Snow Day!!!

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Outdoor Projects

I changed my mind and decided to post pics of the outside project. As you can see, the columns won the vote. Actually, this was a budget decision. They were just much less expensive. They have not yet been painted.

What remains to be done on this project:

• Pour the concrete walkway
• Pour the concrete side stoop
• Pour the section of driveway that has been torn up
• Put up the iron railing on the side stoop
• Replace the fence/gate
• Clean up!

The contractor says he has at most, four days of work left. The weather is going to delay those four days indefinitely though. I'm thinking no work will be done next week looking at this weather!

What we will do to "finish" the work:

• Paint the columns white
• Stain the porch swing
• Dress the front flower bed

The contractor is going to take Geoff to get a rock the size of our swing for the front flower bed, as a center piece. We're pretty pumped about getting the area landscaped. Well, that's all for now, folks!

Indoor Projects

So I decided to start an indoor project of my own. While Geoff's been working in the attic, I've been working in the study. The walls in here are atrocious. They have been an eyesore since we moved in. And the rest of the house has been looking so nice that I really wanted to get this room in shape. Plus, we recently decided to take the door off of this room to allow some light in, and that means it's very accessible/right out there in front.

Geoff picked out the wallpaper with me. Up close it looks like a grass mat. It's a good fit for our house, and it's somewhat textured which works well to cover up the crazy drywalls in this room.

I was gung ho for this project when I first started it yesterday morning, thinking I would also wallpaper the hallway. Not anymore! Wallpapering by yourself is really difficult and time consuming and messy. We're both thrilled with the end product, but I'm not likely to start another wallpaper job anytime soon.

I'll add another picture of this room when it stops raining and we can move the furniture in and all of that...

A Smorgasboard Post

So life has been busy lately and I was trying to think of a way to catch everyone up on things. I decided to steal an idea from Cricker's Live Journal blog and create a list. So here's everything I can think of needing an update in no particular order:

1. My co-worker Summer delivered a healthy baby boy yesterday. This means I am now working full time and trying to cover as much of both of our jobs as possible. I'm sure I'll post more on how this is going after I adjust. Let's just say this was the most hectic day I've had in a long, long time. Can you tell from the picture that there's a bit of a gleam in my eye? Here's hoping the Lord blesses us with our own bundle of joy in 2008!

2. For the sake of building up to the dramatic reveal, I've decided not to post anymore pictures of the porch for the moment. The finished product should be available in about a week to two weeks, so that's not too long to ask you to wait. I will likely post pictures of other parts of the project, but not of the porch itself. So you'll all just have to wait to see whether the iron or columns won out.

3. Geoff's motorcycle is back - hallelujah - and just in time for the weather to turn cold again. They are even talking like we might have some snow this week (a big deal since it's been at least 5 years since Auburn last saw snow of any kind). We are going tonight to get him a little better prepared for riding in the cold. (He drove the other night without gloves or a face mask and that was too much!) Now if only we had a place to put the motorcycle when he's not actually on it!

4. I passed my Series 66 licensing and am now a fully licensed General Securities Registered Representative and a fully licensed Investment Advisor Representative. This was perfect timing as I needed the license prior to Summer going on maternity leave and she had the baby early. Boy am I glad to be finished studying!

5. Happy birthday to me. In anticipation of celebrating my 27th birthday (holy cow - I can't possibly be that old yet!), we went ahead and got my birthday present - a new sofa. The picture doesn't do it justice (it came from my camera phone), so I'll post another soon. I've been thinking of doing a slideshow of my house, a little tour, when we finish a few more projects.

6. We've been informed by my former neighbor who has been indicted on murder charges that we will be subpoenaed for the murder trial at the end of February. We have no idea who actually did this or who to believe. I continue to maintain a friendship with my neighbor, who is just a year older than me and has four children. We will be visiting her in jail in a few weeks and are looking forward to hearing the whole story at the trial, just so that we can put it all behind us and clear up all of the confusion (hopefully).

And finally (for today)...

7. Geoff's family is all in Auburn now. His dad is officially buying a trailer nearby, and his sister's family is settled into their jobs, schools, and home here. I decided to include a funny photo of taking my nephews and niece to Wal-Mart the other day. The legs belong to Matthew, age 7. I wasn't so sure about everyone moving here, but so far it has been great to be able to spend time with my nephews and niece and sister-in-law.

Not my project...

So last night I offered to help Geoff with the attic because his hired help (Dad) had been detained elsewhere. I didn't really want to help because I was really tired. And as helpful as an attic is, and as happy as I am about him doing this project, I did not feel like this was the appropriate timing for such a venture, so have made it clear that this is not my project.
Geoff thought this was a cute picture of me last night - yes, we vaccuumed the attic! I think it makes my face look fat, but oh well. None of us is ever really all that satisfied with pictures of ourselves are we?
Anyway, at some point, there was an attic fan in this house which sucked a bunch of dust up into the attic. I cleaned all the dust I could get off the rafters last night. Also, in all those trash bags from cleaning up here, are what appeared to be two bales of pinestraw - well, one of pinestraw and one of hay. We have no idea what they were doing up here. In one of them last night we found four very old bird eggs. I think they're robin eggs, Geoff's going to check.
Tonight I have praise team rehearsal, so no attic duties for me, and my head is so stuffy that that is a very good thing! This weekend Geoff's Dad will be back to help him out, and I will be turning my attention to putting Geoff's man room together. More on that project later... Right now I'd better finish getting ready for work!

My 100th Post!

In honor of my 100th post, I've decided to add a new page element to my blog. If you check the sidebar under my pic and "about me" blurb, I have added a "recipe of the month." This month the recipe comes from my Nene, my Dad's mom. It's a favorite from my childhood. (By the way, serve the stew over rice).

I'd love to encourage any and all of my readers who are interested to do a similar something - to post a recipe once in awhile for the rest of us to check out. I've already got enough great quick and easy dishes to last the year on my blog.

Well, happy reading! Happy New Year! And remember, if you make the stew - No peeping!

My Christmas Present

This is not the greatest picture, because I took it at a weird hour and the lighting was difficult. But I wanted to use this one so that you could not only get a picture of my porch swing, but you could also take a look at some of the craftsmanship of the work that's been done on this porch. I wish I had taken some more detail pictures of what was there before, because you wouldn't believe the difference in quality!

Needless to say, I'm thrilled to have the swing up. And the porch supports will be in on Thursday, which means by the end of the week, I'll have a completely functional porch. I'm not going to tell you which type of supports won out between the columns and the cast iron. You'll know when I post a picture on Friday, so be on the lookout.

Also, take a look at the brickmasonry on this porch. Isn't it beautiful?? The color of the concrete looks splotchy still. They say it takes about 10 days in the winter to dry and even out in tone. Also, we will be staining the swing in the not too distant future.

As you have seen from my other posts, we have taken on some big home projects lately indoors, so who knows when we'll be done (and I've updated the attic slideshow, so take another look for more photos). All I can say about having a "starter" home is that they're right - you definitely start the home, it's the stopping that's a problem. It seems we're always working on one thing or another.

I'm really happy about all of the choices that we've made, though. Our home is not only a great investment of our time and money, it's a real home for both of us, full of all the things that make having a home worth all the blood, sweat and tears that go into working on a house. :)

More Home Projects *Updated*

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Funny Feet

So at first I thought that socks with defined toes would be really uncomfortable and odd. They look strange enough! But then I realized how nice it is to be able to wear socks with my fuzzy slippers on a cold wood floor on these winter nights! Thought I'd share. Geoff is always amazed at my crazy socks, largely because I rarely bother to wear two of a kind...

Warm and Dry and Time to Pour

Well, I wouldn't really call 45 degrees warm, but apparently above freezing will work for pouring concrete. So the temps are right and the weather is right (no rain for the weekend) and lo and behold around 2:30 PM I heard the unmistakeable sound of a concrete truck (beep beep beep) backing up into my front yard.

I really wanted to go out and video this process. It took less than an hour. The most amazing part was watching the cement truck back right up to the window. I thought he was going to come right on into the house! But, yes, folks, we have a front porch. Now I just have to find out how long concrete takes to dry, so we can hang my new porch swing out there!

More work being done

After a nice long Christmas break, the contractor got back to work on the house, getting the porch all ready to pour concrete. Unfortunately, the weather turned too cold to pour the concrete yet, so we're still waiting. One thing you wouldn't have seen from the Christmas video in my last post is that Geoff got me a PORCH SWING for Christmas!!! I'll definitely post pics of that when the porch is up and running!

Our little Christmas

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