Best Worst Birthday Ever

I haven't been posting lately because no work has been done. I spent my birthday (the 18th) in the dentists office in severe, horrible pain being told I have a massive infection, and need to have surgery. What a way to spend my birthday, huh? Which means I have been loaded up on medication so I can't do any work on the house. Luckily I celebrated on the 15th, so I did get to have some fun, just not on my actual birthday. I got to see friends that I haven't seen in over a year, get drunk on pineapple upside down cake (the drink), and just have a great time.

Here we are at Brewsky's in Mt. Carmel....me, Tiff, Sid, and Jen (I'm already drunk, thats why I look like that)

Then this weekend I was feeling better and my best friend gave me the best birthday present ever...
Tickets to Seether, Breaking Benjamin, and Three Days Grace!!! It was in Indianapolis, the fastest selling out concert in the history of the Pepsi Colliseum, and my first real concert ever! I had a lot of fun, but left before it was over because my jaw was starting to hurt really bad again. Seether was great, but Breaking Benjamin had the best show...lots of pyrotechnics, the lead singer crowd surfed, great light show, and had a surprise...the singer for the Deftones! We got to hear Change(in the house of Flies) in the middle of the show! James didn't really have much fun, but I kind of expected that. Country boy at a hard rock show...not going to go over well, but he was a trooper and didn't complain at all through the whole thing. I took a ton of pictures but the one on here is my favorite.

I am scheduled to have surgery on the 1st, so it'll be a while before I get back to working on the house, but as soon as I do I'll get back to posting regularly again.

Our Weekend

As a lover of old houses it upsets me to see an old house being torn down. But unless you own it you really have no control over it. We noticed the windows removed from this house in January and it took a while but we finally managed to contact the owners, Mark and Becca Ewing, and they let us salvage it...for free! They had one request though that we were more than happy to follow...they wanted to know about and keep anything interesting that we found. Which turned out to only be some foundation grates.
The house was built in 1911 so its newer than ours. It has hardwood floors, ceilings, walls, and frames! All the rooms have wood slat walls except the living room, which had tons of beadboard.

We salvaged all the beadboard we could, the floors (we think they're red oak), the wall slats, and 2x4's. We couldn't save as much as we wanted to due to asbestos insulation and termites. But we did get quite a bit, so it was worth it. We have to go back and pick the stuff up, and try to get some more of the floor boards out, but we're pretty much done. Once we have everything gone they are going to bulldoze the house in and then have the fire department do a controlled burn.

We are putting everything in our barn for now. We are going to use the bead board in the bathroom and laundry room, the floorboards are back up in case one of ours breaks, and the wood slats are the same size as whats in our bathroom ceiling and porch ceiling.

Thanks again to Mark and Becca!

I Got Wallies

I got my chalkboard Wallies today! Hopefully this helps James find things. I need to order another set though, I ran out so I just put them on the most used cabinets. And obviously I didn't get them straight...

That is an antique Coke crate that I got at a yard sale for a quarter!

If you want to get your own Wallies, or just check out Home Interiors website here is is: http://www.homeinteriors.com-dianesplace/ (Diane is the consultant I use...she's awesome)

Oh, and in other news...we have to replace a wall in the dining room. One (only 1!) panel was glued and I didn't realize it until it fell off the wall...with chunks of the top layer of plaster attatched to it (ouch!). This is the same wall that has the bad drywall job where they tried to cover where the pass throughs were at. So with all that going on we think it'll just be best to replace the wall. But until we have the money to do that we have a work of art on the wall right now (see the last post and you'll get it)

Genius

I decided that I am tired of hearing James complain that he can't find any thing in the kitchen. Its his excuse for everything food related. Such as "I wanted to take my lunch to work today but I can't find the plastic bowls", or "I would have made it but I can't find the lid to the skillet". And my favorite "You were hiding that!" to which my response is always "it was in the front of the cabinet" and his is always "which cabinet?" So yesterday I ordered these...

http://www.homeinteriors.com/sites/dianesplace/productdetails?sku=17110

I am hoping that writing what's inside the cabinet on the outside of it will end all that. These are about the coolest things ever. They are eraseable, removable, reusable, and come with the chalk! I ordered 2 sets because we have a lot of cabinets and some have more than one thing in them. For example spices only take up 1 shelf so I put the waffle iron, toaster, and food processor in there too. Hopefully this will work. It kind of seems like I'm teaching a kid where all the stuff is, but I'm not getting through any other way and I'm tired of being accused of stashing the Oreos...when they are in the same place everytime!

Breaking News...

Any one who knows the New York Yankees knows who Don Mattingly is. What most people don't know is that his actual home is only about 45 minutes from where I live. His home is on Darmstadt Road outside of Evansville, Indiana. I remember my grandparents always slowing down so I could look at his massive stone mansion with a stone fence and gate. He even had a restaurant in Evansville. To put it in a way, people around there were proud he was from their town. Today was not such a proud day though. According to channel 7 news his wife attacked him and he called the police to have her removed from his property and put a personal protection order in effect. When police came they arrested her for public intoxication and some other charges. Since they took her to jail the protection order was dropped. However he personally requested a restraining order and the removal of all rights to firearms when and if she makes bail. They also said they would have more details on the 6:00 news. How bout that? I guess no one's life is perfect, huh?

Show Off!

Just for fun I had to show this off. Its my new car!
2000 Mustang convertible fully loaded, leather seats, 5 speed, low miles! Love it! I'm so excited...this is kind of my new year gift to my self. I've had a little 4x4 for about 4 years now and this is so much more me. I love cute little sports cars. And that is my hubby poking around in the trunk. This is probably the closest to a real picture of him you will ever see on here. He laughs at me every time I call it a cute little sports car. He says it muscle cause thats what the insurance classified it as, and that mustangs are not "cute".

And a little preview of what my summer will be like: Check out the windows. They're in sad shape, especially the ones in the laundry room (the row to the left) they are so bad the panes are about ready to fall out. So this summer James and his friends are going to remove them and then I am going to restore them. Should be fun. I have never done anything like this before, but another one of our friends is a pro at this so she said she might be able to help me, depending on when I start.