Visiting family, a broken rocking chair, new furniture, and our first (dead) snake

Since the last post a lot of things have happened. Some wonderful, some not. We had the honor of being with Tim's grandmother when she passed away Memorial Day weekend. She was an important person in Tim's life especially when he was in grade school. She had a poodle named Rebel who was her constant companion for the last 11 years. My mom is taking care of him right now.After her funeral, Tim stayed in Savannah, TN, to help his parents begin to sort through the paperwork. Apparently, Maw never threw anything away because he found tax returns back into the 1950s. He and his family came to Kingsport at the end of the week for a week's vacation at our home. The family included Tim's mom, dad, niece (Kelsey, almost 15 yrs), and nephew (Jonathan, 12.5 yrs). Beside the usual suitcases they also brought a recliner, cedar chest, and dining room table and chairs from Maw's home. We don't have to eat on a card table with folding chairs anymore!

We had a great time all week enjoying lots of local activities including Wetlands, Bays Mtn, and Fun Expedition. We worked on the yard and played lots of badminton. The kids enjoyed the slip-n-slide, but only one afternoon. They complained the next day of being very sore and refused to play on it again. We built a campfire and pitched a tent for the kids. We made s'mores and had a good time around the fire before the kids settled in for the night. Or at least it was supposed to be for the night. Unfortunately Jonathan didn't believe us when we said he would get sick if he kept eating s'mores so sometime after midnight he and his sister moved back in due to him feeling very sick to his stomach. They never offered to sleep in the tent again. We had a casualty during the week. The rocking chair that Tim's dad got for us at an auction and painted UT orange cracked right down the middle of the seat. It's now in the burn pile. Our geranium was blooming like crazy though.

On Thursday, Tim's dad set up his kettle and fixed a delicious meal of TN river catfish. We all ate until we couldn't eat anymore. We invited Pat and Midge's family to join us as well as friends from work and church. This meal timed out perfectly for Pat's family as that was his last night on this Earth. Unfortunately Pat was diagnosed with liver cancer only a few weeks ago and was unable to handle chemo. He was able to be at home his last few days and was surrounded by his family. My mother arrived on Monday in order to tell him goodbye and be with Midge. She and Midge developed a close relationship last summer while she worked on the house. Pat was the one who mowed our yard last summer because he knew we didn't have the time. He also offered all his tools to us whenever we needed them. I lovingly referred to their home as the Nunley General Store.

Here's the whole family at Bays Mtn.

My mom left on Friday while Tim and his family left on Saturday. Tim came back home yesterday which was just in time to deal with our first snake. Earlier this summer I saw the tail of a snake as it slithered into the field beside us. I spread moth balls along the edge of our property hoping to keep out future visitors, but apparently it didn't work. This afternoon, while sweeping the porch, I moved the bench aside and saw a black snake coiled up and napping on the cool concrete. Unfortunately, snakes are the one phobia I do have so Tim was called upon to remove the visitor. The goal had been to coax it to the field since it was not poisonous, but it kept trying to come back to the porch so it had to die. Our hoe is now known at the snake killer.

Our Rose Bush

Our rose bush exploded with blooms while we were gone last weekend. I went head-to-head with it and came away with several scratches, but I won and it is now tied to a trellis.

My war wounds. I wore gloves, but not sleeves.

Before we tied it to the trellis

AFTER

We still have to turn the ground around it so we can plant flowers in it. Of course, I(Amanda) do not have a green thumb so whatever I plant may not live long, but I'm going to try it.

Pics from Open House

We have finished all the major projects. There are a few details/projects to finish, but we're ready to show off our home. If you weren't able to come to our open house, never fear! I've posted the pictures below and you are welcome to come over and see it firsthand. But, until then, enjoy the pictures!

KITCHEN

Living Room

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

Our special cakes made by my friend, Ellen, for our open house/ my birthday party

Video of house before the remodel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kktADyt85bw





Watch the video we made when we walked thru our home for the first time with our realtor. This should make you both appreciate all the work we've done and also question our sanity for taking on this huge of a project.

Open House Planned

(NEW VIEWERS: If this is your first time looking at a blog and you would like to start with the first pictures, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on "Older posts". Scroll to the bottom of that page until you reach the first post and then work your way back up.)




We have scheduled our Open House for April 4th. We are having two parties that day to celebrate. The traditional "drop-in and see" party is from 2pm to 4pm. That evening at 6pm we are having another party to celebrate my (Amanda) 30th birthday. My actual birthday is March 16th, but it makes more sense to have the party on the same day at the open house. The evening party will be BYOB and my friend, Ellen, is making a Mickey Mouse birthday cake for me. Both parties are as casual and relaxed as me and Tim. Call or email me if you need directions. We are very proud of the work we have put into this house and want everyone we know to come see it.


We did take a break from home remodeling two weeks ago to go see Disney On Ice in Johnson City. If we can't go to Disney World then we have to feed our Disney craving somehow.

Laura is returning on March 20th and staying a week to help us finish up the last major projects. We will still have a few odds and ends to touch up even when we have the open house, but, as I've been told numerous times by others, we will always have things to do around the house so I see no reason to delay the celebration.

Recently we got the new bathroom plumbed in and we are enjoying showers in our new 4x4 walk-in shower. Tim insisted on having the shower head tall enough so that he would not have to duck. It is so tall that I cannot reach it at all. He LOVES IT!

I don't have any other really good construction pictures to show you in this post so I thought I'd share with you images of our construction zone. Imagine living like this for seven and a half months.

This was the scene in the living room when had the contents of the master bedroom and closet cleaned out so the floors could be laid.

This is the constant pile of supplies in the dining room/kitchen.

This is the end of our bed. I get to squeeze between the stuff and the bed to get to my side.
Our master bedroom right now. See the toilet! and the air compressor and the safe, and the bucket of nails, and the paint, and....

Under that pile of baseboards and crown moulding is our couch. In front of that is our coffee table. I guarantee that no furniture in your home can collect as much stuff on it as ours can.



The last picture is from last summer when we had unpacked the kitchen boxes and Daisy decided to bury herself in the pile of crumpled newspapers. I just love this picture!

Don't forget to let me know if you are coming to the open house so I can be sure to have enough food.

We are almost finished.

Since the first of the year, we have been very busy bees. We are reaching the deadline for converting our construction loan to a mortgage so we are trying desperately to finish. Amanda's mom and grandmaw spent four and a half days with us over the long weekend. They were a huge help. Grandmaw kept us feed and washed all of our laundry. She didn't believe that would be of much help, but it saved us so much time not having to stop to prepare meals.

So since New Year's we have installed the window casings. We are installing the door casings as we get the doors installed. I can add installing door frames to my list of tasks I hate. We have purchased all the crown moulding and baseboards which are now laying in the hall and getting in my way.

We have a backsplash.

Here are some of the doors including the ones hiding the washer & dryer and my closet.

My closet has been a headache because it is an odd size. The rough opening is 46". No standard sized door would fit. I don't actually like the folding doors, but I accepted defeat and installed them last Thursday night. We haven't installed the casings yet around it.

The master bathroom is now tiled and grouted. Mom did the tiling over President's day weekend and I did the grouting this weekend. My first attempt and I don't think I did too badly.

I also tiled for the first time this weekend. I put tile around the tub in the guest bathroom. If you'll notice in the first picture, I used popsicle sticks to level the tiles. We have used popsicle sticks all over this house. Some are still in place, hidden behind sheetrock. I get to grout tomorrow. Oh, goody.

We changed out the sink/vanity top in the guest bathroom last weekend. I installed the new faucet and build the ledge behind it. I tiled it today.

We've framed out the closet in the corner of the kitchen. We have to finish out the new drywall and paint it before we install the bi-fold door in it. We also have the mud the drywall and paint the inside of it, but that is not on my immediate list. I don't think the appraiser is going to open that door.


So that's were we are right now. We have to paint the remaining door frames and doors and then install them. We have to finish the plumbing for the new bathroom, install a fan and can light, mud the drywall, and then paint it. We also have to finish mudding then paint the guest bathroom. We have to mud and paint the guest closet and around the windows. And of course, we cannot forget the miles and miles of crown moulding and baseboards that must be painted, cut, and installed. Cleaning up this construction zone after all this is over is going to be an adventure in itself. Then, we get to unpack. I promise we will have a party when this is over!

Floors are finished!!!!!

The floors are finally installed! Hip hip hooray!!! The last piece was installed last night. We are all exhausted. The house is still messy and most of our stuff is still in the basement, but we will be unpacking this week. We bought several boxes of tile from the outlet store in Crossville. We may get the backsplash in the kitchen finished this weekend if our energy lasts.

Enjoy the pics!

Our Christmas decorations. We couldn't put a tree up on the inside this year so I put it up on the front porch. I really love my front porch!

Newly painted kitchen

The stuff from the living room sitting in the kitchen while the floors got laid.

Laura installing living room floor.

Living Room

Hallway

Guest room floor

Tim nailing floors in the master bedroom.

Stack of the new tile and the new toilet for what will be our new master bath. We have tile for the kitchen backsplash, the new master shower and floor in master bath and the area above the shower in the guest bath.



When we get backsplash finished, I'll post those pics.