Fingers Crossed...

We have our final inspection on the Green House tomorrow. Due to a miscommunication last week, I scheduled one on Friday and the inspector had to stop in the middle of the inspection because he had filled his comment card. It was pretty embarrassing. I thought Josh had asked me to call and schedule the inspection, but that's not what he meant for me to do. Oops.

So, our real inspection is tomorrow. It was nice to have had that one earlier, though, because several things were pointed out to us that we were not aware of. We were able to fix all of those things (electrical) and Josh is up there now trying to finish up all the plumbing loose ends.

One of the things the inspector pointed out to me last week was that the smoke detectors didn't work when tested. He said, "When I pressed the test button, nothing happened. And they're all supposed to be interconnected, and when one goes off, all the others should follow suit." So, I relayed that information to Josh along with everything else. We were up there the other day trying to get everything fixed, and Josh decided to test the smoke detectors himself. All of a sudden, ear piercing "beeeeeeep"s are heard throughout the house. Man, those things are obnoxious. But I guess that's the point. Anyway, Josh said, "So, could he not read that it says, 'press and hold several seconds'?" I guess not. I was relieved that we didn't have to worry about figuring out what was wrong with them.

Anyway, wish us luck tomorrow. Our tenants are going to start moving their stuff in on Saturday. They won't actually stay there until sometime next week, but we have to have a Certificate of Occupancy before they can inhabit the house. Meaning, we have to pass this inspection! If we don't, we gotta do a quick, quick fix!

Drum Roll Please...

The day has finally come! The day that I get to show you our "Money Pit" in all its new found glory!

Go ahead and get comfortable, because there are lots of pictures to show. I'm not leaving anything out for this one, because it's been a loooong time coming, and I'm giving this the attention it deserves.

So, here we go. The Money Pit. The Green House. The Gem. The gem being an emerald, of course, because it is still green as green can be. Outside work comes later. What? You didn't think this was the last you were going to hear about it, did you?


When you walk in the front door you are in the foyer.

The foyer, living room and dining room all had lovely stippled plaster walls. You know, like how you used to stipple ceilings? They stippled their walls. You had to watch how you leaned in there, or you would get jabbed in the back. NOT ideal. We debated whether to take it down completely or just sand it down. We took it down completely.

The living room is next. I think it was in here that we first started to work on the ceilings. The walls were stippled, but the ceilings they decided to wallpaper. I think they were confused.

We took all the wallpaper (and who knows what else that was up there) down and uncovered the tongue and groove ceilings. What a find! They were gorgeous. But, oh how painstaking that job was. We had to uncover them all, sand them down, and caulk in between almost every single board. There was about a 1/16th inch to 1/8th inch gap between every board. It was literally a pain in the neck. We did this in the foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, middle hallway, master bedroom and front bedroom. Ouch. But, how it paid off! The ceilings are the thing that I am most proud of in that house. They are absolutely beautiful, and they are original to the house! And the crown moulding that we put up just sets them off.

Okay, on into the dining room.

This is the part of the house that we had to jack up because it was sinking. They added on at some point in the past, but didn't set the foundation correctly, so over time the house sank on one side. When we jacked it up, the already cracked plaster gave in. That's when we decided that sheet rock was the way to go.

The kitchen was pretty small and a little claustrophobic feeling. There were no real cabinets in there. The previous owners were just using stand alone cabinets and the walls to store things. Yes, the walls. There wasn't a free spot on any of the walls in that house. I have no idea how many nails, screws and hooks we took out of that place. Pounds of them. It was nuts.

We decided to open up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This makes the kitchen seem larger, is more suitable for entertaining, and allowed us to add a breakfast bar.

The pantry, we actually made smaller so that we could add a water heater closet in the back hallway. Even though it's smaller, it's still better, and I'm still envious of it.

Okay, this shot is from the kitchen into the back hallway. The reason I'm including it is because in the before you will see the door to the back bathroom. It used to open into the hallway. We decided to frame up a wall there and have the bathroom open into the back bedroom. We already have a "common" bathroom, so we thought it would be more appropriate and modern to have this bathroom connected to the bedroom.

This is the back bedroom. There was a lot (a lot, a lot, a lot) of termite damage and water damage in the back area. We basically took this room off and rebuilt it completely. Floor, roof, walls. Well, almost the entire back of the house was the same way, but Josh's dad actually pushed this back wall out into the backyard one day. I bet that felt good.

We added the closet in this bedroom, because in order to claim it as a bedroom in a listing (should we ever try to sell it), it has to have a closet.

This is the new back bathroom, now accessible from the back bedroom. See how the window that you used to face is now on the left? The back shower wall and the toilet are now on the wall where the door was.

We took the claw foot tub out of this bathroom and moved it into the common bathroom, which you'll see in a minute. We just thought it should be on display, rather than stuck in the back of the house.

Going back through the bedroom, you enter the back hallway. This is where the washer and dryer were stored, and behind them was a window that looked into what was the common bathroom. Also in this area was a tiny little bathroom that we didn't even know about until the previous owner moved out and the house was cleared. It was clearly abandoned (like several other rooms were). We removed it completely and added the space to the back hallway and laundry room. The two doors on the right are the water heater closet and the utility closet.

Here you can see part of that bathroom and what is now the laundry room. Beyond that bathroom used to be the master bedroom. We took that room and divided it into three new rooms, one being this laundry room. I'll explain more later.

This is another view of the back hallway, coming out of the (then) master bedroom and (now) laundry room.

Back through the kitchen and dining room, you enter the middle hallway. We discovered when we took down the plaster that the wall separating this area from the foyer was not original. It had been added sometime later. We assume that there were french doors there, because one of those doors was still up when we bought the house, as you can see in the before picture. We decided not to put the door back up, just to keep an open feel to the common areas of the house.

Looking from that doorway, you face the common bathroom.

This bathroom was a good bit larger before, but it was unnecessary space. We brought the back wall up to make room for the utility room in the back hallway, and did away with the weird window. We did widen the room a bit, so the bathroom is still quite spacious, and it is now the home of the newly refinished claw foot tub.

Take note of the wainscoting in here, even though I know the picture is so small it's hard to see (I couldn't get them to load any larger). Anyway, I'll tell you about the wainscot in a minute.

Okay, now for the part that is tricky to explain. This is what we decided to make the master bedroom. Before, it was just kind of a parlor outside of the master. A large, strange, middle room that really didn't serve much of a purpose. My brother owns the house next door to this one, and he has the same thing there. I'm not sure if this was common back then or what.

In this before shot below, you can see that there was one door that went into the master bedroom. We closed up that doorway and made that master bedroom into three separate rooms. One half of it we made into the master bathroom (the door on the right). The other half we split into the laundry room (back hallway) and the master closet (the door on the left).

This is a stretched photo that Josh put together so you could see the complete room before we framed up the new walls (we replaced the floors in here and in the new master bedroom, too). We realized that there was just enough space in between those two windows in the back to frame up a wall between them. So the window on the left is now in the laundry room, and the one on the right is in the master bathroom.

Do you notice the bead board on the left wall of the old master bedroom? You can see it below in the master closet. It actually went all the way around that bedroom. We kept it in the master closet and in the laundry room, but didn't want it in the master bathroom. We did salvage it, though, and it is what the wainscoting is made out of in the common bathroom (below).

So, the master bathroom. Double vanity, dual shower heads, privacy wall for the toilet. All things you wouldn't ordinarily see in an old house.

And, again, the master closet. That small closet that you saw in the first master bedroom shot was all that was here, so we had to create something. Now you have a walk-in closet with lots of hanging and storage space.

Back into the hallway now, this is the view of the front door.

And the last room is the front bedroom, which has the third and final fireplace (the only one that is not cemented up).

In this bedroom we removed the carpet and refinished the beautiful hardwood floors, like we did in the other front rooms.

The last thing I want to include is the before and after floor plan. It will clear up any confusion I may have caused trying to explain how we split up these rooms.

We are so proud of this house. It just feels so good to take something that was so sad and depressing and give it new life. And while you wouldn't know it from the outside (we'll work on it), this house screams charm, warmth and life inside now. I love it!

Special Thanks to:

Josh, for spending the past two years of your life getting home from work, changing clothes, and going up the street to work some more, and for putting up with my constant tugging on the financial reigns.

Daddy, for taking time from your surprisingly busy retirement schedule to help us in so many ways.

Mama, for watching the little man numerous, numerous times while I was up the street working with the boys.

Steve, for putting probably thousands of miles on your car and as many on your body and mind coming to Douglasville to help us work.

Lynn, for letting Steve spend that time with us, away from you on the weekends and some week nights.

Jeff, for the wonderful tub refinishing job even though you were out of the business.

Greg, for the painting and other help.

Grandpa (Don Bennett) and Mary Watkins, for the inspiration to make something old new again, and for the magical shed that has all the supplies you could possibly need.

All our neighbors, for the encouragement and praise.

God, for allowing me to keep my sanity (and hair) throughout this whole process.

And to the academy... okay, just kidding.

Okay, see y'all in a while. We're going to take a month-long nap.

*This kind of makes me want to post a before and after of our house. We did the same thing several years ago with our house. What do you think?

Open House

Tomorrow evening we are hosting an open house at the Green House. It's not your typical open house, where the purpose is to advertise your house to potential buyers. The purpose here is just to show our neighbors what we've been doing up the street (we live 5 houses down from the green house, if you didn't know). They've watched us walk up and down the street in our paint, grout, caulk, you name it-covered clothes for the last two years.

Some of them got to see it at Christmas when we were on the Tour of Homes, but it was still only halfway done then. Now, it is done!

Our tenants are going to start moving their stuff in one day next week. I will post pictures after tomorrow evening. I can't even believe we're to this point. Yay!

Anyway, anyone that is nearby and wants to come see it is more than welcome to join us!

Mother's Day

My mother's day has been a very nice one. Quite non-eventful, but that's usually the way I like it. As I sit here I can smell the incredibly beautiful white peony that Bennett (Mama and Daddy) brought me this morning. If I lean a little to the left, I can smell the sweet pink roses I clipped and put in a silver vase for Mama this morning.


We had everyone over for breakfast this morning. Jeff is in town from Florida, so the whole crew was here. It was very nice. I didn't even bother to dress Bennett for the occasion, since it was just us and I was busy. So, he got to run around in his diaper all morning. It's probably a good thing, since we decided to let him feed himself grits for breakfast. It's about time he starts doing it himself, and I figure grits is a good food for that. They pretty much stick to the spoon (well, these did) and he can get them to his mouth without them falling off first. That's not to say that it wasn't messy. He had grits from head to toe, and I shouldn't even post this picture because it doesn't do it justice. They are on his face, his stomach, his legs, toes, hands, the spoons he's holding, in his hair, and they are all over the back of his legs, too. And yes, I was quick to scoop him up and hose him down before they got all over our furniture too.


After breakfast, we all drank coffee and visited for a while, then Daddy, Jeff and Greg headed to Alabama to spend time with our family out there, Josh and I headed up the street to work at the house, and Mama got stuck with Bennett duty. Duty and doodie, I'm sure. Ha ha. And I say she got "stuck" with it, but I think any of us would take that job over any other. :)

You probably wonder why I would want to go up there and work on Mother's Day? It's Josh that is completely burned out. I considered it my gift that he offered to go up there and work with me today. We're so close to being finished, and yet he is all but giving up. Two weeks! Two weeks and they are literally moving their stuff in! IT HAS TO BE DONE! And then we don't have to think about it anymore! Not only that, but we'll be getting a check once a month for it! Come on, stay with me! We can do it!!!

So, I hope all you mothers got to do what you enjoy with the people you love today. I did!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

Off to work I go!

Josh's dad is coming into town today, and we are going to work at "la casa verde." We're at a point now that I am excited to go up there, rather than dreading it. I don't know if it's because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, or if it's just that there are finally lots of things that I am actually able to do without a man's help.

I met with our renters yesterday and collected the security deposit. It's exciting, but it's not 100% relieving. We put a clause in the lease that if for some reason their house doesn't close on June 5th, we'll refund their deposit and terminate the lease with no penalty. I kind of thought that a percentage should have been held back, since we're now holding the property for them and aren't taking any other inquiries on it. Josh didn't want to do that, so we didn't. Let's hope everything works out and we don't have to worry about it!

A quick, unrelated note: I'm sitting here at the bar using Josh's work laptop. I could hear Bennett in one of the front rooms, just playing by himself. After a little while I decided I should walk in there and make sure he wasn't into something he shouldn't be. He was standing on the couch in the parlor, looking out the front window. I almost got him down so that he wouldn't fall, but I decided to leave him. I left the room and came back to the computer. I heard him begin to whine and whimper a little bit, surely because he was wanting off the couch. I stayed here. After just a couple minutes I heard little footsteps, and there he appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with a huge smile on his face. I took that smile to mean that he was super proud of himself for getting off the couch by himself, but I'm sure it just meant that he was happy to see me and Stewie sitting in here. I was proud, even if he wasn't.

Another little note: We have sprouts in the garden! It's so exciting to see that stuff grow! As of yesterday, we have about 9 squash plants, 7 zucchini, 1 okra, and numerous broccoli and cauliflower sprouts. I haven't yet seen any carrots, tomatoes or onions. Let's hope they're just a little slower. And the rest of that okra better come on, too. Patience, patience. Josh's dad is bringing me some herbs today; I'm so excited! They have a good friend that grows tons of herbs and is generous enough to split and share her wealth. There are some I'll still have to go get, because they're annuals.

Anyway, I need to go dry my hair (ugh - have I ever mentioned how much I hate fixing my hair?) and finish this cup of coffee before Steve gets here.

Taking a Breather

I'm supposed to be outside scraping a door right now. You know, scraping all five layers of lead paint off a 100 year old door. Fun. This is number 2 out of about 10. Josh called and had me come in here and check his e-mail for him, and of course I decided to waste a little time/take a break and read some blogs. Well, no one has really updated so I figured I'd go ahead and let you in on a little secret.

WE HAVE RENTERS!

Yes, you heard right! We have a very very nice, young couple meeting me Monday to pay their deposit on the Green House!

Wait - does that mean we actually have to finish it, then?

Just kidding. We are almost there. I can taste it! I know I've been saying that for like 6 months now, but this time I really mean it. Josh's dad came yesterday to work and we spent part of the day installing shelving in the pantry, laundry room and closets. For some reason, I have been so eager to get that shelving up. I bought it all a couple months ago and it's just been sitting in the living room floor patiently waiting to be put up. Every time someone is looking for something to do, I say, "Let's put up the shelving!" Then Josh will shoot me down and say, "No, this has to be done first" or "that has to be done first." Well, the fact that some of it went up yesterday means that "this" and "that" have all been pretty much done! Woo hoo!

No pictures yet. I want it to be a complete work of art when I reveal it to you.

Back to getting paint chips stuck on my lips. Dang chapstick.

She's Crafty!

It's a Beastie Boys song. I'm not tooting my own horn.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you the results of a recent bite from the craft bug. One of my girlfriends is having twins this summer, and I recently attended/hosted a baby shower for her. We were supposed to bring gifts for the mommy-to-be, but I refused. Sorry, but she's about to have TWO babies. At once. She needs stuff for those little ones! I did include a little something for her, so as not to disobey my fellow hostesses completely, but the majority of the gift was for the babies. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. It was a very large oval basket filled with tiny little size 1 diapers (about 300 of the suckers.) Then hanging out of the front were two tag blankets that (Mama and) I made. *Thank you to my sister-in-law, Lauren, and Margaret at Le Jardin Blanc for making me aware of these great little things. Bennett adores his that Aunt Lauren made for him.*

Long story short, one of the girls at the shower (who is due any day now) saw the blankets and asked if I could make her one. Hmm... did I want to do that? Let's see, the shower was on Sunday. Monday I went to Southeast Yarn to get the fabric and to Michael's to get the ribbon. Monday evening they were all pinned and ready to go. Mama brought her sewing machine over Tuesday and several minutes after that, they were done. What do you think? Yeah, I think I was more than happy to do it. Sewing is fun! Well, maybe it's not so much the sewing, but the coordinating that I really enjoy. But the sewing is fun too. I bought enough fabric to do a few blankets, and I can't wait to pick out some more ribbon and do a couple more.

I didn't get a picture of the ones I made Miranda, but here is the one I made for her friend, and a couple extras I made:

The other thing I got to do was my niece Elizabeth's first birthday cake. Cici (her mom) brought over the invitation about a week before, and Mama and I matched the icing colors to the colors on the invitation. I always get really freaked out when I start doing these things, worried that it's going to look terrible, but they always turn out just fine. What really makes me nervous is the writing. Ugh. I stress so much over that. Mama forgot to bring over her little script "Happy Birthday" imprint thingy that you just press into the cake and then just trace icing over, so I got to freehand it. Nerve wrecking. What made feel a little better was that the next day, she was going to bring over her alphabet stencils and at least I could do Elizabeth's name in block letters using those. Guess what? She forgot those, too. Ahh! So, while I think the "Happy Birthday" turned out alright, I'm not real happy with the "Elizabeth." And the colors are a little off, but we did our best. And Josh pointed out that the little polka dots look like hard boiled eggs. They sure do. Oh well.

Now that I have thouroughly critiqued and criticized our own handy work, here is the final product. Oh yeah, Mama made cupcakes out of the left over batter, and we decorated one of those for Elizabeth to chow down on. And boy, did she ever.

She ate the ENTIRE thing. Icing and all. And she didn't get sick! At least not before she left our house yesterday...

Of course Bennett got to enjoy some, too. He definitely enjoyed this one more than he did his own in December.

What? You don't make your kids eat off the floor?

Oh. Oh well.

So that's what I've been up to. That, and working on the everlasting Money Pit / Green House. We're almost there! I can't wait to post the final pictures of that house. I so, so, so want to move in. I was kind of joking when I first started saying that, but now I find myself visualizing our furniture in there, like, "Will that fit over there, or would we have to put it against this wall?" It is so nice! And I'm really tired of being on two levels. I hate it. But our house is amazing, so I know I'm nuts to even be saying this. Anyway, look forward to a post SOON! Well, is three weeks soon?

Soon enough.

Tour of Homes

So, I've noticed that a few of my fellow bloggers are doing this virtual tour of homes. Well, it just so happens that our little money pit was actually part of Douglasville's annual "Old Fashioned Candlelight Tour of Homes" this past weekend, so it only makes sense that I participate!

Let me begin by showing you Bennett's first "15 minutes of fame" - a neighbor of ours who is a tour committee member asked Bennett and me to participate in a photo shoot for an article in our local newpaper promoting the tour. Of course I said yes, so here you go:


I guess it's kind of small and you can't really read the article, but you get the idea. And yes, Bennett has two n's. Leave it to the Sentinel to mess something up. I swear, I need to be their editor.

Also before we begin our little virtual tour, I wanted to add this:

Also not legible, this is the description of our home in the tour brochure. I thought they did a very nice job; we were happy.

So all of that being said/shown, here we go!

Welcome to our money pi - I mean, home.

First, two more things: 1) it's not actually our home, just a house we bought and restored. 2) I decided to kill two birds with one stone here and do not only a Christmas tour of homes, but also a before and after. So, it's kinda long, but, I hope you enjoy.

Yes, I know, it still looks like total crap from the outside. We wanted to have it painted in time for the tour, but it just didn't happen. We did cut the top of the porch railing off to make it look less like there is a fence on the front porch... And we also had porch lights installed and two very nice, lit topiaries on either side of the door the night of the tour. I just didn't get a picture of it.

Anyway, come on inside and into the foyer. Notice the newly sanded and refinished heart pine floors.

And to the left you will find the living room. Each window in the house has been carefully restored to working order and still utilizes the original window weights. Most windows still contain the original wavy glass panes.

On the fireplace are the stockings that Mama made for us, along with our pictures in each of our stocking holders. There are lots of handmade items in the house because if you know me at all, you know I'm not big on spending lots of money. Especially since all of it is gone, thanks to this masterpiece.

And on into the dining room you will find the home's second fireplace.

Here, I handmade a card garland.

Continuing on into the kitchen, we welcome you to the "work in progress" portion of the tour. The kitchen will eventually have the same refinished floors to match the rest of the house, and will also have new cabinets, countertops, and a breakfast bar. I'm not putting a before of the kitchen, because it pretty much still is the before.

In the kitchen we had a sad, scrawny little tree that wasn't really worth posting a picture of, but on the tree were great little homemade *real* fruit ornaments.

Exiting the kitchen and making a left, you will find the first bedroom of the tour. Also part of the "work in progress" segment, this bedroom, along with its (now) attached full bathroom, will soon be complete.

This being one of our "work rooms," we made use of what we had. Notice the extension cord wreath.

The attached bathroom:

This is the back hallway / mudroom area. In this space you will now find the water heater closet, utility closet, and the spacious laundry room, none of which were present in the home before the renovation. While still keeping the integrity of the historic home, we were able to create modern conveniences.

Traveling back through the kitchen and dining room, we now come into the middle hallway. This area is large enough for an office space, and has been wired accordingly.

At the end of this hallway you will find the common bathroom. The clawfoot tub was refinished (by my brother, thank you Jeff) and moved from the back bathroom into this bathroom so that it could be showcased.

In here we made a "bubble bath" of all gold, silver, and cream colored round ornaments.

Next, we come to the master bedroom. Before, this was just a large, awkward room being used for storage (not unlike most of the house, but that's a different story). We decided to turn it into the master bedroom.

This is also part of the "work in progress" portion of the house. The tree in here is decorated with real holly limbs from our back yard at home, and nandina berries from my parents' house. It is a 9 foot tree and I didn't want to put lights on the monster, so we just set up a work lamp and pointed it in the direction of the tree. Again, making use of what we had.

From the master bedroom you enter the master bath. Okay, this area used to be the master bedroom. We divided the room up into three parts to make the master bathroom, the walk-in master closet, and the laundry room in the back. The windows on that back wall were just far enough apart to frame up a wall in between them. Nice, huh?

Back towards the front of the house, we come to the last bedroom.



Well, thanks for touring, and if you know of anyone in the Douglasville area wanting to rent a great historic house from great people, let me know! :)