The Ritzy Bee

The Big Day

As some of you (probably many of you) already know, my sweet, sweet man asked for my hand in marriage a few weeks ago. I couldn't be happier as I think of our future together. Anyway, we've finally set a date for the big day: October third. This October third! That's less than two months away. Yikes! It will be at the Chester Grange just down the road from Dick and Mary's house and cutest of all it's the little school house that Dick attended growing up. We're looking forward to a fun filled day of family and friends to share in the happiness and celebration! I'm including some links to wedding sites that have been inspiring me lately.

http://www.kissthegroom.com/

http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/

And here are some photo montages from Snippet and Ink that convey the mood I'd like to set. Sort of homey, cozy, country fall day.

Hope you can all make it!

Still thinking

As the destruction before the construction of our house continues I'm still coming up with more ideas for everything! I love the kitchen above. I think it's the arched doorway that I find so attractive. Alltogether it just looks so cozy.

I also love this bathroom. I'm afraid I can't get over the idea of a clawfoot bathtub, I just really, really want one. I haven't explained this to Scott yet, but since he follows my blog he's probably gonna figure it out. (hi honey!)

But, you know, since he asked me to marry him last Wednesday, I'm thinking he might just play along!

The complaint department

Okay, okay. I know I haven't blogged in awhile. In fact I haven't blogged in so long that more than one of you has given me a poke, so to speak. So here I am, blogging. I wish I had more pictures to post, but we're still just tearing stuff up. Well, mostly Scott is tearing stuff up, with a little building going on here and there. The wall between the kitchen and dining room that was removed now has the beam in place so our house won't sag in the middle someday, and the crappy ceilings and walls are gone in the living, dining room and kitchen. I did paint the paneling in the orange bedroom, and I also painted the top halves of the walls in Dreyson's room and the future upstairs bathrooms. Yep, I did say that I only painted the top halves of the walls, that's because we're putting beadboard on the lower halves. Actually, Dreyson's room is getting carsiding so it's a bit more masculine for the little guy, you know, the rougher, tougher version of beadboard.
On Monday night Scott started a conversation with me by saying, "I'm still not sure that I should tell you this..." I'm having visions of previously undiscovered pipes swathed in asbestos, but all it turned out to be was a big snake in our house. Apparently making it's way between the wall and the chimney on the first floor. Scott got it out, and it met some kind of untimely death ( I didn't ask) and went to it's final resting place, the roll off dumpster in our driveway. Now, I've told this story to a couple of people who are completely freaked out by the idea of a snake being in the house, but really, my fear of asbestos is much larger than that of a bull snake. I don't have to pay someone thousands of dollars to come remove a bull snake, but I do if we find asbestos! See? Snakes aren't really that scary after all....

Installment two

Let's go upstairs. Things are pretty interesting up here too. : ) There's a funny smell, kindy musty, but I think once we rip all the carpet out it will help. We've considered ripping out the right hand wall on this staircase to make it open, but have decided that we really need the wall space on the other side for cupboards in the kitchen. You can refer back to the previous post and see what I mean.

This is the room that I'd really like the cast iron bathtub in. The configuration is perfect! But, poor Scott would have to carry (shove? pull?) a gazillion pound behemouth up here with the help of some unsuspecting relative who would probably never speak to us again if we tried it, so I'll probably have to think of something else. But c'mon! It really would look perfect! It has wide plank pine floors, but I think we'll probably paint them. There are gaps in between some of the boards and if we put a bathroom in there the gaps will have to be caulked to prevent any water from seeping through to the kitchen ceiling. Caulk doesn't stain well.

This room is in the front of the house and will be Dreyson's room. I think he'll be so excited to have a room bigger than a shoebox. Again, we'll pull up the carpet and either stain or paint the floor. We have a little day bed for him to use in here (which at the rate he's growing may last for a year or two) and I have plans for the over burdened Scott to build a trundle bed frame to roll underneath it for when the little guy has friends over. Both this room and the future bathroom are drywalled and insulated, so a coat of paint a little window repair and we're off and roaring with these two! Oh, and the ceilings have been drywalled too, unfortunately with that special textured sparkly stuff, which will require some scraping and a little paint, but it's much much better than having to drywall a ceiling!

This last room will be my and Scott's bedroom. Don't you love the 70s rusty orange color pallette? We considered putting both of the kids' rooms upstairs, but if you'll notice: there's a door in the corner up there that goes out to the porch ceiling. So we'll just take that temptation off the table. We love the dimensions of this room. It has a slanted ceiling, nice filtered light, and as you'll notice, and as Scott said, "There's nothing like a little fake brick paneling to cover up real brick." The down side is that it has a tiny closet, and we're still thinking on that one. Closet space is always at a premium in old houses. But there are gorgeous wood floors under the carpet which we'll refinish and you can see too that the trim in this room hasn't been painted so there's another bonus! The ceiling will have to be drywalled as there are ceiling tiles up there that are looking a little past their prime. More fun! But really, the upstairs is going to be the easiest part....I know, I just finished a remodel at the house in Iowa City, and there may be something fundamentally wrong with me for taking on another one right after I just finished the last one but I haven't worn Scott down yet so I might as well keep going!

Thanks for taking the tour!

A Drum Roll Please!!!!!

There it is! The very first picture of my house for your viewing pleasure. Don't worry, we'll fix it. I've got this guy on the job:

He's really been busting his hump, and I think he's the greatest ever.

More to follow soon!

My bathroom upstairs...please??

This is me talking to Scott: "Honey, I really want this to be our bathroom upstairs, what do you think?" Then you have to imagine a long silence where he's thinking of the rapidly growing list of demands I'm making on his time. I fill this gap by prattling on something like this, "I saw a cast iron tub out in the junk pile over there by so and so's farm, maybe we could see if they would give it to us." Insert another another silence where Scott is probably thinking something like "A bathtub? From someone's junk pile? I don't even like taking baths."

Wish me luck!

Transitions

Do you ever get that feeling that you've forgotten something important? It seems to be haunting me these days and then I keep getting to confirm it because I really have forgotten something important. My latest one was that I forgot to call the guy who manages a mutual fund for me so I could transfer money for the down payment on the new house. That one was a doozey! It's fixed now, so it's okay. I won't bother telling you about all the other little ones. But as I was telling my friend Penny about this today she told me it was probably because everything was in transition. And she's right, everything is in transition. My work, my home life, well, just everything. We all know the old adage that change is good, and personally I find it to be a silly thing to say. Change can be good or bad, depending on what type of change it is. It's like people who like to make broad generalizations, you know the folks who say things like, "There's only two kinds of people in the world...." I prefer the way my old friend Sam Smucker used to say it: There's only two kinds of people in the world: the kind of people who think there are only two kinds of people, and the kind of people who don't."
So, my changes aren't all bad. Work is stressful right now because everything has been leading up to where we are now at UIHC --- Reductions in Force, aka RIFs. I just found out the other day that I'm good, although there is still a slight possibility that I might get "bumped" (moved to a different position because of my seniority) the chance is much better that I will get to stay where I am. But the same isn't true for everyone around me, and you really can feel the tension building. It stinks, and my heart aches for the folks who are going to get layoff notices and have no idea that it's coming. So as I go through the day I try to keep reminding myself of all the positive things in my life and not to dwell on the negative ones.
The really great stuff is that we finally get to close on the house on Wednesday and then the madness begins. When I was talking to my friend Penny earlier today she asked me if I had all the plants picked out for my new yard, and I have been thinking about this, but (GASP) I don't think I'm going to do any landscaping this year. I just don't honestly think there will be time. Every weekend is going to be spent ripping out walls, ripping up carpet, painting and generally just making this house a whole new place. Scott and I took my dad and my nieces over this weekend to see it, and my nine year old nieces, who have no concept of a rehab, were absolutely appalled that we might consider moving into this place. Try explaining the concept of equity to a nine year old. Lindsey, one half of the twin 9 y.o. nieces, had just spent the better part of the ride over trying to convince me that she was being charged interest on her pool pass. You gotta love 'em!
I promise to post some pics soon!

FINALLY!

We got the house!!!!! WOO HOO! We close on Monday and I'll post lots of pics after that. It should be a long blog session of befores and afters! Can't wait!!!

A new thing to love

How flippin' beauty-mous are these? I think I'm in love, this woman has an etsy shop chock full of beautiful photographs and you can see them here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24714433 I think I need a few of these for my upcoming b-day......

and one more photo thing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlelakey/ . You'll have to go see for yourself!