Phase 2, 3, 4.....I'm really not sure

The following list is what we have been able to accomplish between December 22 - December 29:
- cleaned up remaining insulation
- tore out some scaffolding in the upstairs
- visited the landfill
- built a staircase
- built a set of stairs off the front porch
- put up a few 2 x 12's as ceiling joists for upstairs
- took down the antenna, put up an interior brace to secure the roof, and picked up around the house to prepare for bad weather
- cleared and cleaned up bits of wood, scaffolding, old wiring in old attic
- put in more 2 x 12's
- put in sheets of plywood 3/4 of the way across the front part of the floor upstairs which will serve as a balcony
- build and installed 4 - 9 ft wall frames to serve as front wall upstairs
- built and installed remaining 9 ft wall frames to finish framing wall upstairs
- installed back door and put in knobs and deadbolts on front and back door
- framed up 3 bedroom doors, closet door and bathroom door
- put in 24 collar braces above the 9 ft wall section upstairs which will serve as a support for the roof and floor joists for the attic
- began installing tongue and groove boards around the staircase to create a storage closet

Many thanks to all who have helped with the above work....Todd M., my brother Chris, our nephew Nate, Stafford, and our children.

Even with all the work we still managed to celebrate Christmas at church with a program and candle lighting ceremony, Christmas Eve with my brother and family, Christmas Day with family at Grandma's, spend time as a family, and enjoy the beauty of our place.

 

To have a REAL tree or not to have a real tree?...That Is The Question

     At the beginning of December the girls said something about getting a Christmas tree. I replied with something like this,"Maybe this year since we have everything in storage and we are so busy we should just not put up a tree." The kids response to me was first a look of "I can't believe you just said that" followed by "Mom, we have to put up a tree." To which I replied, "Well, let's just put up a fake tree this year." I received a look of horror and shock as if I had cursed, then was asked something like this, "Are you crazy, we never put up a fake tree?" One of them, then replied, "You can put up a fake tree when we all move out!" At least I think they said that and it makes my story better anyway so that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!
     They were right, of course. We have never put up a fake tree, even before the kids were born. Not that putting up a fake tree is such a bad thing. We had a fake tree in our house growing up and I never thought anything negative or terrible would befall our Christmas because of having a fake tree. It's just that for us it is a tradition that we really enjoy and have come to look forward to. We always go together to find the "perfect tree" which of course doesn't exist especially when you have 5 people trying to agree. I must say that this year it only took a few minutes and not much disagreement or discussion when picking out the "perfect tree". Part of the reason for such an easy agreement was it was late Monday night on Monday, December 17th and the other part was that they were getting a real tree.
     There was truth and reason in my temporary moment of craziness suggesting that we not have a tree. It's because everything is in storage which means we don't have ornaments. Sooo, we made a few ornaments. First, Allie made salt dough ornaments. Then she and I made 3D paper stars. Then I made 2 paper snowflakes and Allie made one. (Don't know if I will make any more of those....time consuming and must have much patience not to cut incorrectly.) We had plans to create some other ornaments like spray painted pine cones and maybe string popcorn, however we simply ran out of time and Christmas was just as nice with the few ornaments we made for our REAL tree!!!

Remodeling and Life in General

     Remodeling the house has been a major part of our lives for the past 3 1/2 months. However, we have had time for our other interests like finishing up Sara and Wyatt's rodeo season in October, Sara getting involved in Jr leadership in St Landry Parish, Sara and Allie staying involved in Midland High's FFA, David performing a few weddings, visiting with old and new friends here in the Bayou Jacque area, hosting a Fall Party (bonfire, chili, visiting) and a Christmas Party (hayride, caroling at the nursing home, bonfire, chili, visiting). The kids are also signed up for shooting sports in St Landry Parish. We missed the first two practices and the third was cancelled....so we still have that to get started in. Not to mention schooling 4 days a week.
     The girls have actually gone to school with David several days in November and December to practice for and compete in the FFA contests. Allie won the Freshmen test at Parish. Sara placed 2nd with a prepared speech at Parish and then placed 4th at District. She will be competing at the Area contest January 7th.

Back to the remodeling......

December 1 - Jeff came today with the kids for a visit and helped finish planking the south wall with hardy plank. We worked until dark....

December 3 - David took the day off because we had banking work to take care of and needed to put his truck in the shop. Of course, since he was off and we still had daylight we tore out the original middle wall of the house. We also unhooked the central AC unit and duct connected in an effort to prepare the old ceiling for decking.

December 7 - Sara, Allie and I cleaned up the scraps from our demo of the wall on Monday while David, Bryant, and Wyatt tore down an old barn to salvage some old wood and tin.

December 8 - We put up braces on the back porch to support the porch and took out an AC window unit from the back wall of house. Then we tore out another kitchen cabinet.

December 9 - David cut out 3 windows on the back wall of the house and closed up the hole to prepare the wall for hardy plank. We moved the wood to be saved to the shed and moved kitchen cabinets to the shed. Jennifer, Kain, and Kade came by today to visit and see the new place on their way home to Mississippi. It was so good to see them.

December 21- Pulled remaining pieces of insulation out of the original attic and unloaded old barn wood and tin from the stock trailer. We didn't have much time to work on the house today because David had things to do in preparation for Wyatt's 13th birthday cookout.  

While in the attic we discovered a nice pile of beautiful old cypress boards that we can use for all sorts of crafts and home decor.

Remodeling Continued......

After a much needed break to National FFA Convention in October, the remodeling continued.
November 2 - Put up plywood wall across the front porch to close in the addition which is a 10 ft by 50 ft area. Took down ceiling tile.





















November 6 - It was election day and Acadia had no school so we worked on putting up walls on the north side of the house. Took down ceiling tile.

November 10 and 11 - We rented a man lift and finished walling in the north and south side of the house. Also pulled out 90% of the old insulation in the attic. (Blue section of house is the original house with the roof removed.)

November 16 - Put in front windows and one window on the south side addition. Put up porch beams to tie house to porch. Took down ceiling tile.
November 17 - Todd put in our new front door made out of old cypress. Began putting hardy plank on the front.
November 19 - Nate and Slade helped David put in a beam under the house to support the new middle of the house which now sits at 17 ft instead of 12 ft. Took down more ceiling tile.
November 20 - Put up interior beam and two old columns to support the beam. The columns are from the porch of a house from the late 1800's. Put up more hardy plank on the front.
November 21- Chad helped David tear out the original front wall of the house and the old ceiling in the front part of the house and we put up hardy plank to the beams on the front porch and put hardy plank on 3/4 of the north wall. 


 

November 22 - Took a break for Thanksgiving....thank goodness!!!
November 23 - Moved a window on the south side wall to the new center. Put hardy plank 3/4 of the way up the south wall. Hauled a full stock trailer of demolition scraps and trash to the landfill.

November 24 - Up and at the house at 7:30 on a cold, windy, Saturday......We must be crazy!!! Planked within 5 ft on the north wall peak. Todd started framing in the new back door which is also made of old cypress.



















November 25 - Finished planking the north wall and put additional bracing up on the south wall to get it ready to be planked.
















 

Mini Vacation - 85th National FFA Convention

This post is in reference to a digression from the remodeling project and from homeschooling. Every other year David takes his Midland juniors, seniors and officers to the FFA National Convention. Sara has been looking forward to this trip for many years and when I decided to home school we started planning to go as a family.
So, on Monday, October 28th FFA students and advisors from Midland High, Crowley High, Church Point High, and Rayne High along with Lenore, Allie, Wyatt, and myself cruised down the road on a comfy chartered bus and ended up in Nashville, Tennessee about 12 hours later. We spend the night in Nashville and on Tuesday toured the Nashville Auto Diesel College, an Agricultural Museum, the Opryland Hotel and the Opryland Mall. Then we were treated to singing and comedy at the Grand Ole Opry with entertainment from Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Mel Tillis, Pam Tillis, Riders in the Sky, Anita Renfroe, Bubba, and Henry Cho.
On Wednesday morning, bright and early, we were traveling again to our convention destination,  Indianapolis, Indiana. Tickets for the opening session on Wednesday were already taken so we opted to tour the beautiful city of Indianapolis around the convention area and enjoy a nice supper.
We attended the opening session of the 85th National FFA Convention on Thursday morning. It was a celebration of FFA and motivated over 12,000 students, dressed in Blue Jackets, advisors, and parents to "Grow". Grow in FFA, Grow in who you are, Grow in agriculture especially in the area of food production and giving to those in need.
One of the first motivational speakers was Scott Hamilton, yes the Scott Hamilton, Olympic gold medalist, founder of Stars on Ice, cancer survivor....he gave an amazing testimony about overcoming and growing into the person he is today. One of the things he said was "The only true disability is a bad attitude".
The FFA students were given an assignment in which they were to try to obtain a signature from one person from each state. This was a fairly easy assignment since there were around 55,000 FFA students in attendance at the convention from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The career show was the best place to achieve this task because it was buzzing with activity and exhibits geared toward students.
Thursday night brought rain and cooler temperatures so Friday was cloudy and cold. We enjoyed another day at the convention with entertainment from the national FFA band and choir, singing and musical talent from other FFA members from various parts of the US including a blue grass band consisting of teen agers. We also heard more motivational speaking from retiring officers and Walter Bond, former NBA player.
We said goodbye to Indianapolis Saturday morning and began traveling southward. We toured the Jim Beam Factory in Clermont, Kentucky and had plans to take a 2 hour cave tour at Mammoth Cave in Cave City, Kentucky. Due to an major accident on the interstate we detoured onto a parallel side rode. The detour and the interstate route took about 4 hours to travel about 20 to 30 miles. We were thankful to be traveling in a big comfy bus equipped with satellite and a DVD player and an excellent driver, Mrs. Gloria. We missed our cave tour but it was no big deal. We were all tired but still in good humor when we finally arrived back in Nashville for the night.
At 6:00 AM we were on the road again traveling south toward our final destination.....good ole Louisiana. We lost an hour somewhere in Kentucky on our way north Wednesday but we gained it back on our way south on Sunday so we made it back to Crowley around 5:30 Sunday evening.
It was a great trip and was enjoyable to get away for a little while but it was more enjoyable to be back home.
 

Phase 2 - adding on, putting in a front porch and a new roof

September 22nd - started on front porch and addition to the house
September 27th - worked on the front porch frame
September 29th - raining today but it was cooler, David pulled out the concrete slab under the original front porch, finished framing the addition floor and front porch frame, put in half of the addition front wall support, and put down 4 sheets of plywood on the addition floor
October 5th - worked on the addition floor
October 6th - finished the addition floor and began putting on decking
October 7th - worked on the decking and put in the mailbox
October 8th - worked on decking
October 11th - tore off original roof (David on the tractor and Todd, Heath, and Wyatt on the roof)
October 12th - put up beam across the front and back porch that holds up the roof, began putting up scaffolding and frame for the new roof (thanks to the construction crew that worked and knew what they were doing), Allie and David worked on decking and only have one last row of decking left to do on the front porch
October13th - Sara and I went to the last rodeo in Crowley for this year, Wyatt went with Ian and Allie, David, and Jacob are working with the construction crew to finish framing up the roof and framing the back wall for the upstairs bedrooms (also had help today from Todd, Heath, and Nate....had many visitors today to check out the progress and look at the place for the first time including my brother Chris and family
October 14th - Todd, Heath, Nate, Drew, and David finished putting on lats and finished framing the roof and put in frame and wall for sides of new addition for the living room.....(family members came out to watch the progress)
October 15th - Construction crew finished the tin roof
All of the above was done in addition to many doctor visits due to health issues. Sara had a sinus infection and shingles and I had a terrible ear ache. David had a couple of toothaches and injured his back which was a severely inflamed muscle which caused him to be on bed rest for a couple of days and taking it easy for another couple of days. Allie had a virus and blood work done for a cyst behind her ear which turned out not to be a big deal at least for now. Not to mention we still kept up with school, church and planning for the FFA trip to Indianapolis.