Housewarming

(I wrote this on 1/29 and somehow never got around to posting it...)

Last Saturday we had our official "Housewarming Party"

Not everything is done here.  And we haven't really even begun to decorate.  However, we decided we needed to do it sooner, rather than later - and all the etiquette websites I looked at gave us permission to go ahead now :)

Here are some pictures of our CLEAN house right before the party started.  

Oh, but first.  Just to remind you all - this is what the "kitchen" (and the entire rest of the house) looked like back in July....

And it now looks like THIS: 

[View when you stand in the front of the house, looking back] Living area, dining area, kitchen way in back

[View standing in the dining area facing the front of the house:]

[View of the kitchen facing the back of the house:]

Those cabinets and appliances we found on Craigslist turned out pretty well I do believe... It never ever would have looked this way without all of Vinnie's amazing inspirations and expertise and hard work.

[View of the kitchen facing the front of the house:]

Vinnie made those colander light fixtures over the bar

Our bedroom & closet:

We had an amazing turn out with so many friends and co-workers that were able to make it, which made us so happy!  Although the AC had trouble keeping up for a little while there (it was very warm that evening and quite humid), everyone seemed to have enough room to move around and socialize.

Scott smoked brisket for people to make sandwiches with. We also served all sorts of sides with a veggie platter, humus and pita chips, along with various cheeses and meats.

We gave little tours throughout the night.  Scott got his projector all set up in the media room, and we had a slide show going with all of the pictures of this project since we bought the house back in March.

Overall it was a huge success, and I'm glad those of you who made it were able to come!

There have been many laughs, owies, aches, tears, furious rants, and moments of sheer terror as we have brought our house through such a huge transition and it has become what it is today.  We never could have done it without the help of our amazing families and many of our wonderful friends and awesome neighbors.  We are so blessed to live in this house and never imagined in a million years that this would be part of our journey living here.  Although there are several perks we enjoy in this house, we are mostly grateful for the space to more easily spend time with our friends and family and show hospitality to others.  SO, once again, as we always say - if you're ever thinking of coming down to New Orleans, please call us up.  We've love to have you come visit :)

New year for me!

Had a fabulous birthday yesterday and am thankful for all the love you all sent my way.  I felt preeetty special.  Scott got off of his 30hr call yesterday morning and brought me donuts and flowers - he's such a rock star :)  Last night we went out for sushi at Kyoto, one of my favorite little restaurants, and then met up with more friends for desert at Sucre!

They finished sanding the floors yesterday and put the first coat of polyurethane on!!!

Today they will be buffing everything out.  Then mixing all the sawdust (they've saved this all from sanding the down the floors) with corn starch and whatever else is in their secret concoction and going around filling in all the cracks between the floor boards, before they add another coat.  Several coats are required and each one brings out an added level of the richness that is in those old boards.

We have a date!

Today we met with Dr. Moore at Ochsner.  We really like him.  Scott knows all the residents with him right now too and likes them, which makes everything a little bit like a party when we go in for these appointments.  We had a very long chat about everything and looked at the scans together and have a plan.  Scott will be having a PET scan on Friday - just to make sure nothing else lights up. (This is the glorified CT scan where they give him the special dye that the cancer loves and measure uptake times to see what shows up).  Next week we have a follow-up appointment for that to review scan results and sign consents and do pre-op stuff.

Monday, November 21 we're on the books for surgery.

The plan is to do a little more involved of a surgery than originally thought.  The first lymph node that we noted definitely needs to come out.  There is another good sized lymph node that doesn't look too bad yet, but the consensus is that we should just take it out now while we're in there to avoid another surgery later.  Also, they will be taking the tiny little border of Thyroid tissue that was left from the first surgery as the idea is that while it's in there - it's just a risk for growing more cancer.
So, please pray for us.  Lucy has surgery scheduled next Wednesday for her knee (an appointment we have agonized over how to handle, and then waited and waited for, and cannot move now), the house will be ready to be moved into by next weekend, and then Scott has surgery the following Monday.  I am fighting to get ahead with school and have an overwhelming amount of work to get done in between all of this.  Also, it would be good if I found time to go to the grocery store sometime and could clean my nasty fridge out.  Details that are low priority for now... Again, *deep breaths* and one day at a time - I kinda wanna puke when I think as far ahead about everything as I just did.

Flooooooors!

They are in progress!!!  The guys came Monday to finish patching all the holes.  We've had to move several H/AC vents due to the fact that we completely re-did the floor plan on the house, and a few other things, so there were quite a few boards that needed to be taken up and replaced.

This is no easy feat. These floors were solidly put together over 100 years ago and had no intentions of coming apart easily.  Also, Scott had to do some good hunting to find other flooring that matched that we could replace whole areas of boards with.  Anyway!  That's all finished now, as of yesterday!

Then, they started on the sanding!  They have the noisiest, dustiest machine with the coarsest sandpaper I've ever seen.  

It's a father-son business run by two good 'ol boys who are quite wild and wonderful - such a hoot to just sit and watch and listen to.  Dad runs the big sander, while son crawls around him and hammers in or pulls out nails that are too high so there's nothing to stub your toe on.

I think they plan on finishing the sanding today and then they do several coats of polyurethane and refinish the floors, making them fresh and beautiful - and quite smelly.  They plan on being done by Friday and then we crank the AC up to take all the moisture out and let the house just sit for quite a few days while the horrible smells that will give you a migraine like no other work their way out and the finish dries and sets up.  We should be in by Thanksgiving! *fingers crossed*

ALSO!  We have running water in our kitchen now after Scott and I spent a few hours on plumbing yesterday.  It's pretty exciting folks!

Our Week So Far:

1. Still no news on surgery
2. A good amount of time spent doing this:  

   3.  Scott spending everyday at the hospital - and still working on the house upon coming home.  

   4. Usually doing this:

Or working on wiring.....                     .

   5. Lucy's surgery for her destroyed knee finally scheduled - let's hope Scott's surgery day doesn't end up at the same time.

   6. Refer to #1 again.  

   7. Trying to stay on top of school and get as many projects out of the way as possible before I'm caring for two little post-op patients here at home in the next few weeks :)

We're trying to be patient - the waiting is the hardest part.  However, we know that everything happens for a purpose and the timing will be perfect in the end.  It's just difficult to sit on this side of it all, not knowing, while everything gets decided upon and worked out.  

Final Countdown

We have scheduled the floor guys to come NEXT WEEK!  This means we are on a time crunch and still have so much to do!  Trim, closet doors, fixing windows, installing light fixtures and getting plumbing fixtures hooked up. The floors being sanded down and refinished is huge as this is the last big step before moving in!

After that we are basically set!  We are getting excited, but also feeling the pressure.  Scott starts his ICU rotation on Tuesday (going in almost every day with 30hr days every three days) so the timing is perfect as he will basically be worthless outside of the hospital.  I am so grateful for such a hard working, motivated husband.  He really has been such a trooper - working his shifts at the hospital and then coming home and working 4-8 hours on the house (or working those hours and then going into the hospital at night).  I am just so blessed to have such a stellar dude that I'm married to and had to brag a little at how well he provides for us.
Here are a few pictures.  All the details are coming together and we are slowly scratching off details on Vinnie's final list

.  

Trying to decide on paint colors...

Erica and Roman in bedroom #1 with the new paint (ignore the shelving to your right - it will be moved eventually)

Bedroom #2 - painting in progress (it's finished now)

Aaaaaand bedroom #3 - still need to scrape that window down and prime and paint it.

Putting our last craigslist appliance, the double oven, in - it was a beast to deal with, but is absolutely beautiful :)  If an oven can be beautiful...

Installing the hardware our neighbor found for us at a garage sale which we painted to coordinate with our kitchen.

Fans and light fixtures going in (don't worry - we'll put the blades on soon)

We're getting closer!

We're moving right along with the house!

Sorry the video cut off early - I ran out of room on the memory card.  I was about to tell you where the toilet and new double vanity will be going.

This vanity was our find of the month so far.  It is solid poplar, with a granite top and two under-mount sinks. It was originally $1100 at Lowe's and happened to be on sale last weekend so we went to buy it and discovered it was slightly damaged (a little nick I'll never point out to anyone and will be impressed if you can find), so they marked it down some more.  While they were trying to load it onto the cart to take to the register, the manager broke the back-splash and we bargained them down even further!  We ended up getting it for $375 and are so happy about it!

We're hoping to be moving into the house sometime in the first half of November and are getting more and more excited about it.  We're hoping we don't have any big set-backs before now and then and that everything continues to stay on track.

Sheetrock + Granite = Progress!

We were gone last weekend in the Boundary Waters (I know, I need to blog about it - maybe tomorrow...or the next day) and came back to our sheet rock going up!  They finished hanging it all this weekend, on Saturday, and today they start the mudding and taping.  We're way past this video, but I thought I should share it anyways to give you an idea of the progression of things. 

Today the granite men showed up with their big slabs of rock for our kitchen!  I just want to sit over there in  a corner and watch them work all day.  It's SO interesting.  They are quick and I feel like I'm missing lots.  However - I have so much school and this other house to keep up.  Also, who wants some girl hovering around watching your every move as you work?  They'd probably be irritated.

Here's the work station they have going outside to make all their final cuts and holes:

Working inside - making all their final measurements

(Like our front-and-center pile of trash? We're getting our THIRD dumpster today)

Wooden counter top before the granite:

Alright, my curiosity is killing me!  I'm going over to check on them again :)  

Everything's Coming Together

Here's a quick video update of the house for you all - enjoy looking at those studs!  It's the last time you'll see them on video.  Sheet rock starts going up on Monday!

(Sorry it's rather shakey and discombobulated - I was in a hurry and a little distracted when I took it)

Big things that have happened with the house in the last week:

• We ordered our shower for the master bathroom and bathtub/shower for the front bathroom
• Almost all the cabinets are installed - only two left to go!
• We picked out the granite for our kitchen (Verde Butterfly) (sounds green, but the slabs we are getting are more black with silver specs to bring out the stainless steel appliances) and put our deposit down.
• We decided on tile for the back splash in the kitchen.  This was a big step for me, for those of you who don't know, I mini-panic when it comes to decorating and picking colors.
• The exterior of the house started getting painted - the first coat is on and they're working on coat #2.  It's been raining rather randomly though so they're trying to work in between all of that.

Plugging Along

Our kitchen is coming right along.  A huge amount of time in the last two weeks has gone towards sanding the multiple layers of lead paint off the bead board that is going into our kitchen.  Much time has been spent at the drawing board (which is any piece of plywood or extra 2x4 nearby - most commonly this plywood hung in the kitchen is used:)

We stand and discuss all of our options and Vinnie draws us lots of pictures of all the ideas he has in his head so we can try and figure the best options out.  We got the layout for the kitchen finalized and a peninsula designed after much discussion.  Vinnie threw this together for us two days ago so we could see what he was thinking:

This is a rough idea of what the peninsula/bar/whatever-you-wanna-call-it will look like:

View from the front as you walk in from front door ↑ and the view as you walk 

around it into the kitchen ↓

View from standing in the kitchen looking towards front door ↓

Now, of course you have to use your imagination a little. It will be closed in from the front (so you don't see those studs in the first two pictures) and the cabinets will of course be out of their boxes in the end. As you may notice, there are three different levels - bar height in front where we will be putting a few bar stools, the counter height coming around from the rest of the kitchen, and then the appendage that sticks out in the back is table height so we can eat/hang out/work on stuff comfortably there. We love it and are so excited with what Vinnie came up with.  

Also, you may notice that there is plywood hung on the walls in the kitchen - at this time we are ready to hang/install the cabinets directly to that. Vinnie likes to put them onto plywood as it is stronger, due to the fact that you are sure to hit wood, no matter where you screw a cabinet into the wall. We're going to wait to hang them though until after the dry wall is up, so they don't get damaged during any of that and aren't in the way as we finish other things.

All of our siding has now been replaced on three sides of the house - we will deal with the front eventually, but for now it's not necessary.  Here's the left side of the house all re-sided:

Since March, the back of the house/yard has gone from looking like this:

   To this: 

I guess the house looks better - the yard certainly does not though.  Looks like we'll be needing another dumpster soon... We're still needing to paint the exterior and that back porch will have to be replaced as well - it's all about priorities though, and for now those are cosmetic things, which rank last on the list.

We've gotten bids on the sheet rock this week and hope to be able to get that started by the beginning of August.  We still have lots of little details to get finished up before then so we're trying to get the tedious stuff out of the way as quickly as possible to move on.

The Siding, Part II

It's only Tuesday and already lots has been done to the house this week.

About two months ago, when we re-did the siding on the right side of the house, we had the company install two new windows as well, to replace two that were not doing well in the back of the house.  One on either side.  However, after all that we decided we wanted a second window in the room that will be the laundry room to look out at the back yard.  We also thought maybe something more artistic and different would look better in the master bathroom.  SO, we moved the window that was there to the laundry room instead.  We also got a back door installed.  

And it locks.  

Ammmaaazing!  Now we don't have to screw a piece of plywood over the opening every night.  It's the little things that are really exciting when doing a project like this.

Vinnie went hunting last weekend and found us a window for our bathroom.  At first when we saw it I thought it would be waaaay too big for the bathroom.  However, Vinnie totally has an eye for this and could picture it in his mind the whole time.  Here it is: our eight-paned window with Florentine glass. 

Yesterday Carl (our firefighter that works for us on his "off" days during the week) and Vinnie framed it in.  While they were working on that we had two other guys we hired for the day rip ALL the siding off the left side of the house.  Originally we thought we could just patch that side and use most of the old cypress that was already there.  However, after looking at it for the last few weeks we decided to completely re-do it.  It would be pointless to go to all the work of tearing parts off and repairing them and hoping that next year once the house is all nice and finished it didn't spring another leak and ruin our new sheet rock or something.  Also, the area towards the back on that side was so poorly done originally, that there was a lot of rot from water leaking in and attracting termites.  This way we can say the whole house has new siding (as we are also re-doing the back) that was done at the same time.  

While they were tearing the siding off, Scott worked on fixing all the areas of rot.  Sistering in new boards and completely rebuilding the frames around a few windows.  Vinnie and Carl helped him with areas in between framing the bathroom window in and re-building that wall (as it was the area with the worste rot/termite damage).

View from inside the master bathroom to outside.  

(I'll have to post a picture tomorrow of what that wall/new window now look like.)

There were a few more areas of concern than we expected throughout the wall.  It was frustrating in the moment - but also reassures us that we made the right decision for the long-term.  

Here's the house with the siding off.

Today our siding guys came and got all the plywood up to cover that side of the house.  Tomorrow they will weatherproof it and start on the actual hardy board siding.  

That's how far they were at lunch time.  Just two guys.  

They had all the plywood up by 6pm before they went home for the night.  It's impressive how fast they are.

Decisions...

Well, the time I've been a little anxious about has come.  We're starting to make decisions regarding design - not just, "Should this go here? Or right there?" but more specifically regarding colors and stains which will lead to decorations.  This stresses me out.  I know that most girls would say this is their favorite part, but I feel lost.  Quite lost indeed, and it overwhelms me.

The first decision came today.  What to do with the bead board in the kitchen?

      

Vinnie quietly went the extra mile (which is why we love him) and took a few pieces of it home to make examples for me to get better ideas so I could see things he's done with bead board in other houses before.  Today he surprised me with them.  We have several options as seen below. (The wood behind these three boards is a panel from our cabinets - to get a better idea of what it will look like up against the natural stain that they have.)

\

(Going from left to right)

1) He sanded all the old layers of lead paint off the top and put a coat of polyurethane on it to bring out the texture and the slightest bit of green left in the grain of the wood.  The bottom of that piece is what it would look like if we just polyurethane over the bead board as it is now.

2) He very lightly sanded the top layer or two of paint off to reveal the original green they painted it, and added a coat of polyurethane.

3) He added a gold/yellow paint over the board as it is, gently wiped it down with a wet rag and then added polyurethane.  (This is something we could do with any color we like)

I tried to take a picture without the flash and that was NOT going to work so I'm bummed it kind of changes the appearance.  However, after much discussion and a nice spike in my blood pressure at my perceived stress over this silly decision, we decided to go with the top part of option 1.  We immediately decided option 3 was out as it was just waaaay too yellow next to those cabinets.  Option 2 was somewhat overwhelmingly green to me and although I love green and really liked how vibrant it was, I've never been in a green kitchen (that wasn't straight out of the '70's) and just couldn't picture it.  Truthfully, I think I just wasn't ready to pick ANY color for the kitchen and the classic wood-look seemed the easiest for now.  That way I can accent with any other colors I please, and it really brings out the beauty of that old wood I think. 

We'll just have to see how it turns out!  Anyone want to come and be my interior designer from this point forward????

Letting the light in

The windows above our kitchen are in!  Vinnie had these beautiful matching stained glass windows laying around and dreamt this whole project up when we asked him to do our kitchen.  (This whole project being opening up the ceiling, cutting the 24 foot long beams going across the house here and sistering them together to expose them so we have the vaulted ceiling with extra light)  He framed them in and got them up yesterday and started on the bead board.  Today he finished all the bead board - it looks cool now and is going to look even more awesome once we get it all painted and some cabinets & sheet rock in our kitchen.  Oh, and a sink and appliances might help as well.

View as it will look from standing in the center of the soon-to-be kitchen

I know it's hard to get the idea of, but this is the view from standing in the living room looking towards the kitchen/back of the house

In other, also exciting news, our floor guys came today and ripped a bunch of boards out and installed our new/old flooring over where the stairs were.  I was shocked they got it all done in one day and will have to post an after-picture tomorrow.

Progress

Scott's parents and my dad (my mom wasn't able to make it this time) flew in last week and TONS of progress was made on our house.  I am on my summer break from school and Scott had 5 days off in a row so we were thankful it worked for the parents to come at that time.  We also have an amazingly creative and talented man in our neighborhood who has agreed to work for us (something he never does as he usually only does his own projects - I think he just felt sorry for us though honestly).  He helped us come up with the floor plan for the house in March/April, and is awesome at recycling what we already have and making do with supplies, but still doing it "right" so that it will last and finally be up to code.

So, without further ado, here is a video of where we're at two days ago...already there are changes from this as I think we are FINALLY done destructing and tearing apart and onto the best part: construction.

What Scott's dad (our electrical engineer) looked like after cutting all the holes for the can lights in the living room.  His mouth is slightly cleaner only from the mask he was wearing.

My dad (our master plumber) working on some plumbing.  He got the whole drain system for the house completed - a task that would have cost us thousands of dollars and was super overwhelming to Scott.  The underneath of our house looks 10x's better now due to his nice lay out of the pipes and the fact that we can finally walk around without running into one.

We managed to clean up in the evenings for dinner and were able to go out with some of our good friends, the Morgans, on Friday evening.

Also, we finally decided to take out the stairs that used to be in the middle of the living room.  That was Scott's big project last week while all the family was here.  It was tricky because he had to cut out and replace a big beam they had moved from where a door used to be, so that there would be adequate support for the exterior wall.  I think it looks very nice now though and will make the whole room flow better.  Our flooring guy is coming as soon as he gets a free day in the next week to lay new (very old) flooring we found on Craig's list that was taken out of a different house.  It was difficult to find and a very happy discovery when we found a good deal on just the amount we needed, as that flooring is old heart pine and an inch thick and three inches wide. That area will then match the rest of the room and he will plug holes we no longer need where pipes and wires came into rooms that are no longer rooms, but open floor space.

  

View from the top

View from under the house

When it rains....

It's been a seemingly unending string of breakages for us this last week.

My air conditioner on the car stopped working a few months ago and we've been troubleshooting various things to get it working since then.  Several trips to the shop and various forum reading has ensued.  Not the biggest deal - we'll make sure to drive Scott's car if we don't want to sweat to death.

Last week Scott's front tire went from slow-leak to flat-on-the-rim right around rush hour on a Friday evening on his way to a party.  So convenient.  No biggie - put the spare on, take it back to Wal Mart where we have the road hazard warranty on those tires.  Oh wait, they don't carry that tire anymore so it must be special ordered.

So, we've been dripping sweat and getting the wind-blown hair look everywhere we drive my hot car while we wait.

Today the brand new corded sawzall we bought last week broke.

As I was backing out of the driveway to return it I realized MY front passenger tire was flat.  On the rim.  Perfect.  Found out it was a nice big nail.

Got that taken care of, returned the sawzall, come home to our road which is now completely torn up as they are repairing the sewer lines (meaning we park a block away and hike in carrying all things - including loads of lumber).

Within an hour we discovered that now the motor on the huge drill we also bought last week is broken.  And must be exchanged.  Except they are out and no exchange is possible, making the plumbing job a little trickier.

The saving glory of all this is that Scott finally figured out what is wrong with my AC!  He ripped the whole dash apart and took the glove box out to dig into the depths of the car.  He  got his special ordered part in and had a free hour to work on it.  My AC now blasts cold FINALLY, making only having one car to drive a little more tolerable.

Whirlwind Weekend

We went North for last weekend.  Along the way we encountered much drama due to delayed flights at O'hare on Thursday.  Eeesh.  The airport was a mess with frazzled travelers running everywhere and throwing amazing temper tantrums due to the weather and other issues out of the gate agent's control.  

Fortunately we have family near Chicago and our sister-in-law was willing to pack all the kiddos up and come get us from the airport, making our 7 (8?) hour layover much more enjoyable

We eventually got to Minneapolis and to the wedding, which was the original reason for our trip, and was a blast!

Mr. & Mrs. Kyle Sommer!

Reunited with some of my best friends that I grew up with - it's the first time in over two years we've all been together at once and it was aweeeeesome!

Sissy Sandwhich between our hubbies

My parents tearin' it up out on the dance floor

On Saturday my mom and I threw Erica a baby shower - which was also grand.  What's not to love?  A bunch of ladies sitting around playing games, eating, and yapping our heads off.  

The younger crew 

(Mom almost won the guess Erica's belly size game)

Once again there was drama trying to get home as flights out of Minneapolis were cancelled.  We made it to Chicago and sat around all day until at the last second possible, Scott got the last seat on the last flight to New Orleans for the night.  I headed off to the relatives again and was able to spend the night/next morning there lovin' on some of my favorite kiddos, before finally getting home Monday night.

This week is proving to be a little crazy with Scott working every night, overseeing projects on the house, and me finishing up my second quarter of school.  I fly out again first thing on Thursday morning for a Birth Center Conference in Pennsylvania that is required for one of my classes.  *Deep breaths*  Life will calm down a little someday...right? 

P.S.  Joy, joy - we have our kitchen layout figured out, as of yesterday!  I get giddy just thinking about it.