With Thanks

Aside from being my favorite holiday of the year, I am very thankful on this day for many reasons - one of which is the recent restoration of our home. For those not aware, we've been living with major construction since July 17 and it has been stressful and overwhelming to say the least. Our contractor lived with us, yes, he actually slept in our guest room, with rare visits home to South Georgia. At this point, the construction is done, but we have a lot of caulking, scraping, sanding, priming and painting to do. We also are in need of a $6,000+ electrical overhaul on our home and since we are tapped out financially, we will have to wait at least a year before we can have this work performed. We pray nothing too serious will go awry between now and then. It's a bit aggravating because we have no light in our original bathroom but do have an outlet that is functioning so a lamp it is for now. Hope you enjoy the pictures. More to come as rooms are finalized with paint and decor emerges with Jana's homemade roman shades.

Here's what we lived in for several weeks. This is our living room and dining room with the view from our front door. We had a small space to walk between the bicycle and chairs. Note the kitchen cabinets in the dining room and since we refaced our kitchen cabinets, you will see the cabinet doors stacked in front of the fireplace. We went without our kitchen for 10 weeks with zero dinner invitations. Seriously, we were so tired of eating out and it got expensive. Very thankful to have our kitchen back!

Before the construction project, we had a 2 bedroom/1 bath home. Now, we have a 3 bedroom/2 bath home. Below are before and after pictures of our old (original) bath. The clawfoot tub you see below was moved into our new (added) bath, and we replaced this bathroom with a standard tub and tiled shower. We replaced the linolium floors with matte, white hexagon tile, and closed up the window (b/c the screen porch is on the other side) with matte, white subway tile. The walls are tiled 48" high. We replaced the sink. Very thankful to have our old bath back and better than before!

After all the fixtures were moved out, Gary began demolishing on the old bath. He tore down the plaster and the wood slats behind the plaster creating a lot of dust. You can literally see the dust flying around in this picture and the mounds of plaster on the floor. Plaster weighs a lot for those not familiar.
And after...

The kitchen before - tile floor that was never grouted, plain white cabinets, ugly blue formica countertops.

And after - wide plank hardwood floors, mushroom color cabinets, earth corian countertops, wainscoat on walls with sheetrock at the top, built-in shelf, new stainless steel appliances. The beautiful door with the wavy glass you see at the end of the kitchen is original to the house. Gary found it in the basement, stripped off the paint and stained it.

The screened-in back porch before - hardwood floors were painted gray, a roof leak caused mold and damage to the ceiling, and a window looking into what is now our 3rd (new) bedroom was there.

The porch and new deck after - we had the hardwood floors stripped and refinished to their natural color, Gary demolished the ceiling and installed new insulation and wood ceilings, large columns were built to allow the porch to be in sync with the craftsman style of the house, moved the screen door from the left to the center, added ceiling fans, and built deck to match. The screen porch is a good size room - 22'x16'. We're still trying to find a quality screen door.
The room below is off the kitchen (at the rear of the house) and originally was a porch b/c of the way the floors sloped away from the house causing unleveled floors as much as 3.75". At some point it was closed in and divided into two smaller rooms where the laundry resided in the outward room. We converted this to a 3rd bedroom, bathroom and closet which contains our laundry and shelving. Below are before and after pictures of the 3rd bedroom and new bath.
And after - new bedroom, bathroom and closet - floors are hardwood and leveled, sheetrock walls, and trim on windows and doors perfectly match the rest of the house. Our house has the original push button light switches throughout. We were able to find and order these and use them everywhere a new light switch had to be installed.

New Bathroom - This weekend, we plan to disconnect the clawfoot tub, pressure wash, sand, prime and paint the outside of it black. We also plan to paint the baseboards and apply a second, light coat of grout to the floor and seal it. Time permitting, Gary will finish scraping the trim in the dining room and living room, sand the trim, prime it, and we'll paint both rooms.

Jesse's Girl

So Friday night Gary and I headed down to Newnan to meet the famous DeAnna Pappas, The Bachelorette, and last guy standing, Jesse Csincsak. As demonstrated on the show, both were extremely down to earth and friendly. For those of you who don't know, I am the fan who mailed DeAnna the book "Motherless Daughters" when she was one of women vying for Brad Womack's heart. DeAnna immediatey wrote me back to thank me for the gift, and when she met me Friday night, she opened her arms wide open and gave me a big 'ole hug, once again expressing her appreciation for the book. Gary kicked it with Jesse complimenting him on snowboarding down the mountain with DeAnna on his back. Both were a hoot to meet! Special thanks to Kelly for allowing us to use her camera after my battery died.

Jana with the happy couple who plan to wed on May 9, 2009 -

the day they got engaged and Mother's Day weekend.

We were ALL suppose to do a funny face. I couldn't stop laughing

and Gary decided to pose. What's up with that, Gary?

At Gary's suggestion, we were ALL suppose to make fat faces

but Gary decided to pose. What's up with that, Gary?

Jesse and his famous crazy tennis shoes and pick shoelaces!

Fernbank Imax and Old Spaghetti Factory

On Saturday, Kate and Dean came over for a sleep-over. We always enjoy their company and so do our kitties! While Gary was painting the back porch, I took Kate and Dean to the Fernbank Imax Theater. We saw two shows - Antartica and the Grand Canyon. We really enjoyed the shows and learned all about our current drought conditions, water supply for the future and conserving water. Afterwards, we came home and picked up Gary then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Kate and Dean really enjoyed this as we were seated inside the caboose.

Kate Dean posing in front of the enormous dinosaur bones. Look at the size of that foot! According to Dean, he could run faster if the dinosaur was chasing him.

Kate and Dean wanted me to take pictures of them eating to "prove" they ate there.

Dean trying to give his big sister a loving hug but Kate wouldn't have it. I LOVE these monkeys!

Our Old House - Front Yard and Demolition

As most of you know, we are restoring our old house (circa 1928). Currently, we're in the process of converting a laundry room into a third bedroom and second bathroom, upgrading our screen porch and kitchen. To date, most of the work has been done by my handy husband, Gary. Briefly, Gary scraped the entire outside of the house by hand, primed and re-painted it. He also scraped, re-glazed, primed and painted all the windows. Except for one bedroom, all the windows are original. After the major restoration is finished, we plan to replace the new, metal framed windows in the bedroom with wood windows more period to the home.

One would think a house this old would come with a very nice, established yard with beautiful shrubs and plants. Not so. Until last March, the only living creature in the yard was a blue spruce tree given to Gary by his twin brother as a housewarming gift. Two years ago, Gary began digging up all the weed-filled grass in the front yard, tilled the wonderful Georgia clay that was hard as a rock, added compost, top soil, and tilled some more. Gary kept adding more and more compost and top soil for one year to prepare the foundation for future plantings. After I tested the soil numerous times for the proper levels of elements, we were finally able to begin plantings last Spring. We're not finished with the front yard, but due to the drought, additional plantings will have to wait until the Fall (before Football season of course). In the meantime, we're preparing the soil in the backyard. Thus far we have 16 various types of hydrangeas planted in the back yard - obviously one of my favorites. Hope you enjoy the pictures and captions below.

This is the front of our house before Gary dug up the grass and painted the brick columns and front porch.The yard in transition. Notice all the bags of soil and compost and brick columns painted. I cannot tell you how many bags of compost and soil we must of purchased. Thank goodness the yard isn't any bigger. Our front yard this Spring when the baby magnolias were in bloom. These are the pink flowering trees planted in the median between the sidewalk and street.

Gary with the old mailbox. He can be very sentimental at times.

Gary after installing the new mailbox - selected by me of course! ;-)

In this picture, you can see our ugly kitchen with the hideous blue countertops. You will also see a room off the kitchen, two rooms actually. This is the room we are converting into a bedroom, bathroom, closet and laundry. Before it was two small rectangle rooms with a closet that enclosed the washer and dryer. Future: The hole in the wall (where the pot rack is) will be closed up with sheetrock in the bedroom and built in shelves in the kitchen. The pot rack will be moved.

Gary beginning demolition in the room off the kitchen.

Gary with a crazy look in his eyes...

Gary coming closer to me...

Gary coming after me when I told him he was making a mess....HELP!

Gary taking down the wall in between the two small rooms in the room off the kitchen.

This is the laundry closet. Notice the plaster (that was under the sheetrock) attached to very small pieces of wood. Plaster is very heavy if you've never been exposed to it. We had over 40 very large contractor bags full when it was all said and done. This room took Gary about a week to demolish.

The way the room looks now - down to the studs and ready to be leveled, insulated and sheetrock installed. Stay tuned...much more to come.

Jerry Seinfeld

Last night, Chris and Heather joined us for a night on the town with Jerry Seinfeld. The weather was perfect so we enjoyed our evening strolling arond in Jana's convertible with the top down of course. First, we went to Figo, a tasty, quaint italian bistro in Virginia Highlands and then on to the fabulous Fox for the show. Our seats weren't bad either - 13th row left center orchestra! We had a great time and was glad the show only lasted 1.5 hours as our jaws were hurting from laughing the entire time. Jerry's always been on Jana's list to see live and we throughly enjoyed sharing this experience with Chris and Heather. Thanks ya'll!

The Man Himself!

At the Fox

Happy Birthday Gary!

Gary's birthday was last Tuesday, April 22nd. We celebrated with his twin, Greg, by going to Harry & Son's in Virginia Highlands. Great Thai and Sushi. Happy Birthday Gary and Greg!

Gary loves carrot cake but doesn't have a big sweet tooth, so I bought him one slice at a new bakery that opened up in East Point. He said it was delicious!

Tagged by Sandy and Jodi

Okay, I'll participate in the Tag this time...

7 Things About Me:

1. I was 29 years old when I got my first pet. Yes, it's my cat Moody Blue.
2. At 26 years old, I grew one inch in height and feet grew 1/2 inch.
3. When my parents asked me what I wanted for my high school graduation gift, I stated a historectomy. They made me choose something else.
4. I won the Math Bee 2nd-6th grade and met a life long friend at the County Math Bee in 2nd grade. Her name is also Jana and we have the exact same date of birth - exactly 1 hr and 37 min apart!
5. I have a love hate relationship with war movies. I'm fascinated with the history but cry every time and stay mournful for days afterwards.
6. I love jazz, home restoration, college football, yoga and herbs.
7. I have names picked out for my three children, but still don't know if I will actually have them.

I tag no one. Everyone I know has already done this.