Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Aftermath...

Ok, so I promised!  Below are the picture of the current state of my house.  Actually its worse right now because they have now attacked my dining room and kitchen!  These pictures were taken Friday and we have 2 more days of mess added to these!  It's horrible!  They also don't include the inch layer of dust that is laying on EVERYTHING ... and I do mean everything.  There is insulation covering everything too.  I'm so itchy!  I have so much cleaning and laundry to do once this is all done...besides the fact that it really needs to be painted now and curtains ... oh man ... one step at a time!!!
Ok ok, enough stalling!  Here goes....



Here is my living room.  The couch is holding the bedding to all of our beds in an attempt to save on laundry ... I'm not sure it worked!

This side doesn't look so bad...

The playroom...


The girls room...


Our room...


Looking towards the kitchen from the living room...

Opposite look....

The garage...


Now do you understand why I'm loosing it???  LOL 
Considering I'm OCD and NEED to have a clean and neat house, I'm loosing my head a bit!  In the end it will be nice to have it all done though!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Plan B....

Most people have a "Plan A" - most people prefer to have their "Plan A" go through as planned.  However, a good share of the time that just doesn't happen.  I'll use myself for an example - Our "Plan A" included getting a job, specifically a Federal job, giving our two weeks notice and then beginning our new chapter.  We had such strong prospects for that job.  That coupled with the fact that there was no date in the near future, that we could see anyhow, that the farm would be selling or closing its doors.  There was so much to do before it came to that...we had all the time in the world - RIGHT????
WRONG!!!!
Let's back up for a minute.  It's March and we are having problems with our wood boiler AGAIN!  3 chimney fires in a week and as a result, we decide to not fire it again until we can get it moved out of the house or put up a triple wall chimney so that its safer.  We check our options and hear about a company that offers grants for helping families make their home greener.  We contact them and go in for a sit down.  For a VERY reasonable price, we get 11 windows, blown in insulation in our outer walls to help with heating, a propane boiler and a hot water on demand system.  We sign papers and work is started on a Monday or a Tuesday...that Friday, the cows leave. 
CRAZY!!! Can I flip out now?  
Even though it caused more stress at times, it was a job that really needed to be done...and we didn't even have a clue how bad it really was - ready to see???

Here is our giant picture window being replaced...

...into two regular sized windows!

And here it is from the outside

Here is the other living room window, which we also brought up in size so it would match better
 So far so good right???  Are you ready????


Then they moved onto our bedroom...

Do you see that rot?  That was still wet and mushy!

From the inside it didn't look so bad.

Here is another view...
 As soon as he got the window out of that hole, he barely touched the framework below it and the whole thing just fell out!

Here it is all fixed again with fresh new wood...

And here is the new window

And from the outside...

Back to the living room...sheet rock in place now

Back to our bedroom...sheet rock in place now (am I making you dizzy yet?)

Kitchen windows are in!

Front living room windows are all trimmed and set...just have the mudding left to do.

Side living room window is set except for the bottom board, under the sill.

Playroom window is in, but still needs to be framed

Our bedroom windows are in and framed, just lacking the bottom board and some mudding detail.


 Here is our hot water on demand...

...and our new propane boiler!

That is what we have been up to!  Stay tuned for pictures of the aftermath!  I'm going to be brave and post them too...but you have to wait! ;)

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Our place

We had one nasty storm come up one night.  After the wind howling for a while, everything went dark and this is what we found in the morning...
 (This is to the right of our house)

 (And this is to the left of our house)
We were literally blocked in by trees and down power lines.  What a tangled mess! 


We finally took the jump and decided to improve our house.  We may need it in order to sell it in the near future depending on how job options go.  Here are a couple pictures of the progress so far...
 (The picture window being replaced)


 (All framed in!)

(From the outside)

Saturday, June 18, 2011

God answers prayer!

A friend of mine from church has been trying for YEARS to have a baby.  She has been through heart ache after heart ache.  Yet still she and her husband trusted God that He would provide them with the desires of their hearts.  Finally she got news that they were expecting twins!  She is so strong and you never heard a complaint from her once during her pregnancy!  The babies arrived and are 100% healthy!  I thank God today for proof of answered prayers!
 (It was odd holding two newborns at the same time :)

 (Kaleb 7 pounds 1 ounce, 21 inches long)

(Haylie 5 pounds 7 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long)

I still can't get over their weight differences!  

Friday, June 17, 2011

A long awaited trip to the zoo

For the past couple years we have been trying to get to the Syracuse Zoo.  Well we finally made it.  We took another couple with us.  We had a blast!  It was a beautiful day and the company just added to the day!  Here are some pictures of our adventures!
 (Madalyn wasn't sure she wanted a part of it)

 (Marissa, Junior, and Jennifer)



(Finally got all the kids!  Jennifer, Junior, Marissa and Madalyn) 

We weren't ready to head for home yet after we had finished walking through the entire zoo so we asked where the nearest playground was.  We found one right around the corner and the fun continued!  
 (No one explained to the girls how this is suppose to work!)

 (Jr. trying to climb like the big kids)

 (Jennifer was too tired from the zoo to play)

 ( Jesse wanted part of the fun too!)

 (Look, no hands!)

(Conquered it!)