Dear Bubby

Dear Bubby,

Just a note to say hi. This was the sunset just before we buried you. I thought you'd like it. We used to sit in the road together just a few feet from here and watch the sun set. 

I missed you when I came home from work today. And it was strange not having you follow me up to Mom & Dad's house and bark at us while we ate dinner.  :-)

Mom planted some daffodils at your grave today. I can't wait to see them bloom. And I'm on the lookout for a blue climbing rose to plant at your grave for you as well.

Anyways, that's all for now. We miss you and love you. 

The bathroom ant

My dear tiny friend,

How came you to live in my bathroom? Aren't ants supposed to leave scent trails to follow? If so, how is it that your friends led you so astray?

I have seriously considered washing you away; I thought of putting you out of your life of lone travels through my bathroom, which I first interpreted to be a miserable existence, but I feared His Holiness the Dalai Lama would chase after me in nightmarish visions with a rolling pin. But then I soon realized that would be unlikely given what I'd done to all the cave crickets in the other end of the house. But I digress...

Where do you go besides between the shower and the sink? And why is it that I only see you, no matter the hour, on weekdays except for Friday? Do you work only four days a week?

Since you have been here for several weeks now, I take it that you have moved in. I hope you have a lovely apartment in the shower windowsill. I will not charge you rent, as I can't do math that small, and you probably don't have money anyways. But please don't get a mate and start having children. This is a single family home, you know.

Well, thanks for the company in the shower. I'll see you bright and early Monday morning.

For my cousins

Hi folks,

Long time no type. Sorry about that. We've both been busy with life, as I'm sure you've been too.

We're in the process of remodeling the "pink" bathroom. This was my project and my bathroom, and having a 1950s pink tub presented quite a challenge. Since this bathroom faces our brown bedroom, I decided pink+brown+white= neapolitan ice cream. Covering up the tub wasn't an option to me, as I saw it as a nod to my late Grandmother.



We got the shower part of the bathroom fixed up about a month ago. Two big delays were finding a vanity I liked and would fit (we're talking a 5' x 6' bathroom here), and finding the flooring I had pictured in my mind. Now that both of those are accomplished, we're moving forward.

I guess any time you do construction or remodeling on a home that was hand built by someone you're bound to find neat little surprises. For us, these surprises have a lot of meaning, because they're things done or left by my late Grandfather.

So I wanted to do this post to share with my family, and especially my cousins, so they could see all the neat things we've found. Why my cousins? Well, we've heard family stories, and I don't know about them, but I feel like there's a lot of the family's history I missed out on. Sharing this stuff makes me feel like I'm getting to live a little bit of that history, and I hope my cousins feel the same.


Take for instance this pattern. This is the adhesive he used to stick to the tiles to the wall. Our Grandfather placed each one of these by hand. (And the tiles were numbered, which helped.)


And even weirder than having carpet in the bathroom are both of the layers of tile we found under the carpet. The white pebble-y kind isn't so bad, but that marbled blue? With a pink bathtub? I don't get it. It certainly was a technicolor world back then.


But to me, at least so far, the best surprise has been this one, hidden behind the toilet paper holder:


It looks so much like my own Dad's handwriting, I had to ask if it was his. It's our Grandfather's.

I'll try to post more if we find more.

Hopefully I'll have some finished bathroom pictures up just after Thanksgiving.
All for now,
akc

Long weekend

Man, I'm sore. Being a homeowner makes me feel like how Grandy's truck looks.

Ian and the bear

The following was a discussion that happened this morning after breakfast. I thought it was too funny not to share.

Ashlie: I want to bike the Cade's Cove loop.
Ian: I don't! There are bears there.
Ashlie: There are bears, yes, but it's safe to bike there.
Mom: Ian, families bike it.
Ashlie: ...with little kids.
Ian: But I don't want families to look at me and say, 'hey look at that fat guy trying to bike.' And the bears will see I'm fat and think-
Dad: Mmmm....cheeseburgers!

Trials & tribulations in homeownership

Hi folks,
Thanks for sticking with us through our move and a week of technical difficulties in getting internet access. We're here in Tennessee, and moving here sure has kept us on our toes! Here's the best of the good, the bad, and the annoying so far:

To start, our refrigerator failed, prompting a quick search for someone who would let us borrow one until we can buy a replacement next month. Thank God for our close friends Brian and Amber!

I nearly ruined a load of white clothes in our washing machine. Needless to say it was my fault, but our plumbing system needs a good overhaul. Since writing the previous two sentences, we've discovered we have even more plumbing issues that bleed from the washing machine to one of our bathrooms. Luckily we have two bathrooms- the pink bathroom has a functional toilet and sink. Tub and shower need work. The blue bathroom has a functional toilet and TINY shower stall (shaving my legs has become nearly impossible. Sorry for the TMI.), but a non-functioning sink.

Moving into a house that was occupied by my Grandparents for roughly 50 years really makes you aware of how much crap stuff you accumulate in your life. With that said, moving into a non-empty house was challenging in that we had to maneuver around the remaining items belonging to my Grandparents while moving in our stuff. We thought the place would be empty when putting our previously 600 square feet of belongings into a 1050+ square foot house. Not so, my friends! We still haven't finished unpacking all the apartment stuff, and we've just barely begun getting things we've left at my parents' house over the years. In other words, if you come for a visit it may look sort of junky and/or trashy with all the boxes around and a carport full of random appliances and items, but I promise we're working on it!


Now having said all that, I don't mean to sound unhappy or ungrateful. I can speak for Ian when I say we are both honored to live in the house my Grandparents literally built with their own hands, and any repairs or troubles we encountered are well worth it. To further prove my point, here are some of the happy things that we've discovered since moving:

We've had just about every single meal with Mom and Dad, either at their place or ours.

If they're outside, we can "holler" back and forth if we need. (We also have a great big farm bell we ring to tell them to come down for dinner.)


Since we're all off on the weekends together, we have a standing date for a weekly trip to Lowe's for whatever we need to fix our house. We're also looking forward to attending the Kingston and Tennessee Valley Fairs together.

One big worry we had was how well our cat, Kitter, would ajust. As you can tell by the picture, she has adjusted very well. Right now there are only two places in the house she is not allowed, and it'll probably continue to be that way if we can help it.

We got our plants from our balcony garden transplanted, and even added some new plants on our carport! We have thyme and rosemary just off our carport. We now have more bell peppers (and blooms) than ever. I took some pictures, but they're not close up enough for y'all to see anything at the size I'd have to use. Anyway, I'm already excited for next year's gardening season!

That's enough for now. Hope all y'all are well! Thanks again for your continued love and support.
xoxo,
akc

Welcome home and happy birthday!

I moved back home on my 29th birthday. Ian invited close friends and family over for a cookout. Here are some pictures. There are more details about our first week in our house over on the Conway Scrapblog.



They tried to make me a smiley face with the candles on my cake.


We all had cake and a great time!