Stairs are in! (and we found some cool stuff)

It looks so naked. This is the front room of the house that looks out to the street.
Why yes, that is a super huge confederate flag painted on the wall. The boy who lived upstairs before had that done. I can't say we're going to leave it, but it did need some documenting. This is where the stairs come up, and that's a temporary railing around them. The upstairs is going to have to be rearranged...as of now, the stairs go straight into a wall:)
The stairs when you walk into the front room of the house.
The front of the house is pretty much finished. You can see from the original picture that the shingles were taken off, and the roof juts out more so rain won't get onto the porch as easily. I think it turned out well.
I was so pumped to find this. Matt thinks I'm weird because he said I got more excited about this than anything this day. That's not really true, but I just thought it was so cool to find some original stuff in the house. This is a popcorn can and lye can. The guys found it in the ceiling of the house. Too bad there was no cash in there. It had fallen off into the attic which you can now see straight through from the downstairs.

It's really exciting to see all of the progress. Walls have come down and are now going back up! That's it for now. Matt and I are sitting here watching Gangs of New York (i think it's so nasty when they fight in the snow and there's blood all in the snow...gross). I've been sick for the past few days and came home today early from work and took some cough syrup and benadryl...i then realized that those are basically both the same thing, and the cough syrup was prescription which was really codeine or something....so the real deal..and I took a tablespoon not teaspoon (triple whammy)...oops, again. I got scared and considered gagging myself because I thought I was going to accidentally overdose, so I called Natalie, one of my friends who is a pharmacist, and she said I'd live, just probably pass out. I did, and now I feel better. My cough is better, too, so that's good:) Back to work tomorrow, and Thursday, then Christmas time!!! woop!

Merry Christmas!

Workers take over

Whoa. So, there is a stair opening now. We have to completely reconfigure the upstairs which sorta freaks me out expense-wise, but I'm trying to stay calm about it. From the beginning we knew we'd probably have to re-do the whole upstairs, but now it's a definite. It's exciting, though, and things have really come along with the house. The front of the house looks completely different (i'll have to add a picture), and the inside is open to the studs. From here they will begin building/knocking out walls. Then, we'll have to do any electrical, plumbing, and insulation needs.

With Christmas, I haven't been out to see the house in almost 2 weeks. I don't think I'll be out there again until Christmas weekend, so I can't wait to see all of the changes. The guys working on the house have worked real hard. My brother says he has seen them over there at 9 at night a few nights. They're determined to get it all rolling, too, so that's nice. I'm so glad my parents, David, and Erin are so close so they can check on things. My mom is the best at the updates. She remembers everything and reports in often:)

In other areas of life, I'm finally almost finished with Christmas shopping!!! YAY to the YAY! I didn't start until late this year. I did a lot of it online which made things easier.

 Last week I was in New Orleans all week for work. I was in stores all day every day and realized how out of shape I was for standing on my feet that long. I'm way too used to the cubicle and swirly chair.  I learned a lot and had a lot of fun, too. This weekend has been so nice. Friday, I got home around 5 something, and Matt and I decided to just hang out at the house and be lazy. We ordered Mexican, of course, and I pigged out. Then, Saturday, I woke up went in to work just so I could get some stuff done and not be overwhelmed with emails and stuff Monday (we have a new analyst starting Monday, and I know we'll be busy). Then, Saturday we went to Starry Nights with Jacob, Carrie, Blair, and Jamie. It was so pretty, and I'd never been before. Then we went to Grove Grill, and it was soooo yummy.  I had so much fun laughing with everyone all night. Today, we went to church, then I cleaned and organized stuff for hours. I was way behind on organizing and filing our bills, mail, and all that fun stuff. Now, Matt and I are sitting here watching...i don't know what...oh, Independence Day, and Matt is messing with Larry who is looking pretty lazy over there. Once these clothes are dry, it's time for bed!

Demolition, Weekend #3

The front of the house is starting to come along now! Also, the roof was done over Thanksgiving. There is probably about 25% left of the roof to replace before it will be finished. Matt worked really hard over Thanksgiving break. I did not go over there once. I feel BAD, but I got a lot of other stuff done. I finished Christmas shopping, hung out with my parents, took Larry on some walks, and ate too much food....okay, so maybe not very productive.

Matt had some great help from Sammy Earl and David, and they worked so hard and did a GREAT job! We think it'll be done by the weekend. I'm excited because some of the other workers are going ahead and starting the removal of the plaster from the ceiling. We (Matt and help) thought about taking that on, but with the high ceilings, and working over your head, we think it's best to leave it to some professionals. It will get done quicker, and there will be less chance of injury.

I decided to include a Thanksgiving picture and Christmas prep picture. Below is a picture of what all we had to eat for Thanksgiving (turkey, ham, green bean casserole-my favorite, sweet potato casserole, and carrots). yum to the tum.

This is my start to Christmas. I had my elf hat on, Christmas music on loud, and boxes were everywhere. It was lots of fun. Matt keeps making fun of me because every night this week I've come home and put that hat back on. It just makes the night funny, and gives me some extra motivation to put a few more Christmas things out.

Pretty much all that's left is setting the table and setting up the tree, oh and outside lights.

I can't really think of anything else that's gone on this week. We fixed chile relleno's on Monday. I'm obsessed with them, now. The Mexican obsession started with guacamole about 3 months ago. It's always been in my life, but this past year it has taken on a larger role.

Matt is growing tired of Mexican food and is enforcing a limit of one Mexican night/week. I was saddened. I rarely go out to eat for lunch during the week, but after he proclaimed that rule, I went out today and had Mexican food for lunch with some coworkers, so I see I stooped to new levels to fit the Mexican goodness into my life.

Bye for now.