Porch Paradise

This morning I am writing from my front porch. Current sounds include doves, birds, and an occasional howl from the neighbor's dog, Mater. 

 

 

This weekend was busy, productive and full of fun! We stayed out here for the first time on Friday night using our air mattress. We finally have functioning plumbing, and we were able to take a shower (only cold because the gas line needs repair). Our electrician came out Saturday and did an awesome job with our new and improved panel. We also attended the Antique Car Show that our neighbors invited us to, where we got free lunch and met some more people in the community. With the help of Shae's parents, we were able to finish 90% of the fence. All we have left to install are the gates and the hog panel in the back. We tore down some more cabinetry in the kitchen. We rearranged our garage area to accommodate workshop space and our other trailer. And we decided on a plan of action.

 

So this window unit has been incredible! We bought it Friday night since we were staying the night. We woke up in the middle of the night COLD! What a blessing it is to have to add more blankets to the bed in summer. It has also made it possible for us to have a cooled off relief break room when  we need it from working outside. That window unit has probably been one of our best purchases so far.

 

As sad as it is for me, my summer days are coming to a close. I go back to work in two weeks. I'm very excited about the new opportunities that await for me in Royse City, but I will miss being able to work on my house as much as I have been. 

So because of my shortened timeline of available days, we decided to push back certain projects and focus on getting the house ready to move in full time. So today's goal will be to get our bedroom ready to move furniture into it. Instead of pulling down the drywall right now, we are going to just clean up the walls and paint it with primer. That way we can live in it sooner.

We will also be moving more of the furniture to its semi-final positions in the house. We will hopefully be able to move here completely over the weekend (pending Shae's work schedule).

The Great Commerical Break Reveal

If we lived in a present day TV show, the finds from the past two days would have been broken up by long Commerical breaks. 

On Monday, we discovered the possibility of hardwood floors under the tile in the kitchen. This is what we saw.

 

On Wednesday, Dustin worked hard unveiling original hardwood floors under subfloor that has tile glued on top of it. We took out about 2/3 of the tile massacre. The reason it was a massacre is because the tile used was mismatched and obviously the discounted incompletes at your local hardware store. We love the discounted stuff at stores, but at least you a complete set in each section. Remember the Pinterest fails.. This is one of them. 

 

 

 

Today, I pulled off the panelling in the long wall in the kitchen to find awesome #shiplap. Like... If we were on Fixer Upper (one of our favorite shows), Joanna would be in love with our house because it's all shiplap from what we can tell. We are so excited about having original shiplap on the walls of our kitchen.... YAY!!

 

 

 

So so so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, if you know of anyone who has a window unit they would like to get rid of (working condition please), we will gladly take it off your hands. 

Thankfulness

Today I am most thankful for a few things that normally during summer vacation would not have registered with me until now. Here's my list for today: window AC units, gloves, garden carts with wheels and scheduled girls night outs.

Our current home does not have central AC, so currently we have a window unit in one room of the house. We have figured out how to best secure that room so it stays as cool as possible. It is quite an oasis after working outside.

The gloves saved my hands from getting torn up today. Without these simple blue gloves, today's work load of relocating the trash and debris from the master bedroom take down would have taken twice as long and I would have come out of it with many more bumps, gashes and bruises.

The garden cart on wheels was the partner to the gloves that made today's job possible. If you don't currently have one of these gems, I suggest it if you have any bit of yard work on a large yard. I was able to load up several loads of cedar pickets into the cart, roll it to the new spot and unload without 1001 trips.

I am also super grateful for the scheduled girls' night out I have with two of the wives of the guys that have been helping us. Because of these ladies and the importance of this GNO, I was able to leave our project house early today so I could go back to the in-laws house (also a HUGE blessing) and clean up and put on non-work out/sweaty clothes. 

I'm very thankful for these seemingly small things that made today a success even in the hot and humid hard work say that it was. Below are the pictures of today's tasks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this last one is the view on my drive in to the house this morning. So much better than the concrete jungle, dontcha think? 

 

A Village

They say it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to do anything big and outrageous in your life. Our village is phenomenal!!! I don't even know where we would be without these people in our lives and helping us make this project our home.

This picture is from Saturday when Matt and Brent (two men from bible class) came to help Shae with the fence. They dug 11 holes by hand and set them. This was after they cleared the yard of unnecessary brush, tree limbs and things that would be in the way of the fence.

 

On Sunday after lunch and church, Shae and Brent used a hydrolic auger to dig the rest of the 25 holes for the fence. They did 25 holes in about 3.5 hours. I continued working on pulling reclaimed cedar off the walls in the master bedroom. Brent also stayed late to set the lines with twine so that the guys on Monday had something to work off of. 

 On Monday, Dustin (from bible class) and Chad (coworker from FMJH) came out to help set the rest of the posts in the fence. They fill 25 posts!! They worked so hard and they were awesome. If you have never set posts, it is hard work. You have to check, double check and triple check before pouring and setting the concrete. It's crazy! And I am so thankful for all the hard work.

As a small thank you, I made these guys lunch in the crockpot. Barbecue chicken sliders! They were delish! After they finished setting posts, Pickens signed the shed and then had to head home. Dustin stayed and helped me with major parts of the bedroom. Not only did he help pull off the aluminum siding from one of the walls, he also unscrewed all the aluminum siding from the ceiling. Before that, he tore apart the closet!! Yay!! Pictures are worth 1,000 words...

 

 

 

 

And completely gone!!! What a relief!!

At the end of the day, when everyone left and Shae came to Celeste from work. We continued our work on the fence. We set the cross members for our first panel in the back. I've never done any thing like this before, but I look forward to working it into completion!

 

Goodbye Lois Lane

Today we said goodbye to our first house. We have been saying for weeks, "I can't wait to get out of this house..". While that is true and we are so excited about our next adventure together, it is still a bittersweet moment as I look back on everything that this house has held for us.

Our Lois Lane house held a lot of stuff and a lot of memories. In its walls we...

• began our marriage 

• have had two different friends live with us

• had many celebrations and parties

• had tears and struggles

• brought 4 dogs home

• have had many friendship beginnings

• held bible studies and fellowships

• had fallen trees

• have had multiple backyard fire pit fires (my favorite)

• hosted Friendsgiving

• started Shae's furniture business

.... and many other things that I am sure I have forgotten.

Thank you house on Lois Lane for being our first home. You were so good to us. Thank you for the friends and family who have walked with us so far on this journey.

 

We are so excited for our next adventure. Here we go!

Nicest People in Town

While I was getting things set up in our new town, everyone kept telling me that our neighbors, The Carters, were the nicest people in town. 

Today, we found out that to be 100% true!! Today, we brought two loads of furniture to the house. The first load was a three car-load caravan with two trailers. Our neighbors (kids and grandparents included) helped us unload around 3pm today. 

Then the rain came and put a damper on our original plans for the rest of the evening. So change of plans, we were able to trade in our 6'x12' utility open trailer in for the same size enclosed trailer. Then Shae and I got back to work and loaded up furniture and boxes from the house, took a load to storage and then out to the new house. 

We pulled into our new house at 12:15 am. Our neighbors (Mr. Carter and his teenage daughter) were up already as we drove in. They offered to help us and came right besides us and unloaded our full trailer with us. 

These people REALLY are the nicest people in town! And because of this, I see a chocolate pie coming in their future.

We are so excited to have such awesome neighbors! 

Screwed by 4 Walls

Have you ever seen a Pinterest fail up close and personal? There are so many Pinterest fails in the new house. New house!! How cool is that?

Let me back up. Shae and I sold our house in Richardson and are moving into a cute little 1940s wood frame house. We call it our farmhouse. And we are so excited to start this adventure. A little scared and anxious, but excited to make this place our home--and make it EXACTLY that way we want.

We got the keys last night and started working. And let me tell you about the master bedroom.  Lots and lots of screws. Pinterest fail.



So the ENTIRE master bedroom is covered in white-washed cedar pickets that have been nailed and screwed into the wall. Each picket has 3 to 4 screws and multiple nails. Every single picket has been done this way.



The entire room looks this way for now. But slowly that'll change. Behind the reclaimed wood was paneling and behind the paneling was drywall. But good news was behind the drywall.

Y'all look close!



SHIPLAP! We are pretty certain that behind all the drywall in this cute little house of ours is shiplap. And we are so stoked by this! So my job while at the house the next few days is to finish pulling apart all the layers on these walls and expose the shiplap. And the adventure begins...