Paul Harvey Visits

For the sake of honesty, the Mayor thought it might be time to show the 'unfinished' side of Michael Delving, to illustrate a few of the features that will not be staying, such as:
Holes in the drywall from tearing out/installing electrical work...
The lovely lampshade that look like someone painted a styrofoam takeout box with glitter...
The messy holes punched in the basement ceiling so the Mayor could assist with the installation of new plumbing. The Mayor, though, is excessively proud of the basement electrical subpanel you see in the bottom of the picture, which was entirely installed by himself and none other!
More holes in the ceiling and wall. Notice the lovely pistachio green walls - the entire basement is so adorned.
The ugly, massive, green shades best referred to as 'maxi blinds.' After raising these puppies, one realizes why the smaller, modern version is known as a 'mini blind.'
So now you know... the rest of the story

A Riddle Aye Day

You may not have met the "A Riddle Aye Day," our sailboat. I know - hobbits don't generally care for the water, but we have some Took in our blood. We built the boat 3 summers ago at the Center for Wooden Boats during a family boatbuilding class. It has been spending some time down at Fox Island, but this summer, we should have some time to take Boookie out on Lake Ballinger, which is located very close to our home.
Here's Boookie in the driver seat, getting ready to bring the boat back home to our hobbit hole.

Haircut!

Boookie has already gotten his hair trimmed, but he got his first full-blown haircut today. Leah Laramy was gracious enough to rescue him from the ranks of the baby mullets and restore him to respectability.Here's the back o' the head

Spring cleaning

We've been busy about Michael Delving with spring cleaning and getting ready for a new hobbitling, who should be joining us on or about May 7. We've finished up the hobbitling room, cleaned and organized several rooms, cleaned up the outside of Michael Delving from winter, and are almost done with making all the arrangements for a home birth. Since none of these make for particularly inspiring pictures, the Mayor will substitute pictures of Boookie:

Reading books at the table (a daily after-meal activity).
Family picture by footbridge.
Boookie ahoy!
Running around the playground.
Dirty hobbit on the slide!

Crown molding

Another weekend, and the hobbitling room is really close to being finished. The crown molding ended up being easier than the Mayor anticipated, so it's all done. All that remains is to install quarter-round on the baseboard, putty nail holes, and then touch-up paint the trim and doors.
Hooray for excellent tools that make complicated miter cuts go easily!
Here's the Mayor and Boookie hanging out and enjoying the clean room with nice trim. Boookie has his own set of Craftsman tools, and he knows them all by name: "Hamma," "Plyah," and "Scewdye." The tools are stored in a toolbelt on Blackie, who was the Mayor's second favorite stuffed animal when he was a small hobbit. The Mayor can be ruthless with dejunking, but he crossed the line a few years ago by throwing away his number one stuffed animal buddy, "Bear." He is still sad about that, but he'll survive.