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! :)

"If this isn't bliss..."

I have a confession to make.

I still write in my boring ol' Microsoft Word journal. And sometimes what I write in there, I don't share here. Sometimes I just need to vent about something that is going on, or just write about really random things that are happening that I want to be able to go back and read later in life but that would seem really stupid to write in this blog.

But don't think that's where I've been all month. I haven't been totally cheating on you with Mirosoft Word. I've been pretty absent from there, too. We have been working our little tails OFF up at our money pit. It's still a money pit, but now at least you can see where the money is. It's almost nice and shiny. Pictures soon!

Anyway, the whole reason I am saying all of this is because I wrote something in there this morning that I didn't think I was going to want to share, but after writing it, decided that I would. So, here you are:

Monday, 11-24-08:

All better now. I just wanted to write something in here that I meant to write the other day. Daddy and Josh and I were working up at the green house (the norm these days), and Mama called me. Well, let me first say that Mama has been keeping Bennett every day for the last couple of weeks so that I can spend my time working up there. Saturday morning, Cici brought Elizabeth by so I could watch her because she and Greg both had to work. Well, I kept them (her and Bennett) until about 2pm because Mama had some running around she needed to do. Elizabeth is doing much, much better. She still gets a little fussy from time to time, but she’s mostly adorable. Anyway, Greg got there around 3 and wound up hanging out for a while, and then he and I both went up to the house to work with Daddy and Josh. So, Mama was left with Bennett and Elizabeth. Even on days that she just has Bennett I feel bad. Bennett is an absolute doll 90 percent of the time, and she absolutely loves keeping him. But I still feel bad sometimes that she keeps him for me all day. I know I’m working my butt off doing something else; it’s not like I’m off lounging or anything, but still. Anyway, Saturday while we were up there working I couldn’t help but think about Mama and what kind of a time she was having keeping both of those babies. Well, she called me around 6ish and said, “If this isn’t bliss, I don’t know what is. I’ve got one baby asleep upstairs, one baby asleep downstairs, I can hear the clock ticking, I can smell beef stew, and I’m drinking a glass of wine.”

She was so happy. Life is good.

Of course, Daddy called her a little later on and she had to let him go rather quickly because “I’ve got two babies awake.”

That’s all. Bennett is now waking up across the hall, so I need to go get my little crumb crusher.

Is it Thanksgiving Yet?

I'm already starting to salivate.

Mmm... broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, lima beans, cornbread dressing, collard greens, rice, creamed corn, pineapple cheese casserole, macaroni and cheese...

Ugh! I'm counting down the days!

Turkey? What do you mean I didn't even mention turkey? Forget the turkey! Forget the ham! Even forget the sweet potato pie and coconut cake! Give me some more of those good vegetables and casseroles!!!

Anybody got a family get-together they want to invite me to? I've got a better idea - let's just skip the awkwardness of me being there not knowing anybody, and you can just go ahead and bring me your leftovers. That works. See you Friday, the 28th.

Grandma and Grandpa's is So Much Fun!

There is so much to see and do over there!



I went yesterday and got to play the piano,

I helped Grandma (un)organize her kitchen cabinets,

I got to play in their front yard and see their beautiful yellow maple tree at its peak,

and I got to play with their much more patient cats (but there isn't a picture of that from this time, so Mama is adding a much older picture of me and Buzz. And of course, I wasn't requiring much patience in this picture).

And then I went home and Mama and Daddy put me in a box (see previous post) and made me eat my shoes.

*I promise we do put pants on Bennett. It just so happens he's not wearing any in a couple of these pictures. :)

Bottom's Up

Last night I was talking to Josh in the living room and realized I heard Bennett starting to whimper. It slowly got louder and more desperate sounding, and when I turned my head to look, this is what I found:

He had dropped a toy in this box, and when he leaned over to get it out he couldn't get back up. I just love his little feet barely touching the floor. It was so funny!

Today

Today is a monumental day. For a few reasons.

First of all, and probably the most expected reason, we have a new president-elect. The first African American president. I’m not a big political person – I actually despise discussing politics, but watching that coverage last night when they projected that Obama would win about made me sick. Really. An overwhelming feeling of heaviness came over my entire body and I felt sick to my stomach. I was surprised by my reaction, but that’s what it was.

I actually like Obama okay as a person, not that I know him personally or have done much research about him, but the way he presented himself during the debates was much more pleasing to me than McCain’s presentation. What a creepy old man. And he was a little childish and quick to slander. Obama seemed to keep his cool and stick to the facts. BUT that doesn’t mean I liked his facts. I’m scared to death of his plan. “Spread the wealth?” Seriously? Spread my wealth (ha) to others who haven’t earned a thing? Anyway, not getting into that. I just wanted to point out number 1 reason for today’s monumentalness.

Second, Bennett is up to about 15 steps or so walking! And the only reason he only takes 15 steps is because that’s how far apart me and Josh, or me and Daddy, or whoever and whoever are. But he’s not quite to the point that he’ll just take off and walk into the kitchen from the living room. He is SO not afraid to let go and go, though. He’s too confident for his own good, actually. You’ll hold his hand and most the time he’ll try to get you to let go of him before he even has his balance. He wants nothing more than to walk.

Lastly, and this just warms my heart. Don’t get me wrong, I am the proudest mother of them all to see my boy starting to walk and nothing makes me happier than to see that big ol’ smile headed towards me before he collapses into my arms, but the way new sheet rock looks in a once run down rat’s nest of a house just makes me beam. The sheet rock went up yesterday in our money pit!!! It is so beautiful! They are mudding it today, will sand it tomorrow or the next day, and we’ll be ready to paint either this weekend or Monday! HALLELUJIAH!

Okay, so we’ll be ready for paint, but we won’t paint yet. There is still lots to do before that step, but still. To be to this point is a dream come true. I thought we’d never get here. I was going to post some pictures of the unfinished sheet rock, but I thought I’d wait until it’s all smoothed out and finished. YEA!

I know I already said, “lastly,” but can I just add that gas at the Race Trac down the street is $2.05?

Ohhh (with a sigh), I don’t know what our future holds, and it is a scary thought that the Democrats are going to be in control of it, but for today I feel good.

Happy Halloween!

So, last night was Halloween. We had a good night. I just love any excuse to hang out on our front porch. I got out there yesterday afternoon and swept the porch and the steps and sidewalk so that it would look nice for our trick-or-treaters later. I then started gathering items to make a little table arrangement to put on the porch. I didn't want to just have the basket of candy - that's no fun.

Mama came over to help me get Bennett ready, and she decided that the lions on our front steps needed to be illuminated. So, we put a couple candles under their chins to make them kind of spooky.

Then, there was the task of getting Bennett dressed up. If you read this blog, you know I had a hard time deciding what he would be. There were so many options because of his head full of hair, but I didn't want it to be cheesy and regret my choice later. I had narrowed it down to either Albert Einstein or a treasure troll. I wanted him to be Einstein, but was afraid I wouldn't be able to get him to look enough like him to satisfy me. So, I bought the white hair spray but also bought a thing of the green in case I had to go with plan B. I went to Goodwill and got a pair of black pants and a black vest and cut one of Grandpa's old ties down to Bennett size. A white button up shirt, a little black eye liner, and Josh's old saddle oxfords and we were good to go.

I am happy with the way it turned out, but for some reason I see a little Al Sharpton or somebody in him. There's just something that makes him look a little like a black man to me. Am I crazy?

Anyway, he was an absolute hit. The trick-or-treaters loved him, and a couple of their parents took pictures of him. After letting him hang out on the front porch and greet trick-or-treaters for a while, Josh and I put him in the stroller so we could go visit a few of the neighbors. They got a kick out of it. One of our neighbors almost insisted that we send a picture of him into a newspaper or something. No one could believe that was all his hair; they thought he was wearing a wig. And of course, you had a few people talking about how cute "she" was. Seriously? What parent would dress their infant girl up like Einstein? With a mustache and black eyebrows? Okay, maybe somebody would, but not me.

Bennett gave out about ten 'til eight and wasn't able to stay dressed long enough for Uncle Greg to see him. They had to settle for very sleepy and very angry Einstein in PJ's. That was almost as funny as the real deal, if not funnier.

But we got to enjoy Miss Elizabeth dressed up all warm and cozy as a lion, and Miss Malia as a black cat.