You Ask, I Answer - Part One

I know I mentioned it already, but I loooooooved the question and answer post. Props to Holly at In the Fun Lane for giving me the idea to steal in the first place. It looks like it'll take me a few posts to answer all of your questions though - since I'm practically writing a novel for each answer so far. ;)

Every time I see a Dutch door I think of you. Are you still thinking about putting one in your house?

Image: House Obsession

Yes! Yes! Yes! I still very much would like to put a Dutch door somewhere on our main floor. They are SO charming and add SO much old-fashioned goodness. I’ve always wanted one at the top of the basement stairs in the kitchen. We have a solid door in that spot already which we almost always leave open (to let in light from the window / door in the side entry).

Current solid door that leads to stairwell / side entry / stairs to the basement.

Door blocks cupboards and counters when it's open (which is all the time).

The problem with the solid door that we have now is that when it’s open, it blocks at least two cupboards as well as a chunk of counter space. For those of you who also have small kitchens, you’ll agree that blocking counter space is a big problem.

My idea is to put in a Dutch door in the same spot, but have the door open into the stairwell instead of into the kitchen. Functionally this would be a great option, as the bottom half of the Dutch door could be closed and be used to keep the dogs in the landing/basement when needed. It would also serve as a really cute baby gate for Cooper. (And with the top half of the door being open it would still let light into the kitchen.) 

The only problem is that according to Alex, having the door open into the stairwell is not up to code. Man, do I ever hate hearing those words. Code, schmode. It’s an old house, yo!

I promised Alex that I would try my hardest not to knock anyone down the stairs when opening the door. But if I can’t convince him to put the dutch door in the kitchen, there are a few other places that could work. Now let’s see if I can eventually work my magic to, you know, get what I want. Muhahaha.   

Since you heart cake, and I do too, what's your favourite kind?

Mmmmmmm, cake. Love, love, love it. It’s by far my favourite dessert. The funny thing about my love affair with cake is that I’m super picky. Store-bought cake grosses me right out. I just hate the manufactured flavour and the too-sweet icing. I love simple cakes the best – chocolate cake with chocolate icing, carrot cake with cream cheese icing, or vanilla cake with vanilla frosting (home-made of course). My latest obsession has been with the Old-Fashioned Banana Cake I made for a friend’s birthday. I've been dreaming about that cake for the last few weeks. Yum, yum, yum.

If I had to pick a favourite though, it would have to be a moist, dense, chocolate-y chocolate cake made from good-ol' scratch.

Do you ever regret taking in another dog? We have two kids and two dogs and sometimes I think how much easier our life would be had we not adopted our highly active female rescue. (This is just a thought as our dogs will forever be a part of our family.) 

To be completely honest, there have been many times (both before and after having Cooper) when I've wondered what we were thinking taking in a second dog, especially such a high-energy, high-maintenance rescue dog like Lexie. She is just so much more work than our dopey old golden retriever Roary.

She has separation anxiety issues and is underfoot all the time. She is also extremely hyper. We often have to separate the two dogs as Lexie will beat the you-know-what out of Roary any chance she gets. We have to make sure she gets LOTS of off-the-leash exercise (which has been hard lately with a newborn / stroller always in tow). Since she's part short-haired collie, she sheds massive amounts of dog fur e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Because of her history of being abused, she is afraid of unfamiliar men and will bark excessively when a male approaches her (even friends and family). She is also very protective of her "territory" now and barks almost uncontrollably when someone knocks or enters our side entry door.

Despite all of her challenges, we just couldn't imagine our life without her. She is the sweetest, most loyal dog a person could have - so eager to please and to be around us. When we think about and talk about what her first year of life must have been like, we are simply heartbroken. All of her traits, that seem annoying at times, are all worth it - just knowing that we are providing her with a loving home.

I also believe that many of her "bad habits" can be corrected through consistent and proper training which we never seem to make time for, which is completely our own fault. Once Cooper is a bit older, I'm hoping to take Lexie to some agility training classes so that she has a positive release for all of her energy.

So basically what I'm saying is that even though Lexie drives us nuts all the time, we still love her to bits.      

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Stay tuned for the rest of your questions and answers later on this week. So.Much.Fun.

P.S. I am fully aware of how ugly our kitchen is.

:)