we were blessed with a little snow last night.
the kitchen floor is nearly done so expect pictures of that soon.
we are working on curtains for the dining room too.

kitchen progress

The biggest project and the longest running so far has been the kitchen. Christopher stayed home over Thanksgiving and worked non-stop on the kitchen floor. Once that is done, it will just need a little bit of paint and will be the second room in the house finished. Here is what the floor looks like right now

and for the meantime, we are back to eating out since we can't walk on the floor and we don't have a sink (again). The grout under the dishwasher will be going in today so we'll be able to eat at home again tomorrow hopefully. We're also going to use the patch under the dishwasher as a test area for the color of the grout. I can't decide between buff or gray.

3 weeks

Three weeks ago our laundry room looked like this

Wire shelves installed either upside down or so poorly that they needed extra support
Open holes in the wall from past repairs and installations that were never closed up.
Pipes in the wall enclosed in a box that was never finished....


Basically, all we did when we moved in was put in our washer and dryer and add things to the shelves, making the room even more hideous. Christopher did fix the window so that the dryer had a vent, but much work still needed to be done.

This is much better

and, now there is room to put our clothes in there, laundry hampers, and cleaning supplies. All this is left is touch up painting and some trim work. I'll spend some time this afternoon putting my clothes in. And, then I want to hang some stuff in my craft room. It's a good day :)

Chainsaw Massacre

We're still removing overgrown plants. At first we thought the bushes out front could be trimmed back but the suckers just kept growing. So, we've resorted to more drastic measures.


It is now half done but the heat here is making things slow. Christopher has found a gas can, vodka bottle, beer cans, plastic containers, a snake, and other things hidden in the bushes. We've also removed the lattice. Our neighbor painted her porch white, and Christopher is thinking of doing that as well. I kind of like the red - so we'll see.

While C was working on the front of the house, I have been spraying the mold and dirt and paint off the back of the house.

This is one of the two backdoors, the one that enters the "office". Prior to yesterday the steps were covered in black and green colored mold and moss. They are now shiny and new looking. Just to show the dramatic difference, I am also doing the wood on the screened in porch so that it can be water sealed.

I have actually finished the outside portions of the back porch and started on the rest of the foundation. I was halted in my progress by a little boy who is doing very well sitting up.

I have not gotten out all of the fall decorations, but I have placed some new decorations around the house. I'm being very picky since I don't want anything cutesy or gaudy or childish in the house. Here's what we have - very understated.

Local goods, services, and sights

I love to spend Saturdays with my family. I do also want to get some house work done and sometimes I do but mostly I don't.



This morning we loaded up the Subaru and dropped some books off at campus. We then went to the post office where I sent out a card to a magazine for publication. And, then we headed up to Family Friendly Farms to get fresh eggs and honey. While there we were intrigued by popcorn on the cob and the owner said we could take one to try it out. On the way home we stopped at a local coffee roasting establishment. These are the pictures of our day:



Big boy turned 6 months old today


The cleaning and fixing and yard work did not get done.

a new friend in the house

She was unwanted by the chemistry department so she made her way out to our house. I just need to clean her up and she'll be beautiful. I need to research a little bit on her age - I think she's old :) She even has wooden wheels!

Here's the guys of the house. They are just spring chickens in comparison!


and the flowers in the house. I just love fresh flowers in the house

The sky is falling

We've had a little falling out with the house.

No, this did not happen intentionally on our part.

This is the just outside the stairwell up to the 3rd floor, taken from our bedroom doorway. C had just come out of the door after saying good night to E. I'm so glad his head was spared because it sure made a loud crash.

C has investigated the roof and it seems pretty squishy underneath the eaves in the soffet. We are in need of a new roof. Water leaks down some of the walls, taking paint and plaster with it.

not good news.

Original pictures, prior to purchase

That's not our car, but that is our house. This picture was taken on May 14 before the weeds grew out of control. I am noticing that the hedge is looking rather large. That has been trimmed a few times now.

This is a view of the North side of the house. The tree with the pink on it is now gone. It was too large and in the way of the airconditioner. It cut off that entire side of the yard. The small bushes in front of the fence are still there but we have removed a few bushes from inside the fence and all of the plants along side the fence and along the street.

This is the spot on the eaves that has fallen out. It could be causing some water damage inside the house. It could be letting birds get into the roof area in the unfinished portion of the attic. Our 3 year old sometimes says he can hear birds.

This is a shot of the large bathroom that was made in a bedroom on the 2nd floor. It is on the same corner as the missing piece under the roof. It has a porch that goes out over the porch outside the kitchen. When we moved it it had no curtains or shades. The tub functions but yellow gunk comes out with the water from the faucet. The marble is not sealed very well and spiders will sometimes hide under the tub. This is the room where I first identified the brown recluse spider living in our house. Sometimes spiders will run in from the outside door too. This floor has alot of water damage from the shower. The shower was not installed very well. It's getting ripped out soon so I will show pictures of it before that happens. Currently, some unknown red substance is leaking through the tile in the shower and dripping down the wall.

We call this the Death Pit. It is presumably a fish pond that has walls about 6 inches thick. C took a sledge hammer to it and didn't even dent it. It collects water and debris and animals (dead and alive) and is a great place to breed mosquitos. C poured a gallon of bleach in it yesterday but there are still things wiggling around in there. The plants look fairly decent in this photo take from the porch but by the time we moved in, they were so over grown that they all had to be ripped out. We used the slash and burn technique for this. The ground is practically bare now. There were also quite a few little lights and wire fences in this area. They have all been removed as well. They just kept getting tangled up in the weed wacker, trimmer, and chainsaw - items that were essential for the removal of the jungle that appeared in the backyard.

The basement was known to have a little problem with leaking. C believes that he has solved that problem. He has rerouted all of the downspouts into the appropriate locations (they were actually not even connected for some unknown reason). The basement is dry now. The walls were painted black and there was a room in this spot at one time. We don't know if the room was used for storage or imprisonment of "beings". Just kidding! Anway, it's long gone. C has now put up the forms for new walls and a new door. This will be our family room. Those pictures will be posted soon.

That's all I'm going to post for tonight. We have alot of catching up to do on this blog but I'm sure it will be updated and done before the house is finished. Thanks for stopping in!

How we got started

In early January, I accepted a faculty position at the local university, only the university wasn't local. It was over 1500 miles away from our location in Arizona. We had a house to sell there - which still hasn't sold - a house to buy here, and I was pregnant. In February we started looking at houses in the new city on-line and we came across our house. It was beautifully photographed, built in 1904, classified as a historic beauty. So, we sent my parents to take a look at it for us. They drove 6 hours to photograph the house in March. At first they photos they took were all of the bad things in the house. I'll post those in another post. We felt deflated and depressed. We sent them back in to take more photos - this time of the pretty stuff. After careful consideration, and plenty of discussion with my parents (can you see us living in this house?) we made an offer on the house.

The baby was born March 29th. April saw Easter weekend and the day after our house went on the market. I planted a ton of plants and other last minute improvements were made. On April 27th I had my gall bladder removed and May 11 we hopped on a plane to visit my parents. On May 14, we drove into town and laid eyes on our house for the first time. There are a number of things that we weren't expecting. It is not in as great of condition that we were led to believe and the yard was in horrible shape. But, there was alot of potential. After almost backing out at the closing, partly due to a last minute showing of another house on the market, we signed the papers on May 15.

We were now the proud owners of two houses.

We returned to Arizona and began packing our bags. At the end of June, we departed for our "new" house, Four Square Five South. We know very little about old homes but C is learning along the way. I help out a little bit but I work full time as an assistant professor. This is the blog of our journey.