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.

 

 

 

Questions and Answers

How's it going? How is homeschooling? Do you miss Crowley? Do you like living in Bayou Jacque?.......... These are questions we are asked most often.

     It's going good. We do miss living in Crowley. The kids really miss the house, barns and everything about where they grew up. However, they are really making an effort to adjust here and they have expressed how they like the new place and I know in time they will grow to love it. We all love the church family here that has so warmly welcomed us. Living next door to Grandma has been a blessing to all of us but especially the kids. Our lives were so busy in Crowley because of our work in the church there and in the teaching profession that we rarely had a chance to come visit let alone spend any extended time with David's family. Before hurricane Rita, the kids and I would go spend time with my family in Creole as often as we could during the summer and during holidays. After Rita things changed and we no longer had the house in Creole to go to so we haven't spent much time with either of our families in the last 7 years. The kids have gotten closer to their family here. We eat Sunday dinner at Grandma's which is accompanied by visiting, drinking coffee, kids playing and a nap if we can or working on the house.
     We do feel a little unsettled still in regards to our living arrangements because we are living in a temporary home that restricts us in many ways. For instance, we do not have the horses or the cows here. The horses are down the road in one direction and the cows are down the road in another direction thanks to the generosity of friends. Also, we don't have much room to roam around outside at this house so we sometimes feel cooped up, especially Wyatt. We go to the land as often as possible.
     Our routines have definitely changed. We are not as structured as we once were. Homeschooling is different for me compared to teaching 3rd grade. Sara, Allie, and Wyatt are very capable of doing lessons on their own with occasional help from me. They like the freedom to set their own schedule, work at their own pace and explore and idea or subject to whatever degree they choose. We try to have bible study every day and only missed a few days here and there. I don't have lesson plans, intervention documentation, tracking charts, duty schedules, deadlines, etc. and I don't miss that one bit!! I do however miss teaching 3rd grade aged children. Each day was unique. I also miss my colleagues and friends whom I think about every day.
     We don't regret our decision to move and I don't regret my decision to resign. Like with everything in life change takes time to adjust to. Some things, however, didn't change. Wyatt and Sara are in the midst of finishing their rodeo season with JDRC which takes place at the Rice Arena and the girls are still involved with FFA through Midland. We will be joining 4H in St Landry parish this week and Sara will get involved with Jr Leaders. Wyatt and Allie have plans to sign up for shooting sports through 4H as well. We plan to continue showing our animals, although this year they may all be showing a beef animal....so no piggies in the barn this year because we have no barn yet!! All in good time since we have the cement slap as the remains of an old pig parlor that we will rebuild one day.
      

Phase 1.....a back porch and demolition

Saturday, September 1st - Put in the support columns and began framing the back porch with much needed help.
Monday, September 3rd - With the help of some friends David finished framing and decking 1/3 of the porch. It gave us a chance to visit as well as work.
Thursday, September 6th (late in the afternoon) - Worked on the porch and decked another 1/3 and worked on the framing of the last 1/3.
Saturday, September 8th - David, Wyatt, and Allie finished decking the back porch while Sara and I went to a rodeo. With help they were also able to put in the four columns for the front porch. However, the front porch and addition is on hold until the demolition and clean up of the cinder block sun room.
Sunday, September 9th - David, Wyatt, and I tore off almost all of the cinder block addition to the house.
Monday, September 10th - David, Allie, Wyatt, and I began cleaning up the cinder block mess and finished tearing down the remaining support to the addition. The mess has to be cleaned before we can continue with the front porch and addition.
Tuesday, September 11th - More cleaning up......
Sunday, September 16th - David and I spent 2 hours and finished cleaning up the cinder block mess!!