tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50911205143802119632011-11-27T17:56:02.340-06:00A journey through life and home restorationMelindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-69768205075650600582009-05-26T13:57:00.001-05:002009-05-26T13:57:51.863-05:00

Since the rest of my yard is already torn up due to the hubby’s desire to add a new water line and a sprinkler system and because we have had to rip out part of the concrete patio, we have decided to go ahead and rip the rest of it out as well…it was rather awkward anyway. However, that decision has left us without a place to put a table and chairs and since we love to be outdoors during the

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-87550664942873646292009-04-23T13:59:00.001-05:002009-04-23T13:59:05.955-05:00

The perks of being married to a plumber whose dad owns a backhoe: That’s right, now that the weather is nice we can come out of hibernation and start working on the house again. We left off last fall with the beginnings of breaking away concrete for a new water line. Yesterday and today, we (by we, I actually mean the hubby, his cousin and his uncle) have been digging the trench for said water

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-84085694213752221462009-03-10T14:03:00.001-05:002009-03-10T14:09:32.207-05:00

Wow! It has been forever since I have updated this blog. It seems like when the weather got cold we just stopped all home renovations and went into hibernation…which in all reality, is partially true. We did get the rest of the random overhang pulled down (excuse the mass chaos going on with wires and outdoor furniture); But we still have yet to decide what to do with the exposed rafter ends

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-36902598191130798332008-10-27T15:33:00.005-05:002008-10-27T16:31:25.854-05:00

We began taking down the add-on overhang that was to serve as a covered patio for previous owners. It was unattractive, leaking, and ultimately falling down anyway. I really thought this would be a fairly simple project (why? - I don't know...nothing about this house has been "simple" yet). Excuse the photo. This was taken pre-roof, pre-central heat and air, pre-move-in. So, in keeping with true

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-22922200201717367642008-10-13T18:51:00.006-05:002008-10-13T19:26:03.156-05:00

I can now mark "new roof" off of my project list! Actually, I could have marked it off a little over a week ago but I have been neglectful when it comes to this blog...my sincerest apologies. Anyway, I guess I owe my husband all of the credit because the roof really does look lovely; although, with the nice new roof my house looks even more desperate for a paint job. Oh well, maybe next year. For

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-51635540224597161912008-09-28T17:44:00.007-05:002008-09-28T18:13:48.219-05:00

So there are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of projects going on around the house right now. The major one is the roof; which is looking fabulous, if I do say so myself. However, in keeping with the "tradition" of the way things go around here, we have taken one step forward and two steps back yet again.Remember that 1970s hot water heater vent thingy I mentioned earlier? You know, the one that we

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-23618940178144397732008-09-25T18:50:00.004-05:002008-09-25T19:03:52.678-05:00

The dumpster arrived yesterday and today (before the butt-crack-of dawn, I might add) they got to work on the roof. They claim they will be finished tomorrow but from where I am standing, even if they started cleaning the mess tomorrow, they wouldn't be finished...so we'll see. I am just so happy that progress is being made.In the picture below, the after will reveal that we are in fact getting

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-27074498164024551762008-09-10T10:00:00.004-05:002008-09-10T10:14:13.024-05:00

My husband won. Since I have made every other decision regarding the house I decided to let him have this one. Plus, if I went with any other choice it would be next spring before they could start on it...and I just don't think I can wait any longer. We have decided to go with this shingle.I only hope it looks more like thisand less like this.

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-91063065921888279522008-09-08T14:48:00.008-05:002008-09-08T15:29:52.069-05:00

Since I still have nothing to report on the progress of our house or the roof, I thought I would share a few photos of some buildings in Oklahoma City. Over the weekend, I celebrated my 29th birthday (again). In honor of such an occasion, my husband got me a day at a spa and then we stayed the night in the newly renovated Skirvin Hilton.When one thinks of Oklahoma, he or she probably thinks

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-62027570687267782262008-08-29T09:56:00.007-05:002008-08-29T10:38:09.702-05:00

Progress on our roof has come to somewhat of a halt...and not because of insurance woes. Instead it is due to my husband and I not seeing eye-to-eye on what shingles we should use on the roof. I thought I had made up my mind until my roofer showed up with one more example for me to look at. It was love at first sight. But, like most love-at-first-sight stories go, time goes by and you start

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-1158470578868785232008-08-26T10:00:00.007-05:002008-08-26T10:36:52.117-05:00

I realized today I have not posted anything in over a week...very unlike me. To be quite honest though, we have not done a thing on the house. I keep going back and forth on the shingles for the roof, which was fine while it was raining; but now that the rain has ceased and I continue to waffle over the decision...well, it kind of slows things down (or brings them to a halt in our case).Anyway,

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-80351383910253744272008-08-15T08:13:00.005-05:002008-08-29T10:16:43.601-05:00

We got new cell phones the other day, which is not something I would normally blog about. However, it just so happens that the lady who runs our local cell phone store was one of the previous owners of our home.Besides providing a much better cell phone service, she also informed me that while living here the original residents/builders of the house stopped by for a visit one morning (she thought

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-65399709375745847932008-08-12T15:18:00.009-05:002008-08-12T16:58:03.430-05:00

My computer is experiencing technical difficulties so I am having to post this from my old, slow clunker of a computer. However, I know many of you were curious as to our final decisions regarding the porch, the paint and the roof shingles. Because I am a moron, I already sent back the shingle samples before scanning them but we have decided to go with a brown similar to but slightly lighter than

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-59908719187839573992008-08-10T19:19:00.005-05:002008-08-12T14:48:14.811-05:00

One of my favorite people in the whole world suggested I watch Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, a 1948 Cary Grant/Myrna Loy comedy. Although I have yet to watch the movie in its entirety, she was able to send me a snippet of the part she thought reminded her most of me when I write about choosing house colors.No offense Pat, but I fail to see too much of a similarity. Although Myrna Loy and

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-36431770493484201042008-08-08T15:11:00.008-05:002008-08-08T15:33:55.402-05:00

Our roofer is wanting to order our shingles on Monday simply because of rising prices and the amount of time it takes for them to be shipped. Therefore, I have to come to a couple of decisions by the end of this weekend: the first being what color to eventually paint the house and the second is what color shingles to order. Here are a few more pictures of houses that I seem to be drawn to. I

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-63428092215830370572008-08-07T14:22:00.004-05:002008-08-07T16:17:29.741-05:00

If I knew how to do a backflip, I would...right off of my NEW roof. That's right, we are on our way to getting an all new roof!Today our insurance company sent out their "Catastrophe" claims adjuster and her manager and after a couple of hours spent examining our shoddy roof and the all of the damage that occurred almost a year ago, they told us they were going to give us the money for an all

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-23134284853433667822008-08-01T16:28:00.016-05:002008-12-14T13:25:52.335-06:00

HGTV's If Walls Could Talk is one of my favorite television shows. I love peering into other people's old homes and seeing how they live; and, I absolutely love the stories behind each and every one of the houses...house voyeurism (as many of you would call it) at its best.However, I think I am going to have to stop watching this stupid show. All it does is offer up a false sense of hope and

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-61593658076971596372008-07-31T15:32:00.011-05:002008-12-14T13:25:52.738-06:00

Since my husband told me we needed to "hold off" on projects concerning the house until the roof gets taken care of...I went to work in the yard, which is not technically the house - right?At the beginning of the summer I started a flower bed in our side yard because at this point in time it is the only "yard" we have. Everything else consists of concrete and a very large carport (a problem that

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-91173996791473753822008-07-31T12:13:00.008-05:002008-12-14T13:26:23.703-06:00

I love everything about this house: the yard, the fence, the front porch and I absolutely love the simplicity of the color scheme. I think, however, that the brown may be too dark with my brick. Maybe I could go a couple of shades lighter and it look okay?I found this picture on Wikipedia under the heading "Bungalow." There were also some other very lovely homes on the site but with this one -

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-9948415543950255982008-07-25T18:20:00.016-05:002008-12-14T13:26:24.311-06:00

Decisions regarding long term commitments await in my future - two things I could not be more scared of. So here it is: I got to thinking that IF we get the go-ahead for a new roof, we will probably start that project immediately; which is a great thing. The problem comes in when I start thinking about "What color roof do I choose?". This is a huge decision because I still haven't decided what

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-36215292688836627382008-07-24T19:33:00.009-05:002008-12-14T13:26:24.684-06:00

Sitting "idle" while we wait on our roof is not a good thing for me...it lets my mind and imagination run wild (and my mind and imagination have no monetary budget).So what I was thinking was, "What if we could add a front porch back on to the house?" Taking it back to the original is next to impossible because when the house was converted into the hospital, not only did they close in the porch

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-40697994392296494242008-07-22T20:39:00.004-05:002008-07-22T21:07:58.943-05:00

The first of August- that is when our insurance company is sending out yet another claims adjuster. This time they are sending out their "Catastrophe Claims Adjuster" because they want yet another set of eyes to look at the roof.It doesn't seem to matter that the last adjuster they sent out told us that if we could prove we had no roof decking he would replace the roof; because we now know,

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-77631328867878757382008-07-17T21:30:00.005-05:002008-07-17T22:44:02.629-05:00

So, I think we are FINALLY making a little bit of headway on our insurance claim...good thing too, since it has only been a year since initially filed (can you sense my sarcasm yet?). Our insurance company has actually decided to reopen our case! Which is FABULOUS, especially since I wasn't even aware that it had been closed in the first place- although, that might just explain all of those phone

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-61664738195330095672008-07-17T08:54:00.000-05:002008-12-14T13:26:24.967-06:00

The union of my family’s wallet and our home took place two years ago this week…so, Happy Anniversary to us!It is amazing how fast time has flown by and how little it seems we have accomplished, especially when looking at the ever-growing “To-Do” list. However, this house has come a long way since we first graced it with our presence. To commemorate this special day and to remind myself of our

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-85285449468677049912008-07-02T17:28:00.023-05:002008-12-14T13:26:25.457-06:00

When I was pregnant with my second child, I started a project I just couldn’t finish…stripping… paint, that is. I had pretty much stripped everything off the baseboards, window trims and closet doors of one room upstairs when it just became too much. So, we hired someone else to do it…big mistake.I realize, and fully accept, that I am somewhat obsessive compulsive but when you look at my work and

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-23123103482362560492008-07-01T10:31:00.010-05:002008-12-14T13:26:29.192-06:00

After 10 months, I have FINALLY finished painting the walls in the boys’ playroom. I know, I know - 10 months is a long time to paint one room but so much has happened in that span of time to keep me from just taking the time to do it. Let the excuses begin: my ceiling downstairs caved in and we are still arguing with the insurance company; my second child was born (which is the main reason for

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-60764772760874557812008-06-28T10:46:00.005-05:002008-06-28T10:57:23.969-05:00

I was on my hands and knees the other day cleaning my beautiful hardwood floors (yes, that is my obsessive compulsiveness) when the palm of my hand punctured a hole in one of the pieces of wood. Upon further inspection of the floor I noticed little tiny bugs…ew, yuck. Just thinking about it makes me squeamish.Even though I have never had any experience with termites nor do I even know what they

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-45536508898947136132008-06-24T06:21:00.022-05:002008-12-14T13:26:29.775-06:00

Last year, our house was pounded by Tropical Storm Erin; which is really quite funny in and of itself since we are completely landlocked here in western Oklahoma. Never-the-less, our house fell prey to its destructive path; and even being 9 months pregnant at the time, I remember that evening so vividly…of course that could be because I am reminded on a daily basis of its wrath as the patchwork

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-37931307942954330062008-06-07T22:53:00.041-05:002008-12-14T13:26:32.443-06:00

It wasn't exactly buried nor is it really treasure; but to me it is just as good.For two years now, I have been going over catalog home floor plans and pictures for anything remotely resembling my home prior to its many revisions and revampments; and for two years I have had not even an inkling of luck. At one point I went as far as enlisting the help from forums at the American Bungalow website

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-80776625865911902282008-06-04T15:01:00.003-05:002008-12-14T13:26:32.661-06:00

(That was then...) Two years ago, when my husband and I bought a home in Hinton, Oklahoma, we purchased a piece of the town's history. Our home was once the town's hospital/clinic. When people find out where we live, they always have a story of a family member who was born here, died here (creepy) and/or had an operation of some sort done here.When we purchased the home, we knew it needed a lot

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5091120514380211963.post-34083038014634187512008-06-04T14:03:00.000-05:002008-12-14T13:26:32.768-06:00

Intriguing and exciting are not really two adjectives that describe my life but writing is a passion of mine. So, even though I lead a relatively quiet life, I have a lot of thoughts and ideas rolling around in my head that I feel compelled to share with anyone and everyone who cares to read about them. I am a stay-at-home mom of two boys: Jack who is 3 years old and Beau who is 9 months old. My

Melindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16676968898443291140noreply@blogger.com0