Life

The last few of weeks have been one big roller coaster full of emotion.  Ace's mom passed away on February 3 and my brother got married on February 8.  I started, stopped, and restarted this blog post several times. I even thought about just skipping over it and instead writing a post about something I've worked on in the house recently.  But I think I should write something about the last few weeks.  Doris lost her life to cancer.  When she conquered the disease almost 3 years ago there was always the possibility that it would come back.  However, when it came back and took her life in only one week it was a huge shock.  I don't believe anything can prepare you for the loss of a parent no matter how old you are. It's something I would not wish on anyone.  If there is a silver lining it's that she's no longer tired and sick. She didn't want to go through chemo again, and we all believe she knew what was coming long before anyone else did. 

Doris was a second mom to a lot of people.  Ace always refers to home as Hotel De VanDeWalle.  Pretty much anyone is welcome at anytime, and Doris always made sure there was plenty to eat.  Even on some pretty late nights, there would always magically be sandwiches or snacks out on the counter.  I'll never again eat potato salad or homemade salsa that even comes close to hers.  Since the first time I went home with Ace, Doris has always welcomed me and made me feel at home.  It was nice to have another home to go to since my family lives so far away.  Now their house seems so strange without her there. 

The visitation and funeral were a true testament to how loved and missed she is.  I haven't heard the final count, but I'm guessing there were upwards of 300+ people that came to say goodbye.  It's hard to understand why God takes the good ones and why cancer even has to exist.  The phrase "life is too short" has taken on new meaning.  

The day after the funeral, I stood up as "Best Man" at my brother's wedding in Key West.  I struggled with how silly it seemed to be going on vacation after what had just happened.  I was also certain TSA was going to mark me as a suspicious person and ban me from flying as I cried my way through the airport. (The crying was intensified by the fact that my flight was delayed and I then had to spend the night in Dallas and I didn't know if I'd even make it to the wedding on time, but that's a whole other blog post!)  I did make it to Florida in time and managed to turn off the sad and turn on the happy.  What had happened in the days before made spending that time with my family celebrating Rob and Brooke's day even more special.  The wedding was amazing, and I'm so happy for my big brother.  The week was bittersweet since Ace was supposed to have come with me.  I finally decided that it was ok to be sad and happy at the same time.  Life is too short to not celebrate the good times, and I think that's what Doris would have wanted.

House Tour

After buying my house 6 months ago, I'm finally putting pictures up.  I hope to do a better job of posting pictures so I can document my many projects. The house already looks quite a bit different thanks to a few coats of paint. I'll start with the bare pictures and work through the different rooms in upcoming posts.

Kitchen - I have a pretty long list of ideas  for the kitchen. Number one is changing the light.  There's currently a giant fluorescent light in the center, and I hate the light it gives off.  It makes everything look yellow. I'd also like to pull up the linoleum and see if hardwood floors exist underneath. I've also been playing with the idea of painting the cabinets white. I get new ideas everyday, and my ADD is kind of a problem. (ask Ace how much fun it is to shop at Menards with me)

This the view from the kitchen looking into the living room.  The dining room is off to the right.

Living room - The living room is a long space.  I'm still trying to figure out if I like how the furniture is currently arranged.

 Guest room - located in front corner of the house

 Main floor bathroom.

 Dining room

Master bedroom

Looking down the stairs to the basement. Yes, part of the wall is missing.

The basement is partly finished. However, the finished part has this lovely half wall that exposes the unfinished part. The story I was given was that the water heater once broke, and it caused the basement to flood. After the flood, they just cut the wet part of the wall off.  It's very odd.  I have a lot of plans for the basement. It's a huge space with a lot of potential. 

I couldn't find pictures of the basement before I moved stuff in. 

More basement

Full bathroom in basement - The walls are made out of this really lovely printed, green flower, slick shower wall type of material.   

Shower in basement

Unfinished part of basement. 

So much empty space! - See that drain in the floor? That's where the unfortunate plumbing incident of 2011 occurred. 

I wish I had a picture of this area before I cleaned it up. The "Frankenstein" cabinets that used to reside here were awesome.

So there you have it.  My little 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom starter house.  I've learned a lot in the past 6 months, and I can't wait to start making my big ideas actually happen!

Adventures in Home Ownership with Rachel

1. Don't put a pot of leftover beef and onions down the garbage disposal. It clogs the basement drain.

2. When the basement drain clogs, Draino won't work.

3. A garden hose will fit into the drain to try to snake it. It worked better than the $12 metal snake thing. However, if you are cheap, and the hose was cheap, the hose is not strong enough to break through the clog.

4. You have now ruined your $25 hose.

5. Wear gloves when snaking your drain. Especially if you tried to pour Draino in the drain.

6. Now your hands look like you were in an extreme cage fighting match.

7. Cry.

8. Call Dad for the 2398742 time that night.

9. Call a plumber.
 
 
I now know to just call a plumber first.  It was almost less expensive than the tools to fix it myself plus the cost of the ruined hose. On the bright side, I now own a pipe wrench that could be useful for self defense? He also pulled a bunch of roots out of the pipe so it was not entirely my fault.  Lessons learned! Stay tuned for the next episode. I'm sure there will be more!

Project

I'm getting everything settled in the house. I officially have no more boxes sitting around which makes my OCD feel much better!  I finally have pictures on the walls, and have finished most of the small projects on my list.  When I come home after work I finally don't feel like I have a million things to do.  It's starting to feel like home.  I wanted to post pictures of my latest project.  I saw a picture on pinterest.com (If you haven't heard of pinterest, check it out - it's my new favorite thing) where an old window was used as a picture frame.  I happened to find an old window in my basement left from the previous owners that I knew would be perfect.

The window had a glossy finish on it so I sanded the window down.  Then I primed the window with primer spray paint I had.  I knew I wanted to hang the new frame in my living room, so I went to the paint store and picked out a turquoise shade of paint.  However, when I applied the first coat it came out looking very bright Tiffany blue.  While I love the little blue boxes with the white bows, it was too bright for my living room.  So I went back to Ace the helpful place hardware store and asked if they would darken my paint.  It took a few tries, but it finally looked the right shade

I was going for an antique old finish so I took a piece of sandpaper and scratched the finish up.  The window weighs 12 pounds (yes I weighed it on my bathroom scale).  I was worried about it being too heavy for the wall, so I attached four picture hooks on the back.  My stud finder has proven to be a piece of junk so I think four hooks is enough to ensure maybe I hit one stud and the weight is evenly distributed to not pull the drywall down.   Then I picked three of my favorite pictures I've taken and had them printed as 11x14 posters.  The frame doesn't have a glass backing so I taped the pictures down.  I'm going to have to find a new solution to attach the pictures, because after a week the tape is peeling back. Otherwise, I LOVE how it turned out.  It's my favorite part of my living room now.  What do you think??

My next projects include: finding/making something to put in my entryway, painting the ugly gold door knobs throughout my house, painting or finding new cabinet knobs for my kitchen (I painted the knobs in the bathroom and they look great!), and lastly I need to decide what colors to paint my bedroom, guest bedroom, and dining room.  So maybe I have a lot of projects but I've got a long winter ahead of me!

Moving moving and more moving

The past two weeks has been all about boxes, moving, car loads, cleaning supplies, and more boxes.  There is nothing fun about moving.  It's a huge pain.  What made this move worse was that it was just across town.  There was no incentive to have to really plan or organize how I packed.  I just started throwing things in boxes and packing my car. What a mess! I'm starting to dig myself out of my mess and my new house is starting to feel like home, but I feel like I still have a long way to go.  I'm still deciding on what colors to paint my walls.  Once I decide it's going to be my fall/winter project after the weather starts to get crappy.  Anyone who would like to volunteer to help is more than welcome!!  I'll post some pictures of the new place once I get a little more settled.

Major Announcement

Well it’s pretty much official: I’m buying a house! Yep, that’s right; I’m taking a huge step into adulthood. To be quite honest, it’s a really scary step! However, it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the past year. Basically, Austin is just not a good town for someone looking to rent. If you’re not low income or an old person, your choices are pretty limited. I live in one of the nicest places available to rent in Austin and while I really like my townhouse, I just can’t justify throwing away as much money as I am in rent anymore. I’m also excited to have a yard, paint my walls, grow a garden, wash my car in the driveway…you know all that good stuff that you miss out on in a rental. Things I’m not thinking about right now is scooping my own snow, what happens if the furnace breaks, if the roof leaks, if there’s a giant spider infestation….It’s better for my sanity that I try not to worry about those things!

My lease is not up until the end of August, so I don’t close on the house until mid August. Then comes all the fun of painting, moving, and whatever else comes with owning a home. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated!

Sweet Summertime

Finally I can post without complaining about snow! Summer has finally arrived in southern Minnesota. We had some hot days last week which caused an all out panic up here.  I believe these weirdos would rather have a foot of snow on the ground than it be over 85 degrees.  Don't get me wrong, it was hot, but it could have been so much hotter with a lot more humidity.  I thought it was wonderful!  

Since my last post I've put a lot of miles on.  Home for Easter, home for Bethany's wedding, a handful of trips to Nebraska, and I had some special visitors that I gave a personal Mall of America tour to.  I'm keeping busy to say the least! On Sunday I leave for a week to go to RMC, the Reciprocal Meats Conference, in Manhattan, Kansas followed by some tater work in Topeka. Then I'll make a pit stop in Minnesota before heading to Iowa City for Jessie's bachelorette party.  It will be a lot of traveling, but I can't wait!  Other than living my life as a gypsy traveler, life has been pretty much the same.  I play kickball on Thursday nights which has been a lot of fun and really amusing.  Tater business is booming, and I've been really busy at work.  Other than that it's been the same ol' same ol'.  I'll leave you with a few pictures summarizing the beginning of what is bound to be an awesome summer :)

Jessie and Adam's bachelor and bachelorette party in Waukon thrown by Jessie's family

Throwing a calf at VanDeWalle branding :)

Bethany's wedding!

Old roomies 

My first tanking experience in Ericson, NE

Justin and Clayton in Minneapolis <3

Kickball 

Home Sweet Chauncey