This Old House

On this very blustery snow day I figured I would share some updates on our house. I was a bit apprehensive to get out in the snowstorm, but no price is too big for bloggy land. (we still don't have internet at home...and all of our neighboors are really old so stealing wi-fi is a laughable idea)

As said before in the previous post, we have a lot of work to do. Here are a lot of "before" and "current" pictures of some projects.

This is a shot of our family/tv room, with some of the work already in progress. Take a look at the wallpaper border at the top of the wall, and imagine a similar pattern it covering the entire left wall and front entry way. You also gotta love the vertical blinds.



All wallpaper is now gone! Yaaaay! We have also begun the painting process, so right now we are priming. I am sooooo happy to have the vertical blinds gone, but now we don't have anything covering the windows. So yeah, it makes it a little weird at night. But luckily you can't see in unless you are standing in our backyard. And if someone is standing in our backyard we have bigger problems than having no blinds.




Here is what the wall paper in our kitchen looked like when we bought the house. Again, I had already started to take it down when I realized I wanted to take a picture of it, so believe me when I say that it was EVERYWHERE! Not that you can see them well in this picture, but check out the fabulous spindles.



Now the walls are down to just the dry wall, and it's next on the list to get primed and painted. (I love how we put the dry erase board back up) I have no clue how to properly remove spindles either, but it was fun just to take a hammer to them.



Here is a window in our kitchen "before".



And here is the same window as it looks now. I still need to remove the wallpaper adhesive, but at least the twinge of yellow is easier to look at than teapots.



This is our front room (living room?). It is my favorite room of the house because I love the windows. (As you can see it's pretty snowy out those windows!!) We just got this table, and can't wait to have people over to use all those chairs!



Here's a look at the projects on tap:

The guest bathroom has...you guessed it...hideous wallpaper! I just went in to tear a strip off to see what I was up against.



This is the master bathroom. You may have to look away if the ugly starts getting to you! The best way I can describe it is that it looks like antique coloring paper. Therefore, everytime a friend comes over they can color in a part of the walls.

What you can't see is that the shower needs plumbing work. It worked beautifully when we first moved in, and then one day the water pressure went to nill. Since neither one of us has plumbing experience and don't have the money to pay for a plumber, we use the guest shower for now.



The fence in our backyard has never been in great condition since we've lived there. When it was originally put in, they did not set the posts in concrete. Therefore, the posts have rotted out. And now the fence is leaning terribly in some spots, and a large section has fallen over. Thankfully, our neighboors have a fenced in yard and don't mind it when Belle goes over there.




Well, I just looked out my parents' window and it looks like the inside of a snow globe outside. I guess I will venture my way back home so that Belle can go play in the snow some more. I took this picture right before I left for my parents' house. It would be fun to see if she would pull a sled out there!

Hello old friend

Wow, so has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted? I'm sure the world isn't missing anything by my lack of appearance on Blogger...but it's still nice to go where hopefully somebody knows my name. I've always kept the thought that blogging is more of my own personal release rather than anyone actually gaining anything by reading our blog. And Robbie, bless his heart has still yet to ever create his own post. Maybe once we have internet at our house he will be able to. He has expressed interest in contributing in the first person, rather than via his wonderful wife. :)

Anywho, we have been busy actually putting forth effort to obtain our 2009 resolution. Since moving into our house in October of 2007, we have kept adding things to our home improvement to-do list; while not yet crossing anything off the list. Our 2009 resolution is to complete the major items on our list. Most of it is aesthetic projects but very necessary. (believe me, if you saw the wallpaper you would know it's necessary!!)

A very old woman lived in our house before us, so not only was everything a nice tinge of yellow from smoke--the house was covered with hideously archaic wallpaper and equally hideous carpet (which got us a good price on the house but we were probably a little over ambitious) This horrible wallpaper was hung in almost EVERY room. Yikes! So it has taken months to remove the paper, the adhesive, and then scrub the wall clean.

I am quite sad/enthusiastic to inform you that 60% of the walls in our home are ready to be spackled, primed, and painted. I'm sad because there is still soooooo much more work to go, but I'm very enthusiastic to know that it's getting done and we will finally have a somewhat modern and clean looking home soon. I hope that whoever invented wallpaper has been cursed with removing wallpaper the rest of their life. It is a process that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

The thing I hate most about beginning the painting process is how it creates a chaotic environment in our house. Because everything is moved around to access the walls, it drives me insane to not be able to have a tidy room. It makes me feel like I'm living out of a moving box and creates a sense of unrest.

My eyes and heart are fixed on the end goal though. With every completion of a small step I do celebrate. Think of how accomplished we will feel when it's all done! Heck, it feels great that we have accomplished everything up to now. Go team RJ!

Robbie's newest ink

For a really, really late wedding gift our friend Lars VanZandt offered his valuable time and talent to give Robbie a tattoo. The ink is coming this late for a couple reasons. First, when we got married Robbie was only 15 days from his last chemotherapy...so that isn't exactly the ideal time for a tattoo. The other reason is that Lars lives out of town, so its hard to find time to get together.

Here is the new ink:


This tattoo is a visual representation of the Bible verse Philippians 4:6-7 which reads:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (NIV)

I love that Robbie wanted an hourglass to be the object in which the snake (which symbolizes anxiety and worry) is wrapped around. I know for me personally it is very easy to constantly be overwhelmed with worrying about how various situations are going to pan out. It is when I pray and give those worries to God, that He gives me peace. (the dagger is the victory over anxiety and time)

My peace doesn't come from knowing everything is going to work out to how I had it planned in my mind. God (fortunately) is bigger than what I think is best. My peace comes from knowing that He is in control.