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.

A New Mystery

We have had so much water (snow and ice melting) that the sump pump has been working overtime. And its causing erosion around the sidewalk...which is where we found these. We're not sure, but it looks like a patio, a path, or possibly a really old foundation. The bricks are laid in rows and run under the sidewalk and were under about 6" of dirt. You can't tell but there are more in the top part of the picture too. I'm taking this as a sign. For the last few months I have said I want to build a brick patio using the bricks laying in the basement and crawlspace. I just wasn't sure where to put it, or if it would even look right. Now that I found these I can't wait to get started. With help, of course...I can probably lay the bricks, but I can't physically level the ground or dig these up. I have to do a little research though before digging these up to make sure they don't have a historic significance.

The weird part it that I had been on James for weeks to move the tubing for the sump pump because the ground was eroding and I have been freaking out about the foundation holding up to losing all the soil. However, if he had moved it like I wanted him to we would have never found these. Oh, and the pipe in the picture is the exhast pipe off my Kia. It fell off this past summer and James used it to redirect some of the water...must be a guy thing cause I would have never thought of that! I think that might qualify as more redneck DIY.

Isn't that a beautiful site to wake up to? Yeah...not so much. This was taken from the kitchen window behind the stove. Lucky for them they are not on our property. I am seriously pissed about the situation though. That is a huge drill they are using to get soil samples for the railroad that (supposedly) is not even going to be going through here. They are about 20 feet off of our property, driving our dogs crazy, and using our driveway for parking. Without even asking! The parking wouldn't be a big deal except that its only one lane so while this guy was parked there I couldn't leave the house! I talked to James and the police and we decided to get no trespassing signs that way if they do it again it can be towed at their expense. Because if they park there again it will be trespassing. I don't usually get this worked up about stuff, but they are not supposed to be on our property, and there is a driveway in the field where that car could have parked. Ok...I think I've ranted enough about this.

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)

A picture worth a thousand words...

...and not one of them are pretty, nice, or ladylike.

Whatdya think? Can we call it artwork?

And the walls came tumbling down...

Literally. A piece of paneling was hanging on by a nail somewhere and I got between it and the wall to see where. I found it. I went to reach in with the hammer to pull the nail, heard a creaking sound and pulled back just in time for the whole panel to go crashing to the floor! I think that coulda left a mark...each panel weighs a ton.
The room seems to have doubled overnight from taking down the ceiling and some of the paneling. I only got 1/2 a wall done and had to stop. I had not expected the weight of each piece to be so much, and with the problems I have with my neck and shoulder I can't physically do it. So James gets to have that fun.
This is where the top trim piece goes over the transom window. I about cried when I saw what was under the little piece of paneling. The wood in this picture is the actual door frame and the hand hewn lathe. And the plaster, of course.
Same thing from a different angle. I figured out that the plaster is true horse hair. I picked up a little piece that was laying up there and could see the hairs in it. From this angle you can kinda see that the lathe is hand hewn (notice the rough edge). The lathe and the frame are made of the same type of wood, but I have no idea what kind it is. Its a little dark with a reddish color to it.


When I was removing the nails from the now bare walls it looked like the plaster was crumbling around each nail I pulled out. Upon closer inspection, its not. What is crumbling is layer after layer of paint! I also figured out that the paint on the door frame is peeling too. Its like it never adhered to the paint under it.

Last night when James was hanging the chandelier I looked up and noticed a crack between the wall and the ceiling. I climbed up on the freezer to get a better look and realized it was drywall that was not hung right and there for didn't line up right. And I can see where the pass through's were at...they drywalled it, but didn't mud or paint it so I can tell where everything was. Oh, and I was told there was no drywall anywhere in this house. That its all plaster. Uh, no. That's not right. Last time I checked, plaster has never been made in sheets that you nail up. It'd be sweet if it was though!