What a camping trip!

We spent last weekend at Carter Lake, just South of Florence. We brought our friends Emily and Arlo with us. Arlo is Jovanna's friend. We were able to get an idea of just how much time they can spend with each other before it is too much. Well, unfortunately, that would be about the time it took to drive to the campground. They ended up in constant competition with each other and were triggering each other all over the place. It is interesting, if you look at the pictures I took you would think that we had a wonderful time. The pictures would suggest that at least there were some good moments...hard for me to remember those though. We were constantly intervening between the two of them and trying to keep them from killing each other!

The area was wonderful. We had the lake, the dunes, the ocean, crabbing, and camping. It was truly a beautiful area.
When we first got to the site, the wire that is part of rolling up and down the tent trailer popped! I was thinking we weren't going to have anywhere to sleep but with some borrowed tools and after Scotty arrived, we were able to get it fixed. Whew!









Here is Emily rolling down the dunes...








Jovanna and Arlo after making the mile and 1/2 trek on the trail through the dunes to the ocean...


Scotty and Kelcie joined us at the beach


Jovanna at the campsite


Scotty by the lake


After a whole lot of whining, Arlo finally agreed to help Jovanna across the water to the other side. Aren't they cute?


A very sweet camp neighbor loaned us her canoe boat and was so tickled to see it getting some use. Here is Scotty and Jovanna on the lake...


And before we left our trip, we stopped off at a beach in Florence to let Jovanna play in the sand a little bit. Warning signs were up about some water quality issues so we didn't play in the water though.

We are getting tired!

I always thought that it would be Jovanna that would be the death of me, but now I'm thinking it's gonna be this darn house! My body is so exhausted. There is still so much to do. We got most of the living room flooring in and we are heading down the hallway but we ran out of laminate flooring. I have to wait till I have a little extra money to buy the rest of what we need. We are taking a break for a few weeks because we are tired (and grumpy!). We are going camping this weekend for some R&R. We are going with our friends Emily and Arlo. Arlo and Jovanna have recently discovered each other...they are both eleven, both on the Autism Spectrum, both identical in so many ways - like two peas in a pod. They quite the romance developing right now. It is very cute to watch. I heard that they actually stole a first kiss with each other too!

I have a feeling that I'm in trouble if she is already kissing boys!

Here they are...

Notice how they are both barefoot? If you don't know much about children on the Autism Spectrum then you probably wouldn't understand the significance of that, but I assure you...the two of them together is quite significant!

Wow! It is starting to show!

All the work and time and bruises and energy are starting to show! This weekend we textured the new walls (what a mess that is!) and so I can get back to work, we focused on my office. We painted the walls and laid the laminate flooring. I chose a color called Aztec Brick and the photos don't exactly do the color justice but it is close. Here is a shot of the flooring going in...


And at the end of the day, I was so tired. So, so tired. Jose let me use the chop saw to cut some of the pieces and I got comfortable with that by the end.

Here's a shot of me at the end of the day.

We just have to finish the molding around the bottom and the windows and doors. I think we decided on white.

Here's a shot looking down the hallway to the office.

It's Perfect!

Just what I was hoping for! The wall is almost complete, well, technically...the hole in the wall is almost complete! Here is some pictures of where we are...

These first two were at the beginning of the day.






These are views from each side of the opening. One is looking in from the kitchen and one is looking into the kitchen from the living room.

I happened to see this shot. I didn't stage it at all. That's the way it looked and I thought, wow, that says alot! Really captures exactly what we are doing right now. Love it!

He cracks me up!
He won't let me get a good shot of him because he knows I post these pictures everywhere! LOL!











Look at it now! We removed the temporary support walls and...it didn't all come crashing down! Yeah!











And here's the view from the other side with drywall now up! I am so happy. Short of removing the entire wall, this is exactly what I wanted!

The Wall is Coming Down!

So, here is a shot of the new 9 foot opening in the wall! I am so excited! Thank goodness my darling BF took this big task on for me. Yeah!!!

So, he has some electrical wires that we have to move over a few inches and then it is hanging drywall, tape, texture, paint and then I get my floors put in! I already bought the new laminate flooring and it is just sitting in a corner looking pretty. I can't wait to see it laid down. I tore the carpet out of my bedroom yesterday (all by myself!) and we will take the laminate from the living room, in the front entry and down the hallway and into my bedroom. I am thinking about putting it down in my office too because that is on the other side of the house from the bedrooms and I thought it might tie everything in nicely.

Well, just thought I would share that I was expecting my deposit back from the rental house I was in and opened a letter a couple days ago, expecting it to contain my check and I found a bill for more than $1000!!!! I must have had steam coming from my ears! So, they decided to replace the carpets and decided to charge me for that. When I moved in the carpets had bleach stains in two living spaces and dark black areas in the master bedroom. It was nearing the end of it's life when I moved in. It was time to replace the carpets and with all the bleach and black stains there were pre-existing, they did replace the carpet and sent me the bill. The property managers were also my realtors who just sold me my new home. I felt so betrayed and so hurt that they would try to make me pay for an expense that they have in their line of work, completely unrelated to me. The carpets were clean when I left them, there were no visible stains other than the ones already noted when I moved in. When I called, she said that there were pet stains all over under the carpet. I just about wanted to jump out of my skin! My dog doesn't have problems going to the bathroom in the house! She would be mortified (and me too!) if she ever did anything like that. Clearly that carpet had seen many, many other renters before me. I had heard that the previous renters had at least one dog. They can't send me the bill for carpet that had seen its' final days. I am so furious...and hurt...and disappointed in the integrity of the world.

I haven't posted since...

Well, it appears I haven't posted since I got the keys to my new house. For good reason, I think. This has been such a tough move. I didn't really quite understand what moving into a fixer-upper really meant till we got in. The carpet had been soiled so terrible by pets previous to us that one of the first things we did (after getting the essentials working) was tear out that nasty carpet and padding. We have been preparing the floors for laminate flooring, removing staples and such, so it is smooth and then I put a layer of Kilz down. We still have to tear out the carpet in the three bedrooms but we started in the living room, entry and down the hallway because we knew that was going to be laminate flooring. We painted the ceilings, kitchen, living room, entry and hallway walls. That helps to make it look a little better - it's amazing what a little bit of paint can do. And it also helps so that when we get the flooring in, we won't have to worry about doing a bunch of painting with the new floors down.

We went around and around about another project and eventually Jose decided that it was important to me enough that he would take it on. There was a wall (notice I said "was") between the living room and kitchen. It was a perfect situation to take the wall out to open up the two rooms. He wasn't a fan of the idea because he likes to keep rooms separated. He says "the kitchen is the kitchen and the living room is the living room". But, you know that is the popular thing to do to create a more open feel is to have the kitchen open up to the living room so you can have a conversation and interact with guests and family while you are in the kitchen. I am thankful he took this on. It is turning out beautifully. Because the wall is a weightbearing wall, we didn't take the whole wall out but created a 9 foot opening in the wall. To me, it is perfect! We had to move electrical outlets and put a beam up to support it all. I learned alot through this whole project. We are getting close to being able to put the drywall back up and then we will be able to prepare it and paint it and then put the flooring in. Oh, I forgot! There is another wall that joins with that one that runs along the entry and then into the kitchen that is a half-wall. I think we will do the same thing with that one to open up the living room. But it doesn't appear to be a weightbearing wall and the half-wall looks like someone added it years ago.

I also took the drywall off of another wall in the kitchen where a little wood burning stove sets in the corner. It had these wood pieces on the wall and we hated it. We will do all the drywall, tape and texture at the same time on all the walls.

I have purchased the laminate flooring already. It is just sitting there waiting to be put in. I can't wait! Here's a few pictures so you can see what I have been busy doing...

This is the wall in the corner of the kitchen that we removed the wood pieces from to reveal this...
I tore this drywall off yesterday. It is now ready for new drywall, tape and texture.

This is the wall that we pulled paneling off of to reveal more of those wood pieces and under that was the drywall. Oh my! So, this is the wall that also came out. You can see the halfwall to Jose's right. That one is coming out too (I believe).

I have more pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. Will share more later.

Been busy!

Life has been really challenging lately. I spent this week in the hospital with Jovanna. She was still suffering from dystonia movements and it was getting pretty scary. We checked her into the child psychiatric unit to try to figure out what was going on. I didn't really want to take her there, but the doctors working with us felt like that was best. The doctors who prescribe the medications that cause dystonias are there so they would be best able to help us. When we arrived, they took Jovanna to her room and took me another direction to do paperwork. I didn't bring her there for behavioral reasons, but for a medical condition. She was highly disoriented when we brought her in because they had me give her Ativan (sp?) and she was not thinking clearly. Within 60 seconds of being there, I heard her screaming. They had put her in a seclusion room. Two hours later, when I was finally done with their paperwork, she was still in there. I was so angry. It is such a fine line you walk as a parent. I need to advocate for her but I don't want to make the people who are taking care of her angry.

What was most upsetting to me is that they spent two hours with me doing paperwork, but they didn't spend anytime asking me about what is going on with her, what has been happening, what have I been seeing. So, she is highly medicated on this drug that is making her disorientated and not think clearly and they throw her in a seclusion room for two hours. Part of the dystonia which is tardive dyskinesia will at times make it so her tongue is kind of paralyzed and she can't move it and she can't talk. During the day, she would use her finger and point in her mouth to let me know that she couldn't talk. I would hand her paper and pencil. They were telling me that she was self-inducing vomiting and I just lost it! I said, "No she is not! She has never done that. There is no way that you are going to tell me that she is self-inducing vomiting. That is not something she does." This lady then said, "Well, she was using her finger and putting it in her mouth." and this lady then made the gesture showing me what she was doing. I told them that is what she does when she can't talk. Then I complained that they had spent no time with me learning what has been going on with her.

This was a very difficult experience. It turned out to be a positive experience but the whole first 24 hours were pretty darn difficult. The doctor following her moved her to a room with two beds and they allowed me to stay with her for the rest of the time she was there. That worked out real well. The doctors had to do some research but what we found out is that a medication she is on that was not known to be related to movement disorders, is linked to movement disorders in rare cases. They had to do some research to figure this out. That medication was removed from her regimen and we haven't seen any more movements since. She is on very little medication now, which is wonderful and I really hope that we can move forward without any serious medical scares.

On another note, I signed on my house on Thursday night (they met me at the hospital) and we are expecting to get the keys to the new house on Monday or Tuesday. We are actively packing and loading a truck. Yeah!!!!!