Like Norman........

Of all our neighbors I've met (so far), my most memorable moment has been Mr. Norman Greenhouse.  Mr. Greenhouse is a retired from the Air Force, retired as in 40+ years ago. Mr. Greenhouse is 85 years old. He walks with a swagger and wears a fedora most of the time. He says stuff like "It's a gas!" and "As long as I am around here, we're gonna have fun."  He served in WWII, saw Hitlers destruction first hand and was part of the Air Force Philharmonic and many other amazing symphonies. Today the Greenhouses teach music from their home, which happens to be straight across the street from us. I've been told that in the summer time they'll open the windows and the music from his string quartet, jazz band or baby Grand will come sweetly out in to the neighborhood.  Wow, that sounds rough... really rough. ;)  I can tell we'll enjoy living across from the Greenhouses, very neat people.


When I talked with Mr. Greenhouse in the street the other day we covered a plethora of topics, in about 11 minutes.  Random is the only thing that comes to mind.  We talked about the following: His cat Figaro, the oil spill, Hitler, Young Frankenstein on stage, summer foliage, music and motherhood.


I walked away thinking, "I'm gonna be good here."  If we can cover random topics like that in 11 minutes, we'll get along just fine.


Random, it's certainly a fine way to describe what's going on in my life.  I am normally quite on top of things, aware of what's going on, ready to tackle the next project.  Well, my friends, not so much this week or month.  The house is coming along, uber slowly, but nonetheless, coming along.  We've started eleventy billion projects and finished 3.  We've not moved in yet and approx. 25 of those started/unfinished projects NEED to be done before we do move in.  We've taken out things/bushes/walls we didn't plan on and not gotten to the things we did plan on taking out.  So far, I've only regretted ONE removal. That's pretty good for me! It was only a medium/large sized bush that was actually half dead, but I was convinced I could nurse it back to life. We'll, it's life has now ended, it was taken out.  The side of the house looks like a construction zone and guess I'll be getting a Bagster from Waste Management.  This means moving it twice.... gross yucky junipers we dug out, tons of drywall, nails, 2x4's, carpet, drapes..... you name it, it's on the side of the house.


Anyhow, back to randomness.  I REALLY wanted to put out organized before, during and after pics.  I REALLY wanted to narrate all of it too.  Instead, you're getting a billion before and during pics thrown at you in RANDOM order with short and to the point (say what? short and to the point from me? Woo Wee!) captions underneath. Enjoy- hopefully you leave feeling a little bit versed in what we're doing currently and ALOT versed in how sane we are. ;)

Before Front... just overgrown with uber itchy foliage. You'll have to wait for the after pic on this one.

Before: Front Room

During: Front Room

Our first meal on "new" floors

Lots of paint samples... $20 in paint samples saves hundreds down the road, this *I* know.

Alot of priming.... alot.

Carpet and railings removed from stairs. Those will be painted today and a new railing put up.

The wall between the kitchen and dining room- no mas.

Weird.



























 
It's actually all gone now. We have someone coming out today to rework the water pipes we found to the right of the doorway in this picture.  They'll be moved to the left.  We'll finish the opening now but remodel the kitchen later this year.  But, nonetheless, it will be opened, finished, and the airflow is much improved.

It was hard to let go of 43 year old broken light fixtures...  but easy to welcome the can lights we installed...

What? now you don't cross your legs while doing electrical work?

That is it for now... since this we've painted shutters, taken down old storm doors, pressure washed the entire house, ect.... More pics to come. Hopefully some completed stairs today! :)