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.

House Work

We are over half way done with gutting everything down to the studs.  It's exhausting but SO satisfying.  I will try and post a few pictures tonight...

Should I start a new blog just for the house?  Anyone even care or interested?

Birthdays!

Today is my lova's Birthday.  His 28th.  He's such an old man :)

We had a little surprise party for him in the neighbor's back yard and it was the perfect evening for grilling out.  Wendy (another one of our awesome neighbors) baked a FABULOUS Champagne cake for him and some of our dearest friends came out to celebrate.

In additional news, we closed on our second mortgage today and now have a line of credit on the "new" house. We can now start the gutting and remodeling!  If you're looking for us this weekend, you will probably find us hard at work over there tearing walls out.

Mmmm

The homemade chicken pot pie I made for dinner

It didn't make the headache go away, and it sure didn't help with the heat factor in our house, but it did seem to make things better all around sitting on the porch eating it with Scott.  I'll count it as a win.

Manic Monday

It's gloomy, windy, and the hottest, most humid weather yet this year, due to a big old storm cruising our way.  Scott's sleeping his night shift off before heading out to another one (meaning I've been tiptoeing around, not playing music, having hushed phone conversations, and constantly scolding noisy dogs).  I started term two of midwifery school and have a wicked headache.  I think I'm ready for Tuesday now, thank you.

Spring Break

On Tuesday morning I flew up to Chicago to visit Scott's brother and our sister-in-law.  We've been wanting to go see them and figured we'd better squeeze it in while I had a few days off.  Unfortunately Scott got stuck here with work, and then a sinus infection and bad flights.

Kinzie (2 1/2 yrs) and "her babies"

I love being an Auntie and it was great to be able to spend almost three days with the family loving on my nieces and the new twinsies.  Kurt and Adrienne brought home preemie twins from the hospital about five weeks ago they are foster parenting. I really am so impressed and don't know how they do it every day.  To give them a little break, I got up with the babies on the nights I was there to feed them, change them, and let everyone else get a little sleep.  Now, I've done this at various times with babies over the last few years for friends or when I nannied in college, but two infants, who are still playing catch up in the growth department (and take for.ever to eat, it seems like) are a completely different story!  We all survived though and actually got some sleep.  I definitely got my baby fix for a little while, but still felt like the visit flew by almost too quickly.  

Becca and I went on a little date to see a movie together

Me with all the kiddos

Angel and Michael

Our good friend Ellen came into town last weekend.  We ate lots of delicious food and enjoyed our beautiful spring weather to the fullest.  We wandered our neighborhood porch sale event on Saturday morning and found all sorts of wonderful deals for our new house.  Cypress columns that I went and bartered for and got quite the deal on, a beautifully redone 1920's pedestal sink for one of the guest bathrooms, a set of shutters, and a gorgeous window (cypress frame, glass, and all) for free.
We spent two evenings on our "new" front porch with neighbors and other friends eating wedding cake (sometimes our neighbor has a "disaster" when making her cakes and we all reap the benefits) and fried chicken and drinking wine.
On Saturday we went to the NCAA Elite Eight Basketball game here in town and watched the Butler Bulldogs beat Florida State.

For Ellen's last evening in town we went down to the Marigny and enjoyed dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Adolfo's, before ending the evening at our favorite little Jazz spot, The Spotted Cat.  It was the perfect kick-off for this break!

D-O-N-E!

Stick a fork in me kids!  I am DONE!  Today I successfully finished my first term of midwifery school!  We don't have semesters, but go year round completing four terms per year.  This means that if I keep this rate up, I will be done with my program in exactly two years from now!!!!  I'm feeling pretty good and quite happy!

NOW for my 10 day vacation from school!  :)  Our friend Ellen is coming to visit from Oklahoma for the weekend, so it's time for me to clean this severely neglected house up and wash our stinky dogs.  And really, I don't mind at all!  Anything is better than school at this point.

Hello!  We're still alive!  Just so busy we don't even know what to do with ourselves.  In the last two weeks here's a brief run-down of what we've been up to.  I promise I will start blogging again one day....

• We closed on the house and own it now!  It happened within six days of when we made our offer and much craziness, but we are happy everything went through alright!
• We applied for, were appraised for, and were accepted (last night!) for a line of credit to use towards construction so we can completely renovate the house and hopefully move in by November
• We are getting bids from various people to replace all the siding on the house.
• We have shopped for and set up Homeowners Insurance - who knew this was such a big deal in New Orleans???  Katrina was an unkind girl to that policy, but we're happy to own in an area which has not flooded since New Orleans became a city.
• I have learned how to wield a chain saw.  We've cut down two trees and numerous big rebel branches and so far no one has been hurt.  Thank the Lord.  Scott makes me nervous with that thing.  
• We've ripped out the nasty, old, stubborn fence that went down the middle of the new yard and cleaned up various amounts of garbage we discovered under the two foot layer of leaves/mulch that has been untouched back there for several years.  It will be excellent compost for our garden :)
• Speaking of gardens...we've planted one in our new yard.  And built a fence around it to keep the dogs out.  It's a big garden.  In two months we will have more tomatoes and various other veggies than we will know what to do with. 
• We survived Mardi Gras and had a blast!  We are paraded out though.  Whew.
• I am finishing my first term of nurse-midwifery school and trying to do that without completely getting my butt kicked.  This is a lot of work!  I can't wait for next Friday when I start my 10 day break, before diving into Term 2 in April!
• Elena is here right now visiting for a spur of the moment spring break trip - we're not doing anything too exciting (thank you school), but it's nice to have her around.
• We are training to run a 10k (6.2miles) at the end of April.  Health needs to stay a top priority, even though running is the LAST thing I want to do most days.

Sound like we've been busy enough??? I go to bed exhausted each night, but we are happy and doing well.

Fat Tuesday

To most of the rest of you this is just another Tuesday.  However, down here, in glorious New Orleans, the kids are out of school for the day, most businesses are closed down, and we're dressing up to head out to the parades in costume to celebrate   

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Our 2nd Anniversary

Today is a big day!  It marks two years of marriage for Scott and I.  It also marks our induction into the world of HOMEOWNERS to this house:

After a whirlwind 48 hours we never could have foreseen, the offer was accepted this morning for us to buy this house - three doors down from where we live now.  We never dreamed this moment would come so quickly or abruptly, but we are riding the waves of enthusiasm, shock, awe, and God's hand in it all.  We are taking on a huge project as this place needs to be completely renovated, but we will now have the funds to do it (pending the construction loan going through) as we have been blessed to get this house at much less than we thought possible.  We are wandering around our current house not quite sure what to do with ourselves, but so happy!

We are in San Pedro, on Lake Atitlan and this is the view from our balcony this morning.  

We spent two nights in Santa Cruz and then came here by boat yesterday morning.  We love this city.  It is quiet, and everyone is friendly, and we have discovered a pool (the water in the lake is preeeeetty cold (Approx 72F) making it a little uncomfortable to swim in - although the kids around here could care less).  There are plenty of little bakeries and shops and restaurants and everything is cheap, which seems to make all things more fun.  We are enjoying our usual traveling activities which include, but are not limited to, lots of reading, buying fresh fruit and avacados and treats off of as many little street vendors as possible, laying around and talking for hours, people watching, applying and reapplying sunscreen of the lowest SPF we think we can stand so we will still tan through it, living in our swim suits, sipping smoothies, and pestering each other.  Only two days left of complete relaxation and then we have to head home.

Finally made a decision...

and the country isssss.....Guatemala!!!

We arrived in Guatemala City after dark last night and got a shuttle to Antigua.  We had no guidebook for this country (although we had one for three other countries we had thought of as possibilities), but found a great little hostel (Hostel Cinco), got some dinner, and passed out in our bunk beds.  Today at breakfast we met a woman who is leaving and bought her Lonely Planet book right off of her and are so happy to have it to scour over for wonderful little places to explore.

First on the list seems to be Lake Atitlan, which is in the middle of a mountain that was once volcanic.  It is supposed to be stunning and we are excited!  For now though, this is the view just outside our door, off the roof of our hostel.

The mountain to the right still erupts "about every other day", but apparently we missed it as it happened two days ago.  

Adventure

Today we are acting as indecisively and freely as we can.  We are leaving the country and still literally have NO idea where we are going.  We met our friends Ben and Abby in Dallas last night, spent the night here, and today we are basically frolicking off to the airport and randomly picking a country to disappear to for the next 5 days.  The only requirements are sun, a beach, and a chill atmosphere.  It's going to be epic.

A week late....

Congratulations to Beau and Rachel Admire!  

They had a fabulous wedding at Latrobe's - a gorgeous, historic building in the French Quarter.  Every one of the second year residents Scott works with were granted the weekend off and we all had a blast!   Rachel was stunning, and everyone else cleaned up to look pretty smokin' hot as well.

Almost all the residents in Scott's class

All the ladies - doctors, wifeys, and girlfriends

Hope you two are having a great honeymoon!  And are blessed with a wonderful marriage!

P.S.  Here's the lovely Croquembouche, which is how Scott's messy shirt came about, after it was disassembled and drizzled with chocolately goodness.  Sweet heaven, it was sooo good though!  I'm needing some just thinking about it again!

I think we had a good time?

Today I have discovered little tiny drips of chocolate sauce scattered and smudged here and there, all over the shirt my husband wore to the wedding we went to on Saturday night.  Part of this, I believe, is due to the fact that my husband is clumsy, excitable eater and will drip on his shirts without fail, unless wearing a bib (I am often tempted to carry an adult size one in my purse, but resist and instead turn to my best friend Oxyclean).  The smudges on his back must be from others - and by others, I mean there is only a small chance they could be from me.  I have decided this means the Croquembouche was just so entirely tastey we felt the need to bring a memory of it home with us.  Makes for a crappy Tuesday morning though, trying to get it all out.

Snow Days

We are back from another great get-away!  We were able to sneak away to New Mexico to see our good friends, the Youngs.  It's been almost six months since we last saw them and we were finally able to meet Hudson!  Who is the cutest, happiest, chubbiest little bear ever.  As you can see here:

They drove in from Texas and met us in Santa Fe at the airport before we all drove up to Taos.  We rented an amazing house off of VRBO and set up camp with a glorious view of the mountains out of all our windows.  The boys spent as much time snowboarding as they could, while we girls shopped and explored the village of Arroyo Seco and a few fun little places in Taos, with Hudson.

When we first arrived, we were surprised by the balmy 70 degree, sun shiney weather, but that quickly changed after about a day and we got 8-9inches of powder dumped on us - the boys were in heaven.

Jess and I got out and skiied for one day while the boys were on baby duty....

It was a MUCH better experience than the other time I tried skiing when I was 13 (which may or may not have involved numerous incidences of sliding backwards and sideways down all hills into the nearest solid object, several awkward displays of the splits, a fight with the orange snow fence that grabbed me and tangled my skis & poles up, and falling off the J-bar lift only to get knocked in the back of the head by the next J-bar that snuck up behind me).  This time I took an actual lesson and can now stay in the upright position and turn and stop when on a mountain and strapped into those long, skinny, slippery buggers!!  I only had one major incident that involved me "stopping" while Stuart, the instructor, was yelling at me from the base of the hill.  It all ended with me skiing right into a building and knocking the wind out of myself, along with a movable panel on the building, much to everyone's horror.  The bruise on my ribs is turning a lovely purple today, but I'm fine other than that.  

All in all the time flew and nobody was quite ready for vacation to be over Wednesday.  After 14hrs of travel (due mostly to delays from flights because of the biggest snowstorm America acts like it has ever seen) we finally rolled into our house around 2:30am and were happy to be in our own warm, comfy bed.  I'm now playing catch up with school and Scott's back to saving lives in the ER, but before I leave you, here are a few more pics.

The view from our bed - day one

View from our patio while the mountains were being covered in powder

Scott and Jessica in the snow

The boys in the Hot Tub - where we spent every single evening after dinner.

Lovin' on Hudson

Money Saving in the Dog Department

We've been getting really frustrated with Ariyah's sleeping arrangements.  She treats her beds like she treats stuffed animals: they must DIE.
First, she shows them who's boss.  Lays on them.  Rearranges them a little in her kennel.  Gives them a low grrrrrrowl or two.  As they start to fear her, she reassuringly licks them to draw them in and make them think she loves them and will never hurt them.  Then, when they are least expecting it, she really gives it to them.  This is the skinning process.  A little hole is chewed, an eyeball or other embellishment removed, and bit by bit ALL the stuffing MUST come out!  AS.AP.
The only way to keep a bed alive with her is to keep it out of her kennel.  Which defeats the whole purpose of a bed.  We've scolded.  We've punished.  We tried wrapping the last one in two old sheets to protect the layer before the stuffing, but it did nothing.  She ripped right through those sheets and every morning or time we came home to her, new amounts of stuffing would be scattered all over her kennel and bursting through the holes to the outside.
We are going out of town this weekend, and I was so embarrassed to show up at the kennel with her bedding in the condition it was.  We had to figure something out as buying her dog beds has proved to be worthless and expensive.
SO, we zoomed off to Discount Thrift USA - the classiest of all thrift stores, I must assure you - and found some blankets!  Nice big, ugly colored, slightly worn blankets.  For $2.52 each.  She will tear a little hole in blankets here and there, but doesn't have the drive to destroy them like stuffed beds.
We brought them home, threw out alllll of her old messy bedding and washed the new blankets in hot water with some bleach, just to kill any lurking little critters that might enjoy their new found home at our house.  Last night she slept just fine in her new nest, and doesn't seem to mind the change at all.

We also found this treasure, which the girls have been thoroughly enjoying, as I will let you see for yourself: