Spring Time!

I love spring! The weather has been wonderful here in Indiana. We’ve had lots of days in the upper 60’s-80 already! I love it when I don’t need either the air or the heat on, but we all know how I love to save money! Like I have mentioned in past post, I live in an older home that has wonderful windows lined up perfectly for the breeze and on the extra warm days I have an Exhaust Window fan that pulls out the heat and brings in the breeze. Typically my house stays comfortable; I consider anything over 80 and below 65 a little uncomfortable. But there have been times we will sit outside until the sun goes down because it is cooler outside than it is inside. I will wait for a long stretch of high 80’s before I will give in and turn on the Central Air. (One-three days is not considered a long stretch)  But that is just how I am and thankfully my partner feels the same way, or at least she puts up with it!

We are doing our best to prolong opening the pool until May, like I said we have had a few days already in the high 80’s. There is a lot of cost and work involved in opening a pool and I would like to keep both at bay for as long as possible. If you really think about it, a pool in Indiana does not make financial sense. We use it far less than it is worth, as far as the cost and time it takes to maintain it. We open in May, but often cannot get in till around June, because of water temp. We use it June and July then by August we are usually over it and use it very infrequently and typically close it by Labor Day. The cost to open and close the pool alone is $200+ not included is the cost of weekly and monthly up keep. Not to mention what it does to my electric bill when the filter is on, but as you guessed it, I do not leave the filter running. It is only turned on when I know we are going to use the pool that day.  All in all, it is a little silly to have a pool in Indiana but those days I am laying on my floatie on a hot summer day it might be hard to convince me!

I am excited to announce we have a new project! We have decided to redo my playhouse, currently being used a pool house. When I was a little girl my grandma Joan, my father’s mother, bought me a playhouse for her house. When she passed away I got the playhouse and moved it to my yard.  It was painted a few years ago, while still at my grandmas, by my father and it is manly shade of blue with black trim. When we pulled it into our yard we put a black metal 3-4ft fence around it with a double swing gate. We then planted wildflowers all around it. Now we are going to paint it “Sexy Pink” with “Butter Cream” trim. We are going to add some gingerbread trim around the window, roofline and gable. Along with a cute window box, solar porch lantern, mailbox and curtains! It is going to be so cute! We are also going to put a natural stone pathway leading from the gate to the door and a cute bench outside of the fence by the gate. It will do my heart some good to see my playhouse look so happy!

BEFORE

The nook Pergola is almost done. I have been absent from the building of this but I am hearing it is a pain in the butt and the ever doubting father is constantly questioning their ability to do this project. I am so glad my Duste did not inherit the “I can’t” attitude from her father.  That drives me crazy. She keeps pushing him and this project has become a big trust thing with them because he cannot “see” the big picture. She makes me so proud, she is amazing! There is very little she can’t do and she is willing to try anything I dream up!

So, the yard and landscaping is coming along very well and for the first time our yard is really starting to look good. Although I do worry that the way I decorate isn’t grown up enough….

Happy Easter and Spring!!

Easter Meal Plan

Easter snuck up on me this year, but I did catch it in time to make a meal plan! Typically we have Whole Roasted Chicken because of the saying Spring Chicken; chicken now reminds me of spring. But this year I was given a whole ham so we are having a ham for Easter. This changes what sides we have, of course. So here is the 2012 Easter Meal Plan!!

Ham—cooked on my countertop Roaster

Mashed potatoes—my special creamy hand mashed make ahead recipe
Pork Gravy—also with special seasonings
Greenbeans—provided by my sister
Deviled Eggs—my grandma’s recipe
Stuffing or Rolls—provided by my sister
Homemade Almond Cake—made by me (for those who don’t like cherry cobbler)
Cherry Cobbler—made by me, family favorite except by the one that doesn’t like it
Drinks—provided by our mom

 That’s the meal, now here is the plan:

The day before—

Dessert--make both

Deviled Eggs--make
Mashed taters—depending on temps the next day, if I want to have the oven on or not
Stuff Easter Eggs--fun!

The Day of--

Set up table in living room

Put table together (meaning put on table cloth and so on) unless it is warm enough to eat outside!
Put ham in Roaster.
Hide Easter Eggs

Enjoy Easter Sunday with my family! Hope you and yours have a wonderful Easter!!

Winchester Mansion?

Not exactly, we don’t build 24 hrs a day!

But this is what happens when you buy a 100 yr old house that isn’t exactly how you envisioned your dream home, plus some needed adjustments!

For 2012 the house improvement goals are (and in order):

                Replace leaking window in Bedroom

                Build front porch
                Build stairs to upstairs
                Finish the first of 4 rooms upstairs.
                Turn that first room into Keaton’s Play room
                Turn Keaton’s old room into Living Room
                Turn old Living Room into Dining Room
               Make some adjustments in Kitchen once table is gone.

 Sounds like a lot but I am sure we can get it done! I would also like to have the house painted but I’m not sure if I could get that in before winter…..

After the upstairs is done—which will be 4 rooms (one common room, two bedrooms and a bath) we will start on the bathroom reconstruction. Once the bathroom is done, we are too!! Woohoo!!

1st Blue Prints of Upstairs!

 My personal goal is to have the house done within 5 years of living there! If we keep up the pace we will just make it! As you can tell we are not slow movers! I like to get it done so I have time to enjoy it!

It seems spring has sprung here in Indiana after a very mild winter! With the warmer weather and sunshine is hard outside work to get the yard back in shape. On my tour around the grounds I was surprised to see all the plants had made it! I am so excited to see how big everything gets! Landscaping has been the biggest project for this house. When we moved here there were very few trees and flowers, most of the yard looked like a football field. So we did mass plantings and have learned the ins and outs of our yard the hard way. We have a few locations that nothing will survive so we have given up in those areas, and then in others we have super big plants.  Our main landscaping goal was to block the view of our neighbors. I hate that fact they can look down into our yard in so many areas. So, we planted grasses that get 10ft x 10ft and grow fast! We also have this type around half of our pool, which we plated first, and the second year they really took off! That is what we are hoping for these this year. This year we had our side yard, 40ft x 40ft, fenced in and a gate where it connects to the other fenced in yard to make a kid only play area! This is important if you keep kids and animals! Plus, I wanted all the kids’ toys in one area so I can have my yard back.

Gate to Keaton Playground

View inside the park. Keaton has been here!

We also have plans to make the nook, a large area between the garages and the sheds where our 8ft gate is, (so we can access the yard with the truck) cute and functional. We are putting an open roof between the buildings and a doorway with trellis so a vine can grow on the front and across the roof. We are planning to put our hammocks in this area as it is shady most of the time. I am picturing this to be super cute! Duste has decided this will be our Alice in Wonderland inspired area and is busy painting on the sides of the buildings to display this! She is so talented!

We, meaning Duste, are planting a lot of bulbs and seeds this year. I really want to focus on the small areas of our yard and work at making them cute—the corner with the bench, in front of the white picket fence row and in my wild flower area.  Mass planting, like we have done in the past, can be a little over whelming.

The view from my window--blocking the view of the other neighbors

A Pretty Corner

On that note, Duste and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Spring, now go work in your yards and together we will make the world beautiful!

Our family’s heart was that house…..

Yesterday my grandparents’ house was sold at auction.

 To understand the impact that had on me, you need to know a little background. I, as you might have figured out by now, did not have a stable childhood. My grandparents’ house was the one place that would always be. It was the place I lived on and off as I grew up. It was my safety net. We had all of our family holidays there and everything centered around that house. But what I cherish most is the memories from a typical day. We would have dinners around the table, then on a nice day, relax on the front porch with some sweet tea and watch the world go by. I listened to my grandma sing on that front porch and my grandpa tell his stories of days gone by.  This house meant so much to our family; it was one of the last things my grandma asked me about. Although she had moved out years earlier, she still asked if any of us had been by there.

I will miss that house. I miss the family we used to be, in that house. I miss the love, I miss my grandparents.

Losing both my grandparents plus this house is just too much. It is really over, they are really gone. It is never going to be the same.

I will now avoid that area of town like the plaque. I cannot stand to see what the next people will do to it. It most likely was sold to a Landlord and renters just don’t take care of properties like they should.  They will never know the history of that house and they will never know the man whose name is in the concrete out front.

Goodbye house on Sycamore Street, I will miss you but I will always remember you, just the way you were!!

Duste’s Birthday~

 A few weeks ago Duste told me a story about her childhood. It is hard to imagine after all the years she still has stories I haven’t heard. She was young, elementary age, and one day she came home to find a Pet Canary! She was so happy and loved listening to it sing. A few days later, she came home to find the bird was gone. Her mother had gotten rid of it because she didn’t like its singing. This was nothing new for her house. Her mother often got things and then gotten rid of them, no matters who it belonged to or how that person felt about it. She treated Duste’s belongings like her own and her room as a common room in the house. Duste would often come home to find her things moved, changed or missing. Beds, radios, dresser nothing was off limits. She also told me a story about her Aloe plant. She got a small aloe plant from the grocery store and watched it grow. This plant was in her room and grew to be 3ft tall! She was so proud of that plant. Then her mom decided she didn’t want it in her house anymore. She made Duste plant it outside knowing it would never survive an Indiana Winter. Duste was so upset when it died and never came back.

 So, what is a loving partner suppose to do with these two stories; get Duste an Aloe plant and a Canary of course!

I grew up with birds. I have had finches, parakeets, doves, cockatiels, love birds and blue cheeked conur. I swore I would never get another bird just like I swore I would never again own house plants, any more fish or another cat….needless to say, I am collecting houseplants again, a feral kitten broke his way into my house and my heart and  I am thinking about a fish. There is just something about these few things that I cannot distance myself from. So, I now swear I will keep these things under control. Only get one bird and keep it till it dies, a few houseplants I can take care of and that can stay healthy and really really try to resist that fish!

I have never owned a canary before so I did lots of research—that’s just what I do, well that and plan! We picked out a cage that would be good for the bird and the décor of the house. Chose a place to hang the cage and got it all set up. Then we went, a week early, to pick out the bird. He is a 5 month old Waterslager Canary named Conway Tweety! We started playing Canaries singing on YouTube for him and he quickly picked up new notes and songs. Duste just loves him, she can’t get over him! She also loved the Aloe plant but it isn’t as entertaining as Conway Tweety!

 Oh the things we do to make each other happy!

Winter blues, burn out at work, loss of a loved one…

I don’t know what you would call it but I am done. Done with work; done with the people at work, done with the issues at work. Done. Once I am away from here I am happy again. But can we really live our lives for two days, Saturday and Sunday? What a waste of 5 days or 4 in my case because I have Wednesday off. Life is too short to be rushing through it just so you can get to the weekend.

There was a time I liked my job but working with social workers in a counseling agency can take its toll on you. I feel like I am working back at the day care but this time the children are old enough to be my mother and sometimes grandmother and you cannot discipline them. I am constantly making sure everyone is doing what they are suppose to be, doing in on time and are the happiest they can be while doing it. It is exhausting emotionally and mentally.

Working in an office, especially with 25 females, is a lot like being an actress. You have to smile, when you want to cry or scream. You have to say everything is fine, when you want to pull your hair out.  You have to be polite when what you want to do is have a mad fit. I feel so damn fake because for 9hrs a day I am not being true to me. I am being who they want me to be. I am acting and reacting the way I am suppose to, in a way that will cause very little issue because that is all we need.

I am exhausted. I am unhappy. I need out of here.

I used to care. That is what scares me, I just don’t care. I don’t care about the clients. Most of the time I am aggravated and annoyed by what my coworkers say or do, to the point I have to go on and on about it at home or in endless emails to my mom.

I want to be happy. I do not like this anger the builds up inside of me.

I read books after books about happiness. Maybe something will click.

I want to go down in my hours and then completely leave all together. I want to stay home with Keaton while his mom works. I want to spend my day experiencing life through the eyes of a 2yr old. I want to take one day a month and spend it with my mom Brenda. I want to have time to enjoy life before it is all over. I do not want to work my life away, never taking the time to enjoy it.

I don’t like to say when I get this I will be happy or when this happens I will be happy. I want to be happy right now, in this moment.

In this moment there are plenty of reasons to be happy.

I have my wonderful second half at home working hard to finish the special touches on our new room addition. She works so hard to make me smile. She is unemployed right now. The “dream job” laid her off almost 6months ago. The say the call will come soon. We are waiting. It is scary for your future to be wrapped up in one place, your fate and future determined by one phone call. But in the mid west they are it. They are the only chance we have at the type of home life we want together, the type of life that comes so easily to other couples. (Sigh)

I have a wonderful home. Where everything I have envisioned is coming true. It is a real home. Not a new manufactured home but a built by hand from one man’s vision and it is all ours! It is home. It is where we will always be. I feel so happy when I write my address on a form and know this will always be our address! This is the home, the house, Keaton will always remember. It will be where all his childhood memories are at. The same will be true for our children one day.

I have a wonderful person I call mom, but who isn’t blood related to me. She is my dad’s ex girlfriend. But from the beginning we were more than that. She is so special. I really hope I am able to give her a grandchild one day. I want so badly to have my children grow up around the people who made a difference in my life. There are very few left now.

I have my sister. She loves me. She is the only one who understands the past that we share. The sadness and emptiness that is there now. We are a team. Trying to raise Keaton, her son, better than we were and the best we can.

I have my special little man Keaton Michael. He is my heart! His face lights up when he sees me and he yells out my name “NawNaw”! He makes any bad day a good one! I am so thankful to be such a big part in his life.

I have two amazing vacations planned for this summer. Two days away, just Duste and I. Laying on a warm beach with the sound of waves hitting the shore. I love to get away, I love adventure!

I have a lot more to be happy about I am sure I am not seeing right now.

I will pull myself up. I will be happy. This will pass. …..

Our Dream Home....in the making!

October 2008 we bought a house. For our price range it was a nice home with lots of character. It’s an older home, around 100 years old. The last addition before we bought it was done in 1930 by the handy man that lived there. So, to say the least there was a lot of work to be done.

(Before)

Immediately we replaced the furnace, central air unit and hot water heater. The heat went out New Years day 2009 and the air wasn’t far behind. The hot water heater would give you 10mins of hot water and if you did dishes that day you were out of luck on a shower that night. We also replaced the kitchen counters and carpet (Both a lovely shade of blue) and added a circle drive for the safety of our guest. Not to mention all the painting we did in each room!

Eventually we replaced all the flooring with hardwood, ceiling lights with fans, the roof to metal, replaced/repaired 3 windows, had insulation blown in, new gutters put on, bought a new water pump/tank for the well, had electrical updated, fix the drainage problem in the garage and added a dishwasher.

Outside we did lots of landscaping as it was a bare canvas of over an acre. We put up a privacy fence and added lots of trees, bushes and flowers. We also got our first real above ground pool, unlike the Wal-Mart specials we had at the rental.

 Last year we enclosed the front porch to have an entry way in hopes adding a porch back on. Well, that was easier said than done. I had to pay over a $100 to ask to ask permission to build on to my own house. You read that right, I had to pay to ask if I could ask to build a porch. This meant I paid my money, filled out the mounts of paper work then had to ask a panel of city code people if I could have my porch back. After 2hrs they said yes! I went to that meeting like I was preparing for war—war for my dream! But before the front porch could be built we added on a room to make the front of the house flush. This room would be the walk in closet/laundry room (currently my laundry room is in my pantry). I am so excited to get all the additions done so we can paint the house! There is nothing like a nice coat of paint and a change of colors to make the house look better than ever!

Our biggest projects are coming up just because they are all we have left. We are going to redo the bathroom with new fixtures. (Our current fixtures are from a trailer in a bathroom is the size of a bedroom which makes them seem all the smaller.) I want a large soaking tub, a two person walk in shower, a double sink and a normal sized toilet that I could get replacement lids for. The second big project is the attic. It is a large emptiness with 8-10ft ceilings right now and the only way up in a tiny hatch in the top of a bedroom closet. We want to turn this into two bedrooms, a common room and a bathroom. We are hoping to get the first steps, literally, this year by adding a staircase and possibly floors.

One of the rooms upstairs will be Keaton Michaels play room which will free up a room downstairs that will be turned into a living room, my current living room turning into a formal dining room.  I am so excited to see my visions turn into reality as each improvement is being made. It may not be where or what we daydreamed about when we talked about owning a home but this will truly be our dream home customized by me and my partner in life! Anything we can dream we can make happen and let me tell you we dream big!

(current)