Our Old House

20 weeks

2009-12-29T17:22:00.005-06:00

Wow, can't believe we're half way through already! We had our big "make sure everything looks alright" ultrasound on December 28th... and the preliminary results are that everything for mom and baby looks great! Below are the latest pics:

Profile pic, including button nose!

Good looking spine and brain.

Likes to sit cross-legged like mom...

Tiny feet!

Guess we need to seriously be thinking about baby names now....

Our Christmas Letter is below for 2009 for those that didn't get a copy for some reason. Lots to look forward to in 2010!!

"Dear Friends and Family:

Warmest wishes this holiday season, as we hope this letter finds you well. As many of you have also experienced, 2009 has had its “ups and downs”. We feel blessed in many ways that we are ending the year on an “up swing.” We have always said that no matter the big things that happen - good or bad - it’s the little things that make life special. Having you as part of our lives has helped us make it through our rough patches.

John’s year has had some of those big life events. John’s dad, David Horton, was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and had a prolonged recovery period. His brother, Pat Horton, had his first son (Luke) in January prematurely. His school was one of the ones listed as closing in 2010. However, the year has turned around – the school is staying open, and Luke and David are both doing well. John was determined to run a marathon this year, so he ran the Red Wing ½ Marathon this August. And John’s new favorite place – the TCF Bank Stadium, home of the U of M Gophers Football team – opened this fall. This latest group of 5^th graders has been quite a behavioral challenge, but everyone, including John, is finally getting into the groove of things.

Last spring break, we decided to relax a bit after this stressful start to the year and enjoy some sunshine – in Kauai HI! We never imagined that we would get to travel there at our young age. It was beautiful, and we’re already saving for “next time.” We went through Hawaii withdrawal so bad that we have a whole section on iTunes with cheesy Hawaiian music. J We also took a quick jaunt to Denver in June to see Becky’s Aunt Judy and her family. Finally, we were treated when the Horton extended family came into town, which was capped off by Gopher game in November.

Becky continues to work at Fairview’s Acute Rehab. Continuing education classes have taken up some time this year, and she has been focusing on her clinical instruction skills (she had three more students to mentor, and volunteered at a free-clinic run by students). She has continued to work on some of her “off” days at Ofstead as a Research Associate – being paid to be a geek and read tons of research articles.

Although we are both satisfied with our accomplishments and experiences this year, we are most proud by the expectant birth of our first child in May 2010. We have been trying to start a family for some time, and feel blessed that we are now able to bring a child into the world. In some ways, it seems as if our lives have been on hold for the past few years, and this is what we have been waiting for. Soon we will start to put together a nursery and sign up for prenatal classes. “Baby Who” is the name for now, because we don’t know “who it is” quite yet…. And we can’t wait to meet him/her!

Much love,

Becky & John Horton"

15 weeks

2009-11-21T07:15:00.003-06:00

Hello all!

Went in for the 15 week checkup yesterday, meeting another of the midwives in our practice at Riverside. She said that both I and the munchkin are growing appropriately. She had a hard time (again) getting the heartbeat on doppler- "I can hear you moving! Now stop for just a minute so I can get your heartrate..." (It ended up being in the 160's again.) We've got a mover and a shaker, apparently. Maybe it's better I can't feel it moving around quite yet... it is sitting/squirming on my bladder.

I had my first non-direct colleague ask if I was pregnant yesterday as well. Pretty exciting to be able to say "yes!"

We have the big 20 week ultrasound the week between Christmas and New Years.... not sure if we're going to find out the gender or not. John and I keep swapping opinions! :-) Either way, we should have pictures to post. I can't wait to see our little Who again!

Thanks again for all of your love and good wishes!

Desparately in need of an update!

2009-10-17T07:57:00.003-05:00

Sorry to those that have been trying to keep up with us for nearly the past year on this Blog. The truth of the matter is that our life got pretty intense for a while there, and I'm sure will get more so soon enough!

We were struggling through infertility. We've been trying to start our family for years now, and we finally got hooked up with the Reproductive Medicine Center at Fairview. About the time our posts stopped, we were getting poked, prodded, loaded up with all different kinds of hormones, procedures completed, and it finally all came to a head with IVF this summer.

Luckily, were were blessed with success on the first round with a pregnancy that is now 10 weeks old! On October 2nd we got to see the first pics of our future child. Yesterday we had our first appointment with a midwife where it was confirmed that we have an active little bugger (doing lots of squirming and backflips), and that there is just one in there (2 embryos were transferred). We didn't get any new ultrasound pics this week, but here are the ones from week 8:

The "close-up" - bottom near the top, head pointing down

A view of the spine (the black line down the middle)

A heartbeat! 167 bpm!

We are very excited as we watch our family grow, one day at a time. Estimated date of arrival is May 14, 2010!

Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-23T09:35:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends and Family:

Warmest wishes this holiday season, as we hope this letter finds you well. It has been another wonderful year on our end, as we have shared new experiences and taken on new challenges. Between the house, travel, and work, we have made 2008 a very busy year!

Our house on Michigan Street has brought us many headaches over the years, but it seemed like 2008 was our best year in the house. In January we found that we had a hole in our second floor ceiling that was leaking air into our attic, which was the main cause for the house being so cold. It was also shocking that we didn’t have insulation on the second floor at all! So with that fixed, and the asphalt slab removed and replaced with a brick driveway, our nightmare house is becoming our dream home. We plan to work on the 20 years of finishing touches next, but we do look forward to them.

Our travels this year have taken us across the country. We both went to Nashville this spring and got to see some of the “South,” including the emergency room! Becky went to Georgia to work on a vestibular certification, which is the study of balance and the inner ear. She was there for a week of learning, but didn’t see much of Atlanta due to her studies. John was busy traveling this year as well, as he went on a baseball tour of 6 cities in 7 days with his older brother Michael. Becky was also east in Virginia this year having a “Girls weekend” with her friends from PT school. We have spent time camping and visiting South Dakota on mini-trips, but we look forward to March when we both have spring break off. It may be a trip to Roseville this year with the economy, but at least we’ll travel together!

Becky has been busy with work on Fairview’s Acute Rehab. She mentored 3 students this past year. The days are busy, the patients challenging, and her coworkers great friends. She returned to Ofstead as a research associate – her old college job. She enjoys the challenge and spontaneity of the work, not to mention her fabulous team!

John is working hard for his 5^th grade classroom this year. However, he has made attempts to cut back. He directed two plays, was nominated for a teaching award, taught summer school, and is teaching afterschool classes now. He still loves going to work, and his green and gold hair will prove it (see the Shutterfly pics)!

Stay healthy and warm, as we keep you all in our thoughts this holiday season. We hope you had a wonderful 2008, and we are excited about spending 2009 in your company.

All our best,

Becky & John Horton

http://jbhorton05.blogspot.com

Random thoughts

2008-12-07T10:44:00.002-06:00

I have the best hubbie ever. He surprised me with a Bread & Chocolate Chocolate Croissant this morning.
I am avoiding folding the laundry that has been sitting in the basket since Wednesday.
Looking forward to shopping at Borders as soon as J gets ready.
Slowly contemplating my introductory coaching questions that need to be emailed out by Tuesday. Did I mention that I am starting professional coaching?
Loving the big fluffy snowflakes that are coming down.
Christmas is really here.

Update on Fall

2008-11-16T16:39:00.003-06:00

Hello all!

So sorry that the Fall completely got away from me. Winter has arrived in Minnesota this last week. We had 70s as recently as 10 days ago... but the coin has flipped, and we've been waking up to white stuff on the car almost every day. It has been melting off, but we all know that won't last for much longer!

The fall was very busy with various projects: campaigning for the Democrats (hurray, hurray on the outcome of that!), trip to Virginia for Becky, car trip to South Dakota for both, 3 weddings (one in Texas), ending of a PT student clinical, several Gopher football games, and WICKED at the Orpheum last Wednesday. Not to mention completion of some outdoor house projects, preping the house for winter, craft completion, and the usual work stuff. Whew! My brother taught me how to knit last week... no rest of learning for the weary!

For those that would like to see John's only play this school year, Anansi the Spider, it is playing at 7p on 11/18 & 19 at Lincoln Elementary in Anoka. Email me if you'd like to carpool.

We are looking into taking the plunge of buying another car. So far in the running are Toyota Corolla and Matrix. Unfortunately it seems like the premium cost of buying a hybrid does not pay off in equal gas savings over the life of the car. Maybe the financial crisis will balance that out.... if you have other suggestions of vehicles to look at, drop me a line.

Since it's unlikely that I'll write again before Thanksgiving, I wish you all the best for the beginning of the holiday season. We are thankful for all that you all have done for us over the last year. You all are truly the best gifts that we can recieve.

Stay warm! :-)

Fall weather

2008-09-14T16:53:00.003-05:00

Hello again!

After a few months of heat, we are back into our favorite season: Fall. The 2nd half of summer was a whirlwind of travel (John to the East for a baseball park trip, Becky to Illinois, and both camping) and outdoor house project completion (for the most part!). There's something very refreshing about a lazy rainy weekend.... it forces you to sit in the house and tackle some projects you've been meaning to do. Like wash the kitchen floor, change the sheets, and catch up on some reading. While perusing the stack of magazines on our coffee table, it was discovered that John is famous once again! Check it out! http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0809/futuretense.html -- he's the last comment under Politics.

Not much else to announce, other that it's going to be a very busy 4 weeks, so please excuse us if we don't communicate too much!

Summer is half way over!

2008-07-12T21:28:00.013-05:00

Yes, it's true. For those that are tied to the school calendar, summer is half way over already. What a 1st half it has been!

First, an apology. Yes, Horton Clan, I did intend on getting updated pictures of our house on this blog sooner than July 12th. But, as you all know, things always get delayed until the "next" project is done. To heck with the next project... I have decided to embrace the moment and take pictures of where we're at. You will have to wait until the end of the blog for this pics, however.

Second, a quick summary of the 1st half of summer:

Horton mini-reunion in Geneva, IL the last weekend of May. Tons of fun, wish we could have stayed longer. J and Mimi became big fans of Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee.

Let the house projects begin! (June 7-July 12)

"Naturalized" boulevard from previous owner is removed - sod placed down instead
J & B move who knows how much limestone from back and side yards to the asphalt slab. It gets posted on Craig's list, and most of it is gone for free!
B installs back screen door
J builds faux foundation under a part of the addition that overhung the foundation
J tears out sidewalk along side of house
B builds retaining wall for 2/3 of back yard
Vegetable garden goes in - tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers, snow peas, and pumpkins!
Big, ugly asphalt slab is removed by some very skilled hands and a Bobcat
Tree stumps ground up in front and back yards
J hauls in who knows how many yards of dirt into front yard and lays down sod
B&J Rewiring of bathroom to separate out fan and light - new fixtures for each
Area framed out for new brick lined driveway, and bricks laid in 90 degree heat on June 11 by B & J... only to find out we were 1/4" off by the time we got to the concrete slab. Shifted every brick back, resulting in doing the project essentially twice.
On June 12, framed area for new walkway to front porch steps, which required removal of concrete slab by J. Moved gravel from new rain garden site to walkway, and dirt from walkway to rain garden.

In the meantime...

B cleaned up the Mississippi on June 12 - the unusual things that our group found were what seemed to be a dehumidifier, and a safe the size of a 2-drawer filing cabinet (without the front).
J traveled to Milwaukee for a baseball trip June 13-15
The smokestack of the old coal power plant came down on June 28. It was a great Implosion Breakfast Party! (Unfortunately, B needed to run to work as soon as the stack came down.)

Summer school started for J on June 23... as of now, he only has 12 days left.

J has been a great "house husband" (as you can tell by the large list of house projects he has accomplished)... he's even been baking cookies for my co-workers. Too bad for all of our waist lines that J's cookies are really good....

Okay, now the house pictures!

Parking spot before....

Front of the house now (sorry it's so dark - will try to get a better one soon!)

John's faux foundation

Part of Becky's retaining wall (with strawberry patch on left!)

More of the retaining wall...

Vegetable garden, with Compost Tumbler (B's b-day present from J! Love it!)

Kitchen nook - nothing new here

Kitchen - pantry and nook to right, nothing new

Another view of the kitchen

Downstairs bath - new fixtures

Living room moved to the "green room", AKA old office

Dining room - being used as storage for misc projects

Front room/office (2 years ago we were just getting these nice new floors put in....)

The bedroom is too much a mess to be photographed! Stay tuned... big projects there!

The plan for tomorrow... finish the front walkway to the porch (brick work similar to the driveway), start prep-ing the rain garden to go in the pile of dirt that is between the driveway and the walkway.

Yes, we know how to have fun! :-)

One last note (for you poor soul that is still reading) - there will be a new member of the extended Horton family around March 2009.... Emily (Pat's wife) is expecting!

Clean up the Mississippi, and other green activities

2008-05-08T14:37:00.002-05:00

Hello you Twin Cities residents!

What are you doing on June 12th? Well, if the answer is "nothing", then sign up to go pick up the good ol' Miss! www.mndnr.gov/adoptriver Sounds like tons of fun to me!

On another hand, John and I went to the Green Living Expo at the MN State Fairgrounds last weekend. There are lots of fairly affordable things that we can do to clean up the environment/reduce our carbon footprint.

A few things that were learning about were:

Rainbarrels or raingardens
Composting (just got mine in the mail!)
Solar panels
Electric car (check out the Zenn or Clean Ride)
Biking more - May 14th is Twin Cities Bike or Walk to Work Day

Enjoy being green!

Gasoline Pump Facts - a forwarded email

2008-05-03T09:57:00.003-05:00

Not sure how much of this is true - but given the cost of gasoline, it certainly couldn't hurt to try!

"I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $4.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A one degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle e to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

WHERE TO BUY USA GAS, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW,READ ON.

Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we grumbled about it. It might even be good for us! The Saudis are boycotting American goods. We should return the favor. An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS.

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the S Saudis. Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.

I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell............................. 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco.......... 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil................ 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco............................62,231,000 barrels

Citgo gas is from South America, from a Dictator who hates Americans. If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION! (oil is now $90 - $100 a barrel)

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco.................0 barrels
Conoco.................0 barrels
Sinclair..................0 barrels
BP/Phillips............0 barrels
Hess.....................0 barrels
ARCO..................0 barrels

If you go to Sunoco.com, you will get a list of the station locations near you.

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing."

Yea Spring!

2008-04-24T15:08:00.003-05:00

All sorts of craziness has been happening at our household. We moved our more sitting room to the front of the house (the "poker table green" room), and the office/library to near our bedroom. The use of space is much better now, but still not perfect.

Our neighbors started popping out of their homes again - in a few months those kids really can grow! We all enjoyed the 60 degree weather and raked out our gardens, and made big landscaping plans. A backhoe or similar may be rented this summer to complete various neighborhood jobs. I'll keep you posted!

We had an energy audit, and we appalled by the amount of air leaking out of our house. And so today we have a company blowing in more insullation and repairing a giant hole that we unknowingly had in the upstairs furnace room that was sucking hot air from our living space to the attic. Hopefully our heating bills will be a little bit better starting in the fall.

Here's our neighborhood official sign of spring:

The ceremonial burning of our Christmas tree! Last year we weren't prepared with a hose, and it was a bit windier. This year, it didn't seem too likely that we'd burn down the neighbor's garage! Hurray!

Of course, it's predicted to snow this weekend. *sigh*

Democratic Process

2008-03-09T13:25:00.002-05:00

Last weekend John and I had the opportunity to be delegates at the DFL Minnesota Senate District 65 Caucus. For those of you that haven't experienced the democratic process at this level, here's how it ran on March 1.

We arrived at Humbolt HS at about 8:30a in order to register and get ready for the start time of 9a. Of course, like all other parts of this process, it seems that the lines were longer and slower this year due to an increase in volume of participation. We got special tags to identify which precinct section we were to sit in, and entered the auditorium.

We had a large packet of resolutions to read and vote on whether they would be passed on to our Congressional District and State Caucuses - 109 of them. Many were very similar, so you needed to select which wording you preferred.

Although this sounds daunting, it was a nice distraction while the usual business of the Senate District was going on. It took 3 hours from the time we started (10a) to when we got through all of the standard business of electing secretary, treasurer, judges, etc. for our little section of the DFL. All of this was passed with auditory voting of "yes" or "no".

The really fun part of the day was the sub-caucuses. Thirty or so people lined up at microphones and announced the issues that they cared most about - "Hillary for Women" "Jack N-P for Peace" "Al Franken for the Middle Class" and on and on. At the end of all of the registering, spaces were identified for each, and we all had 15 mins to run around, listen to the sub-caucus person talk about their issues, and then attach ourselves to one. At the end of 15 mins, the sub-caucuses that did not have a viable number (I think ours was 25 people - a certain % of attendees), were dissolved.

On the 2nd round of 15 mins, some sub-caucuses negotiated with others to absorb more people, and thus earn more delegates to the CD 4 and State Conventions. This was particularly important for electing a DFL Senate Candidate - our presidential delegates have already been decided from the precinct caucuses. Once the delegates were distributed to sub-caucuses, each group had to elect gender balanced delegates and alternates to each convention. My group had those that were interested say a few words as to why they should go, and then we voted on paper. John tried to get elected in his group, but was not successful. Maybe next time...

John's Famous! Again!

2008-02-25T19:26:00.001-06:00

The Anoka Union paper printed a picture of Michelle Bachmann visiting his school - something that he arranged! Here's the link. John is in the 1st and 3rd pictures if you look close. :-)

Awaiting Spring

2008-02-25T11:43:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I know that it's only the end of February, but it really feels like spring is just around the corner. Maybe it's the extra daylight, the melting snow, or the fact that our lives keep filling up!

We've visited a lot of theaters lately...
--Steppingstone Theater for Almost to Freedom, a story about a girl leaving slavery via the Underground Railroad. As a special surprise, one of John's kids as a student teacher was in the production! If you're interested in going, it only runs until March 2, so buy your tickets now!
--We saw Frank Caliendo at the State Theater on February 16 - he was hilarious!
--Tomorrow, we see My Fair Lady at the Orpheum. It is a much delayed Christmas present to John, since this is his favorite musical. Although that may be in competition with Wicked! :-) This show is also done on March 2 in Minneapolis.

I (Becky) started volunteering at the Phillips Neighborhood Clinic - a University of Minnesota sponsored clinic that provides interpreter, physician, physical therapy, and pharmacy interventions free of charge to anyone that shows up. Most of the patients that come have more orthopedic diagnoses, so this stretches my neurological focused brain!

This evening, I am talking to St. Kate's Medical Interest Group about what it takes to be a Physical Therapist - should be fun!

We have both become politics junkies lately. We attended our caucus on February 5th, stayed through the whole event, and John was selected as a delegate to the Senate District 65 Convention on March 1 with one of our neighbors. (I am an alternate.) More to follow on the great democratic process!

And now for a shameless plug: John's second play, "I Remember When," is being performed at 7p on March 5&6 at Fred Moore Middle School in Anoka. It's a story he wrote over winter break about Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty in a retirement castle. They all reminisce about their encounters and lost love in Prince Charming. It's really cute, if I may say so myself! If you're interested in attending, just show up! It's a free production!

I am back on the PT student bandwagon starting March 11th - this time I am in charge of two students at once! Ikes! Wish me luck!

To Your Health!

2008-01-29T19:13:00.000-06:00

Man! It is COLD outside! It went from being 43F yesterday to bussing home at an air temp of -5F!!! Luckily, I had the pleasure of being distracted by a wonderful series of podcasts (audio for my iPod, for those less technically inclined) that was from an APTA conference in June 2007. This series was related to the importance of physical activity, and what kinds are most effective in all different age and medical populations. The one the struck me the most was one by Steven Tepper on the impact of cardiovascular activity on prevention and management of disease. His data blew me away. The take home message...

EVERYONE.

YES, YOU.

WALK 30 MINUTES AS BRISKLY AS YOU CAN EVERY DAY.

YOUR BODY WILL THANK YOU.

Hear it for yourself: Click on either the audio or view for Part V.

Isn't science grand? :-)

More green

2008-01-11T08:11:00.000-06:00

Hi all!

Happy 2008!! Let's make this a really green year! I have yet another great recycling opportunity for those in the Twin Cities, something I learned from one of my co-workers yesterday. I always knew that we could recycle those annoying plastic shopping bags, but I didn't know that many other bags could also be included in that recycling.... ziplock style bags (as long as the hard plastic sliders are removed), bags from newspapers, the plastic surrounding your cereal, even the soft plastic wrapping around many packages. See the full list and where you can deposit plastic at: www.itsinthebagmn.org!

Also, here's a blurb on John's class (which resulted in the pink hair from the last post):

Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts participates in Adopt-a-Family program
Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts students carried on a school tradition by participating in the Anoka County "Adopt a Family" program last month. Students collect $400 to purchased gifts for families in need.

"With more than half of money pennies and nickels, it was really a school wide effort," said John Horton, fifth grade teacher at Lincoln.

Lincoln's fifth grade students then made a trip to Target in Coon Rapids to shop for their family. Students learned to spend money wisely by looking for deals and comparing items they wanted to buy said Horton. Students bought a lot of clothes for the family including shirts, pants, and outerwear. According to the students the best thing to shop for were toys.

After the shopping trip, students wrapped presents and had a pizza party.

Lotsa laughing

2007-12-17T10:19:00.000-06:00

There has been a lot of humor the last few days. Firstly, one of my all time favorite forwarded video clips:

Yea, we have personal experience with that. :-)

Secondly, John's first experience as a director concluded on December 12th. His kids completed a play called "A Fairy Tale from Mars," and had 4 runs through in 3 days. It was quite cute! See the pics on our Shutterfly page (link on the left menu).

Thirdly, for those that didn't know, John had his hair dyed on Friday. He bet his kids that they couldn't raise more than $140 for their adopted family. They raised $400. So, the consequence was that John would dye his hair any color they chose. It is now Bright Pink. Needless to say, it will be buzzed down as soon as school lets out on Friday. :-)

I gave myself a Christmas present this year of a new SLR digital camera. Expect many more pictures in the next year!

Happy holidays everyone!

Reduce * Reuse * Recycle

2007-11-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I was able to get a nice weekend along with John to start getting prepared for the chaos that is always associated with the holidays. We managed to get about half of our shopping done on Black Friday. And on Sunday there was a neighborhood 6 hour cookie bake off - there will be cookies heading everyone's way this year! The beauty of baking with others is that cookies get made that aren't your own typical production.

We have really been working this year to make our lives more efficient. One such way was reusing John's grandma's old fence. It was still in good condition, but needing a little paint. We didn't get to the painting this year (wait for spring now), but it did really frame in the yard.

One other major project we've been undergoing is ridding our life of "stuff." I have been in the quest to get rid of my old laptop for a while now. It has been sitting on our cabinet collecting dust. My quest finally led me to a local site called Green Guardian, which then educated me that Dell would recycle my laptop for free - even pay the shipping! So, last Monday I packed my laptop into a box, and DHL picked it up! No hassle for me!

Another great resource in the whole Reduce/Reuse/Recycle quest has been Reduce.org. It is again a local resource, but the info is applicable to people of all areas. Enjoy your learnings!

The snow came on Saturday... it is now officially the Christmas season. Make sure you get your sleep! :-)

Fall progress

2007-09-10T15:44:00.000-05:00

So, I managed to skip an entire month and a half of blogging... luckily we've been busy and so I have pictures to update you all!

School has started again, and as a result we're trying to finish up as much of our "to get done in 2007" list so that we can hibernate! Today we're getting new windows put in - yea vinyl! We don't need to make funny noises while opening them! Hurray! And hopefully they will help on reducing the draft in the house, and hopefully the heating bills.

Before (January 1, 2007):

After (September 10, 2007):

Okay, so it's hard to appreciate the difference from these pictures - but you can definitely tell up front. As I'm sure you could tell, the house has changed a lot in the last 9 months, almost all as a result of John's hard work. I am now working on finishing up the painting detail on the front porch so that we can strip and stain the floor so that it is no longer an ugly shade of green. :-)

In other changes - I have taken a full time position at Fairview and am no longer rotating! Hurray! As a result of that, I am now considered a core member of the Acute Rehab team, and therefore will permanently be working four 9 hour days with one weekend rotation a month. Not too shabby a deal to get every Monday off.

John is busy running not only his 5th grade classroom, but the patrols, Parent Teacher Organization, and Kiwanis-Kids. He may give up the school play - but maybe not. Such is his life - always over extending.

Updates

2007-07-27T19:35:00.000-05:00

I never have creative titles... so you'll just have to deal with the fact that I am not a snappy writer. :-) To make up for it, here's some real substance.

Firstly, the kitties are getting along better now.

Chloe has been showing some real muscle around here.

And so has John as he paints the house, and works on his summer classes (summer school's last day was 7/26!!!).

The cats have been keeping cool... in the fridge!

Finally, I applied for, and got a full time position in the Acute Rehab Unit (where I am now). No more rotating! I am thrilled!!!!

House and family

2007-07-02T07:37:00.001-05:00

I keep thinking that we're going to get done with a project and I'll be able to write a good entry describing the process. But, life does not operate that way. We've been working on several house projects lately, most importantly of painting the outside of the house and working on the kitchen & bathroom trim.

Here's the outside of the house currently:

Our main door - trim partially painted to see the colors that we're going to be using:

Trim outside the bathroom, and in the kitchen:

On a completely new note, a new kitten has been added to our family. Say hello to Chloe.
Sabrina is not handling the new addition very well... so Chloe is in our bedroom with her own food, water and litter, and Sabrina is otherwise running the roost. Hopefully Sabrina will stop growling and hissing at the kitten soon.

Random updates

2007-05-19T07:06:00.000-05:00

Hello again!

Life has taken quite a hold of my life... and so I haven't had a chance to update things to those that care to read about our rambling lives. So, here's some updates:

John had verbal confirmation of a job, then was told he would be pink slipped for Fall 2007. He then did the responsible thing and sent out resumes to other schools in Anoka ISD #11... an interview was set up at another school, John's current principal got word of it, set up an inpromptu interview for an "Open Classroom Position," and John got it. So he now has confirmation that he will have his own classroom next year! Hurray!!!!

We got a large shipment from Vintage Woodworks about a week ago... it holds the trim for the kitchen and bathroom. Guess what my project is this weekend while John is out with the guys watching baseball? (In all fairness, I was invited to join, but I'd rather deal with trim.) I'll post pictures when I have them. :-)

I am a Minnesota Public Radio junkie... here's the link to a new radio program about family dynamics from a child and parent position. Very entertaining and enlightening! So, How's the Family?

My little sister, Megan, did her Senior project presentation last Thursday. She's been making a documentary (which she now needs to finish!), and she showed a preview of it at the presentation. It makes me feel old to think that she's going to be graduating from high school in a month. What happened to "Cookie Monster" from when I was her age?

Jeff was home for a while this last week, and we got to "hang" for a while. The big news: he's moving back to the Cities at the end of the summer! Wahoo!!!

In my world, life is going great at the new rotation location of Acute Rehab. As I told my supervisor a couple of days ago... you don't realize how much you miss what you love until you aren't doing it (referring to my time on the acute care side of things... pulling people out of bed after surgery or major illness). I love having long relationships with patients, watching them grow and become more independent with your intervention, problem solving difficult situations.... it's all my cup of tea! Now if I can only convince everyone else to be happy with their spot and we stop rotating....

Off to the Farmer's Market!

April Update

2007-04-16T07:10:00.000-05:00

As I have been told by many folks, this blog hasn't been updated in a while. The primary reason for that is that we really haven't been doing that much. John had spring break the first week of April and we did a really good job of making a list of the 19 projects we'd like to get done this summer. And really not many of them are easy projects. We have succeeded on a few since we made the list, and here's the skinny on those.

Remember a few months back my writing on how freakishly impulsive I was and bought a porch swing at an auction? Well, John got it hung last night:
I was personally worried about having the swing in front of a picture window, but John did a great job making sure that even with an aggressive swing, the window wouldn't be broken. (Please ignore the rest of the mess on the porch!)

The other big project that we did was put the built in bookcase in. Originally we were going to do this on the bedroom side of the bath/bedroom wall. However, it was determined after a few months of living with it, that the storage was more important in the bathroom. So, down went the sheetrock in the bathroom (and has yet to be really repaired), and up it went in the bedroom. Here's the current status of things:

Bathroom side: new in-the-wall storage (hard to photograph... it's behind the bathroom door!)

Bedroom side: a solid wall! Hurray!

Other than that, the house is in good condition. We're hoping to scrape and paint the rest of the house and porches this summer, in addition to putting up all the trim in the "new" part of the house. Anyone want to help? :-)

Spring fever

2007-03-14T18:58:00.000-05:00

I love and hate this time of year.

I hate daylight savings. I don't mind having it be lighter later, but it is a real bugger for trying to get up and go in the morning. And I hate it when the weather people (who were right about the big storms on March 1-2) predict 1-3" of snow in the next 24 hours.

I want green grass, not more snow.

I love it when the 3+ feet of snow that we had in the yard manages to disappear in a matter of a couple of days. I love walking around the neighborhood through puddles. It brings back great memories of stomping around in the rain with goulashes on. And ending up sopping wet and muddy. The adult in me holds off the stomping until I get closer to home... and by then all the really deep, fun puddles are passed.

I love the smell of spring... the wet, earthy smell that permeates the air. I love all of the sunshine that finally appears after 3 months of gray. And I really love being able to run around without a jacket on. There is something very liberating about leaving the jacket at home.

I love the planning, the hope of spring. Last weekend when the snow was wasting away, John and I couldn't help but to start planning our spring/summer/fall projects. Spring gives us the energy to tackle the house projects again. It feels important to sit in the sunshine, sketching the detailed posts on my porch, sketch a general outline of the house, and color them in strategically with how I hope to paint them this summer.

I love seeing my neighbors again, and especially their kids who seem to have learned 20 new tricks in the few months they were stuck inside. We're already hoping for the day when the snow is completely melted from our backyards so that we can have the first bonfire.

Okay, so I mostly love spring. :-)

Snow Days

2007-03-03T07:34:00.000-06:00

Hello all! Sorry for the interim in postings. I really do not know where February went. I have had a student (only 3 weeks left!), and traveled out to Boston in the midst of their snowstorm for a national PT conference. The conference was great, but the weather was cruddy. I did get to see updates on the Big Dig... which I think most of you know is the Boston project to put a major highway underground. It has had its issues, but the frosting on the cake sure looks nice!

This is the view from the Haymarket subway station. When I left Boston, there was still remnants of the green overhead highway, and the walkway between downtown (where I am) and the North End (what the picture is of) was concrete and industrial. Now the walkway is clear, even has a street, and the garden is almost done!

This is of the new bridge and the North End from the downtown side.

Part of the park - pots of plants waiting in the snow to be planted!

John has been busy taking over 5th grade. His school re-structured his job a little so that he is now mostly (2/3) a 5th grade teacher! Hurray! We are still waiting to hear whether there will be a job for him at his school next year, but this job shift will hopefully be a foot in the door!

As all of you in Minnesota know, we got a heaping amount of snow in the last week. Two major snowstorms have come through, so we finally look like the winter wasteland that we are advertised as. :-) I personally really love the snow, just not shoveling it all. The car only got stuck once in the whole experience, and that was trying to get me to work last Sunday before the plows had been out.

John got a snow day off of school yesterday... I was bitter because hospitals never close. Maybe I should become a school PT... naw. Then I'd be sick as a dog like John is at the moment. :-)

Tonight, a night at a B&B - a chance to clear our heads of crazy work stuff. Stay warm, everyone!

Cold enough for ya?

2007-02-07T18:18:00.000-06:00

As I'm sure you all know, Minnesotans are suckers to talk about the weather. This is especially true when we're having the 7th day with a morning below zero. So, here's a "only in Minnesota" fact: today it was 25 degrees warmer in Anchorage ALASKA than it was here in the Twin Cities.

Pathetic.

Protect yourself

2007-01-25T14:09:00.000-06:00

Fellow Minnesotans (and some of other states) - protect your assets!

John is one that I would call a little over anxious regarding security, especially along the lines of identity theft. Now, who would want to steal our credit? The credit with student loans and a mortgage? Well, who knows. However, since we are residents of the state of Minnesota, we can put a temporary (or permanent, if we never make a major purchase again) freeze on our credit line. Since we are well settled, we don't need to worry about our credit being frozen, and we can lift the freeze for 3-30 days at our discretion. The best part... Minnesota only charges $5 per bureau per person. That means that $30 and 30 mins worth of work will settle John's peace of mind for a good long while. Interested in doing it yourself? Here's the links:

http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html
https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/consumer/sitepage.ehtml?forward=cs_cpo_howto#thirteen
http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/fraudIdentityTheft/preventing/securityFreeze.page

She's a Super Freak

2007-01-20T06:16:00.000-06:00

I am a learning freak.

I know that you all know that, but I just needed to put it out there at the top of this entry. There have been two key events that occurred this week that have changed my perspective on the world.

On Thursday night, John and I went to a lecture on National Geographic’s Genographic project. It is headed up by an over-achieving, but brilliant man whose task is to identify the key mutations in our DNA, tying the mutations to population shifts over the last 60,000 years. It’s a little anthropology, a little geography, and a little population genetics. He collects the DNA via cheek swabs (who remembers looking at your cheek cells under a microscope?). In males, he looks the Y chromosome, in females the mitochondrial DNA (the “furnace” of every cell with old, minimally changing DNA). The collection efforts have been focusing on aboriginal tribes that are still maintained to this day, in order to identify the key markers. Enough markers have been found that pretty much anyone can have their cheek swabbed, and be told where their ancestors traveled in order to get you here. It isn’t a “you’re mostly German” test – you can get that from doing your traditional genealogy studying. This is, “your ancestors came out of Africa about 30,000 years ago, hung a right at the middle east, crossed over to the Americas about 18,000 years ago, and have been in Virginia since 10,000 years ago.” NUTS. All that info from your DNA. Blows my mind. If it blows yours too, check it out at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic

Last night, we sat down and watched An Inconvenient Truth – the documentary/environmental lecture by Al Gore. Wow. Those of you that haven’t seen it MUST. He has emphasized the fact that yes, we do make an impact on this world, every single one of us. And we’re getting to a point where the facts can’t be ignored. I know that all of us this year have been noticing the a-typical weather in our own neighborhoods. We in the Twin Cities have only gotten about 9” of snow this winter; we usually have 27” by now. Every one of us needs to make a change in our own practices to decrease CO2 emmisions. Please check out http://www.climatecrisis.net/, determine your Carbon Impact and make some changes. The safety of the world we live on depends on you. If we don’t watch out, we’ll have a mass extension of most of those genetic markers the first group is finding.

Thanks for learning with me.

Working it off

2007-01-01T14:43:00.002-06:00

Welcome to 2007 everyone!

Before I get too far... I want to let you know the newest house project - our new front door. You can't really tell from the pics, but it is a gorgeous burgundy! :-) Oh, and don't forget to notice the new roof and gutters! Yea!

Just as happens every year, it seems that the one just passed has slipped away too quickly. As you all well know, the theme for 2006 was "housework." It is still unwritten as to what the theme for 2007 will be, but I'm sure it will be a great year.

2007 was welcomed with a bang last night at the Horton household. Friends and family were here to eat, drink, and play board games. Fireball Island was an instant hit, as was Twister, Taboo, and Apples to Apples. The party didn't end until about an hour into the new year, and luckily very few of us needed to drive home (most were in easy walking distance). Here's some pics of the highlights:

PS. We got snow! It had been raining for about 24 hours, and then just as the party was approaching, the temp dropped below freezing and we have about 1-2 inches of the white stuff. Hurray! Too bad it's supposed to get up to the 40s again this week. Good for the heating bill, bad for morale.

Merry Christmas to All!

2006-12-27T10:38:00.000-06:00

Merry belated Christmas everyone! It has been a busy holiday season. I worked the weekend before Christmas, but have lucked out enough that I have gotten these last two days after the holiday off as well. John automatically has it off since he has that lovely school break. :) He will be returning to work on Tuesday the 2nd, and I will be going back on either Thursday or Friday this week. Crazy crazy!

Our holiday was split between the Hortons and the Schillers - both with differing traditions, and both a lot of fun. I think our Christmas lists were wiped clean this year.... guess I'll have to start working on the next one soon. :)

On these last couple of days off, John and I have been working on the house again (go figure). This time, we are working on John's closet. It is now sheetrocked, and the first coat of mud is going on. It will be so nice to have two closets with functional curtain rods! Next we'll have to work on doors... But no worry, fair readers, it has not been all work. We have spent a good chunk of time watching the West Wing Season 7, finishing various holiday projects (Christmas cards are now out! John's stocking is done, and mine is on the way), and shopping the post-holiday sales a little.

Another time consumer has been playing with Sabrina. She is a trixie little cat, and therefore is elusive to the camera, but here's some fun pics of her:

Oops

2006-12-14T08:28:00.000-06:00

Sorry to all our loyal (or not so royal) readers. I just realized that I have neglected this form of communication for nearly a month! Yikes! Well, here's the summary...

The reason I have time to sit and write today is because I have the day off. Granted, I work this weekend, but I have today off. And what do I do first thing in the morning of my day
off? No, not eat breakfast. Not get a hot cup of tea. Not sit and listen to the news. I change into my grub clothes and start putting on the last coat of mud in my closet. I have time to write now because I am still dirty from that task, and am waiting for it to dry so I can prime it.

My day isn't going to be all work, but there is quite a bit lined up. Here's what I'd like to get done today on the house: finish mudding closet (done); prime closet, kitchen, pantry; paint kitchen, pantry; touch up ceilings (bedroom, kitchen, pantry, office). Of course, I also would like to type up our Christmas letter, buy stamps for Christmas cards, go Christmas shopping, swing by the bank, pick up a pile of stuff at the Horton household. Yea, I'm not biting off more than I can chew....

We did get quite a bit done last weekend, including getting set up for Christmas. Here's the current status of the house:

Over the last couple of weeks, we've had new doors put in for the pantry, laundry, and a couple of closets. The window jams have been extended, so we are all set to put up trim. And as I type, the front half of our roof is being torn off. Luckily, we've had a warm front come through, so the roof will actually get done.

I'm still hoping for a white Christmas though....

Spontaneity

2006-11-19T07:28:00.000-06:00

I think I have gone temporarily insane. Friday and Saturday have developed a very a-typical Becky. The whole week at work has been insane - tons of admissions, surgeries, people left off our schedules. For example, on Thursday we had 7 full PT schedules... and 15 people on our waiting list. Friday we had 6 full PT schedules, but 5 spontaneous/need to do this today evaluations. By the end of the week, my head was fried.

As most of you know, I am much more of a planner at heart. And so, on Friday I broke the mold and randomly went out to coffee with one of my co-workers after dinner - and didn't come home until 11p. Saturday, we went to a fundraiser for Anoka Public Schools... the plan was to be dinner and dancing, but there were also silent and live auctions involved. While perusing the items, we came upon a beautiful, handcrafted, oak porch swing. We have a perfect porch for a swing, and it has been one of my dreams to sit out there in the summer swinging and sipping iced tea. The summer stuff was on clearance at Menards about a month ago, and so we bought a swing in a box - but obviously this one was much nicer. The practical side of my brain said "you already have one, and this will be way out of your price range, so forget it."

Fast forward to the live auction... a few of the other items that we were possibly eyeing went for way over our personal limits. And here comes the swing "Value $1750" the auctioneer announces, "but we'll start at $100." And away we go... something overcomes me as the auction is going, and at what I thought was $300 I grab the flag and raise it. John turns around and stares. Not that he didn't want it, just that my quick action was way out of character for this financial prude. Well, I hadn't been quick enough at the $300 level, and was slapped on at $350, but there weren't any other takers. What?!? I just bought another porch swing?!? It took me about an hour to settle into the reality of what I just did. It's not that I'm unhappy, just surprised by myself. We weren't able to get it into our Saturn, but luckily one of John's co-workers transported it to the event and could keep it until Monday in her van when hopefully we can borrow a larger vehicle and bring it home.

Yep, temporarily insane. I think I'll go cross-stitch now where the possibilities are limited.

Back into the bedroom

2006-11-05T14:20:00.000-06:00

We were able to sleep in our own bed again last night - a first for 18 nights... it felt so good to not be on the fouton! Here's the current status of things in the bedroom... please forgive the piles, we're not entirely moved in yet!

Bedroom with the new window... the pipe on the other side will be moved shortly

What will be a built in bookcase (left) and Becky's closet (right)

Look, ma! Only one entrance to John's closet! Look at all that new wall space!

Halloween was fun, although cold. We only got about a dozen trick-or-treaters this year. But John got to use his new toy - a fog machine - so all was good and creepy on the front porch. :-)

Our weekend in pictures

2006-10-22T18:53:00.000-05:00

Beginning

Middle

End

Back at it again

2006-10-20T12:20:00.000-05:00

We should know better by now, we really should. When we think that things are going to be straight forward and easy, they never are.

First off, yea for MEA! We got a 4 day weekend to attack the house!

This weekend's big project was to take out one window in the bedroom, and install a new one. We knew that this would entail tearing off the plaster on that wall (which also happened to have had a door sealed into the wall) - a task we completed Thursday morning. This morning when the window guys showed up, we started taking out the lath, only to find plastered in between our studs brick fragments mixed with concrete. No wonder that room is always so cold!! So, John and I did a power demolition of the area that the window guys needed... filling our 3rd dumpster with debris. And, of course, we discovered that the house is (surprise) not square, and needed to make the call of squaring the window with the world (no) or the celing (yes). Fun fun.

Our contractor is back (yea!!!) and is working on the remaining indoor projects. We now have heat to the addition, and most of a pantry wall.

The end sum of it is... our house is back to being a construction zone. EVERYTHING will need to be cleaned again. There will be no cooking in the house for a couple of days... or else we'll be eating quite a bit of 100+ year old dust. :-P

Yesterday, Sabrina went to the vet for the first time. She took it all very well, and has been getting quite used to the travel cage with everyone flying in and out of doors today.

I can't wait to reclaim the house...

Kitchens and Kittens

2006-09-29T14:54:00.000-05:00

There have been many adventures in the last 2 weeks.

Our kitten adventure continues. She has a habit of waking us up at about 5:30a by meowing and scratching on the door. I suppose she could have a more annoying habit, but John and I are already getting into the habit of "it's your turn to get up with her." I guess this means we'll be prepared when we have a little one of our own kind.Last week Sabrina decided that she didn't like being locked out of the bedroom, and so she wiggled her way into our air duct system, and luckily found the vent to our bedroom and not the duct to the furnace. We were able to pry the cover off without too much hassle, but it was quite a surpise to wake up to!

On the kitchen front.... we have countertops! We have a working sink!!! You have no idea how great it was to come home last night and be able to do dishes in our own sink! It's probably been just about a year since we had a working one in this space... crazy. Today I have been working on taking our boxes perminantly out of storage. Excuse the mess on the countertops at the moment...

Announcement

2006-09-17T14:21:00.001-05:00

John and I have an announcement to make. We have a new member in our family....

I cute little kitten that John named Sabrina.

She's just 6 weeks old right now. Her first night in the house was rough - mommy needed to sleep with her on the couch because she was scratching at the door. Hopefully tonight will go better.

Bugs - an update

2006-09-17T14:21:00.000-05:00

So, here's the skinny from someone who knows things about bugs in Minnesota. The picture I labeled as "male" is actually a parasititic primitative wood wasp that is feeding on the dead part of the tree. It is called Megarhyssa macrurus. The picture I labeled as "female" is actually controlling this parasite by laying eggs on the larvae of the parasite. This beneficial bug is the Pigeon Horntail, Tremex columba.

Now we can all say we learned something new today. :-)

Bugs

2006-09-07T20:23:00.000-05:00

Mmmm... look at what is apparently laying eggs in my neighbor's tree.

"Female"

"Female" side view (click to get better view)

"Male"

I sent copies to a taxonomy guy at the State of MN. I'll let you know what it is if he responds....

Delinquent

2006-09-05T19:03:00.000-05:00

Wow! A lot has happened in our lives since the last posting... I guess I've been a little delinquent. :) So, here's the news in the order that it happened:

1. My aunt Jean's wedding sampler won 1st place at the Minnesota State Fair!

2. We went to San Francisco for a long weekend. The full entourage of pics are under "Our Shutterfly Photos" at the left. The highlights - Trolley Cars!!, Fishermen's warf, Chinatown, boat cruise to see the Golden Gate Bridge (not out to Alcatraz - sold out until Monday), Napa and Sonoma Valleys and the Japanese Garden. Crazy fun!

3. School started today. Ha ha! Suckers without real jobs are back to the grind like the rest of us. ;)

Busy day

2006-08-24T09:48:00.000-05:00

Today is a very busy day - especially for a weekday! I had a comp day today for working this weekend, and so everything got scheduled....

We had new picture windows put in the front (thanks to Barb for helping to get us going on that). We now get a beautiful view of our neighborhood. And our neighbors get a great view of us. :)

Our new couch was finally delivered!!!!

A few more doors put on in the kitchen....

And I went to the MN State Fair to volunteer for the Minnesota Physical Therapy Association. We are conducting balance testing in the KARE 11 Health Building. Stop on by to get screened!

Speaking of the Fair... My aunt won 1st place for her counted cross-stitch sampler she made for our wedding. Gorgeous!!!

Household frustrations

2006-08-21T20:36:00.000-05:00

A few fun things have occurred lately...

We had a fun flying visitor last night - a bat that Becky got up and rescued out of its pattern of flying in circles around our bedroom at 4a. I'm assuming it climbed in through one of the many tiny holes that we still have in our roof - and that are attached to our bedroom via the closet that will have trapdoor access to the kitchen attic at some point (now open).

Countertop was purchased from Menards (our favorite store) a week ago, and we called our contractor to install it. He came, he looked, and determined he couldn't do it without a miter box. Well, we went to our favorite store today, and the guys there strongly recommended that we did not try to cut or laminate countertop into the needed sections - that we should custom order it. Well, that will mean another 2+ weeks without countertop and without a sink and dishwasher. A call is out to the contractor to see if this is what he needs us to do (if so, it was not clearly communicated last week).

We picked up 2 missing doors from our Ikea kitchen order - only one more to go!

Here's the current kitchen progress:

Kitchen Progress!!!

2006-08-13T08:09:00.000-05:00

Our Ikea cabinets arrived, flat packed and in 73 boxes last week. John brought them all in and started sorting them into the appropriate piles to be assembled. Yesterday was my first real day of being able to think of putting things together, and this is how far I got:

Those on the left are our overhead cabinets for the west wall (the one with the skink and fridge). Ikea's system is really sweet - you mount a metal track to the studs, slide fasteners into the track, and hook your cabinet to the fasteners. This way, they're all level, but easy to slide together to complete the mounting. Once I get John's help to lift them on, it should be a piece of cake!

Assembling the cabinets isn't too bad once you get the steps down. All of the directions are pictorials - since they are an international company - and so it's kind of like following Lego assembly instructions. Sometimes you need to stare at the picture for a minute to figure out what the orientation of the pieces needs to be. Luckily, all of the cabinets have the same basic structure, so it's like clockwork now. :-)

We rescued a neighbor that has been having horrible migranes from two of her children (ages 2 and 4) for a few hours. We ran an errand (after stealing a carseat from their van), played with playdough and ate Mac & Cheese (from the box - didn't have time to make it from scratch). Just was we were getting desert from Barbara next door, their Mom woke up feeling much better. Hopefully the head will cooperate today....

John had a poker party last night - 10 were scheduled to come, but 4 showed. They seemed to be having fun while I was working on the kitchen.

Wednesday night is John's last night at Widmer's!!! Of course, he has been asked if he can work one more day since his boss is out of town until Thursday night. What part of "last day" do you not understand?

Reclaiming the bedroom

2006-08-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, our bedroom as served as a storage space since we moved in on October 23rd last year. John and I loaded our boxes of stuff into our downstairs bedroom, and quickly went upstairs to sleep in our temporary bedroom up there. Therefore, most of the boxes in our bedroom haven't been touched in 9+ months.

In the last week or so, we got the electric range plug installed (the only forward movement in the kitchen since the last posting), and so we decided that it was finally time to move the range and dishwasher out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. This opened up a huge amount of space in our bedroom, and also revealed all of the dust bunnies that had multiplied. Yuck.

This weekend, John traveled to Kansas City with his brothers to watch the Twins crush the Royals and inch closer to the Wild Card spot. And I had a three day weekend alone to unpack, organize, and clean. And that I did almost exclusively for about 2 days - ending with steak dinner with the in-laws and sister-in-law-to-be. A good time was had by all, and I feel great that I have been so productive. Our bookshelves are full, many boxes have been broken down, and we have a sizeable pile of things for a garage sale/to be sold on Borders.com or Ebay. We might even be able to hang pictures on the wall soon! Yippie!

With all of this reclaimed space in the bedroom, I have been dreaming of how to re-arrange and remodel the space. John and I have been talking about taking out the window just off the back porch (John's worried about the security risk), but since I don't want to loose the light source, add in a short height, wide window near the ceiling. (Our neighbor works for a window company and dropped off a perfect example of what I was envisioning...) I am excited about the prospect of what the bedroom will be, but am debating if we should do the construction yet this fall, or wait until next year.

Here's some fun dates coming up:
1. Kitchen cabinets arriving - any day now!
2. John's last day at Widmer's - Aug 16th
3. Installation of new picture windows in the front! - Aug 24th
4. Trip to San Francisco - Labor Day weekend
5. John's first year of full time teaching starting - Sept 5th
6. Open house/1 year of homeownership party - Sept 16th or 30th

50th posting

2006-07-19T19:16:00.000-05:00

Wow - 50 postings online about this crazy old house! At least this is a good one.... our vinyl flooring was installed today! Yippie!!

Left, the kitchen

Below, the kitchen/entry/laundry

Far below, the kitchen pattern up close

Cabinets are to be delivered (in 90-to-be-assembled boxes) mid-late next week... We may someday have a kitchen!!

Kitchen update

2006-07-17T19:34:00.000-05:00

The kitchen now looks like this:
The picture is a little dark, but it gives the general impression that... WE ACTUALLY MAY HAVE A KITCHEN SOMEDAY SOON!!! This picture faces the south wall of the kitchen, where the stove will be, and the sink will be on the right wall. The nifty octagon window will hopefully be installed soon, but it is currently residing on the kitchen floor.

In order to get this far, the sanding of the walls was completed on Saturday evening. We primed with the neighborhood kids on Sunday afternoon, coated the celeing and installed the center light. Of course this all happened in 95++ heat and high humidity. Fun fun. Tonight we coated the walls with pretty yellow paint...

Wednesday and Thursday we get our new vinyl flooring installed. Our kitchen cabinets have been ordered, and will be delivered before the end of the month. We selected some from Ikea - the Lindigo pattern. After we ordered them, the two other neighbors that have been wanting to revamp their kitchens fessed up to their dream Ikea pattern. It's good to know I'm not alone in my obcession. :)

Where'd July go?

2006-07-11T17:53:00.000-05:00

Wow, July 11th already. Where did the month go? The big house news is that our new white oak floors have been installed and finished. They are georgous!! (We stayed at Mike's place while they were being varnished. Thanks Mike!!)

We went to a great Twins Game on July 1 - nice and tight game where we eventually won. Quite a nail biter!

The neighborhood 4th of July party was great - barbeque, bonfire, and crazy kids made it entertaining until the fireworks went off. We had a great view from the Cliff Rd boulevard.

We had a full weekend together - the first in far too long. Of course, we spent it painting trim on Saturday, and moving furnature out of storage on Sunday. By the time Monday came along, we didn't want to go back.

Amazing!

2006-06-28T19:04:00.000-05:00

A few very happy things have happened in the last few days...

First, I traveled to New Hampshire for a long weekend of seeing two of my girlfriends from PT school. One just had a baby (9 weeks) and the other is 5 months pregnant. Babies are definitely little miracles. Here's the munchkin, not at all related to me, but who brings so much joy to so many people:Second, I came home to have our new white oak floors being installed. Here's where we were at yesterday evening.

And here's where we're at today...

They are going to be GEORGOUS!!! I'm so psyched!!!

Thirdly. John got called today, and he's been hired on officially as a 1.0 FTE!!! He's going to be team teaching 5th grade with his mentor from last year, and being the head-person of the Title 1 staff! Hurray!!

Now we're in the market for a new car... I'll need to start driving, or else show up at work at 6:30-7a. Yuck.

Coming along

2006-06-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

A lot has happened in the last week! We filled our 3rd dumpster with the flooring from the living, dining, and front rooms. New plywood subfloor was then laid, and we are now ready for a new wood floor to be laid. Crazy! We also had some much needed tree maintenance/cutting was performed, and we have a ton more sunshine to our back yard now. :-) The kitchen's taping/mudding is still being worked on, but is coming slowly but surely. We might actually get a kitchen one of these months!!

Watch out for rusty nails

2006-06-17T07:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, more demolition is happening. Per John's request, we have moved the project of replacing the hardwood floors in the 1st floor front room, dining room, and living room up. To yesterday. (The original plan was to do this in August...) Yesterday, John took out the wood in the front room and 2/3 of the dining room.

I came home to tear up the barrier layer (feels like tar paper for roofing), and pull out a bazillion nails. John's Dad came over to move the heavy stuff out of the dining room and into the front room so that we could tear out the dining room floor. Crazy stuff.

All this week, John and our contractor have been working on the sheetrock in the addition, and starting the mudding. Apparently we're going to have scaffolding next week in that space so that the ceiling can get done. Here's where we are at the moment:The spot where there is still exposed insulation will be getting an octagon window....

Today's progress

2006-06-11T20:27:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day, finally! The St Paul Farmers Market was on our list and we came home with sweet peas, focaccia and flowers for the garden. We then finished priming the ceiling of the den/office/guest room, and John put on the first coat of the wall color - poker table green!

My dad came over and helped us trim down and put in a new door at the bottom of the back stairs. We spent the rest of the day lounging around and then had dinner at the Horton's.

Conquering the house and yard

2006-06-09T18:58:00.000-05:00

Look, Ma! We have some walls and a ceiling in the kitchen!

And a defined laundry room!

We've even reclaimed one of the flower beds in the back:

We had a neighborhood bonfire... good times had by all, but it was quite a chilly night, so we all tucked in close to the flames. I'm sure there will be more smores in our future this summer....

Fully inspected

2006-06-05T20:05:00.000-05:00

We've passed all of our inspections!

And now the big projects will begin!!!

Here's the tenative outline:

Sheetrock this week/early next week
Tear out the 1890's (destroyed) wood floors in the living room, dining room, and den/office
Lay new joysts, subfloor in mentioned rooms
Lay and finish new oak floor (end of June)
Install lanoleum in kitchen
Install kitchen cabinets and countertop

With any luck, we'll have a working kitchen by mid-late July! Hurray!

Here's where we're at at the moment:
West kitchen wall/pantry space

Laundry room:
South kitchen wall/bathroom wall:

A perfect long Memorial Day weekend

2006-06-03T19:49:00.000-05:00

(Here's a late posting of what we were up to last weekend...)

Friday: A Schiller family friend came down from the boonies to help fix our plumbing issues on my day off. He used to do plumbing inspections, and so he knows what the guy is looking for, and what for us to expect when we go through inspection on Tuesday. He helped add in a couple of helpful things too, like an access to the waste pipe.... a "just in case" for unfortunate plugs. Hopefully we're ready for our 5 lbs of pressure test for 15 mins....

Saturday: Went and bought pretty fabric for bedroom curtains, but the sewing maching is burried in our storage area. Oops. John worked a half day, and we both proceeded to tear apart the yard once he got home. I pulled a recycling bucket full of weeds, and John yanked out some sickly liliac bushes in prep for a new flower bed in the front. We had a backyard fire and social hour, which was tons of fun!

Sunday: Woke up with a friendly meow from a stray cat that had gotten locked in the house. Oops. It was blasted hot, but I was out working until 1p. I cut down the bazillion suckers on the trees in our yard... now we have well defined trees that point pretty much straight up. Well, not really, but it's better than it was. Attempted to clean up nasty insullation in the basement, and construction debris in the yard. Still have a lot more work to do. Went to the Horton's for dinner - brats and hot dogs.

Monday: Went out to breakfast with Mom. Another steamy day full of yard work. We were both exahusted by the end of the weekend, but we had pleanty of productive time.

Tuesday: Passed the plumbing inspection!!!!!! We should now be ready to have the hold taken off of our house by the framing inspector, and will hopefully be sheetrocking soon.

Chaos city

2006-05-18T08:37:00.000-05:00

No new pics this time around, just crazy stories. :-) So, when we had our framing inspection done, the inspector wouldn't sign off on it because we didn't have homeowner plumbing and electrical permits. John and I didn't have a clue that we were supposed to have these permits (we thought our contractor had pulled everything we needed). When we went down to LEIP on Fri 5/11, we were told that we weren't homesteaded, and therefore we couldn't pull the permits. On Mon 5/15, John went down and confirmed that we were homesteaded (although not technically until 2007 because I did it after Dec 1, 2005), and then tried to pull permits. Again, he couldn't because his liscence didn't have his current address on it. After going to work, he went back down to LEIP again and talked to a different person who let him pull the permits.

Meanwhile, on Sat 5/13, I went to Saturn to get our car's oil changed. And they found $400 of necessary (the car will end up in a ditch if you drive to Madison) kind of repairs, and they couldn't be done until Monday. I had been looking forward to getting out of town and seeing my brother graduate, and so I was quite upset. We went on the mad hunt to borrow a car from our parents, but both of his were up in Little Falls, and I didn't have a key to the car that my parents left behind. Frustration levels elevated, and we were lucky enough to have John's parents agree to rent a car for us (thank you, thank you, thank you again!!). So, we headed out to Madison, found a hotel about 20 mins out, crashed, woke up, bought cheese, went to breakfast with my family, watched Jeff graduate, met his girlfriend's (Emily) family, and then headed out of town again. I am very lucky to have people that are so good to me. It was the stress relief that I needed.

On Tuesday we found out that we had corrections to make on both the plumbing and electrical, and so that is going to get done today. Hopefully. Maybe we'll get sheetrocked walls by Memorial Day!!

Stuff

2006-05-10T07:19:00.000-05:00

There have been many changes in the last few days... There was a mad rush on Sat. 5/6 to get John and I moved from the upstairs to the downstairs. On Friday night John and I were up late moving our bedroom stuff down... and it took a lot more out of us than we were expecting. John et al hauled the living room/office down, and I moved the kitchen. Of course, we don't have a functioning kitchen downstairs, so the strange hutch type thing that was used as basically the only countertop in the original downstairs kitchen became our dishes storage area in the dining room.
Every closet/storage space that we have is filled to the brim, and we have boxes stacked everywhere. I can't wait until we have kitchen cabinets again and a nice sized pantry. In the meantime, we do have a fully functional bathroom, which makes John and I feel so small. The bathroom upstairs has a very low ceiling above the shower itself, and this has nothing until the 8'4" mark. Overall, we're surviving. The roof of the addition was fully shingled on 5/10, and so we should be completely water tight. Our new washer/dryer is AWESOME. The framing inspection was initially done on Wednesday, but then we got word that we need to pull a couple of permits before the inspector will sign off on our contractor's job. Fun fun.

In things other than house life.... I got my first PT student this week and I'll get to work with him for a total of 6 weeks. He's doing well so far. (Thank goodness.) John interviewed for a full time teaching job in another school in Anoka, but didn't get it. :( There are many more postings now, however, and so hopefully he'll end up getting something good for next year. And my little bro is graduating from U of W Madison this weekend! Hurray!

FINALLY

2006-05-05T17:48:00.000-05:00

It happened today... we are now fully enclosed. The contractor (for some unknown reason) has been holding out on enclosing the west wall of the kitchen... and so we've had a blue-tarp skylight for a while. Well, for 16 weeks. Crazy. Yesterday I took the day "off" to prep the 1st floor for the big move downstairs... and am very thankful that I only had one day of work left this week. It's going to be a long weekend between moving, cleaning, paining upstairs, and going to my CE course.

Another piece of good news, John was contacted to be 1 of 3 interviewees for a full time teaching position in Anoka next year (new school)!!! Hurray!!!

It's electric!

2006-05-01T07:02:00.000-05:00

First, a cartoon from the New Yorker:"My contractor told me Rome would only take a day."

We made more progress this weekend... our hands are all nicked up and bruised to attest to it. On Saturday, our contractor came over and directed us in properly finishing all of the wiring for the addition (bath/kitchen/laundry). All of the wires are tacked down, the outlets and switches that aren't blocked by our 32 sheets of sheetrock are in. Pat is a wonder boy of plumbing and has everything but the tub workable in the bathroom, and just needs to tweak the water feed pipes for the laundry. (I can't tell you how happy I will be to be able to do laundry in our house again.) The bathroom is primed and first coat painted, the light and fan are working. We're to a point where we're planning on living downstairs starting May 6th - our friend Eric is moving in upstairs on May 7th... it's going to be an insane week. Hopefully I can get a day off to focus, since I'm at a CE course all weekend, and John is working both days. Ikes!

A little bit closer

2006-04-28T15:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, so its been a while since the last update was written.... but it's because we've been working hard! The end of last week was a big push - the temporary wall finally came down, most of the framing was completed for the kitchen, and the bathroom was put in (floor one night, sink and toilet the next). This was all being completed while John and I were working all weekend (much thanks to Eric who pulled a late shift on Saturday). This week we have been continuing to work on taping and mudding the bathroom (third coat done today), re-working some electrical, and generally organizing. Last night was another (very) late night push with Pat working plumbing in preparation for our new appliances (beautiful front loading washing and dryer, fridge, flattop stove, and dishwasher -- all delivered today). Granted, our space isn't really ready for most of it yet, but it's still nice to have - once step closer to moving down. The other important thing that happened today - John's wish of cable was hooked up in time for the NFL draft. I had no idea how important a day tomorrow was.... I guess I have a lot to learn!

Little wonders

2006-04-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

What a day off. I had a compensation day today for working this weekend... and it has been full of house projects. I got up early to get going sanding the walls of the bathroom in prep for the final coat of mud.... to hear some chattering. Like large rodent chattering over the bathroom/bedroom on the 1st floor. I climbed up on top of my ladder with a flashlight, and found a gray fuzzy ear sticking out of the insulation. We have a raccoon. I listened a little bit more, and became sure that we had a mama with babies - called my Dad (who had a 'coon as a pet when he was little, and he said that animal control would likely need to be called. I called the contractor, and he (eventually) came over and shooed it out. I didn't hear any noise, so I assumed that it was a male with creative vocalizations. The contractor and I hauled in our 32 sheets of sheetrock, and while we were doing that the 'coon made it back in. We then plugged a few holes, nailed down some boards, and shooed it out again. This time, the contractor checked the insulation nest and found.... 7 babies. I was outside when mama came out, I followed her around the house and she took off into the neighbors yard and disappeared. We currently have 7 baby raccoons in a bucket outside my back window... I hope mama shows up soon and moves them to a new home.

The bad with the good

2006-04-17T18:51:00.000-05:00

The bad news:
~The contractor has been MIA for at least a week... and isn't responding to my phone calls. As a result, we have no idea as to when we can move downstairs...

The good news:
~It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Minnesota! I wish I had had patients that were appropriate to work on community mobility with! :) The weather made it easier to transition back into the working life.

~We have walls and the first coat of mud on the walls of the bathroom downstairs! With a little luck and a lot of hard work, we'll have a working bathroom down there by the end of the weekend!!!!

~Today is the official last day of Tax Season, meaning that I'll have a Mom to talk to again. :) I hope all of you have your taxes done!

10 Lessons from Arizona

2006-04-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

For those of you that didn't know, John and I took Spring Break to go on our quite belated honeymoon. We were lucky enough to have been gifted a time share in Scottsdale, which we used as a launching pad for many adventures. Here's a list of our lessons from Arizona:

1. Sun Country Airlines rocks. On the flight out, we not only got the typical beverage service, but a warm cheese sandwich, cookie, and LifeSavers gummies sample!!! I think the first and only time I got real food on a flight was when I flew internationally... And I must say that the meal we received in our free upgrade to 1st class on the return flight was MUCH better than home cooking. For all those in the MSP area, forego the monolopy and head straight to the Humphrey Terminal for real service by an airline!!!

2. John is fascinated with fast cars. We arrived in Scottsdale, and were offered an upgrade on our rental car. When we finally found the car we were to take, we found a cherry red 2006 Mustang. John was in love for the entire trip, especially while climbing the mountains to the Grand Canyon. Of course, the fire was only fueled by all of the BMW's, Mustangs, Hummers, Lexus, Audis, etc - and all new and shiny. The Saturn doesn't look like such a good ride anymore....

3. Pool time is essential. Although I am more of an adventuresome type of girl, John made me realize the beauty of daily pool time - sitting, reading, people watching, and swimming. I can't really remember the last time I took a good chunk of every day sitting by the water - probably at Leech Lake with the family... The only warning of pool time - make sure your pasty Minnesota body has SPF 30 on it (John set a good example for me).

4. There aren't mountains in Minnesota. There was a mountain (Camelback) in our hotel's backyard, however, and so we decided to attempt the 1.5 mile hike to the top, ignoring that we were increasing 2700 feet over that distance. John and I have hiked before, but the mountain was, well, a mountain and it tried to kick our bottom on the way up. The view was well worth it, however.

5. Home remodelers are the same, no matter what part of the country they're from. We went horseback riding one day, and were hitched together with a family from PA. We kept encouraging their daughter to kick her pokey horse (Pedro) into high gear. When the 2 hours was up and we were quite sore, we all headed to the local source for grub. We got talking, and soon the conversation turned to homes and home remodeling. We're going to be exchanging digital photos to determine who has the biggest project.

6. National Parks do close down occasionally. John and I had a bet - if the Grand Canyon was closed, we could head to Vegas. Of course, luck has it that the park did indeed evacuate the day we decided to head up to it. A truck with potentially hazardous chemicals had overturned and the whole canyon was evacuated. Luckily, it reopened within about 2 hours, but John isn't going to let me live down a free trip to Vegas for him.

7. Don't forget to charge your digital camera battery. This is especially important when visiting what is deemed as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World (the others are the Northern Lights, Mt. Everest, Great Barrier Reef, Victoria Falls, the Harbor at Rio de Jenerio, and Paricutin). We were about 5 minutes into our oohing and ahhing, when the angry red flashing battery sign came on. This typically means we have about 5 seconds before the system shuts down. So, we stopped shooting, wandered around, and finally came to the perfect spot to watch the sun go down. Our neighbors were clicking away, while I was waiting for the best opportunity to try to take one quick shot.... the "juice" had been saved all day. This was what I was able to capture:

8. Cable - despite 50+ channels, sometimes there is still nothing good on. While John may be fine watching ESPN's poker turnament, at 2p on a Tuesday, it simply does nothing for me. After being in a static reception hole here in St Paul, it was a relief to not have to fight to get a good picture. However, I can only take too much of spoiled brats planning their dream Sweet 16th Birthday Party. What was worth watching was all of the coverage on the immigration rallies in the Phoenix area. It makes you realize how lucky you are to have been born an American, to not have to hide in a society that doesn't want you, but relies on you to function.

9. Becky gets cranky when its warm! I have known Becky for a good many years now, and she never ceases to amaze me. From October til April, from the minute she gets up until the second she falls asleep.... she is cold. I mean, frozen to the bone! Now for those 7 months, I can understand being through a Minnesota winter.... but then from May through September she is .... too hot. Hello? How can you go from one extreme to the next, maybe its a new form of biopolar disorder. Im going to call it Becky's "Bipolar-bear" disorder. We were down in the desert and it was um.... like 90 out. She was too cranky, because..... wait for it..... she was too hot! So for all those men out there who have been through this.... just beware "bipolar-bear" disorder is harsh.

10. Life is made up a lot of small things. Take the fact that I had a Cherry-Red Mustang 2006. To Becky, it was just a car. Hello? It may be just a car to her, but these are the little things in my life that will have me smiling for months. That car was able to go 95, without any problems! Which in case the rental agency is reading, that's according to what Becky told me. Although Becky says that were not going to get a shiny new Mustang, I have a feeling I can persuade her. Anyway, the little things such as conquering my fears of heights over a cliff, riding a horse that was considered the "instigator" to all the other horses, makes for great memories! We did so many fun things, and they were all so small and ordinary. Like cooking together, eating every meal for a week together was really special. Its not the fact that we had this "really cool" trip.... although it was really cool..... it was that we had fun and enjoyed each others company.

April showers

2006-04-06T18:13:00.000-05:00

It is, as is obvious by the title, raining right now. I got soaked during my walk from work to the train station. I may be crazy, but I actually enjoyed walking home in the rain. You could really smell spring (AKA mud) with all of the moisture hanging in the air. I love spring!

The most beautiful part about the day was coming home... to not find not a single bucket collecting water. Hurray! We're water tight!!!! (Finally.)

We had our new shower installed by Pat this weekend, and even got part of our laundry room framed in. A little bit of progress on the home front. (Finally.)

Wide open

2006-04-01T06:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the 11 week anniversary of our "temporary" wall being put up. It was a barrier between the inside and the very open addition. John and I are getting more than a little impatient over the pace of our project coming to completion. After 4 days of no-show by our contractor, we lost it on Wednesday night. We left less than complementary voice mails for our contractor, and I doubt he would have shown up yesterday at all if my Dad hadn't called him to offer to help. (By the way, my Dad is a lifesaver.) Thursday night I called the contractor and tried to calmly tell him that he was holding up the show - the plumbing for the bathroom could not be completed by John's brother Pat because the temporary wall was still up. He fumbled through a few comments and then told me that the wall would come down on Friday.

Aside: We told our contractor a few weeks ago that we were hoping to move down the first weekend in April so that our rentor (and good friend Eric) could move in. Although we realized that the kitchen wouldn't be done by then, we needed a working bathroom. He told us that the addition would be "boxed in" by mid-March. Ha ha.

The contractor was still working when I got home at about 6:30p, and so I let him keep working. I peeked in to see that the bathroom walls were open and that we could get the plumbing done. Great. We could move forward this weekend. When John got home about 8p, he took a full look at what was done... and found the back door WIDE OPEN. That's right folks, no tarp, no plywood, just air between the outisde, our addition, and the inside of the house. Anyone who wanted to could have just walked right in, grabbed our various boxes of stored things downstairs and walked right out without us knowing.

Luckily, there was a full sheet of plywood that was nearby that we tacked over the doorway in about 2 mins. When I called the contractor, he stated that he assumed that we were going to be securing the barrier by installing sheetrock in the bathroom this weekend, and so he didn't worry about it. I told him that from a security standpoint it was not accecptable to leave us wide open like that and not tell us before he left. He again fumbled through things and I verified that he would be back on Monday.

My God. What kind of a practical sense idiot have we hired? Does every contractor need this much hand holding?

So, where have you been?

2006-03-25T07:25:00.000-06:00

Wednesday night, I was so upset when I came home to find that NOTHING had been done on the house this week. Last week John and I released a portion of the remaining balance of the addition to the contractor - we are believers of supporting small business, and our contractor was strapped for cash since healthcare for the year was due. In exchange, he offered to do the labor of installing sheetrock, taping, and mudding our addition for free. I was also ensured at that time that he had no other side projects, that we'd get his full attention.

Well, I found our "full attention" of this week unacceptable. I wanted to give him a giant red "Unfortunate" stamp on his forehead, much like one of my college-level-in-high school professors used to do when we failed to live up to expectations (a B) on pop quizzes. So, I called Wednesday night and after the common courtesies, I said, "So, where have you been?" He was taken aback by my frontness, but managed to fumble out that he had been at an out of town funeral. Now it was my turn to fumble, feeling like an awful person for assuming that he was blowing us off.

He has been here all day Thursday and Friday. The work is still slow, but we have a prayer of maybe having a working bathroom downstairs by the time we leave for Arizona...

A big push

2006-03-19T09:26:00.000-06:00

The pressure is on. Self induced, of course. John and I have decided that we want to be able to move downstairs one of these years... and we've set a target date of April 1 (no foolin').

Friday night we made a list of things to get done in order to keep us moving forward. We had the help of five fabulous individuals and made a significant dent. We now have a curtain rod in the upstairs bedroom closet, a bifold door between the upstairs bathroom and the furnace room, paint on the downstairs living and dining rooms, and a start on re-doing the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom. (Our contractor managed to incorrectly measure when laying out the bathroom, and so all of the pipes he placed need to shifted to the left by Pat... and we lose our proposed storage area. *heavy sigh*)

It's starting to really feel like a home... except for all the tools everywhere. :)

Wimpy girlie arms

2006-03-16T18:19:00.000-06:00

Talk about in like a lion...

We have finally gotten our famous Minnesota snowstorms. In March. This week we have gotten two large snowstorms. The first was Monday - a heavy snowstorm with lightening producing about 10" of wet snow in our yard. John was off early that day (after it took him 2 hours to get to work) and did the shoveling clearing the sidewalks and even a good section to park the car in our driveway. Today storm two hit with only 6" of new snow of medium/light weight. Traffic was not nearly as bad as Monday, which I was thankful for since I had to travel to the south suburbs for a meeting about our new electronic documentation system. ANYWAYS... I got home first today and it was my turn to shovel. Needless to say, I didn't do as good a job as John did on Monday... finally gave up and drove the car onto the snow covered driveway. My arms are still shakey despite a few minutes of rest. I need to lift weights.

On other news.... our windows came in yesterday and so the addition might actually get really closed off before April (just as soon as the heating season really ends). We're planning on moving downstairs as soon as we have a functioning bathroom, and then continuing to work while we're down there. Not ideal, but necessary.

March is supposed to go out like a lamb, right?

Spring has sprung

2006-03-02T18:21:00.000-06:00

When did spring hit? I know that the highs are still in the 30s these days, but it feels like spring. Many of my patients are anxious to try walking outside. We all comment about how sunny the south facing gym is. And John and my social schedules have been filling up - a definite sign of the warming trend.

The other big spring news has to do with the house. Firstly, I saw my first pair of cardinals while I was walking home from the bus yesterday... a great treat and definite sign of spring. AND... an addition has formed on the back of the house!!!

Look! A framed roof! Windows and doors have definition! We have some real access to the basement! Wowwie!!! And the contractor told me yesterday that he was sitting during a break, admiring the view from what will be our new table area window (right - and notice our view of the St Paul Cathedral), and watched three pairs of cardinals feeting around our scrubby trees.

Another sign of the birds and the bees... new ED commercials that refer you to www.mensfacts.com.

Happy Spring everyone!!

A brief respite

2006-02-26T20:20:00.000-06:00

John and I have been having cabin fever... BAD. We realized last week that neither of us have traveled in the last 6 months. During the past 3 years, each of us usually traveled at least once in a 6 month period to see the other person. Needless to say, not having a change of scenery in 6 months is really odd for us... and so we took care of it.

On Saturday, after a shortened day of work for John, we piled into the car and headed "up north" to Two Harbors, MN. We reserved a spot at our favorite get away - Grand Superior Resort - where they have cabin suites with fireplaces and jacuzzis. We didn't realize until we got there that we had unintentionally reserved "The Love Shack." After dinner at Grandma's, we settled in for a good night of relaxation with a crackling fire. We both slept great. :)

This morning we headed down to the lake... John almost slipped into Lake Superior with the digital camera in hand, but both ended up fine. We had brunch at Betty's Pies - and took home a couple of slices of their famous pie.

We of course needed to work a little on the house this evening - but the walls of the dining and living rooms are now fully prepped for priming and painting. The back of the house is still open, but we're awaiting the delivery of the 20 foot rafters to frame in the roof. Cross your fingers that we're getting "boxed in" this week!!!

2/18 Morning News

2006-02-18T06:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday our contractor was very nice and stopped by around noon to ensure that the pipes were working just fine, which they were. However, by the time evening came around and we were starting to get ready for bed, there was no water. Denny got a call at 9p, and the pipes were defrosted by a little after 10p - we caught it earlier this time around. And we have water this morning, despite dropping to -11 F (-31 with wind chill). We're at a balmy -7 this morning... I'm not going out for a morning paper or coffee - John is already out the door at work.

Last night we moved rooms to sleep, crashing on our fouton. John has been having trouble sleeping with the tarp (that is tacked to the other side of our closet) flapping in the wind. Truthfully, it is pretty loud, but I've been learning to sleep through almost anything since October. John has reported better sleep, which means we both can have a good day.

Hope you all are staying warm!!!

It's friggin cold outside!!!

2006-02-17T08:09:00.000-06:00

Winter has arrived. Our high for today is 2 degrees above zero. Unlike my friends out East, we are not enjoying the white stuff with the cold. It's brown outside. The most snow exposure we've been getting is what is seen on Torino for the Olympics.

As you loyal readers know, I had a discussion with the contractor the other day... and it resulted in some progress! Here's the latest house picture:
Look! You can see our addition!!! The left corner will be the laundry room. The big space on the front wall will be the sitting area in the kitchen - all windows in that hole. And the far right corner will be the stairway entrance to the basement/pantry. We're supposed to get a new roofline and get completely encased in plywood by next weekend (the cold snap is only to last until Sunday). Cross your fingers that we have more to show off in a few days!!

On other news... it's friggin cold outside! I am so glad that I have plenty of house projects to keep me inside all weekend. I need to finish the 2nd coat of mudding the dining room, sand, apply the 3rd coat, and wash down the walls. Then it's time to vacuum the floors, lay down tarps, prime and paint away!

The plan for the walls is such: Rouge for the living room, Cappuccino for the dining room, Butter Cream kitchen, and Sea Green bathroom. We aren't buying the paint from Restoration Hardware... it's $30/gallon!! Everything has been color matched at Menards. :)

That's all the big news. Hope you all are staying warm!

Lotsa love

2006-02-15T18:32:00.000-06:00

Happy belated Valentines Day to you all! I hope you all had a great day... John and I had our share of ups and downs.

Over John's lunch hour, his 2nd graders managed to get wet playing on the playground. The stench of wet kids got almost ridiculous... and then it was discovered that a Porta Potty near the playgound had tipped over, mixing its contents with the melting snow. Yum. Ecoli. Needless to say, all of the kids clothes were bundled up and a note sent home.

I, meanwhile, had the pleasure of having one of my bariatric patients make it out of her room to her first gym treatment since her admission a month ago. She was glowing at seeing some walls other than those in her room. And she's a social butterfly, and so that chatter in the gym greatly increased.... surrounding adult Valentine activities. It was a clean discussion... just... festive. :)

We had reservations at The Lexington, a supper-club type restaurant with no windows and lots of dark hardwood. We were greeted by cozy warmth as we stepped inside, out of the arriving artic blast. The air was filled with the slightly cheesy duet of an accordian and violin. The two performers obviously have done this gig before, finding the Valentines Day regulars and playing at their tables. Couples of all ages were there - high schoolers to grandparents. The food was great, and we were stuffed silly as we made our way back home at 10p. We were exhausted... since when has 10p become "late"?!?!

Much of our conversation was around our family and friends. Know that we were thinking of you all!

PS. As followup to the previous post... I did have a conversation with our contractor. I was worked up and my voice cracked as I tried to calmly voice my disapproval of the progress. He then proceeded to outline the next week's worth of activities... the exact same plan he gave us for last week - and I called him out on it. Well, it must have had some impact because he has been here for the last 2 days, and has made some progress. Thank. Goodness. The cold snap that's coming isn't going to be as bad as predicted, more good news for our checkbook....

Frustration City

2006-02-13T19:33:00.000-06:00

It's been piling up for a few weeks now, but I am finally able to let it out.

Contractors suck.

You give them lots of money, let them tear apart your home, and you are at their mercy until it gets complete. Even our contractor, a family friend, has allowed the back half of our house to be exposed to the elements for 17 days now. There is merely one layer of plywood, a blue plastic tarp, and a random pile of insullation between us and the great outdoors. Winter has finally arrived, and will be coming in force starting on Friday, and we're heating the outside. Arugh!!!!

I am generally a patient and understanding person, but my top has blown tonight. John and I would like to move downstairs ASAP, but we can't without a kitchen or (more importantly) a bathroom. I do not do well with confrontation, but enough is enough. The adrenaline is running. Desparate times call for a little bit of straightforwardness.

The contractor has been called... he's out at dinner. Here's hoping I don't collapse like a wimpy girl when he calls me back.

Congratulations!!!

2006-02-10T18:31:00.000-06:00

We just got word that all of Pat's (John's younger brother) planning worked out... he and his girlfriend Emily got engaged this evening!!! Contrats you two! We look forward to hearing about all of the wedding plans!!

Oy update

2006-02-04T11:10:00.000-06:00

The water just started running up here (11:10a)... now I guess I need to go work. Damn. :)

Oy

2006-02-04T09:52:00.000-06:00

And welcome back to adventures in home ownership! The adventure of the day is.... frozen water main!! That's right, loyal readers, we woke up to NO WATER today. (Which, I might add, is much worse than no hot water, as we experienced a few months ago.)

We have been wondering why our contactor has been MIA for much of this week, when is was GEORGOUS out. Not too much has changed from the last pictures... we have our new kitchen/living room floor framed, but no plywood on it, and, as such, the 6 degree weather was in our basement. As a good dutiful daughter with no space heater, I called Dad (while John ran off to work) and he literally went and pulled our contractor out of bed at 7a to come fix the problem.

We now have a little bit more of the basement sealed off, and a space heater running, but no water yet.

*heavy sigh*

Gimpy

2006-01-29T21:25:00.000-06:00

Well it happened - someone got injured while working on the house (other than the crazy contractor who liked falling through our old kitchen floor), and luckily it was John. Yesterday while hauling the remains of the back part of the house to the dumpster, John stepped on a nail. I called the Fairview Nursing Line (one of the advantages of working for a big institution - free nursing advice), and we all decided he'd better go in to get a tetnus shot. He also got a prescription for a profolactic antibiotic, which he dropped off at his regular (non-chain) pharmacy and decided he would pick it up later.

John returned to the house to help the volunteer work crew haul the 40-ish sheets of plywood from the front yard to the back, and was by then limping pretty bad. A few more hours of standing work went by, we stopped to eat dinner, and John had a hard time getting from the kitchen to the bedroom by the end of it. And then the complaints of feeling cold came.

A note to the readers: John is NEVER cold, unless it's -40 F or he is sick.

Then the shivering began. I got back on the Nursing Line at about 10p, and by 11p we had finally gotten an on-call doc to call in the prescription to a 24 hour pharmacy. John is claiming he's not sick through a chattering jaw, and I'm throwing on my jacket to go fetch his pills.

As a result of all this drama (and that so much got done on the house yesterday - thanks everyone!!), we decided to take it easy today... and watched the entire Lord of the Rings triology back to back. We truly had a lazy day, feet up, snacking on what we had, and enjoying every bit of it.

John should step on nails more often. ;-)

Feeling a little... exposed

2006-01-28T12:36:00.000-06:00

It finally happened this week. The back part of our house has literally come off. We have our temporary plywood wall, and then the open sky! Here's the view of the outside:

As you can see, our bedroom (the mural-ed wall to the left) is intact. The roof is entirely missing from the back of the 2nd floor bedroom's closet on.

Below, is our foundation that the addition is being re-built onto:

The red ladder was what we were using to get into the basement for a short while. Now, we can easily just hop right down...

Here's hoping it doesn't rain. Talk about water in the basement!

Discoveries

2006-01-22T07:33:00.000-06:00

Yesterday The House Detective (an actual title given to him in the 1970's by the Pioneer Press), Jim, came over to help us learn a little more about our neighborhood and house. He is one of our neighbors from Smith Ave and has been here for 20 years. He's mostly an expert from the end of the Civil War until the early 1900s, but is generally enthusiastic. We discovered him (or he, us) at one of the neighborhood parties last weekend... one that we were going to bail out on, but are very glad we didn't!

What Jim discovered by looking through his old notes about the neighborhood is that our house has been rented out since the 1880s, mostly to families with 4-5 kids. (There have likely been 5-7 births in the house!) From an 1885 insurance atlas of the neighborhood, the home was a single story dwelling consisting of our current laundry room/kitchen/bath/bedroom/living room, with porches where the picture window is in the living room, and along the then front of the house (kitchen south wall). According to those same 1885 plans, we had a 1 1/2 story barn in the backyard... and one of the owners and his brother probably lived out there while he rented out the house to a family!

The addition to the house to make the 2nd story, as well as the 1st floor parlor/den happened in 1890. In the dining room wall there were a lot of items dated 1890, and so we're convinced that their placement in the walls was intentional. We will need to find the same insurance atlas for the early 1900s to see if our timing of the additions is really right.

We knew from looking at different parts of the house that there was a fire (there's still charred clapboards inside one of our closets)... from the tax records, we suspect that it happened in 1928 - there was a recording of $750 worth of repairs that year.

When I gave him the "grand tour" he also noted that the construction of our kitchen walls is highly unusual for a house - board and bat (vertical planks). I then showed him the wall between the kitchen and the bedroom downstairs, and he notices a little glimmer (he's over 6' tall)... and pulls out 2/3 of an old toy motorcycle!

I love learning new stuff! Now we just need to hunt down some previous residents to see if they have pictures of the house in its various stages!

(Almost) taking it all off

2006-01-13T18:12:00.000-06:00

So, the next job on the list for our contractor is to literally tear off the back side of the house. Luckily, he's decided to put up a temporary wall before he does that. Here's the wall from the kitchen/bathroom....

And the view from the laundry room....

Random observations

2006-01-11T18:31:00.000-06:00

I actually wrote this yesterday... but forgot to post it! Oops!

It’s official. On the local news today, it was announced that our Minnesota winter is 16 degrees warmer than normal. For those of you fussing, you’ll have to stop now. The bad news is, that normally we’ll have to pay to heat the house 16 more degrees. Ikes.

Also from the local news, a new machine that fills potholes with the labor of one person was featured. It will clean, oil, fill and compact the hole while someone sits inside the vehicle controlling the robot arm. Only in Minnesota is something like this featured on the news.

This afternoon I got out of work a little early because it was a bomb of a day (AKA, no work to do for the last hour). Luckily, my unofficial boss of the floor told me to just take off. The good news, I got to see some rays of sunshine while riding home. The bad news, I got to see a family of young children with toy guns on the train. I’m not sure whether this makes me conservative or liberal… but I strongly disagree with toy guns. Guns are not toys. Period. And to see kids from 2-8 years of age (my guess) pointing guns at each other and certain members of other races on the train, smiling and laughing while the artificial noises rang out… it was enough to get me disgusted.

There are many differences that have come out between John and I and our cleaning styles. We have had dishes piling up for a couple of days and John insisted on doing them. So, I let them continue to pile up. He has his own method of doing dishes – running water and scrubbing with a sponge. I, instead, empty the sink, let some items soak (especially when it’s been a few days) and then scrub them. John was being frustrated by a dried piece of food, so I suggested he let it soak a little… the look on his face told me to go and finish the laundry. And so, I did. J

By the way, where do guys learn the habit of leaving clean laundry in the laundry basket? I know that John isn’t the only one that would prefer to do it. I know his early home training was otherwise, but he managed to pick up the bad habit somewhere…

Oh well. That’s all for today!

-Becky

PS. We saw our first mouse tonight. Kinda surprised it took this long. Thank goodness for Decon.

Man of the house

2006-01-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

As we approach our third month of marriage, I have finally "taught" Becky who is in charge of the house. Becky has claimed that its "our" house, but no more I say! Putting my foot down, I have reasserted my claim as man of the house. She has all these false claims to things that she says is "ours"..... when I was single, I NEVER used the word "our" in front of anything to discribe it. She uses it like an adjective! She must think its a game, try using "our" in front of everything. Take my saturn, its now "our" Saturn.... or my checking account.... it's now "our" checking account. Shes been using it on everthing! "Our" new stove, "our" christmas tree, "our" chocolate, "our" bills, and even "our" house!

Thats where I finally say enough is enough. I signed the purchase thing, and I was there to do most of the boring paper work. MY money went into the house before the marriage, now MY money geos into "our account." Its a clever smoke screen, but I have finally seen the way.... I need to reassert what is mine in the house. Now Oh sure, I did pick up that pile of clothes in the corner of "our" room that was driving her crazy.... but IT WAS ME THAT decided to do it! Oh sure I did take out the trash that was getting full, but I did it on MY TIME. I even did the full sink of dishes that she wanted me to do.... but as Frank Sinatra said it best, "I did it MY way!" Notice how I refer to the chores not as "our" chores, but as "my" chores..... maybe if I refer to the house as "my" that I can get rid of this "our" that appears everywhere.

It's beginning to feel like progress

2006-01-08T15:40:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to take a few minutes to share what we were working on last night. We were given clearance to put up insulation in the kitchen, and we got most of it done last night... along with wiring 3 lights, multiple outlets, and roughing in the new kitchen sink. With the insulation in, the rooms are really starting to have some definition, even if it is a little fluffy at the moment.

Left, our dining room. We might be sheetrocking next...

Right, the kitchen facing west. The beam on the right of the picture is the bathroom corner.

The pictures really don't give you the difference in the feeling of the space. It's amazing what a little insulation will do. (Cross your fingers that next month's heating bill is better!!!)

Now it's starting to get exciting.

Aches and pains

2006-01-07T10:15:00.000-06:00

We got our first winter heating bill the other day. It's almost half of our mortgage payment.

Ouch.

Granted, we haven't had insulation in the downstairs kitchen walls for nearly a month, and a hole in the roof where the chimney used to be. But still. Needless to say, we made a run to Menards this week to get insulation, and then back the next night because we bought the wrong width (luckily we discovered this before moving the 10 packages out of John's parent's van).

This weekend we are installing electrical and insulating like crazy. January is so far a warmer month than December, but there's still 24 days for it to get cold again. Becides, the sooner we insulate, the sooner we can put up sheetrock, tape, mud, sand, prime, paint and install cabinets. Yea, we're going to be busy in January.

On a happy note, the sun is out for the first time in 14 days! Hurray!!

Multitasking

2006-01-03T19:01:00.000-06:00

The holidays are all about multitasking, and creating a balance between work and play. John returned to school today after a week and a half "off" - only all but 3 days of it (2 being holidays) were spent at his 2nd job. I still got my weekends off, plus 2 days before New Years, but spent most of my "free time" preparing for the holidays. Yesterday as the alarm went off, neither of us wanted to get up. We have been running on too close to empty for too long. We can't wait for our honeymoon in April!

On the plus side, we had a fabulous New Years party at John's parent’s house (sans the parents). Malicious Monopoly was played, and John won in the end.

A few days before we had a beautiful, wet snowfall. The next day, there was a huge flock of snowmen that arrived in the city of Saint Paul. I had a little bit of play time in with my errand running on New Years Eve, and so I took the time to photograph them in their beauty. Check out the Shutterfly link to see the whole collection.

Some good news... Part of the interior wall framing is done, so we have solid numbers on what kind of a space we have to play with for our laundry, bathroom and kitchen. We plugged it into a kitchen planner, and have a pretty good plan! Hurray! With any luck, we'll have insulation in that part of the house again by the end of the weekend. If we can only make it until then....

Batman's House?

2005-12-30T09:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, John and I both had the day off. We didn't really have any plans, but then my brother Jeff showed up at the door to work with Denny (our contractor) on the day's tasks. So, we quickly re-directed to working on the house for the day. We've both felt as if a lot of what was going on in terms of construction is well beyond our expertise. However, we were able to help today as Denny cleaned out what was in the part of the basement hidden behind what were the old stairs to the basement via the trap door in the kitchen. What came to light from looking through the new (temporary) trap door to the basement is that that original basement was literally carved out of stone. The walls and the floor are solid rock. Some crazy previous owner took a chisel and a bucket and dug out a 6' hole in the limestone.

It looks and feels like a cave down there... which is why it is apropos that Denny found three dormant bats there along one of the joists under the insulation. He found two bats previously when the chimney came down in the kitchen, and another in the upper rafters of the kitchen. Those two made since - there were obvious holes (mainly, the chimney) where a critter could get into our cozy cave for the winter. However... how did the bats get into the basement? John's mom said that bats can come into a home with as little as a 1/4" opening! From there, they must just crawl their way around, looking for a well insulated place to sleep through the winter. What amazing little critters. I just hope we don't find a half-dozen more flying around the house come spring... and then close off their entrance before next fall!!

No signs of mice or rats yet... keep your fingers crossed!!

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T10:33:00.000-06:00

December 25th has arrived, and we still have snow on the ground. With all of the warm weather (40s the last 3 days), it was questionable whether Minnesota would have a white Christmas or not. It is our first Christmas, and it has been a good one so far full of new traditions. Some of it feels a little awkward still, but I'm sure it will become old hat pretty soon. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Much love, Becky & John

Christmas cheer

2005-12-18T08:09:00.000-06:00

First, an update. The heat is back on downstairs, and we have hot water. This was actually resolved late on Tuesday night. The end result was that half of our circuit brakers weren't recieving the right amount of electricity, and so they were pulling from the ones that were working. So, if you tried to do something stilly like run more than one thing at at time (AKA furnace and hot water heater), neither could get enough electricity to properly work. Our contractor completely replaced our box on Wednesday, and everything was (and is) working fine. Whew!!

Second, a bit of Christmas cheer (since we're a week away). I call it, the New Homeowners 12 Days of Christmas.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
12 new outlets
11 sheets of 'rock
10 random hammers
9 gallons of paint (so far)
8 new circuit breakers
7 clean bandaids
6 helpers demo-ing (thanks Pat, Mike, Eric, Tai, Emily and Jeff!!)
5 trips to Menards (per project)
4 stacks of plywood
3 walls missing
2 full dumpsters
and a heating bill from NSP!!

-a much warmer Becky

Cold winter night

2005-12-13T20:39:00.000-06:00

I was just going to be a "good wife" and do the dishes after I had my dinner. I swear, I didn't mean to cause trouble. Unfortunately, trouble came to me. There was no hot water. So, being a pretty handy person, I figured "it's cold downstairs and most of our hot water pipes aren't insulated - just let the water run." Three minutes later, no hot water, and panic started to set in.

I went downstairs to notice that it was quite chilly - 41 degrees in fact. (Panic rising.) I was the one that managed to reset the furnaces this fall so that we had heat, so I proceeded to do the procedure again to our forced air furnace. No dice. That's when I called our contractor. No heat on the 1st floor when we're expecting chilly weather and about 6" of snow in the next 24 hours is not a good combination. And a hot shower in the morning would be nice.

The contractor came back over, and has thus far detected that almost every circuit breaker is tripping/powering down the furnace - a fact that didn't used to be true. That and now we can't start up the dryer - something I did just yesterday. Somehow with all of the demolition, the electrical got Really Screwed Up. The problem is diligently being worked on at the moment. Cross your fingers for a hot shower in the morning!!

-Becky the popsicle

PS. We do have heat upstairs, so we won't freeze tonight... just maybe the pipes downstairs.

A clean slate

2005-12-12T18:45:00.000-06:00

Wow. We have a clean slate.

When John and I were thinking about buying our house, we knew that we wanted to do some fairly extensive work in the kitchen, namely getting rid of the trap door. In order to do this, we wanted to knock out the back wall of the kitchen out to the outdoors (where there was already a foundation). That part hasn't been done yet, but in our contractor's words "you'll have a small gymnasium with new plywood floors on Friday." And I believe him.

We heard on Friday that the water to the bathroom sink, toilet, and tub was going to be capped off in order to remove all of said items. Today, we came home to the bathroom being GONE. Walls and all. And, as a result, the walls to one of our bedroom closets.

In essence, we have a completely open space in what was the original 1870's structure. All 200 square feet of it. By the time we open up the back wall, we have about 350 square feet of open space to play with. For those that don't know, having that much room to play with in an older structure is basically unheard of.

I, for one, am excited and overwhelmed by the number of possibilities that we have by today's development.

-Becky

John's comments

2005-12-06T20:11:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone. As you probably don't know, I am part of a balance skills set group as part of work. Our job is to look at articles, summarize them, and share in order to develop a check off of sorts for all PTs in the system about balance. Well, I was writing one of my reports, and John decided to contribute his thoughts. Here they are. Enjoy. (Note, this is satire.)

"Now that Im done with this, I wanted to mention that PT is the easiest job in the world next to whoring. I think that you can tell people what to do, and they don’t do it….. THEN TELL THEM AGAIN….. until you are blue in the face is priceless. Its like getting paid to tell people that the sky is falling. That brings up another point. PT’s are overpaid. Seriously, getting 50 um Thousand a year is crazy…. Considering we fill in sheets and tell people to exercise. Now, not only do I think that we should give money back to patients and the HMO’s to save some healthcare costs, we should look into expanding the role of PT. How about we also lifeguard on weekends, and work in the Cafeteria at night. Expanding our job description would really be a benefit, AND we get to hand out food and save people from water. Thinking about it, maybe we could keep the money if we take on these tasks…. Whores don’t give back money if they have a quicky or love you long time. So PTs should have more quickies so that we can focus our attention in the cafeteria and the pool. Thank you."

The new and the old

2005-12-04T15:41:00.000-06:00

What a fun day! Today we got to run errands - mostly Christmas shopping - which is always fun when it's about 10 degrees outside. However, the day has been capped off by picking up our first Christmas tree. It has been a few years since I had a tree of my own, and so I am looking forward to trimming it with lights and whatever goofy ornaments we both have here at the house.

We had a lot of help yesterday here at the house - our contractor and my Dad came to set a beam between the dining room and the kitchen. They also talked me through the placement of a metal beam under the dining room floor to support the ~2" dip that happens in the hardwood. As it turns out, one of the supporting beams for the floor has actually rolled about 45 degrees over the years, and therefore the floor is warped. The contractor seems confident that it can all be fixed and at least close to level between the rooms when he's done. Very cool.

The sheet-rocking of the dining and living rooms is getting close to done thanks to Pat and Eric's help. I found a bucket full of treasures from around the turn of the century (1900ish) in one of our exterior walls that I still need to dig through. Dad found an old school notebook that is dated for 1888 and 1889. And in the kitchen we found an advertisement for housing insurance dated 1870. Yes, we have an old house. We'll probably dig through our new found treasures and then donate them to the Historical Society to be preserved. I have to say that finding these items has made all of the demolition worthwhile.

The other really cool thing that happened yesterday is that John was able to get some spotlights put into the ceiling of the living room in our little alcove. Let there be light!!

A Beginning

2005-12-03T07:10:00.000-06:00

Since this is the initial posting, I suppose I should start at the beginning. John and I have bought a house. On old fixer-upper. We're both 25, recently married, and homeowners - who would have thunk it!?! Anyways, our house is an 1875 Victorian (of some sort - to be researched during the cold winter months) in the West 7th neighborhood of St Paul, MN. We have a beautiful view from our front porch of the Mississippi River, and a power plant.

It is a 2 story duplex. On the first floor is the laundry, kitchen, full bath, bedroom, living room, dining room, and den/office/guest room. And it is ALL under construction at the moment. On the second floor is a eat in kitchen, full bath, and 2 rooms (2 bedrooms/1 bedroom and living room).

Since it's an old house, and has been rental property in the past, certain areas of been.... neglected. We've already done a remarkable amount to the upstairs unit, so it is livable - even if some of the walls aren't painted beyond priming.

Now, I must let all of you loyal readers know that this house was owned by an artist. All of the walls and celings had murals. In dark colors. And colors not normally found in nature. I can't tell you how much primer we have used in the house already to tone it down and be able to think about a color other than what is right in front of your eyes.

The real story of the house is in pictures. You should definitely check out http://jbhorton.shutterfly.com.

There is definitely more to write about, but I'm going to save it for a little bit later.

-Becky