW TO 35 BELOW TONIGHT INTO EARLY MONDAY MORNING.

IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS...DRESS IN LAYERS AND COVER ALL SKIN. MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES. LIMIT OUTDOOR ACTIVITY TO MINIMIZE EXPOSURE...AS FROSTBITE CAN OCCUR IN 30 MINUTES OR LESS.

CHECK ON ELDERLY FAMILY MEMBERS AND NEIGHBORS. IF YOU NEED ASSISTANCE IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO...CALL 3 1 1.

A WIND CHILL WARNING MEANS THE COMBINATION OF VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL VALUES. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA OR DEATH IF
PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.

Our new project!

Three weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon we were driving around in Waukegan and saw this house for sale. Built in 1852 with fireplace, high ceilings, hardwood floors and a lot of windows.

It was standing there in the snow, empty already for three months. Just waiting for us.

After a week of negotiating, we heard yesterday that our bid was accepted!

On Feb 21st we will sign the contract. We will probably need 3 months to renovate it so we are moving again in May. Yes!!

We'll keep you updated about our mortgage and renovation adventures.