What we take for granted

I saw this video on another blog and was very moved by it. I had to share it. It's a few minutes long, but it's very moving. So many of us take everyday things for granted. Our cars, our power tools, our water, our bathrooms even our toothpaste! We have been to a third world country and have witnessed that some people do not have anything and the smallest of gifts or what seems like the smallest gift to us, can mean a lot to someone else. Our trip to China in September 2004 changed our perspective on a lot of things. I really don't think you can grasp what it means to live in poverty until you see a country like China first hand. Allison is from a very small town west of Nanchang in Jiangxi province called Tonggu. We were fortunate enough to visit there and it was an amazing site. The town was nestled below mountains that were lush green. It was a farming community and really beautiful. The air was a lot cleaner than it was in Nanchang where pollution was high. It truly was a remote place and it was evident that the people there were not accustomed to seeing white Americans. I am grateful for that trip because it humbled me and made me appreciate all that I have that much more. Please take a few minutes out of your day to watch this video. (Within the next month, I will finally have our journey to China loaded on this website. I am excited to know that I can still obtain it from the website we used when we traveled to China.)

http://http://www.glumbert.com/share/waterbuffalo

P.S. The novelty of the construction has worn off. I am tired of having the refrigerator in the living room, tired of eating take-out, tired of tripping over boxes and tired of drywall dust that is EVERYWHERE. I had to write about something different tonight.

Just the kids

In the midst of record high heat and our construction mess, school has started. Cole is in 3rd grade this year and it's his 1st year to ride the bus. He was really excited.

We've been having troubles with Allison sleeping lately. She used to be a good sleeper and we never had any troubles getting her to take a nap or go to bed at night. Not so anymore. Her schedule is a little off now that school has started and she is going back to the babysitter more often. At least that's what I hope the problem is so that it will work itself out in a few more weeks time. Anyway, hubby called me downstairs to snap this picture of her. She fell asleep in the rocking chair just like this clutching her beloved "bear". It's actually a moose, but it's "Bear" to her and she absolutely.can.not.sleep.without.him.no.matter.what

Progress??

We're about 11 days into construction/remodeling/mess of the dining room and kitchen. Since the shared wall between the dining room and kitchen had to be replaced and I have always wanted to open up these 2 rooms....I convinced hubby that this was the perfect opportunity. The picture above shows what it looks like standing in the kitchen looking into the dining room. It's where the refrigerator used to be if you look in the previous posts' photos. Did I say that I am leaving most of the chimney exposed on the kitchen side? I'm going to clean it up a little with a wire brush, but it will stay rustic looking. It's an old house and we live in the country...it works. I ordered a 48" wide base cabinet with countertop to sit in this space. It will be nice when we have family and friend get-togethers. Here's a view of the new pass-through from the dining room.
Can I just say how excited I am to see this floor?! It's the nasty floor planks beneath our old, sagging subfloor. The nasty white linoleum is GONE forever!! Hooray! I can't understand how people with kids, dogs or cats live in a house with white floors. It didn't matter if I had just mopped the floor, it never looked clean. I hated that floor. A good friend and I plan on laying porcelain tile that is more durable, kid and dog friendly and low-maintenance for me. It's a win-win for everyone!
Allison is sitting inside the area where our oven and microwave used to be. Our refrigerator will soon be housed here. It's been a bit of challenge to get the measurements to work out right, but hubby and the contractor soon realized it was futile to argue with me...it WILL WORK!
This is the hallway leading to the dining room (which is right behind Allison). The kitchen is to Allison's right & our bedroom is to her left. Gosh, I can't EVEN believe I am showing pictures of our messed up house right now. I get majorly stressed when the house is in disarray and it is beyond that point now. Currently, our refrigerator is in the living room along with our dining room table & a few chairs.

I have spent most of the year teaching the kids to take their shoes off when they come in the house. Now, I am telling them to keep their shoes ON so that they don't hurt their feet or get a splinter on this nasty floor. The cement board will go down tomorrow or Sat. and that will help alleviate some of the floor issues. :)
I get to prime and paint the dining room this weekend. I am not really looking forward to that. It's sooo hot here, just not in a painting mood. But, I am in a mood to get this stuff done and completely finished. I have a bit of a reputation for not finishing projects once they start. Luckily, my contractor is keeping to his schedule and I am anxious to see everything all done for once. I am looking forward to enjoying my house for once.

Demo begins....

This is what the dining room looks like now that demo has begun. It is amazing how far drywall and plaster dust can spread. The stuff is EVERYWHERE! Oh--we could always hear critters of some kind in the wall. Now I know why. There's a brick chimney there!! This is where the old coal stove must have been. If you look at the picture close enough, you can see the hole in the upper portion that wasn't capped off. We haven't found any birds yet and we don't hear them anymore either. I bet they figured this mess is too much for them and they moved out.

This is the kitchen side of the mess--I have ALWAYS wanted to open up this wall between the kitchen and dining room and have a pass through counter. But, it's a load bearing wall and everyone said it can't be done. Hmmm...I am thinking of talking to the contractor tomorrow about some of my ideas.

Oh and don't be falling in love with my mustard colored refrigerator. "Sunflower" has been with us since we got married almost 12 years ago and it was estimated to be 10-15 years old when we bought it out of the newspaper. Best $75 we ever spent. We have always said we'd buy a new one when this one dies--it hasn't yet. (yeah, that's my ominous figure casting a shadow on the fridge for the pic)
Apparently, a coal stove was located in the kitchen too, because the hole is on this side of the chimney too. They attempted to close it up by putting bricks in the hole.

The good thing out of all this is that I am getting things remodeled the way I have always wanted to get them done. I am going to repaint the kitchen and dining room the way I want to. We'll be adding features that we've always talked about. And, if I am lucky, I just might get to redesign the kitchen with an idea or two that have popped into my head.

I will say that remodeling sucks---especially with a 2-year-old that doesn't understand that we need to wear shoes all the time. The other bonus is being able to eat out or bring home takeout every night since my kitchen is out of commission! :)

If anyone has a great idea sites on kitchen and bathrooms--let me know! I'm always looking for ideas!

What we've been busy with....

I promised to tell what we've been pre-occupied with. We treated ourselves to a VERY EXPENSIVE weekend in Indianapolis visiting friends. It was a great time. The kids had a good time playing outside with our friends. We enjoyed their company and all was well until we got the phone call asking us this question: "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" I hate loaded questions like that. I was afraid it was something about our dog, Rookie, that was at home. She has been sad ever since we lost our other dog, Buster, on April 27. As I was preparing myself for the worst, hubby said that the good news was that the water was now turned off and no longer leaking. The bad news? Well, the UPSTAIRS bathtub pipe had burst and the water leaked downstairs. Our friend who was watching Rookie for us discovered water in the kitchen. It had leaked down the shared wall of the kitchen and dining room ruining the ceiling, floor, walls, cabinets and everything in between.

Our house was built in 1917 so the water seeped through the layers of plaster and wooden lats, through the drywall, through the ORIGINAL hardwood floor...the paint peeled and bubbled. The drywall cracked. The wood trim separated from the wall. Everyday the damage seemed worse and worse as the wood swelled from the water. Of course, this all occurred during the hottest portion of the summer when we are experiencing 100+ degree temps.

I called in a company that deals with water damage restoration and they brought in 10 industrial fans and blowers and 4 huge dehumidifiers to try and dry out the walls and save us from having to replace all the walls, ceilings and floors. For 6 days, we endured the constant noise of those fans and the heat they generated. The serviceman said those fans generated heat the equivalent of a 60,000 BTU furnace inside our house. All the while, our poor air conditioners were trying to run and cool our house to no avail. It was awful hot. It was horrible. It was miserable. And the shitty part is---we endured all that for nothing. It didn't work! They finally pulled all their equipment out and our contractor moved in. Demo started this past Mon. I never thought I'd ever have to live in a house during remodeling. I've heard horror stories of the mess and chaos. Now I can write my own horror story....

This is my dining room wall that shows how the paint at the top near the ceiling was peeling over and no--that's NOT wallpaper.
This just shows the kitchen side of the shared wall where the water damage occurred. Most of the damage was covered by my refrigerator and cabinets. If you opened the cabinets, you could see the damage.
This is what those industrial blowers and fans looked like. Again, can I just say how HOT and NOISY it was while these things were running?
Just another view of the madness
We pulled the refrigerator out in the middle of my kitchen floor and there was a fan blowing behind it as well as the one sitting on top of it. As you can see, my kitchen is not very wide, so it was quite a challenge to cook or do dishes with all this going on. Why weren't kitchens made bigger in the old days if the women were in there cooking all the time?

More pictures of demo to come...

Fun with Friends

I meant to get these pictures of the kids having fun at our friend, Erin's, birthday party a couple weeks ago, but as you will see in the next post--we've been a little pre-occupied. This is Allison with our friends little girls, Ellie, Erin and Paige.
We went to visit our friends, Brad, Julayne & Levi, the end of July. They have a big yard to play in and this was one of the favorite "toys" the boys could play with! Cole got to ride Levi's 4-wheeler.
Brad's cousin and his kids came over to play with their "toys". Here's Allison with Brad's cousin getting a ride. She loved it!
Cole is an expert tree climber. He took advantage of the knobby pine trees to practice his skills. :)

I got these out of order--stupid Blogger. This is one of the fun things that the kids love to at our friend Jason & Kelly's house.
Allison is modeling her make up application skills with the play make up that Erin got for her birthday. Apparently, she was going for the clown look.

Stay tuned--the next post will show what we've been so busy with.

Happy 4th...a little late

The kids enjoyed playing with sparklers before we went to watch the fireworks. We were lucky enough to see 3 fireworks shows this year thanks to friends who invited us to their 4th of July parties. I took the kids to my company's 4th of July activity and it was a really good time for the kids. There was plenty of food, games for the kids, face painting, clowns making balloon animals and of course, ice cream! I really enjoyed the day off, but it was too short as always. Those middle of the week holidays just makes your whole work week seem weird. And--unfortunately, I am not high enough up on the food chain to get the entire week off work. Oh well, maybe next year!