As promised

List of News

- Quite a bit of snow fell here today and is continuing to fall. When I got home from work I snow blew the drive and walk ways. I am quite glad I had a snow blower, there must have been at least 6" of wet snow. If not for the machine I would have a very sore back about now.

- I got a new computer at work. I do not know any of the details, but it is much faster than my old one and takes up less space since it has a 17" flatscreen monitor. I am happy with it and should make tax season a little bit more manageable.

-On a sad note; Momma Cat was discovered dead under the oil tank. While it is no surprise she died, her health was failing, I was hoping that she would pull through. She was, after all, the pet I liked the most. I am glad she is done with her illness and misery, but I shall miss her. *

-Alice is a cute little princess. She is starting to get fussy around bedtime, but she is still cute and I am very pleased with her.

-I will post pictures of her soon, so check back.


*Donations can be made in her name by mailing a check to my home address made out to Bill Leino. Please no flowers.

Work Smirk

I went to work today and all went well. I did some work and kept busy. I missed out on scenes like the one above. Who knows, Alice may have walked while I was at work. I think it'll be okay.
I have to get back into the flow of getting up early. When I was off, I got up around 10 and watched The Price is Right with Alice, then we would start our day.
Good Times.

Back in the Flow

It has been awhile since I've done anything that resembled my life prior to Alice. I am going back to work on Monday and I am hoping that the transition back will be as smooth as the transition to.

I think I'll miss the hours with Alice, but on the other hand I will enjoy the time with her more.

Mother & Daughter

Here are my two favorite ladies.

Alice

Not much to report. Alice is a pretty good baby so far. She had some trouble sleeping last night, but no so much that we were wrecked for today. She has been awake for a large portion of the day which bodes well for this evening's sleep.
There is not much to do with her, except for hold and ogle her.
I hope to study for the CPA exam the rest of the week since I will be at home

A week ago today...

...this little bundle was born. While she looks the same to most, she has put on some weight and has already outgrown one of her/Kendall's outfits.

Update on Life

This is for your daily baby picture fix. Not much to report. She is cute, she sleeps, she eats, she poops, and she is starting to use cloth diapers today. She is also listening to Mozart in the background as she does these things (Thanks to Judy and Jim).

Swaddled

Another Picture

Here is one more picture. I am going to set up a WinZip file of pictures for some. If you can't live without one email me, but it'll pretty much be the same as the blog only with multiple angles of the current shots.

A series of Pics

Introduction

Anne and I are proud to announce the birth of our daughter Alice Katherine Leino. She was born 11/25/2005 at 5:13 pm. Mother and baby are doing fine.

The pictures of the sauna

Here is a picture of the stove and part of the bench.
Here is the shower. I put the restrictor back in and it works better now. I have a small leak to fix, but that should be a quick fix. It looks like it is leaking from a screw hole.
This is a view from the window that leads to the laundry room.

It is difficult to get a good picture of the sauna. These were the best ones.

First Sauna.

Anne and I took the first sauna in our new heat room. The heat is pretty good for an extremely small sauna. I am fairly certain that three could fit comfortably, but it is very nice for two. I need to figure a lower bench or step for the the room and to put up the trim, but otherwise it is a very nice little sauna.

I also finished the shower. It looks pretty good. I am pleased with the look of it, but wouldn't do it the same way if I were to do it again.

Only two small issues arose from the maiden voyage. First the sauna seeps water from under the stove. I am planning on putting some vinyl patch and sloping the floor to the drain when I do the bathroom and hallway. I was also thinking of running a bead of silicone on the outside edge of the plate before I panel the wall, but have to research if that is the proper thing to do. The second issue is that the showerhead is too powerful for the size of the shower. There was quite a bit of overspray onto the floor. I took the restrictor out of the the head and I think that may have been a mistake. I hope I didn't throw it away. I want to see if that will fix the problem.

All in all I am very pleased with the sauna. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

A side note; Our eldest cat Momma Cat is ill. She is starting to get better. She ate some solid food today and that is a good sign. We don't have to take her back to the vet. We'll just wait and see now.

With a bench we have sauna

Here is a shot from where one would sit while they are in the sauna.
Here is where the water will be converted to steam.

Here is the door to get into the steam room. If you look real hard you may be able to make out the laundry room.

The project is coming along very well. Thanks mostly to our fathers and Mikko.

First Snow

Here is a shot of the first row of cedar paneling. It went up better than I was expecting. I need to go get some longer nails for the rest of the walls, but so far so good.

Here is a quick shot of the first snowfall of the season. It makes everything look nice and clean for awhile. So let it snow.

A little bit of Sauna

I don't have any good pictures of the current state of the basement. Here is one of our sauna. The ceiling is ready to be paneled.

The rest of the basement is going well for the most part. The bottle neck is the plumber. I think we've been given an plumber in training. I am shocked...shocked I say, at how slowly the progress is coming in the plumbing department.

Hello Walls

With the help of my father and Mikko, we got some walls up in the basement. The bathroom and shower are ready for plumbing. The process was much slower than we anticipated, but that seems to always be the case. It is mostly all downhill from here. So there is still a chance that Anne and I can sauna prior to the baby.

Netflix

No More Hole

Soon Anne and I will be taking a Sauna.

Drains

It turns out there needs to be a lot of pipes to drain all the stuff I am going to add to the basement. It is a bit more than I expected, but I didn't really know what to expect when I got the ball rolling. Next step is to get the floor back.

More to come.

Basement Hole

This is the state of my basement right now. The plumber says he is going to be here Tuesday. I say "says" because he was supposed to come today. This plumber was at least nice enough to call me around 8:30 am to tell me he could not make it. So I still had time to get to work and not use up some of my paid vacation. I'm crossing my finger for tomorrow.

New Camera

It has been awhile since I have posted anything. The projects I was doing were on hold. They start again on Monday. I also have a new camera. My father gave me his old camera which is much better than the camera I was using. Above is a picture of it. I'll be playing with it trying to master the art of photography.

Old Sunroom

I found a picture of the sunroom before we bought the house.

Pictures of the Backyard

I will be posting some pictures of the back yard very soon. I took them today, but they are too dark to see any detail. While you are thinking, "that's never stopped him from posting before." I am going to wait and take some pictures when the sun is more my ally. So until then I will have you visualize what it looked like the last time you saw it. I never took photos of the before, so that is the only way you can compare the differences.

Handrail

Here is a picture of the hand rail as proof that I made and painted it.

Fall Colors

Views from Hartley Park.

Different View, Our house is in there somewhere.

Anne and I went for a walk and I shot these pictures.

As far as projests are concerned, I have put plastic up on two windows. I have a couple more to do, but I need it to warm up some so the tape will stick.

I have painted the new handrail to prevent rusting.

The new door gasket for the dishwasher didn't work. I might have to start pricing new dishwashers. Does anybody know where I can get a good deal?

More Rain

It rained all day again today. I have discovered a leak in the pantryish room that is off the kitchen. Since It only occurs when it rains hard for several days in a row it might not be a huge problem, but I am going to look into it this weekend and make it not leak if I can.

Speaking of leaks, our dishwasher leaks something fierce. It has leaked for as long as I remember, and I have tried different things to remedy the situation, but all has failed. I have now come to the conclusion that it is the door gasket and foam pad deal on the door. I have to go to the hardware store and order up the parts so that I can fix the leak before the water ruins the hardwood floors.

All Day Rain

Today it rained all day long. I didn't get anything done. I organized my tools and Anne cleaned up the basement some.

Yesterday I put up a railing for the front steps.

Basement Project

Well, I've got the basement started. The floor is broken up for the sauna and shower drains. I have to move the dryer and existing laundry sink to prep for the toilet. It is going very well, I thought it would be harder. I am breaking the floor with a sledge hammer and a hand sledge.

Furnished Sunroom with fire

Picture of sunroom

Project list

The sunroom is tiled. I will be installing the woodstove in it on Saturday. All there is left is to attach the stove pipe to the chimney, so other than making one cut it should go smoothly.

I've had two plumbers give me bids on the basement, and another coming in tonight. So far it looks to be around $3k. I've already begun breaking up the floor. It is going fairly well (the cement doesn't seem to be of much quality). I have located the sewer pipe and now all I have to do is expand from there to the new sources, sauna drain, toilet, shower, and laundry & lav sink.

As soon as I find out when the plumbing will be done I will be sending out for help from the experienced sauna builders I know.

Once I figure out how to post pictures I will put up the sunroom and the basement pics.

Bill

Check back when you wish

I will be trying to use this to post pictures of the baby when it arrives and as it grows.

So check back and enjoy the baby and maybe a story or two.

Bill