Old or New? Old or New?

Let's not beat around the bush.

OLD.

Bleh. I don't even know where to begin telling you the things I know are wrong with this picture. (disclaimer: The back of the house in no way represents how cute the front of the house is.)Lets start with the actual atrocities on the outside of the home.

One. The oil tank located under the stairs. We have lived on oil for six years now. No gas. Yes, we have to fill it up (250 gallons x the price of oil) about 4 1/2 times a winter. Yes, we've run out on accident. It was the first thing to go!

Two. That white, glassed in porch thing... that was my laundry "room". Not heated or cooled. So, I froze in the winter loading laundry and sweated my arse off June-September. That's my new front loading washer/dryer that I stacked just to get a few more inches of room out there. No, it didn't make doing laundry any more fun.

Three. From the left side of the house, top floor... the 2nd window over. That atrocious glass cubed "window"... That was in my shower. The one shower in the house. It could be worse. The previous owner actually replaced the old wood sill window that was there.

Four. That huge window in the middle. About the biggest thing in the house. I just don't like it. It was drafty and just ugly. It's gone.

Five. The garage door. Yes, you are correct. There is no driveway leading to the garage door. It's just the basement. It's gone now too. Behind that old door, in the old basement is my new laundry room! 15x15 sq. ft. of laundry room and I love it ;)

And now... the New....

More new...

The top on the main floor of the house is our new master bedroom. The door and window you see are part of the bedroom. The other side of the bedroom has two windows symmetric to those. The corner of the house, where you see no windows is the closet. The double arched window is over the garden tub. The shower has no window ;) Around the corner is another arched window where the vanities are.


The new basement you see bricked is the kids new playroom, guest room & full bath. They just started on the deck and we are very excited about that.

A closer look at the new doors. The set of three doors walk into the den & kitchen We knocked out all the walls and expanded it. I can't tell you how many times I've drooled over homes in Traditional Home, Southern Accents, etc. that showcased a room with 3 sets of doors. Had.To.Have.Them. The one on the far left walks into our master bedroom. My new studio will be in the old basement. Here's my new door for customers into all the monogram madness....

That concludes the tour for today. Better, right?!!!

The Money Pit

I realize since I started blogging back in January, I have not written a word about the renovation. I promised lots of stories of what I thought would be a nightmare. It's been somewhat of a painless process. Other than the fact that CPA has asked me no less than 57,000 times "is it in the budget?" whenever I show him something. I guess I have felt guilty to complain on a bad construction day about adding onto my house, when so many people are losing theirs and their jobs right now. I will say, I could have picked red polka doted tiles and orange carpet and CPA would not have cared as long as it's in the budget....

I'm headed back to Greenville from Atlanta tomorrow sans the kids. I've been in Atlanta helping my sister with her two kids, while she does some teacher training. I'm meeting my fabulous SIL on my way back to Greenville, where she will be taking my two until Sunday!

CPA is at home and informs me tonight that the kitchen is officially torn up (the floor that is) and the one wall that was separating the old house from the new addition is down and we are officially connected. Which means the crew is in my house starting at 7am from now until its done. Monday-Thursdays. For 3 more months.

I have also not wanted to post pictures of the atrocity that was the back of our house, until I at least had some pretty to show you of the new back of the house. I'll show you old vs. new when I return. And trust me, it was that bad.

XOXOX

Dollar Signs

Little Man is really into practicing writing his name and letters these days. Which is good. Because at the end of the school year, he either wasn't grasping how to spell his name or didn't care. Now he knows how to spell his name, my name - mommy, Daddy and Big Girl's name without help. Yeah!

So, tonight I go to tuck him in, kiss good night. He's sitting there all cute, working on his name and such...

Little Man: Look mommy.

Me: Awww! Good job man, you wrote all our names!

Little Man: (Starts writing...) Look mommy! It's a dollar sign!

Sure enough, its an S with a line through it. Dollar sign. A month ago, we couldn't write out our name clearly. Today we know all about dollars and cents. Just what I need. Another CPA in the house. Great.

The devil made me do it...

I may or may not have gone Linda Blair spinning head on my children tonight during the hour car trip to my niece's night swim party. I know they were very excited for the swimming, cake and such, but I just cannot think and drive while 2 Tasmanian devils sit behind me. For the record, I did ask nice to quite down. Like June Cleaver nice. Linda Blair works better with my kids.

Let's just say I did make sure to put my Georgia Tervis Tumbler in the dishwasher tonight. Because I will be drinking this ...

Got Firefly?

starting around 4:30ish tomorrow. Or should I say tonight since it is 1 a.m. and I'm still up working on some stuff.

Road Runner

Happy belated 4th! We spent the weekend in Atlanta to watch CPA run in the 4oth annual Peachtree Road Race. Touted as the world's largest 10K, it is quite amazing to watch. 55,000 runners ascend on Peachtree Road at Lenox Square in Buckhead. Just a mile from where CPA and I used to live :)

Waiting for Daddy!

We stayed in Midtown at Peachtree and 17th street, which was about mile marker 5. The kids were thrilled with anticipation watching the runners go by waiting for daddy. The official race starts with those seeded in actual contention to win the race at 7:30. At 7:52, we watched (while eating breakfast) the official start motorcade race by with the winner behind them. Remember, we are at mile marker 5. The winner dominated this 10K in 27 minutes and 22 seconds. And just so you can imagine... This guy had legs as tall as me and was hauling ass on the tail of these motorcycles. Pretty.Amazing. CPA finished 57:12 -- the 9,392 fastest runner. Out of 55,000, I think that's pretty amazing too! He worked really hard to finish under an hour.

So, now CPA is on a running high and wants to run a half marathon. With me. Who does not run, or walk, or anything. (Yes, I'm pretty much using the Y membership for the pool at this point...) It's on Kiawah Island, SC December 12, which also happens to be a few days after our anniversary. He thinks this will be fun? I love Kiawah, we have vacationed there several times. So, he's almost convinced me to do this so I can check it off my life list. I don't even know where to begin with the things that are wrong with this. The two biggest things are one, training during the cold months of October and November - I hate the cold, and two, the fact that October to December are my busiest monogramming months of the year! I could go on, but won't. Just wish me luck. Oh, and you can start laughing now, if you haven't already. I still am.

Stupid

I hate stupid people. Especially when their stupidity results in the death of a child. Have you read this? This has me a lot fired up today.


Distressed caller to 911: "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby!"


Shame on the stupid snake for getting out of his unnatural habitat of an unlocked aquarium. I think the stupid owners who choose to live with an 8 ft. 5 in. Burmese Python in their house with small children should be sentenced to a small cell with their Burmese friend. May the best snake win...