Simple Home and Happiness

The Christmas rush has come and gone. I usually feel empty this time of year, all the hype and excitement leading up to Christmas gets me all high and after the fact I always feel left a little wanting. Not this year though. This year we spent nearly three straight days celebrating with family. It felt full and wonderful and a times a little wild. I am happy to bask in the quietness that is the day after. Ironically enough I feel quiet and calm even though I have been given big news on Lucky. My carpenters have given me a move in date! End of January. I am beyond words in the excitement area. I fall asleep at night planning furniture placement and color schemes. Do you ever do that? Please say you do. We are in the final weeks of the renovation and I feel as though a calm is descending. Quite the opposite I am sure, from what I am suppose to be feeling. But somehow, it feels as though I survived the toughest part. The major construction is done, the Christmas awe and rush is d

Ding dong the tar is gone! At long last I have original oak wood floors in the kitchen. It all started innocently enough... when we bought the house, there were clay tiles in the kitchen. I didn't mind the style of the tile and since we were leaving the kitchen largely untouched I was going to leave it. Butttttt, there were two broken tiles and I thought well, heck, we know there is hard wood, so we'll just knock out the tile and expose the hardwood. All the tile came out. That wasn't so bad, right? Then came the first major dilemma, there was half inch thick plywood underneath the tiles that had been installed to adhere the clay tiles to. Well, the carpenters jumped in and helped me unscrew approximately a few hundred (no exaggeration) screws. We didn't know what damage the screws had done to the hardwood below, but we wanted the plywood out regardless since it made the floor uneven from the rest of the house. So out came the plywood. Aaannnddd then o

Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was wonderful. I ate as much as I possibly could and enjoyed time with my family. The Hubs and I rounded out the evening with a leftover bottle of wine and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation! Perfect end to the day if you ask me! So this is the end of my month of thanks. I have been trying to figure out how to sum it up and have been struggling to find a way to express my sincere thanks without sounding fake. I am so truly thankful to be living a life that is simple and honest with a family that I love more than anything in the world. I could give up everything but my family and would still be so blessed. I'm sure December will be hectic no matter how hard I try to reign it in. I'll post as often as I can while still trying to keep a bit of my sanity. Today I finished knocking out the tile and laminate on the kitchen floor. The only thing standing between me and wood floors is one stubborn layer of tar backing. If you know any

Today I am thankful for every single step of the process. It has been emotionally exhausting at times, but I am so happy that it has landed me here. I am acting in a local play this year, and when they asked me to do it, I hesitated because of the house stuff. I really love acting and hadn't done it for years. I figured it wouldn't really overlap with the house stuff, because that happens during the day and practice for the play was in the evenings. Fast forward two months... I have four play performances this week, (three night performances and one Sunday afternoon), plumber, electrician, excavators, and concrete all decided this week worked best for them to get some serious work done. It has been a wonderful, hectic, crazy mess. I can't complain because we are making huge progress on Lucky, but holy buckets, I am spinning. The day when the electrician showed up, I kind of thought we were just doing a walk through. So I go along saying, "Well yeah a light h

Today I am infinitely thankful for the elusive hardwood flooring underneath the layers of tile and laminate. It is painstakingly slow, but little by little I am making progress. Someday; weeks, months, years, from now, I will stand in my finished kitchen and be so happy I spent endless hours on my hands and knees peeling back time and uncovering a hidden gem. Right now I mostly ache from head to toe, but I am still thankful for the opportunity to work on something I love so much! What are you thankful for? See the rest of my November days here ! Thanks for stopping by! Posted with Blogsy

Today I am thankful for wine. It has helped me more than I care to admit :)   Posted with Blogsy

Today I am thankful for this girl . She is braver than I will ever be and has an incredible way with words. She always leaves me feeling inspired.   Posted with Blogsy

I think it is time to catch you up on what has been going on over at Lucky lately. To do that, I probably better explain what our plans are with the house. Lucky is a traditional foursquare house; fours rooms on the main level and four bedrooms upstairs. The house originally did not have an indoor bathroom. The bathroom addition was added around the sixty's and we ripped it off before moving the house. We are building two addtitons onto the house. The biggest addition is an 18x24 foot space that will have a bathroom, pantry, laundry space and the stairs to the basement. It will also be connected to the garage, so it will be sort of a breezeway between the garage and the original house. The exterior has been framed and the basement stairs are complete and the interior walls are framed in. It is partially covered in housewrap, and awaiting siding. The second addition is a 16x16 space that will be a main level master someday. The Hubs really wanted a master bedrooms space crea

Today I am thankful for homemade pizza. It is one of my favorite lazy day foods and letting the kiddos get messy helping make it is part of the charm! Try this seriously tasty twist on homemade pizza !   Posted with Blogsy

I am thankful for the family and friends that have been there for me and helped me through all of the house renovations! Without them, I would not be able to keep my head above water!   Posted with Blogsy

Today I am thankful for our current home. I am writing about Lucky all the time, because I am so involved and excited about the process. I often neglect to mention how thankful I am for the house that my family and I live in. This house has been our home for five years. The Hubs proposed to me here, this is where we brought our babies home when they were born. We've suffered losses and celebrated life here, we've cried and laughed and lived every moment of our shared life in this house. No matter how many complaints I have about this house and no matter how excited I am for the next house, this will always be our first home and will be special to me. Thank you for stopping by. Leave a comment and join me for a thankful November! Check out my other thankful days here !   Posted with Blogsy

Today I am thankful for white siding! I am so happy to see this going up today. I chose all white siding. I may be crazy, only time will tell. I am thrilled with the look already! What are you thankful for? Check out this rest of my thankful days here !   Posted with Blogsy

Today I am thankful for phone, cable and internet. Due to the installation at Lucky, we didn't have any of those amenities here yesterday. Thus missing day five. It was actually kind of nice to be unplugged for the day! So maybe I am thankful for the day without phone, cable and internet! What are you thankful for? Check out the rest of my thankful days here !   Posted with Blogsy

I am oh so thankful for my carpenters whom understand me. They are a blessing. I adore them. That is all. Check out the rest of November here !   Posted with Blogsy

I am thankful for Sunday, a day of rest. I didn't do a single thing at Lucky except give a tour to some family members, hardly counts as work! You can check out the rest of my thankful days of November here . Thanks for stopping by. Have a beautiful Sunday!   Posted with Blogsy

Today I am thankful for painters tape, it is profoundly useful for appliance lay out!   What are you thankful for? Join me this month in finding something each day to be thankful for. You can check out the rest of my days of November here .   Posted with Blogsy

Things are moving quickly around here and it is hard to keep up with everything. Some things are great; carpet out, hardwood exposed, yay! Some things are frustrating; rooflines in the way of original windows, ugh. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving I am going to pop in each day with an update, to remind myself to be thankful for very step of the process, good and bad. Today I couldn't be there when the first interior wall went up, and it is off by about a foot from where I would like it. In the big picture though, it's not a huge deal. Today I am simply thankful for the first interior wall going up! What are you thankful for? I'd love for you to join me in this month of gratitude! Check out the rest of my days of thanks below! November Day Two November Day Three November Day Four November Day Six November Day Seven November Day Eight November Day Nine November Day Ten November Day Eleven November Day Thirteen November Day Fourteen Novembe

Lucky was set down on the foundation today. We woke up to heavy mist and all around dreary weather. We knew, due to moisture, it was on the edge of whether or not we would be able to make the final move. In the end, it took a log chain and some pulling but we finally rounded the corner and pulled it into place. I tried to video it, but I had to start and stop so much because of all of the activity. I wish I could explain how it feels to have the house set down on the foundation. I got very nervous when we had to hook up the log chains to pull it. In a show of support, in only the way a man can, my carpenter smiled at me and said, "It's only a house. It can be rebuilt." He's right, it is only a house. I know that, at least my brain does. But in my heart, this house is so much more. I am a dreamer, a romantic. I have so many plans for this house and they are so much more than paint, furniture and light fixtures. This house will be where I raise my kiddos,

Today is the day. The house should be on its final resting place by tonight. The foundation is ready, the house is ready, I am ready. It is misting and very damp this morning, but it hasn't all out rained yet. I'll let you know how it goes! Posted with Blogsy

Here's what I still can't believe... I can't believe this blog, that I started on a whim , lead me to my dream hom e. I can't believe that I can go to Lucky anytime I want and knock things out and build things up. I can't believe that in the near future I will be able to raise my babies there, and cook meals, and live life, and fall asleep and wake up and do it all over again, in a house that has been doing just that for ninety some odd years. I feel truly blessed; not in a light sense of the word, but really, truly blessed. I am anxiously holding my breath until the house it set down on the basement. Then I think I will finally be able to relax and begin to believe that this is really happening. Right now, it still feels like it could be ripped out from underneath me. I have nightmares about the recent sixty mile an hour wind gusts blowing it down. I have nightmares about it rolling away on it's wheels. I just want that baby on solid ground the

I have been feeling guilty about not getting this post written sooner, but as usual, life has gotten in the way and I have been super busy. Last night and today it has been raining, so I have finally had a chance to catch my breath. In fact, I was over at Lucky this morning knocking out kitchen tile (more on that later) and I was making up a post in my head when I came to the conclusion that so much has happened that the best way to get caught up would be to upload all my pictures and pick the ones that best describe what I've been up to. So without further adieu, I give you, my camera roll! One last look at Lucky before she moved! The first beam going under. This is where my heart stopped. That is one tilted house! Here it is from farther back! Hooking up to the moving truck. These are the blocks that held it up. Unsettling how much they resemble Jenga blocks! Found this old stove in the basement! If you look closely you