New Residents at 1224 McKean St.

We adopted two kittens on Friday! They are four-month old siblings (born on August 3) who we found at P.A.W.S., a no-kill shelter in Philly. Names are still forthcoming. They are well-trained for the litter box, recovering from respiratory infections, at-times affectionate, and very fond of playing with one another.
As I am writing this, Boy Cat tried to climb the table cloth. In case you are wondering, I don't think it turned out at well as he had hoped. Here is a sampling of their first two days in the house.

While John is on the phone with his mom, the kittens enjoy their new toy.



Typical behavior from Girl Cat


Climbing, attacking plants, and fighting are favorite hobbies

New Old Chairs

We found a set of six of these chairs in the basement when we moved in. Here they are after a coat of the flat latex paint from the walls and a coat of semi-gloss varnish.

Springtime

We've all made it through the winter.

Painting Party

Before: The alcove in our kitchen in April of '08
After: The alcove after a little attention in February '09.

Time for the Before and After Shots

After: The back patio
Before: Miss Havisham's South Philly enclave


After: Our bedroom-minus many layers of wall paper, one drop ceiling, a few layers of linoleum and carpet, and prison-like bars of the windows.

Before:

After: the blue bathroom
Before: that bunny on the back of the blue toilet was a cotton ball dispenser. To use: simply yank off the bunnies charming cotton-ball tail and another will appear in its place.


The mysterious shallow, locked closet in the guest room that Jill decided should be used for arty displays. Any guesses on its intended purpose? Guns? Trophies?

The vestibule-you'll notice that we kept the cherubic switch plate cover after a fixing the cracks and adding a coat of paint.