Ode to My Father

My dad is the type of guy that would bend over backwards for you, give you the shirt off his back, and generally help anyone out that is in need. I hope that I can live up to his example with McNugget.

Since we found out McNugget will be arriving in approximately 7 months now (wow!) - that has really lit the fire under our butts to get the renovations we started 2 years ago finished and get this place listed on the market. We bought new windows back in 2007 for our 80 year old building. When we bought our place, they had been renovated from the 1920s apartments into condos and had featured amenities such as refurbished kitchen with granite countertops, a marble bathroom, etc. But they failed to upgrade the windows. It suited our needs as DINKs. While living the city-life was great as a childless couple, downtown KC is no place I want to raise a child. Our neighborhood is great - it's a historic district located a block from the Kansas City Art Institute, a few blocks from the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, walking distance to the Country Club Plaza and Kansas City's historic Westport. In fact, "This Old House" recently picked our neighborhood as one of the best top 10 in the country. However, the notion of a city life has become stale and I really don't want to send my kids to the public inner-city school districts (KC public schools are rated a 5 on a scale of 10...ten being the best) or magnet schools. We are ready for the 'burbs. A real house with a backyard and a garage, not the glorified apartment we currently have. A neighborhood with young families and place that kids can ride their bikes up and down the street. I know that sounds very "Beaver Cleaver-ish". But I grew up in a neighborhood like that...

But I digress... Linda & I quickly learned we are more of the "pay-the-man" type of people, and are not the "do-it-yourselfers" that we aspire to be. Linda spends many of her Saturday and Sunday afternoons watching the DIY Network or HGTV, and schemes up these grandiose ideas that we can do many home improvement projects on our own. Why she believes this is beyond me? The windows are a great example of why I doubt this philosophy. Granted, our windows really needed to be replaced, not only for aesthetic reasons, but also to save on energy costs. The windows were original to the building, but not very functional. They were the old weight-and-pulley type. Many of them did not open due to the 50+ years of paint and guck built up on them. The windows that did open with all your might, were near impossible to close. Linda could literally hang onto the bottom pane of an open window, lifting her feet off the floor and the window would not close! Those were not fun to get shut...

Our condo is a 2 bedroom, one bath unit, and approximately 1200 sq. ft. It has 14 windows total. And one whole side of our condo is windowless, it is the common wall shared with our neighbor. Last year, her family came over and we were successful with their help in ripping out the old windows and replacing them. However, this was only part of the battle. With ripping out old windows, you have to also rip out the molding trim that goes around them...trim that you have to replace. Last summer, my dad & I went to Home Depot and picked up window trim molding. That trim sat bundled up in our hallway til yesterday. Nothing like procrastination...

Anyhow, yesterday, my dad came over with all his tools and circular saw and spent literally all day measuring, cutting and installing the trim. Dad does these things and never acts as if it's an imposition. That's just one small example of many about how great he is and how much I admire him. I pray I can be as good as a father as he is to me.