One Year Already...

I can't believe it's already been a year since the fire, but today marks the first anniversary of that incident.

These are some pictures of what the house looks like, as of today. Doesn't look like a lot to show for a year, I'll grant you, but it does represent a lot of work, mostly done by ourselves, and although it looks like there is a lot of work still to be done, it actually shouldn't take too many weeks more to finish. We passed the rough electrical inspection on Tuesday (I was more interested in this one than the other inspections, as I pulled about 50% of the wires, and wired more than half of the recessed lights. Mark used his expertise on the more difficult parts; Sandra, Timothy and myself were slave labor for the simple jobs.)

We have started with the insulation in the main part of the house.

Sandra and myself were largely responsible for the insulation in the attic, which we did several months ago. There is no experience half so memorable as crawling around in itchy fiberglass, in the hot attic in the middle of the summer, and doing a permanent sit up for several hours, (the only posture that lets you reach the edges). Although I would assume doing the walls isn't so entertaining, I was still glad to learn that Paul and his friends are taking care of the rest.


The HVAC is almost ready for inspection. Like with the plumbers work, I am always surprised when I see what he has done. Unlike the plumbers, it is always a pleasant one. After only serveral days of work, he is almost done.

The first wall is up in the house! Paul put it up this weekend. It had to go up now, for some reason or other. We also passed the framing inspection this week, but we (obviously) can't put any other walls up until the insulation and HVAC is done.

The plumbers eventually finished the rough work, and we actually passed the inspection. . .shocker, I know!

Though the showers are the only ones in place, the plumbing for the fixtures are all there.

Well, this certainly wasn't how we were expecting to spend 2009. When it first happened, we were a little unsure how it was all going to turn out. But the Lord turned it all to good. We got payed to update our house, (which makes it nicer for us to live in, and easier to sell), it brought Mark back home, it kept Mark and Paul with extra work, and gave us a wonderful story. After all, how many people that you know can say their house burned down? We had it happen, and got all of the good, and none of the bad out of it!

I Passed!. . . Barely

17 may not be an important age in most places, but it is in New Jersey. You can get your driving permit!

I went to take my test today. Well, maybe I should start before that. About 2 months ago, I started asking people to pick up a driving manual for me. About 2 days ago, someone actually did. I took an online practice test, and didn't do very well. Then I actually read the manual and took it again, and got 100%. Now, every one told me I shouldn't confuse myself by studying the manual, because they only asked you common sense questions, not things about fines and penalties. So I didn't.

I went this morning to take the test. You are allowed to get 10 questions wrong and still pass, and I got all 10 wrong. That sounds pretty bad, so let me tell you why.

1. The test is now on a touch screen computer. The ENTER and SKIP buttons are touching each other. For the very first question, (a very simple one)I hit SKIP by accident.

2. Every one told me not to memorize fines, I didn't memorize fines. 4 of the questions I missed were fines.

3. The driver's manual I got this week said you can't drive between 12 and 5 am. The test said 11 pm.

4. I guess I must have misread the question, but I could have sworn it asked me what the hand sign for a right turn was, and it said the answer was not hand up in the air.

So you see, it really wasn't my fault that I got 10 wrong, I really only should have gotten 6 or 7...

It's everyone else's fault...!!

In My Defense...

Recently, when telling someone *who shall remain nameless* what my blog address was, they remarked "Wow. How original." I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell them, and anyone else thinking the same thing, this.

I announced more than 6 months ago that I wanted to start a blog, but couldn't think of a good name, and I would be most obliged if anyone could think of an interesting one for me. Since I wasn't supplied with one single, solitary idea, I had to fend for myself. And since I wasn't sure what I was going to be writing about, I chose as you see.

(Hopefully anyone reading this will understand why I wrote it: I am not the least bit upset!! I just wanted to make my position quite clear, and say, that since you must have so many spectacular ideas, maybe next time you'll share some with me!)

Wendnesday = Game Night!

After 3 long, gruling work days, we look foward to Wednesday night to relax, when Uncle Steve comes over to play games. Of course, some of us find this more stressful then working, depending on how likely you think you are to win, and how much you care.

This week Uncle Steve brought over a new game, El Grande. It was a fairly simple game to play, and most of us found it quite enjoyable, though there are mixed sentiments on that score.




We decided (I mean, I decided) that since Uncle Steve had played it before, his score didn't count for our first game. That means that I took first place the 1st game! And then the 2nd game (when his score did count), I took 3rd; so I was fairly pleased, as was Timothy, who took second both times.

Mark, who came in dead last both games, isn't so thrilled with it.

Featured on Etsy!

Hooray! I was featured in Etsy's The Storque!

I'm not sure exactly how much this can help me, but it's the first time I was featured on Etsy (beside two "treasuries", which don't really count, because nobody looks at them). But this time my green address book (which I've already sold, 4 times) was picked by a moderator and featured in the store "blog" or "storque" (as you will).

Funny, I didn't notice until now that there was a typo in the listing. Figures, since now I can't edit it...

Gingerbread Houses, Our Style

I can't let the winter end before saying something about the traditional project we worked on this year: gingerbread houses. Traditional, in the sense that many people make them each year; it's not our tradition. I don't think I've ever made a gingerbread house before. It just seemed like a Christmas-y thing to do. But since none of us are overly fond of stale, cardboard-ish gingerbread, we decided to make not-so-traditional rice crispy treat houses.

So after mixing up 9 bags of marshmallows and 3 huge boxes of rice crispies, we tried to decide what we wanted them to look like. Team 1, Paul and Evelyn, went for the traditional look. But that wasn't cool enough for Team 2, (Mark and myself). We had to be different, and professional about this thing. First we discussed it. After convincing Mark that Neuschwanstein was out of the question, we moved onto architecture drawings with a plan B. (Plan B: we each draw what we want it to look like, and then duke it out.)

Mark designed a Tudor style Castle, and I, an English style cottage: so we compromised - and made a Tudor-ish looking English cottage. Mark was responsible for the foundational work (I helped, but it was to be his fault if anything didn't work), and I was to do the decoration, under his supervision, of course. And of course, I was elected head and body of the cleaning crew. (Did you realize that if you wash the pans in scalding hot water immediately, they don't get too sticky?)



The first problem we encountered, after agreeing on a floor plan, that is, was that there is a reason why gingerbread houses became the most popular: rice crispy houses can't support support any weight whatsoever. Overcoming this obstacle, there was of course the usual; the icing was the wrong consistency, the squabbling over the positioning of doors and windows. . .





When we finished it, we weren't at all happy with it, as you can tell, I'm sure. I always post pictures of things I am ashamed of on the Internet for the whole world to see. . .

Rebound Charles Dickens

This is what I've been keeping busy with this week. I had bought a set of matching Charles Dickens books several months ago. Matching, because they're all falling apart. I would imagine they actually matched at one time, but you never can tell.

Well, I decided to do this one first, and list it in my store since it was a duplicate. I would have tried to salvage the cover if I could, but as you can see from the first picture, the leather would just flake off when I touched it.

Since it was part of a set, I would really have liked to made an exact copy of the cover, but I don't have very many tools, and I wasn't willing to invest in having a copy made.

So, being the contrary person I am, I decided since I couldn't have it the same, I would make it completely different instead.

On the whole, I am fairly pleased with how it came out. No mistakes, or anything. I just look forward to the time when I will have enough tools to make more interesting and diverse covers.

Beginning a New Year

Well, we got the New Year off to a smashing start, literally! A smashed head, actually, that ended up in the emergency room.

Well, that probably makes it sound worse then it actually was. Here' s what actually happened.

On Friday evening, dad was trying to make his way through our over-crowded garage (which is used primarily for storage) with an armload of groceries. With his arms full, he was, of course, unable to see where he was going.
Turning around, he tripped over a disemboweled trampoline; because his arms were full, was unable to catch himself; so hit his forehead against the sharp metal hardware on the garage door,and cut up his arms and hands as well. Dropping the packages, he also broke 2 half-gallons of maple syrup. It was a rather bloody (and sticky) sight when he came upstairs, but after a little water and soap, it came out not quite as bad as we first anticipated. When he cleaned all the blood up, it was decided that there were no broken bones, and besides his head, only a few scratches and bruises. The gash on his forehead from the hardware he decided was bad enough (and bleeding hard enough) that it warranted a trip to the emergency room. He got 5 stitches, and was home within an hour.

Although this wasn't exactly how we planned to spend January 1st, we were grateful that it wasn't any worse then it was; no broken bones or concussion, or anything equally as fun. Also, to look on the bright side, we got Becky and Edward to stay an extra day, to help "distract" the "invalid"!

But beside that incident, a round of the flu, and having 13 people living in our house over the holidays, we're off to a nice, normal, calm new year!