Happy New Year!

As of today, Jan 1, 2009, we are HALF way through our renovation journey. There's been a lull in the activity due to the holidays, but January will be an exciting month!

We are looking forward to a 2009 filled with progress and prosperity---no pains in the knee or the a**!

Included are some pics of Soph with Tala and a Lucy update! She is 4 1/2 months and sooooo adorable!

Tala turns 2! Jan 11!

We love you!

Laura, Lynn, ans Sophie

Sorry we haven't been in touch by BLOG!

Since Lynn's surgery, things have been like a really un-cool roller-coaster ride! Looking forward to the surgery was very stressful. The day of surgery was surreal---no word from the doctor for 7 hours...no word from hospital staff b/c I was not "family," and no room at the end of the long, strange day! Then, after the surgery, it was like a dream! The day after surgery, Lynn walked better than before it! Yipee! Well, that was until the "OMG" of Day 2 after surgery. Lynn needed blood. Her blood count plummeted and she was in bad shape. After 2 pints, WE ARE UP AGAIN! Singing and walking around on clouds! Lynn was going to be all better!!! And the next day...a dip. But we were well enough to go home! We are up again! All better...Then she began having awful pain in the surgery leg from hip to ankle. After planned and unplanned trips to the ER, a blood clot was ruled out and the final verdict...siatica. Not sure how to spell the awful condition, but I know what it is!!! A literal pain in the ass that radiates to the ankle! We're down again...As of today, she is able to sit up for about 20 minutes without pain. When the pain comes, it's like an avalanche. She has been pretty drugged-up, but we are hoping she is better each day.

For the first time since we've been away from home, I broke down today. I think it's just the stress of seeing Lynn go through all of this (it's been over 2 years!), and I guess just a lack of sleep. We'll get through this. I keep trying to imagine a walk through our neighborhood with Lynn, Sophie, and the pack...it seems impossible!

Love to everyone. We'll have more pics soon and hopefully an update from Stacy soon!

Laura

Twas 3 Nights Before Christmas and ...we need an update!

The past few weeks have been quite exciting... We had SNOW!

Sophie met a few snow people on Canal Blvd!

The Bell Street garden looked pretty in snow!The rooftops had visible snow the next morning!

We have a shower in Sophie's bathroom! The one-piece would not fir through the door, so we had to get a 2-piece.

Rodney models it for us!

The kitchen is all plumbed...I guess that's a word...

Then there's the fireplace! OMG, the fireplace!!! It is so cool!

Stacy works to get all the old plaster off!
And we also got a black awning over the side door. We have always had a very complicated problem with that door. We hope the awning will help!

Other than all the house stuff, Lynn is on the mend. She is beginning to move around a little. The surgery and hospital stay was long enough! We are hoping this recovery is permanent!

We have a busy holiday planned and we will be wishing everyone well as we end 2008!

Laura

Shiny Copper Pipes and Pretty Yellow Wiring...

We are approaching month 2...


We now have new plumbing and wiring in our house. The boys have re-designed the 2 bathrooms and things are clipping along quite nicely.

Lynn went by today for a temporary pause in observation of the reno activity. Her surgery is tomorrow! We are excited and nervous, but are looking forward to a 2009 that is filled with long walks and NO PAIN!!!

The blog will suffer. I should turn it over to Stacy because he not only Blogs, but has a complete website ( http://www.tigersportszone.net/)... Check it out! He is quite talented and all of the writing and photography is Stacy’s.

Don’t give up on us. I will keep as much posted as possible and hopefully, before 2009, I will have more pics to post.

Thanks for keeping in touch,

Laura

Plugging away...

As the weeks roll by, we are all plugging away at our respective jobs. Rodney and Stacy are fixing and creating our dream house. Lynn is preparing herself for her second knee surgery (12/16), Sophie is tolerating us ignoring her hints about Santa gifts, and I am preparing myself, mentally, for the Refrigerator Art Auction (3/29 at the Foundry...tickets go on sale mid-February). I will shamelessly plug the auction from now until March 28! It is an important event for ISL and I am honored to play a part in making it happen.

I digress...Rodney and Stacy are working very hard to make our house functional, safe, and beautiful. Everyday, Stacy checks in and gives us an update on what new "treasures" they've found and how we get rid of them. Old houses hold the craftsmanship or stupidity of every previous dweller. In our case, it appears, Curly, Larry, and Moe once owned an electrical business and used our house as a training ground...the only difference between our house and a Three Stooges episode is our house isn't funny! Stacy and Rodney are great and almost 6 weeks into this, we are all still happy!

Lynn...her surgery is nearing, as is her pain and anxiety about it! She had to stop anti-inflammatory meds and most pain meds. By the weekend, she should be in major pain. One of the nurses I work with suggested a nerve block! I wish it were that easy. We are at the point that we (she) does not want another procedure...even one that might take pain away! Please keep her in your thoughts. As I did last time, I will try to email or text everyone after surgery.

Sophie is one the fence this year...she still believes, but I think she knows that Santa gifts are somehow connected to how much money her parents have. So many people have told us that she is pulling her leg, but we think she is still on the side of believing or being really, really not sure! We want her to believe, like us, until you have gray hair...if I have broken any bubbles or shattered dreams, I am talking about the Tooth Fairy...Oh. wait! She's real, too! Her name is Flossy!

Me. Fridge Art is pretty much my life from Jan. 1 until it happens. I am very passionate about this activity for many reasons. I love art, I love ISL, and I absolutely LOVE hosting a party-so Fridge Art is my very perfect social event. This year we have some lofty goals. I only hope we can reach them...people keep bringing up the recession and how no one has money. It's kind of a wet towel-reality, but I am choosing to ignore it. We will be OK.

Don't forget, Sunday, March 29, food, music, fun, and all to help ISL. Please join us!

I may not write for a while due to Lynn's surgery, but I will be back soon.

Laura

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We have a little 4 foot tree in Sophie's room. It is cool because it has fiber optic tips and it glows in her room after the sun goes down. Sophie made a "tree" on the door to our closet. We are putting our Christmas cards inside of it...Festive!!

Sophie made name signs for our stockings. Our real stockings are packed away at Bell St.

Of course, we needed a moose. Sophie has one that sings (really badly) and sort of dances.

That's all for now. We hope everyone is getting ready for the holiday season that is fast approaching.

The ugly pink chair...

My mom had this ugly, pink-crushed velvet, Channel Back, Queen Anne antique chair. Lynn and I always knew it had great potential as an awesome chair!

After 16 years of talking about it, we had it re-covered in animal print. Yes, an animal print...leopard, even! My Mom would have loved it! We do!

My mom used to sit in it at our house. It was the only comfortable chair for her. Her knees would not allow her to sit in a lower chair or a sofa. We wanted to keep it, but the pink color just did not go anywhere we put it. It has lived in the living room of the Bell Street house, quite happily, in the corner untilo about 8 weeks ago...we went to Faubacher's on Oak Street. Just unbelievable! This piece of furniture will live on as long as there is someone to sit in it!

The beauty of old things...they can always become new again!

It was going to live at our neighbor's, Annie and Dennis, for a few months, but then we realized that Lynn needed a chair for PT after her surgery. It's perfect! And will be a great addition to our old-new house!

It's just awesome!

Laura

Pipes, wires, and termites, Oh, My!

Stacy and Rodney have finally finished fishing out all of the rotted, spliced wires from the attic and under the house. The plumbing is all gone and now they work to re-create it all-newer and safer!

It's amazing, when you are in an old house, you are the recipient of every previous owner/occupant that fixed a pipe with crazy glue, spliced an electrical wire using duct tape, and seemingly had little regard for their own safety or the safety of others...

Stacy said that we were a fire waiting to happen! Amazing!

We are so, so blessed to be able to have this work done to make our house better and safer. Lynn and I, as I've said before, always, always want to leave a place better than we found it...and this time, it is for keeps. We hope to never, ever leave our little Bell Street Side-Hall Shotgun...ever.

We want to share many meals, many laughs, many, many good conversations in our home with our friends and family. We are on our way and we are so excited! Still! Impatient...but excited!

Laura

Oy! What a mess!

Not the Bell Street house...just "us" in general.

Tonight, after hours of homework, we are all settled. Lynn and I share a banter about the renovation, while Sophie silently hopes for our Christmas decorations to appear in our temporary space...not going to happen.

With this, her 11th Christmas, she is feeling a bit neglected. I guess it's may fault...all the holiday decorations...all over the place...all the time!!! Gawd! Who needs 100 Santa's or 10 rubbermaid bins of elves and bears and moose...you know, we have to have moose stuff just to aggravate my brother! Who needs lighted-garland and shiny ornaments and even a nativity set (quite nice for heathens)...who needs my collection of snow-globes or Mr. Bingle???? (Jingle, Jangle, Jingle) I guess the 10 year old does...and so do we!

We miss our house and even though our "home" is here, all around us, we miss some of it, too.

CHEESEY SMILE AND A CLOSET!

Today we offer a picture of Rodney creating a new kitchen window sill…and for my buddy, Erin, a gratuitous picture of Stacy…with a Cheshire cat grin, in a very manly pose!

Sophie has a framed-closet!!!