Our New Laundry Room

When we last left our story, we had two things: a dryer failure, and consequently, the excuse we'd been waiting for to get a new laundry room.

The previous laundry room had been what the builders had installed, and it was unwieldy (and always a bit of a mess):

Side-by-side appliances, no place for the kids to drop backpacks, overhead cabinets that were clunky and beige walls with 1988 lineoleum floors...all just begging to be tossed out.

We pulled out the old appliances and the old laundry sink (which had no underneath storage to speak of), tore up the old lineoleum floor (both satisfying and frustrating), pulled down the old cabinets, and left a shell of a room.

Putting it back together, we put in the new floor, arranged for the dryer power and vent duct to be moved (which also surfaced the fact that the duct hadn't really been connected anymore--now that's fixed), painted a new color of slate blue, and added wainscoting and trim (she had always wanted wainscoting somewhere in the house).  New cabinets and the bench went in.  Here's how it came out:

We did everything ourselves but for the connecting of the appliances, the rerouting of the duct and power, and the connecting of the new sink.

In the end, it cost us about $3,350 for the new laundry room (fully half that is the appliances), plus whatever hours we spent scraping up linoleum glue and putting up the new walls.  We even had a chance to learn more about drywall repair in the process.  Is it worth it? Sure: we finally have a room Mary is happy with, that works well, and that we can be proud of.  I'd call that a good investment.

Disney Cruise 2013!

On Friday evening, March 22, we boarded a flight for Orlando and a seven-night Disney cruise to the Eastern Caribbean aboard the newest ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, the Disney Fantasy.

We had a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l time!

Our ship left Port Canaveral Saturday afternoon, and the Disney magic was in full force throughout.  Some highlights:

• We enjoyed Concierge-level accommodations on the 11th deck, which made so many aspects of an already great trip just seamless.  They were able to make last-minute changes to some of our shipboard plans and to accommodate just about everything we asked for. 
• The itinerary was just about perfect: the first two days were days At Sea.  There was no reason at all for us to have to be up by any particular time, so we could just deflate, relax, and absolutely enjoy ourselves.  I cannot tell you the last time I slept in until 11am!
• The kids vanished almost immediately on boarding, to join up with their respective pre-teen and teen clubs.  We saw them for the first half-hour of dinner most nights; they inhaled food and then begged to be allowed to return to their friends.  So essentially, we had a couples cruise to ourselves for most of the week.
• I really enjoyed the Satellite Falls adults-only "pool" and sun deck on 13.  Shielded from the wind by plexiglas, I read hundreds of pages from my books as the ship steamed eastward, and just...aaahhh...
• In fact, with the exception of the rotational dining, the movie theatre, and one or two other things, we scarcely left the adults-only zones on decks 11-13.  And no one cared!
• I brought three massive books on board with me.  I finished them all.  Heaven.
• Next time on Fantasy or the sister ship, Dream, especially if we're blessed with cruising with friends again, I am definitely getting Suite 11004 again.  Due to the way the ship curves at that point, the verandah we had, looking out over the port side of the ship, was perhaps half the size of our stateroom itself.  Par-tay!

Along the way, we spent a day in St Thomas, USVI, and then another day in San Juan, PR, before stopping at Disney's island, Castaway Cay, which we explored more than we did 18 months ago.  Be sure to check out our photo album for some highlights.

David had himself a little shipboard romance again; this time, Ally from Winnipeg and he really hit it off.  I'm not supposed to say that he got his first kiss, probably.  They've Facetimed regularly since then, and he's stayed in touch with several of the other kids from the Vibe teen zone.  The teens of the Fantasy cruise from that week even have their own Facebook page, although I'm not allowed to see much of it.

Before the trip, Sarah was all worried that she wouldn't meet anyone, that she wouldn't make any friends.  The last night aboard ship, leaving Castaway Cay for Florida, she was in t-e-a-r-s at the thought of never seeing Nicole or Katie or Emma ever again.

Would we do it again?  In a heartbeat.  David is angling for the next one to be a Mediterranean cruise, and you know, there's one leaving next summer from Barcelona, seven nights, stops in France and Italy and he could get to see Vesuvius...