Extreme Home Make-Over Update: Gutted

So, the house is gutted...well, nearly all the house is gutted.  There are two walls in the parlor with plaster remaining and the kitchen and bathroom are still fairly intact.  We are heating the kitchen and bathroom to keep the pipes and well in good working condition...so they are blocked off from the rest of the house and we aren't doing much with them yet.

This weekend, Jut and I had the fun of cleaning out the old coal bin that was under the current living room.  That was an adventure.  We found lots of neat things...mason jar chicken waterers, a hockey stick, a cow bell, sleigh bell for a horse, a wooden barrel, an old harness and a few other random objects.  There were wooden slats for the floor and extra trim from the house.  Interesting treasures.  We also found a lot of junk.  It was intriguing to play the 'what will we find next' game.

This picture was the kids for the first time at 'our' house.  We had just experienced a fairly severe ice storm and things were slippery but they were excited to see what the house was looking like.

We lost several branches from the big tree in front of the house and there are several more that are loose but are caught up in the tree and need some 'help' in coming down safety.

E is standing in the former living room.  We wish we didn't need 4 bedroom upstairs and could leave this room with the vaulted ceilings...if we could extend the field-stone fireplace up, wouldn't it be pretty?!  But, we need the space upstairs...so no vaulted ceilings for us.

This picture is taken from a 'trap door' in the attic.  It is looking down into the former living room.  The stone fireplace would be directly at the bottom of the picture.  We are still hoping we'll be able to keep the wood flooring.  It is in great condition, but the floor joists aren't up to code...I think 'code' will be a major headache throughout this process because everything has to be brought up to 'code' since we are doing such extensive remodeling.

The wall of windows are going soon.  It is such a character trait of the house that we hate to see them leave but the lack of energy-effectiveness of them has them looking for a new home.  But they did give the house fun character.  People comment to us about them all the time now that the cedars are gone because you couldn't see them for so long that no one knew that they were there.

The stone pillar on the north side has had bird nest residue coming into the house for awhile...well, we can see daylight from the top of it...easy to see why the debris was coming in now that everything is torn apart.

This is taken from the west wall of the dining room.  The white fireplace is no more.  The china cabinet is sitting in the middle of the floor because we don't know how we are going to get it out of the house...That thing is a beast.  So, it keeps getting gently shifted around out of 'danger' areas.  The electrical was a crazy mess.  Our contractor laughed at the crazy roundabout ways that things were wired. There were bare wires around the fireplace.  We're lucky that the house didn't burn to the ground.

My grandparents' bedroom and staircase is this next picture.  This area will change greatly.  The staircase is going to run perpendicular to the current passage, and the wall separating the bedroom from the dining room will disappear once a few new beams are place across the house.  I'm interested to see how all these ideas are going to look in reality because despite all the time we've spent talking and discussing all of this, I still can't quite visualize all the changes.

The picture below is standing at the top of the staircase looking south.  The wall to the little bedroom is gone...and it is shows how truly small that little room was!

This area will be completely different from this design.  We will have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the laundry room in this space.  I believe that the room will begin coming off this week (in completely frigid temps, I'm glad I'm not doing it!) and re-framing the upstairs will commence.


Our contractor continues to marvel at the structural integrity of this house.  The foundation could not be any more level.  It is perfect.  He was leery at first of trying to build up but with the wonderful condition of the house, he no longer has those concerns.  We are praying all goes well as construction finally begins.

Below is another view from the upstairs standing at the attic wall and looking toward the stairs.

The thing I found funny was that in the little closet at the top of the stairs, the beautiful hardwood floors continued all the way to the roof line.  I remember asking G'ma once if I could crawl into the part that was blocked off and she said that I'd fall through the ceiling into the parlor.  I laugh now knowing that it is a completely solid (and beautiful) hardwood floor.

Christmas Card 2013...and Bike Riding

So, our Christmas card doesn't have anything to do with bike riding...other than the fact that he got it for Christmas...but I just lumped both events into 1 post.

X rode his new 16-inch bike that he got for Christmas today.  We went to the gym at church.  He rode for about 10 minutes in the morning.  He'd make a quarter of the length of the gym by himself before tipping.  He tried a second time this afternoon...and BAM!  He got it.  He rode circles round and round.  I don't think I followed him for more than a couple of laps in his second attempt.  Now, I just have to get him started and away he goes.  It was fun to watch.  His experience with his balance bike made all the difference in the world...E didn't learn to ride until this summer...she was almost 6.  X turned 4 in November.  Awesome.  Now, we do still have to work on steering. He hit a doorjam in the hallway on the way back to the back of the church.  Oops.  Slight scratch on the bike...door was fine.  :)

The Rush is Over...Merry Christmas!

It is 11:21 and I should be asleep but instead I'm enjoying the fact that the event of Christmas is over.  Sounds very 'bah humbug' doesn't it?!  But, Christmas is such a busy time...that I'm feeling relieved that it is over.  Expectations are met.  Life that has been counting down for the past 30+ days is done.  Kids are happy...everything got finished and what didn't get finished no longer matters.

The jedi robes that I spent hours making over at Mom and Dad's were a hit.  I finished them up on December 23rd at 10 PM.  As I was driving away from their house at 10:10, the neighborhood when completely dark.  Thankfully for them, they only lost power for 5 minutes or so (my grandpa was without power for 3 days).  But, I was so thankful that I was done sewing before the lights went out.  I then spent another 2 hours finishing attaching the frogs before going to bed.  Next year someone really needs to talk me out of making homemade gifts for the kids!  They cause too much stress.

My Christmas cards were sent out on December 23rd.  I had a great picture to send this year and I really wanted to send out the cards...but I didn't get around to it very quickly.  However, the USPS did a great job of making sure that many of the recipients received them on the 24th.  Go USPS!

Santa did most of his shopping via amazon.  Becoming a member of prime allowed everything to get here by Christmas.  Somehow there was never any time to shop this month.

This month was CRAZY!  I don't even really know why.  I'm not certain what made the time pass by so quickly and not leave room for anything else.  We didn't do many of the things that we would have loved to do...but we did get our gingerbread village completed.  The kids got to participate in the St. Louis Christmas parade.  We visited Santa at Cookies with Santa and then had an encore visit at our house a week later.  We got to see E preform as a 'We three king' in our church's Christmas pageant, and E and I had a date to The Very Best Christmas Pageant Ever at the local theatre.  So, we did a few 'Christmas' activities...but not too many for the craziness that I feel like occurred.

So, here I sit.  Thankful that it is over and that I'm sitting here with my feet up without the 'Christmas to-do list looming'.  Do you think the heavenly citizens 2,000 years ago breathed a sigh of relief when Jesus was successfully born and the 'gift' was given?  Did they think, 'Oh thank goodness...he's Mary and Joesph's problem for awhile now.'  Did the thoughts of, 'Yes, the heavenly hosts did a phenomenal job...never thought they'd be able to pull it together.' cross their minds?  What did they think about their big Christmas 'event'?  There had to be a bit of celestial planning for that event...and it had to give someone a headache!  :)

Anyway, I am glad the 'event' of Christmas is over.  Tomorrow, we'll clean up.  Tomorrow, we'll go back to a semblance of 'normal'.  Tomorrow, Jesus will still be discussed as a baby but the 'event' of Christmas will be over and we can just sit back and enjoy the baby and the reason that we go crazy for the first 25 days of the month.

Merry Christmas to all!

Hiding Upstairs is NOT a Good Idea

Yesterday, I was finishing reading an article and the boys happily romped downstairs after being sequestered in their room for a thirty-minute 'rest time'.  I think I may have left them unattended for 5 minutes.  I could hear happy noises and I thought all was well.  Upon inspection after coming down the stairs, I learned the happy noises that I was hearing was the gleeful sounds of undecorating the tree.  Thankfully only two ornaments were broken in their glee...there was a reason we didn't get a tree up until the week before Christmas and it will get taken down the week after Christmas.  I won't have any ornaments left by that time.  Crazy boys.

Today, I was folding laundry upstairs.  When I came downstairs, I found both boys with a spoon and the honey jar between them.  The honey jar looked much depleted.  Who knows how much honey they ate...but where do they come up with these ideas?

I guess hanging out upstairs is no longer a good idea.  Constant supervision is needed.  X and E never thought of these things...however, X is happy to engage in all the mischief that C can find.

I have my work cut out for me.  I'm glad I don't have a crystal ball to see all the craziness that they will invent in the next 20 years.  I'm sure I would go instantly crazy.

Happy Day!

We signed our life away today...well, mostly Jut signed and I watched.  My name will be on the title but I didn't wear out 3 pens as I continually signed my name for 1+ hours...lucky Jut got to do that.  Mom and Dad laughed at the huge stack of papers he had to sign. They didn't have to sign that many to buy the entire farm, but they also weren't reconstructing the entire house either.  Construction adds lots of paperwork, I guess.

The day started out a little shaky.  I spent forty-five minutes at our insurance agency trying to get our hazard insurance policy in place.  The end result was they denied the policy because part of the outside had already been taken off...vinyl siding and facsha...and they were really unimpressed with the window that had been removed upstairs.  If we put all those things back in place, which they were in place two weeks ago, then they'd give us insurance.  Why in the world would we put them up just to take them off again.  Needless to say, I think we will be changing insurance carriers in the near future.  The whole visit was exasperating.  Well, after some frantic calling and googling, we found a company that would happily insurance us.  It took all of 10 minutes in their office to get the policy in place.  PTL!  No photos to review...no haggling...just a quote and policy.  BAM.  Thank you!

We got that all squared away at 1:15 with closing set to happen at 4.  No problem.  So, as we had a babysitter, we finished some Christmas shopping and headed to closing.

Jut was green the whole time.  His palatable stress was slightly amusing.  I haven't seen him so tense...maybe ever, but he'll get over it soon. He's already looking better.  Besides, he does have a nasty head cold and slept miserably last night...so that might have something to do with his abnormal skin color.

So, we are the proud owners of a mostly gutted house.  Happy day!!!

To celebrate, we had Mom and Dad over for dinner.  It was a great time.  Dad even told me some things about the house that I didn't know.  Fun times.  I can't wait to fill the house with love and life again!!

O Christmas Tree

I broke down today and finally gave into setting up the cheap ten-year old artificial tree that I hate...and have hated ever since we bought it.  For the past two, or maybe even three years, we have cut our own...but our busy schedule,the frigid temps and 6+ inches of snow have made getting a real tree an improbable dream this year.  Besides, there are 7 days until Christmas...my poor children need a Christmas tree.

So, Jut had an elders meeting tonight.  After supper, he hauled my box of decorations up the stairs and left for his meeting.  I finished the dishes while the kids very impatiently waited for the unveiling of the tree.

X was worried that Santa wouldn't deliver presents to a small, fake tree.  E thought she was going to be taller than the tree and didn't know if it would 'count' as a tree.  C was just his manic little self climbing on the boxes and doing his best to cause confusion and delay.

Dishes finally get finished and I begin to assemble the tree.  The kids watch in awe realizing that it wasn't going to be a 3-foot tiny tree.  The excitement keeps mounting.  Thankfully, they had a book with the figurines to play with inside the ornament box.  So, while I fiddle with the tree, E reads the Christmas story to the boys several times and then they play with the figurines.  So, I wind lights around it and the kids start bouncing around with all their energy.  I finally take the lid off of the ornament box and they dove in.  Thankfully only one of the halmark ornaments took the brunt of all the enthusiasm...and a little superglue should make it an unnoticeable blemish.  However, I did feel a little crazy trying to pass out 'safe' ornaments while trying to keep the 'breakables' out the reach of little hands.  They can certainly hang up ornaments faster than I can find and unpackage ornaments.

Finally, the tree was 'done'.  I need to redistribute a few ornaments.  The top 8 inches is empty and I have some cheap glass bulbs to add along with a nativity scene and tree skirt.

It is amazing how some lights, a few ornaments and Christmas music can take a 'Charlie Brown' tree and turn it into a thing of beauty.  The kids didn't care how pathetic that little tree is...they were in awe of their creation.  They spent the rest of the evening playing 'Santa' filing their stockings with 'surprises'.  I don't know why I always hate that tree so much in the box.  It is a thing of beauty once it is decorated...and the kids just will remember the fun of decorating the tree anyway.  It is a beautiful little tree, even if it only has unbreakable, mostly hand-crafted ornaments.  Christmas is magical, isn't it?!

E is 6.5!!

E turned 6.5 last week.  Crazy how fast half years go.  We measured her today.  She has grown 2 inches in the last 6 months.  She's been eating like crazy.  We knew she was growing, but it was fun to see her grow more in the last 6 months than she did for the entire year that she was 5.

E is a fun girl.  She's growing up more and more all the time.  Reading is still her favorite past-time.  This morning she had made a few bad choices and to keep from making any further mistakes, she pulled out a Babysitter's Club Little Sister book and read the majority of it while she was waiting for Aunt Stacey to come and pick her up.  It did keep her out of trouble.

She loves playing with her brothers...she gets frustrated with them but she leads them around in their pretend games.  It is fun to watch.  Both boys are a little lost when she's not around to give them their marching orders.

She LOVES pie.  She ate 2 pieces of raspberry pie on Thanksgiving and begged for another piece.  I think it is probably her favorite food.  She's lucky to have a g'ma that loves to make her pies.

She's moving more and more away from 'little' girl things.  This growing up business is for the birds.  She enjoys time to herself each day to do her 'own' thing...whether it is reading or playing with her doll in her bed or creating a masterpiece from her legos.  She loves that she can write and draw better.  It is impressive to see how her skills are developing.  Just yesterday, we were waiting for the Whitaker's to come and so she sat down and wrote a story while she waited.  It was cute.

She still loves to cuddle up on G'ma's lap and watch movies with her.  The kids spend a lot of time with Mom this fall as we were demolishing the house and we almost always came back with E sitting on G'ma's lap watching TV.

Pretend play is one of her favorite things.  She loves making up plays for the boys and herself to preform.  She loves acting out stories with our homeschool group.  She loves acting out things in Jr Worship at church.  Her creative juices are working all the time.

Age 6 has its challenging moments...there are defiant attitudes and mean behaviors, but overall we are enjoying the year.  Watching children grow is an amazing and wonderful experience.  I'm glad I get this opportunity.

Extreme Home Makeover Continues...

Our contractor had a group of guys out to the house for the first time today!!!

Yahoo!! The professionals have arrived!!!!

Now, we still don't technically own the house...we are waiting for the surveyors report and township approval to split the parcel...but before the month is out...the mess we have created will be ours and we'll have an even bigger mess!  But, we need a mess to get what we want...so bring on the mess.

It was amazing to see how much the guys got done today...you could tell that this wasn't their first rodeo.  They seemed a bit more proficient than Jut and I.

Life with E

E was reading her Bible today in the car. I asked her what she was reading. Her reply was "Judges". We chatted about it for a minute. I asked her how she chose Judges. She explained that she started in Genesis and just kept reading. I was pretty impressed. It has been a couple years since I picked up the Bible to read it cover-to-cover.

Then it dawned on me, that meant that she had read Leviticus. There are some things in there that aren't really appropriate for six year olds. Well, let's be honest...there is a whole bunch of stuff in the Bible that isn't particularly appropriate for six-year olds. But, how do you tell a child..."Yeah, I don't think you should be reading the Bible." That just seems crazy...but I don't know that she really needs to read it all either.

So, I asked if she had any questions about what she read...she didn't. I dropped the conversation. However, I may have to rip out some pages if she gets past Ecclesiastics.