Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The Progress on the Addition

 We are making great progress on our addition! The concrete work has been agonizingly slow so we're hoping the framing goes a little faster. The concrete was poured in four sections: the utility room, the first-level bedroom, and two in the garage. The day the garage sections were poured it rained quite a bit and left some standing water. Then my husband and I went out and walked around, planning and dreaming. I swear I had bits of cement stuck to my shoes but pioneer husband says it was just dirt. Still, I made both of us go back inside so we didn't risk it.



 Yesterday the four basic walls went up. It made the whole thing feel huge. We realized that you won't be able to describe our house as "cute or quaint" for much longer. It's okay---cute and quaint are not easy to raise a family in.




From here you can see where the two garage doors will be with a man door next to them. On the opposite wall there are two openings. The skinny one is for the stairs and the big one will go into our mudroom.

We had to cut a section of the roof off to fit the framing.

Every night after the construction guys leave we go out and walk every foot of the addition, talking over and over about what will go where. I've found that my husband and I differ greatly and frequently in our opinion about how things should be. It takes a lot of discussion and patience from both of us to try to come together with a plan.

We are ecstatic!

Free Printable

I recently left my school to teach closer to my home. I made some truly amazing friends in my 4 years there and it was hard to leave them behind! As a parting gift I gave them this quote in a frame. I had a lot to make so I needed to keep the cost down. I bought the frames for $3 at Walmart and spray painted them. I didn't buy spray paint for plastic so it didn't stick to the whole frame, creating a distressed look that actually worked well! Then I made the printable in Photoshop and it turned out pretty good! I printed it as a photograph since my printer is constantly running low on ink.

I still have no idea how to put a document in here to be downloaded so you'll have to just save the picture.


The quote is from Winnie the Pooh to Christopher Robin. I found the cartoon on Youtube and it was actually pretty cute!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Flooding Problems

Last Sunday I woke up and started opening the windows all over the house. We do this every morning to let the cool air in. When I opened the front door I was met with a river flowing down our front sidewalk! This isn't uncommon during a major rain storm but we are certainly NOT getting any rain in Utah. Upon further inspection, we found that the entire yard was drenched and our addition had a deep moat around it.

After a little investigation we found that our neighbor (who we love and would forgive anything!) had accidentally left his water on and it happened to drain across our property. He was super nice and offered to replace anything that might be damaged. A few minutes after correcting the problem the water stopped and dried up.

To make the matter a little crazier, when we went to church that morning the Bishop announced that local farmers were having a hard time with the water shortage and we needed to pray for more water. Jonathan and I teased that we needed to offer our yard to the farmers as we seemed to have too much.


Jewels couldn't get out of her house without getting wet. There was NO WAY she was going to get wet.

The lean-to on our shed is housing our vanities for our bathroom. We are hoping there isn't too much damage.
 There's an old brick root cellar buried in our driveway. The water eroded some of the dirt and revealed part of the wall. Every time we dig out there we pull up bright orange bricks! We would love to reuse them but after so many years underground they're practically crumbling.

We are in the process of building a berm along our property to avoid future problems. Let's hope it helps!






Monday, June 10, 2013

Freezer Jam

I grew up in a home where we canned and froze fresh food all the time. I even helped with the process, particularly the eating part. I was really good at the eating part. When I moved to college and was a newlywed my mom made sure to keep me supplied with canned peaches, pears, and frozen jam.

Now, I don't know at which age you are supposed to begin making things for yourself. I imagine it was a long time ago and I've been mooching off Mom for longer than I should. It was time at last to grow up a little more and make my own jam.

My biggest fear was that the sugar wouldn't dissolve and it would get gritty. This seemed to happen at least once each year to my mom, and she is an expert! Oh well. It was an expensive risk, but I had to take it.

I picked up my raspberries (I bought WAY too many.) I only had to call Mommy Dearest once, when I was picking out a box of pectin. After that, I worked on my own!
This is what was left over...Oops.

I was originally going to use a recipe off the internet but everything I found had scathing comments from people who had tried it! Everyone was criticizing the amount of sugar--whether too much or too little. Since I was a first timer I decided to follow the pectin box recipe. That mean box, though! It had so many warnings on it like "Don't do this, or you'll mess it up forever!" that I was beginning to worry it wouldn't turn out. I even considered doing the straw-rasp-jam but chickened out and stuck to straight raspberry. Don't want to get too arrogant.

No one thought to give me a potato masher for my wedding (woe is me) so I had to use a slotted spoon. It worked splendidly, although it took longer than a fancy masher would.

I almost...ALMOST put the sugar in with the pectin. The horror! I'm so grateful I read the directions nine times and on the ninth finally comprehended this part. I would have given up.

The finished product... Ta DA! Yes, I put my jam in an old pickle jar. I'm poor, remember? Pinterest would be ashamed. My other containers were frosting cups and peanut butter jars. Don't judge.

 I did add the sparklies but I was so excited and so gosh darn proud that there might as well have been real fireworks.

P.S. Have you read this book? It's my berry favorite. Great for a jam-themed day with your kids.
Product Details
Jamberry on Amazon


Monday, May 13, 2013

Addition...Revived.

I'm afraid I've left all of you hanging. I announced the plans for our home addition in the fall and haven't blogged about it since. Allow me to explain...

When my husband and I first purchased our rock house we knew from the beginning that we would need to add on to it. For those of you thinking of purchasing a home, this is not a good thing. Never buy a house that won't meet your needs for at least the next ten years. Our plan was to live in our home until we were desperately cramped and then add on.

At the time, however, we had no idea how difficult it was to build onto a home. It's harder than buying an already built house, by far! We invested nearly $1500 in the process only to be told that in our situation, it couldn't be done. It was more expensive to add on than to buy a new house. Needless to say, we were intensely disappointed.

Six months later,we put our house up for sale. We had several promising showings over the weeks, but the feedback always came back the same. It was too small. Apparently everyone else is a lot smarter than we were.

When you're selling your house you tend to look at it differently. You see it through the potential buyer's eyes and begin to feel a strong attachment to it. We were feeling a budding desire to stay put. We loved our house!

It's so close to the main part of town, which means we can walk to all of Wellsville's fun summer events. It's on a corner across from a picturesque duck pond that we visit daily. We can see open fields out our windows and have amazing neighbors. Not to mention--the Wellsville Founder's Day Parade strolls right past our lot and we don't have to go anywhere to see it!

We talked and prayed about it for about a month and decided to try again. It was crazy, we knew, but we were willing to take the risk. We ordered another appraisal, filled out paperwork AGAIN, and did a lot of praying. We had paid off our second mortgage and saved up some money so the number we needed to hit was (thankfully) much smaller. When we got the results back- we were only $3000 short. Perfect. We could scrounge up $3000 before we started easily enough. I can't tell you how excited we are! It was really going to happen!

And thus, the blog is back. In the wake of disappointment that followed our first adding-on attempt, I had stopped blogging. One of my main motivators (our addition) was gone. Now I'm going to keep it all recorded for whoever may be interested. I imagine I'm not the only one out there obsessed with old houses, additions, and/or Wellsville. I hope you enjoy following the journey!...(again.)

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Make Mother's Day Great


Photo courtesy of Captured Moments Photography
Being a mom is the most incredible, rewarding job any woman could ever have. Filling this position requires its workers to experience every emotion--often to extremes. Moms feel everything from the butterflies that come from a child's unexpected hug to the misery that accompanies seeing our kids struggle. I've known many moms (including my own) that dread Mother's Day.

The truth is, our children are human beings. As such, we need to know that they will never be perfect. This also means that we share their every pain. Motherhood is naturally empathetic. When my daughter falls and scrapes her leg (again!) I want nothing more than to fix it. It's for this reason that we have a healthy stock of Disney princess band-aids on hand at all times. (They seem to heal little girls' wounds faster than the regular nude variety.)

Along with feeling our kids' pain, we also feel guilt when our children make mistakes, lose their way, or struggle with any number of difficulties. In a mom's mind, the thought is always there...was it my fault? If I had spent more time with them, been a better example, not been so strict, been more strict...would things have turned out differently?

If we learn anything from our studies of silly Sci-fi movie time travel, it's that you can't change the past. It's funny, while Science Fiction is not an exact, well, science, most writers seem to agree on this concept. Even if you could zoom back in time and give yourself a re-do, nothing would change. It is what it is.

Vernon Law, an former baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a pretty cool guy, said that "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first the lesson afterward."

Life is essentially a barrage of pretests. And if life is anything like school, the pretest is not graded like the post test. We are constantly given challenges before we have the knowledge to meet them. But the knowledge comes when we're ready for it.

Moms, I guess what I'm trying to say is, let's give ourselves a break. Let's make mistakes and look at them for the funny stories that they are. Let's stick up for ourselves against our most critical judger--our own self. Be a little more proud of what you do for those around you. When you feel guilt for things you can't change, resolve to change things as you move forward instead of dwelling on the past.

And on Mother's Day, celebrate how amazing you are by having a good attitude. Don't look at it as a reminder of your flaws and shortcomings. It's a chance to put your nose up in the air a little bit and bask in your own awesomeness.

Photo courtesy of Belinda Olsen Photography
Take advantage! Happy Mother's Day...

Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Bell House

Front view of The Bell House
View from the back

Ceiling Molding in the bedroom

John Stoddard's (the home's builder and original owner) name on the bedroom door


Bedroom door

Original windows in the side room






Cabinets from the Logan Temple


From the kitchen looking out the front door

Antique stove

Picture windows in the kitchen

Dining room

Main level living room


Living room

Entry ceiling

Entry

Ceiling molding in the entrance/hallway

Claw foot tub

Tub fixtures

Sink fixtures

Staircase details



Upstairs landing

View from the top of the stairs



Upstairs bedroom

Upstairs bedroom




Upstairs bedroom

Transition flooring from one bedroom to another






Mudroom/ sunroom


Back porch

Side yard

Garden


Lovers' Lane