Kitchen Renovation

Here are some before and after pictures of our major home construction project. These are of the kitchen. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the kitchen before we started the demolition. Although it was so awful I suppose it wasn't worth recording. It just had a very few cabinets a stove and a fridge that barely fit in the room and were always in the way and then the bathroom was in one corner of the kitchen, obviously added later because the house was built in 1902. The addition of the bathroom made the kitchen very tiny.

I will be focusing on the south and west wall of the kitchen because that's were most of the changes have happened. Eventually we will put in island on the north wall, but I don't have any pictures of that area. You'll notice that the stove and fridge move around in the pictures since Josh was constantly moving them as he worked.

Here is the south wall completely gutted. If you'll notice the ceiling, the tan part is where the kitchen was and the blue/green color is where the bathroom was.



Here is the west wall (which is adjacent to the south wall on the left side) completely gutted.



South wall with drywall up and some wiring done.



West wall with drywall and some wiring done. In this shot the stove is where the island will approximately be.



South wall with "tray ceiling" built in and can lights in and functioning. Also most of the electric boxes now have outlets.



West wall with "tray ceiling" in progress.



Now it's really starting to take shape. Here's the south wall painted. Unfortunately the lighting is not great in this shot.



West wall with tray ceiling completed and painted.



Here is the southwest corner. I am throwing this in merely for comparison with the next shot.



Finally it looks like a real kitchen! This is the southwest corner with cabinets, stove, and refrigerator in place. We still have to put crown molding on the cabinets, get a venting microwave for over the stove and a countertop but this is looking good, no? Hard to believe that this corner is where the bathroom used to be!







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My Veteran's Day Tribute

I have been meaning to get this picture scanned in for a long time now. Unfortunately, my parent's scanner has been broken and it doesn't look like it is going to be fixed anytime soon, so I finally took a picture of this picture with a digital camera.

I took it ten years ago when I went with my parents to visit Washington D.C. We went to the Viet Nam memorial.

In this picture is my father touching the name of the man who took over his job while he was on R&R during the Viet Nam war. The man was killed. What gives me a weird feeling is that the names on the Viet Nam memorial are not in alphabetical order, but in the order each person died. So if that man had not taken my dad's place, that would have been my dad's name and I would not exist.

I particularly like that my dad's shadow is thinner, just as he was during the war. It's almost as if his present self was putting his hand on the shoulder of his past self. You can also see the reflection of the Washington monument and my reflection (just my legs) in the picture. In the 8x10 of it, you can actually read all the names on the wall in the picture.

(My dad's left hand looks white because when I snapped the digital picture of the picture the flash reflected there.)

Thanks for your service Dad! And thank you to a man named Michael Gehrt who died in his place.




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Free Makeover Pictures

Back in July I saw an ad to write a paragraph about why you deserved a makeover and if they picked yours as the winner you got a free makeover. I wrote my paragraph sent it in and didn't hear back so I assumed I'd lost. For some reason they didn't pick the winner until October and it was me!

What I won was a free cut, color and style. No makeup or nail polish or anything like that. Here's some befores and afters.

Let me warn you that since I had the first appointment of the day I took a shower the night before and slept on my wet hair. I did nothing but brush it before the pictures were taken and it looks a bit rumpled. =)

Before Front View:



Before Side View:



Before Back View: (Wouldn't you know it just minutes before my hair gets dyed I notice lots of natural highlights in this picture)



I happened to take some pictures of myself with my cell phone while I sat there with all the crazy foil things in my hair, but I don't have a way to transfer them to the computer.

I asked the lady to give me subtle highlights and together we decided on a caramel color and a red color. My husband and parents tell me it indeed looks subtle but to my "never had dyed hair before" eyes it looked about as subtle as tiger stripes to me. Seriously at first I felt like she put ketchup and mustard in my hair and I said "Oh look it matches my shirt." I was not too thrilled with the style at first but since these pictures were taken I have washed out the "straightness" and am back to my natural wave and I like how my hair looks much better with the style having waviness to it.

After Front View:



After Side View:



After Back View:



So that's what a free makeover will get you. What do you think are the highlights subtle or not?


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Lydia's 5th Birthday

My daughter turned the big 0-5 a few days ago. In some ways she is our miracle baby. After she was born she would not breathe. She had an Apgar score of 2. After she was born they put her in my arms for thirty seconds and then grabbed her back again and pushed the "code" button on the wall. Within moments, half a dozen people poured into the room, started "bagging" her so she would breathe and working on her to keep her going. Although it seemed like an eternity they finally got her breathing after a couple of minutes. They put her in the NICU for several days but she was already doing great. I was so thankful for the doctors and nurses that did such a great job on my newborn baby.

On the morning of her birthday we went to a farm where they made sorghum. Here is the old time machine pulled by a mule that they used to squeeze the juice from the sorghum cane. Although hard to see, the juice is pouring into the blue barrel. Later they will boil it for hours until it gets thick and brown. (It's actually green to begin with)



The girls also got to paint and take home a pumpkin from the sorghum farm and play on a playground there. They had a great time and we were pleased with our birthday excursion.

While Lydia and I were at the library a few days before her birthday we discovered that as well as books, the library lends cake pans! Lydia immediately chose the crown cake pan for her birthday cake. I was a little nervous about baking a shaped a cake because I have never been able to get a cake out of a pan without some of it sticking and ruining the whole thing, let alone a shaped cake. I looked up directions on the internet and learned the secret. Use non-stick spray with flour in the spray. It worked perfectly and the cake came out beautifully! The pan came with directions for unbelievably intricate decorations. There was no way I was going to spend hours frosting the cake and besides that, Lydia really wanted to help decorate it. After I baked it, I simply frosted the whole thing pink. Then I had Lydia and her little sister put M&M's all around the edges and gummy Lifesavers in the middle of each of the crown prongs for jewels. Then we put a candle in each of the five jewels. (The funny thing is I didn't realize the crown had exactly five prongs just like her age when we first got the pan) Lydia then used thin licorice to write her name and age on the cake.



Here is Lydia with the cake:



Here is Lydia in mid-blow:



Happy 5th Birthday Sweetheart!


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So, I guess I can sew.

This blog is just to show you how darling and cute my little girls are in their new dresses I made them. It all started when we went to a "free" garage sale and Sophia picked out the ruby slippers. I decided she had to have the perfect dress to wear them with and found a pattern and some blue gingham material. Of course, I dared not leave Lydia out so I let her pick her own material and made her the same dress in a larger size. This is the result:



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Lydia Starts Preschool!

Today was a great day in the annals of our family history. Lydia started school today. Her preschool is called Creation Station and is affiliated with the local Christian school. As we suspected, she loved it! We toured the school in May and it about broke her heart that she had to wait until September to go. She got dressed for school first thing this morning and kept bugging us about when it was time to leave. As I was walking to the car after dropping her off, instead of singing the Hallelujah Chorus as I expected, I started crying! I can't believe my little girl is off to school.

Here's some pictures to commemorate the event:





Here she is all dressed and backpack on at about 8 am and her preschool didn't even start until 12:30! Notice she has tennis shoes on. She learned to tie her own shoes in about an hour and she does it great. Each day for the first eight days of school the kids are going to study colors. Today is blue. Each child was supposed to wear something blue. Lydia picked this out fit out herself with that in mind.





Here's a closer view. You may notice that Lydia decided to boycott showing teeth today. There's not one picture with her pearly whites showing.





Next to the school sign.





The first thing we did was hang up her backpack in the coat room. Alphabetically by last name, she is the first student so she gets the most convenient position next to the door!





This is one of her teachers pinning her name tag on. Next stop is the sink behind to wash hands. You can see a classmate washing hands behind her.





30 seconds after walking into the main room and mom had ceased to exist. Oh well, at least she wasn't crying, wailing, and holding on to me for dear life.




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Our Newest Acquisition

It's true we bought a 59 passenger school bus. Josh did such a good job renovating the old camper we thought we'd try and convert a school bus to an RV.



It has an extra side door and a bluebird body if that means anything to you. Isn't it a beaut?

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