Getting carried away...

This is what our house looks like today... (minus the weird, heavenly glow our camera added)

Yes, it's completely open to the outside.  Ooops. 

It had to happen though.  

Scott originally just wanted to replace part of one sub floor last week where our new laundry room will be.  But then one of the interior walls wasn't even attached to anything really after he took the old flooring out.  And then once that wall and all that bead board came out, part of the exterior wall was rotten, and then more, and more and now we are just completely replacing it. 

The whole thing.  

Studs and all.  

At least they're straight and everything is done the correct way now....Here's the view from the inside looking to the left where our master bath will be:

We finished the wall on the exterior right side including framing in another window - please notice the nice, new, pressure treated sub flooring.  We are proud of what is there...

C****r talk

Yes, the C-word.  We haven't mentioned it in a while on here and more and more people have been asking us about it.  No fear though, consider no news as good news for now.
As you may remember, all of this and that happened last July (along with several other things in between, which you can read about here). Following that drama the doctors watched Scott like a hawk for six months with blood draws and scans every few weeks.  In December his levels finally dropped the slightest amount and there were no other signs of growth big enough for us to see.  SO, we have been free birds since then!  Kinda. We just live everyday knowing that Scott still has cancer in his body, but that there is nothing we can do about it, and we are grateful that it's under control for now.
It's so weird that something so traumatic and stupid can start to become "normal" to live with.  We've made many new friends since Scott's diagnosis (when everyone we knew, along with their uncle, was aware of what was going on), and I find myself somewhat surprised when Scott cracks one of his stupid cancer jokes, or I casually mention it in a conversation, and people get uncomfortable or are shocked that it's true and not just an inappropriate statement.  It's so "normal" to me, I almost feel like it's a feature of us - like the way your nose is shaped or your eyes are spaced on our face.  Of course it's there, everyone can see it, but whatever - it's part of him.  I'm sure this will change with time - but it's what it's like now and most days I don't think of it as anything too serious.  It's just our life.
Anywho, my reason for re-hashing all these details is this: Scott's next appointment for lab draws and such is in the middle of July.  I just wanted to give you plenty of time to get your prayers going for good results.

Love

These are my parents:

Today they celebrated their 29th Wedding Anniversary.  This makes me very happy.

P.S. This picture was taken two years ago at our wedding - if you were watching them today though I'm sure you would have caught them doing that again.

P.P.S. That sounded rather creepy.  I didn't mean it in a creepy way.  Think of it in a sweet way.  I'm going to stop now.

Important Days

This post is long over-due for multiple reasons which I won't bore you with.  I just had to put it up now because I am just so proud of my sissy who graduated from Nursing School in May.  I'm extremely proud of the road she has chosen, not because of anyone else, or for anyone else, but on her own.  She decided she wanted to be a nurse somewhere along the way after wandering the globe for almost two years living in Hawaii, India, and Africa for extended periods of time, after graduating high school.  Her dreams are big and it's been hard (as anyone who's gone through nursing school knows), but she's come so far.  I've watched her struggle, listened to her vent, passed along text books to her, and been giddy in excitement with her when she succeeded even in the small things, just as she did for me when I went through nursing school several years ago.  I am SO, SO happy I was able to be there and celebrate with her and spend time with the family.  I just had to throw a few pics up here to brag on her to you all :)

Congratulations Erica!

Erica with her hubby, Tyler, who has been so good to her through nursing school

And now there are two...

Lovin' from the 'rents.

We love you Erica!  Good job!

Hunting

We are the deal team.  We love a good bargain and a good sale.  Today we hit the jackpot with our neighbor.  Found a warehouse that some guy has been collecting things in and now wants to clear out.  He had EVERYTHING and it was never ending.  WWII Army jeeps, an old ambulance, top of the line light fixtures, lamps, furniture, mirrors, switches, I could go on for a while.  Most of it is things he accumulated immediately after Katrina from stores that closed and now doesn't know what to do with.
We dug and sweat and bartered and came out with quite an array of treasures:

A new chandelier, a new iron light fixture for a bathroom, two new ceiling medallions ↑

three new ceiling fans (still in the box, never touched), AND a 1970's Coke machine

(because that's totally a necessity) for a fraction of what they were originally and are still worth.
If we would have had more cash and more room in the truck we would have kept going.  We honestly had SO much fun even though we were sweating, dusty, and Scott had just gotten off his night shift.  It was a blast and we are totally hitting that place up again!

Rawhide Celebration

We were working over at the other house today and I came back to discover this....

Apparently just one rawhide is never enough when the decision is left to the dogs.  In fact, 15 of them seems to be the best.  All at once. 

Ariyah thought that by slinking into her kennel as quickly and guiltily as possible (with one tucked in her cheek), I wouldn't suspect she had anything to do with it.  

Lucy never has any shame.  Better yet, she was rather proud of figuring out how to destroy the new bag of treats and enjoy them to the fullest.  

Overdue House Update

Alright, I am having some serious issues with Blogger today, so if the movie above isn't big enough for you, click here to see it!

We've made quite a bit of progress since this was made!  Last week Scott's parents came to visit to help us and we got a ton done!  We went through and ripped ALL the old wiring, lights and outlets out from under and above the house.  It was a disaster.  Wires going everywhere, spliced into random other wires going to places that made no sense, then spliced into the old original electrical work that was first put into the house with exposed copper here and there.  A fire hazard for sure.  Scott's dad is an electrical engineer and got some construction outlets set up for us and we're ready for all the new wiring now!

Re-siding also began and we are SO happy we contracted that out.  It's turning into an even bigger project than expected and we are glad to have professionals dealing with it.

Here's what the right side of our house looks like with all the old siding off and the house exposed...

A view from the inside.  We had to go through and sister in (Yes, sister - I'm learning all the cool construction lingo, so don't mess with me.) many of the boards that had some termite damage so they are extra strong now.  That's why some of the studs look like they are cut funny. 

We got a third dumpster last week and filled it to the brim - now our backyard is the cleanest it's been (although it's still rather pathetic looking) and we're able to take the dogs over there more often while we work.

Scott's garden is going craaazy and some of his tomato plants are NINE feet tall now.  We are running out of options for staking them very quickly!  However, we are totally digging the produce we're getting out of it and Scott goes to check on it every morning - as do a few of our neighbors as well.

Fresh salad from the garden

I'll try and keep up better with all of this.  We're going through a period of slow progress now as we set up the plumbing, electric, insulation, etc before we can start sheet rocking and such.  Very important things that cost lots of money and aren't noticeable to many people besides us.  

The Beach!

Some of our good friend's parents own a home in Destin on the beach and we were invited to go down for a few days last weekend!  It's less than a four hour drive and Scott had two whole days off so we zoomed away for some R&R.  Everything was perfect!  Above is the view we enjoyed from the balcony off of the bedroom we stayed in.  We ate, drank, and were quite merry and did a whole bunch of nothing.  It was wonderful.

The Drennans and us

Fish Fry and left over crab boil for Mother's Day

We're looking forward to going back sometime soon

T-town!

I guess my posts will just be in clumps for a while when I can find a few minutes to squeeze them in.  I usually remember we have a blog when I'm exhausted and crawling into bed and really don't feel like updating anyone on our life.  But, tonight ya'll are lucky!  I've got a little time and energy!

The first weekend in May Scott was able to work some things around with his schedule and we got 5 whole days off in a row!  We packed the dogs and ourselves up in the car and took the 10hr road trip to Tulsa.

We spent a lot of time on the front porch hanging out with the fam.  Lucy has decided she's a lap dog.

We got to see the Crouches and the Crawfords before they went gallivanting away on foreign adventures to Africa and PNG

Ellen and her hubby came to town to see us!

We were able to meet new baby River

And see the other Crouches....

Aaaand, we went Skeet shooting for an evening with Scott's parents!  So much fun!

It was a lot of driving and a quick visit, but we're glad we were able to go/

Railroad Revival Tour

Springtime is here and it's outdoor music time!  This was in April and it was one of the best outdoor concerts we've been to in a while!

All three bands on stage at the end of the night together jammin' out!

Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, AND Mumford & Sons!

It will be hard to beat this one for quite a while...

This is why...

Some of you have been grumbling that our house "didn't look bad enough" to gut to the studs.  Here are a few reasons we are...

This bathroom is so small you would probably hit your chin on the sink if you tried to use the toilet.  And helllooooo!  Grossest floor ever and do you see the amount of caulk holding that sink up?!

See that floor?  Yep, rotten. The whole wall is because that window they put in cost about $38 and it leaks like a sieve.  The door is so swollen it takes major muscles to open and closing it is near impossible.

Gross.

Grosser.

Leaky window due to shoddy repair work on a gutter outside that was pulling the siding OFF the house and just letting rain pour right on in around the window.

Is that floor bowed?  Why yes, yes it is!  More water damage from a cheap window fix.

Enough caulk for you?

Now, these are just a few things, I know.  But, there was enough damage here and there throughout the house on the walls, the plumbing needs to be completely re-done, and we have some major electrical updates.  Plus we're redesigning the floor plan to change it from a double to a single, which requires moving some rooms around and knocking walls out.  If we needed to gut 80% anyways, we figured we might as well just do the job all the way and start over doing everything correctly so that we're not messing around with patch up jobs later.  We also didn't want to get almost done with an area of the house and discover some major problem, only to have to create another giant mess we weren't expecting. Might as well just start from the beginning and discover any issues that might exist, and deal with them immediately.  That's our philosophy anyways.  Hopefully it pays off.

A feast...

for the termites.  

There's a few places in our house they used to like to party.  Unfortunately for them, we're shutting the clubs down.

The House, so far

Here we go kids!  (I apologize ahead of time for the funky layout and formatting - Blogger and I got in some serious arguments trying to get all these pictures laid out.  Also, click on any of the pictures to see them bigger)

First - this is one of my favorite parts of the house - our front porch.  Right now it is dusty and so dirty, but I know it will be back to this again someday...

Another favorite feature is our new back yard!  We have so much room and the potentials are endless!  I know it doesn't look too special now, but it was even more of a dump when we bought this place.  That's the garden in that back corner - our tomatoes are almost ready and one of the pepper plants is blooming...just a few more days.

Next we're going to do some before and nows:

This is the living area on the right half side of the once-double (as in double shotgun)...yes, that is a staircase you see in the corner.  It goes outside and is so random and will be going away.

  

The studs where that wall is directly in front of the camera are coming out and this will be the living/dining/kitchen area - all open and airy, our favorite.  

The kitchen as it used to be on the right half of the house and what it looks like now - this is where the new kitchen will be as well

Scott at work when we were first getting started - some of these walls had THREE layers that needed to come out.  Cheap, icky wood paneling that was bowing, on top of sheet rock, on top of the slats and plaster. SUCH a pain and SO dusty

First room on the left side of the double before....

  

       
And the view now!  You can see all the way down the house now almost!  The bedrooms will be on this side.

And this is what the kitchen on the right side looked like - somewhat liveable.  Our favorite is the random pipe coming out of the counter and going up through the cabinet next to the sink...

We discovered beadboard in the back two rooms on both sides of the house and half way up another random room under the plaster.  We're trying to figure out what to do with it - how to use it to it's fullest potential.  The cabinets on this side were custom built in and are proving to be quite the hassle to get out.  A project for Friday I guess.  This area will be our master suite.









We're trying to decide what to do with the chimneys/fireplaces.  They are non working (illegal to burn in actually now) so are functionally pointless.  And they would be a lot of work to clean up and make pretty, and safe (they are crumbling in some areas.  However, we love the character they add all at the same time.  We have three - two in the front rooms and a small one where the original kitchens used to be

I know I skipped quite a few rooms in between, but it's hard to understand it all in pictures.  I'll keep adding more here and there as we go.