The House That Built Me

We're getting pretty fancy here, with the video and all.  Hopefully it works, if it doesn't, PLEASE let me know!

I am typically not a big fan of country music, but occasionally I will listen to it.  The workers at the house generally have the country station on while they are working.  The other day when I was there, this song came on.  It's called "The House That Built Me" and it's by Miranda Lambert.  She's pretty awesome. 

Anyways, the song is about a woman wanting to go back to her childhood home and soak in the memories, because, whether we like it or not, so much of a person is tied up in their past.  I almost had to leave the room because I got pretty emotional listening to it.  And yes, if you know me, I have the tendency to get emotional pretty often, but this is different.  This woman wanted/needed so desperately to go back to her roots.  It hit me for two reasons:  

1. In a few short (and rapidly approaching months) I will be leaving my childhood home.  The house that literally has my blood, sweat, and tears in it.  The house that my parents have lived in for 23 years.  Where they brought two children home from the hospital.  There are so many precious memories here, that the thought of leaving kind of breaks my heart a little.  It won't me mine anymore.  This bedroom will belong to another kid, who will make the walk every morning up to Tillman.  Who will have their own playground in the backyard.  Another family will sit on our front porch, and pull into the driveway that has our handprints at the end.

2.  As weird as it will be to leave this home and street that in so many ways made me into the person that I am today, I get to go to another home that holds just as many memories for my family.  We lose a home with many fond memories, but we get to make a home that is so much a part of the history of our family all ours.  It will be our name on the door now.  Those stories we tell of Grandpa always being so sweet to cut the grass before we used the slip-n-slide in the backyard (resulting in so many grass cuts), and the beloved address I knew before I knew my own home address.  It's ours now.

Two houses helped built me, and my brother, and my sister, and my mom and dad.  And while I can't even begin to imagine how hard it will be to leave one, we get to continue the growth of our family in another one.  The idea that our kids will get to go visit "Grandma and Grandpa" in the house where I got to spend so many loving memories with my own Grandma and Grandpa is the neatest thought of all.

Here's the video, and if you're anything like me, have a few tissues (or a whole box) ready!

**UPDATE**  If you click on the video it will say that it cannot be played, but there is a link within the message that will lead you to YouTube so you can watch it.

Building a Stairway

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This year was a little strange, given that it was the first year without Grandpa.  The holidays are always a rough time of year when you've lost a loved one, especially when you typically spend the holidays with that loved one.  It really reminds you not only how much you miss that person, but also how important it is to spend time with those you love.  Yesterday we had family and friends over for lunch and games.  It's tough to change traditions, but new traditions are good too.  This year was also a little strange because it will be the last one we spend in our current house.  Again, new traditions are good so we're trying to focus on the excitement of moving versus the sadness of leaving the family home of 23 years.

Moving on from the sappy moment, this is still a few weeks old, but with the Christmas craziness, I have gotten a little behind on posting again.

Since the house is older, the stairways were extremely steep.  Like climbing a ladder almost.  For the house to be up to code after the remodel, the stairways had to be taken out and rebuilt less steep.  So the stairways are not only being "flattened" but are also being widened.  The basement stairs are especially wide now.  And the stairs leading to the second floor did not have much space to "flatten" so there is an extra step into the hallway at the top, and an extra step into the living room at the bottom.  

Here are some pictures of the stairs.  Currently the stairs are temporary so that the workers can get to the different levels of the house, but are a bit narrower in depth than they will be in the end.  Still it is fun for us to see the progression. Here are some pictures so you can see too!  And the best part about these pictures is that you can probably more readily see what I'm talking about than with a lot of the other stuff.

These are the stairs into the basement.  The gap on the left side is how wide the stairs will be when they are finished.

The view of the staircase from the dining room.

Dad showing off how much wider the stairs will be.

I told you it was exciting!

The new stairs going to the second floor.  I guess the picture makes more sense with what I was saying about the step going into the living room.  The stairway will stay open about half way up like it is in the photograph.

The stairs leading up, as seen from the master bedroom

The staircase from below.  You can kind of also see into the basement this way.

The stairs leading up again.

Ok, so lots of pictures that all look a little bit similar.  At least you can kind of get a better idea.

Moving Forwards!

Ok, sorry about the title. No pun intended.  We have some big moves as far as progression goes this week!  First and foremost: Monday night Kirkwood's architectural review board met, and we were given the OK to start renovations! Very exciting!


Next, we got some mock-ups of what the outside of the house will look like after it is completed.  I will hopefully be posting those tomorrow or Saturday.  I would say later today, but that would be very wishful thinking I believe.


Dad took off work yesterday and today and has been going crazy with the sledgehammer again. I think he said that today they are tearing out the wall between the living room and master bedroom.  Someday soon it will become a closet.  


So as you may or may not remember, last weekend I said I would be posting tons of pictures.  I promise I am not falling through on my promise already.  Life has just been crazy.  I've been housesitting, working, and of course I'm still in school. Busy, busy.  The post is currently a "draft" sitting on the blogger site.  It's halfway done with the old pictures, but then I realized we were missing some of the rooms.  Like the former kitchen and back room.   Kind of important given that those are the two rooms that will be most drastically different after the project is complete.  Dad has been advised to snap a few before pictures, so hopefully those will get posted BEFORE the "after" pictures of the outside.  


In other related news, the contractor is working at our current house today fixing up a few little things so it looks even more beautiful when the time comes for us to move.  Apparently we should hopefully be ready as soon as February or March.  How crazy is that?  That's really soon.


I feel like I'm forgetting something else really important, but I'm sure you're already on sensory overload right now.  So to sum up, project is moving forwards (and fast) and there will be TONS of pictures coming your way later this week or this weekend.  Get excited!


Christina

Old House, New House

I'm already behind on posting, so there is about to be an explosion of posts today and tomorrow.  First things first here is a picture of our current house:  

Here's a kind of old picture (note the Halloween decorations, and the car we got rid of two years ago)

And here is the new house:

The new house!

So I guess those are the most important pictures to see before we start getting into all the demolition pictures and such.

Christina