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.

Weekend #2 of Demolition

Neighbors across the street (our front walk)

Neighbors to the left (David and Erin!)
Neighbors to the right..to the very right is Will and Katie Middlecoff!)

Happy to be done for the day!

Okay, well I have to be honest, and this weekend I was pretty much nowhere to be found. I justified this in my head by thinking, and then saying to Matt that I was holding up another part of family duties....Christmas shopping. Although, I have to admit that shopping, even in Christmas crowds and crazy Memphis traffic, was much more fun than demolition. I further justified my absence by saying the crowds and traffic might have added to my productivity for the 2 hours of demolition that I DID put in the next day. 

Anyway, Matt did basically all of the demolition by himself this past weekend. He put at least 6 hours into the house on Saturday, and then Sunday, I took out a wall, or two, while he and David knocked out some others. It was a very productive weekend overall. I was impressed with how much is already done. I'd say we're 50% finished, now.

The last parts are pretty tedious, such as getting in between the window frames and lower moulding, and getting the tops of all of the walls. 

It's really amazing how hot you get knocking the walls down. I blame it on that crazy mask. I have to rip that thing off of my face and walk outside just to catch my breath. Matt and David haven't done that as far as I know, so I must be doing something wrong, or am really out of shape. 

Over Thanksgiving, we're hoping to finish up the demolition. We'll have an extra day off of work, so that should help us make some more progress.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for all of the hard work that is going into this house. It makes it even more special.

More Demolition and Clean Up

Sunday, we WERE able to get back over to the house, but it was definitely a lot slower. We were so worn out and tired from the day before, but we did get the house cleaned out so that we could move around easier. Thankfully, my dad and brother went back to the house Monday, and may make it over again another day this week. Our next goal is to get the exterior walls down, and also to get the tops of the walls down. With the high ceilings, it's tough to get all the way to the top. Matt had to create something to stand on using two ladders and a board (i think it has a formal name, but can't think of it), so that he could reach the top eaiser.
Anyway, this weekend we will begin again. We're really hoping to be done with demo after Thanksgiving weekend!
We'll have a day off of work to use that we wouldn't normally have, so that should help speed up the process some.

Demolition Day

All of the mess

Today, we started the demolition of our house. We bought the house back at the end of August, and it has taken us a while to get everything together and talk with different people about how to go about this big project. Luckily, Matt's sister is an interior designer and was able to draw us some plans to go by so that we weren't completely working from scratch! This house project has honestly been REALLY intimidating, and there were times I'd walk in, smell that weird old house smell, look at all the work that needed to be done in EVERY room, and start to wonder what in the world we got into...BUT, we've finally broken the work down into smaller pieces, and I'm very excited now! Anyway, we began today, and it was so nice to see some progress! I really had a great time even though my fingers are aching and it's hard to type because of holding a hammer or crow bar all day long. I have to say thanks to Carrie for coming over to help! That was so nice. Also, my dad, mom, brother, and Sammy Earl helped out a lot, too. At one point, I had to take cover because the guys (Matt, David, and my dad) went on what seemed like a rampage all over the same wall. It was down to the studs in no time.
My method was much less efficient and probably too careful. I'd take the hammer and knock the top layer of plaster stuff off down to the horizontal boards. Then, one by one, I'd take the boards down with the crow bar until all studs were exposed. The upstairs was SO much easier. My mom and I attacked it. The walls were some form of foam board. seriously. It was almost identical to the type of foam board you might use for a science project. We had most of that down pretty quickly, but still have some detail work to do around the moulding.
Overall, it was a very productive 7 hours of work! I'm so thankful for all of the help we had. There's noway we could have made that kind of progress with just me, Matt, and Larry.
Tomorrow, we may do some clean up, and a few more walls, but I have a feeling we'll be sore and it'll go a little slower. I will post the pictures once I can get back to my house to load them onto the computer.