Finally...time to work on the house

Joy Ann (3 years old)

 Isaac (5 years old)

Well, here we are after closing/selling out of two businesses and 30 years of hard work.  I'm pretty much retired (except for my needlework and housekeeping, of course) and Tim, my husband is working individual contracts from home (we are software engineers...well, he is now - I'm pretty much a very relaxed housewife and mom with a lot of "relaxing" housework to do!)

Tim and the kids and I live in a little town at the foot of the Smokey Mountains in East Tennessee.  We raised two beautiful boys who are now 25 and 22 and had a brief stint with insanity wherein we birthed two more children who are now 3 and 5 (photos above).  The four of them are our lives and we live, eat and breath for them.  In fact, the insanity extended into buying a travel trailer (fancy words for a camper we drag behind our conversion van) wherein we camp on the weekends with the little ones.  Do we spoil them?  Bwa-ha-ha...it's like having grandchildren who live with us!

So, now we have all this "time" to spend doing the things we've put off for 30 years.  We've started with the house....a little brick 1930's rancher my grandaddy built that resides on 30 acres of beautiful pasture.  First stop on the "to do list"?  New windows and doors....now there's sticker shock.  $14,000.00 later we're waiting on Thursday to arrive so they can install them.  Who knew a new door would cost $1,500??  Holy Toledo.  We were in the wrong business.

We kind of made the mistake of gutting the kitchen (me?  over-enthusiastic?) before thinking it through, so here we sit with no kitchen and a house in total disarray.  I'm responsible for patching sheet rock - ha ha ha!  That's a whole new level of fun I am here to tell you.  I also have to paint, clean, and figure out where we will find time to install the new cabinets and refinish the hardwood floors.  Madness, I tell you.  Check out the photo of our kitchen - nuts!

Underneath that gorgeous linoleum you see on the right and all that dust are beautiful oak hardwood floors we uncovered...along with the smells of 100 years of greasy Southern cooking - ewwww.  So, lots of cleaning and organizing to do before I get to my beloved needlework.  You see, Tim and I owned a quilt and needlework store before "retiring", so I am SOOO excited to get back to actually doing the quilting and needlework.  Anyone who has owned a retail store will tell you - you have no time at all to do what you love.

First things first, though.  I'm off to work with Pedro, our electrician, today to wrap up our outstanding electrical items and Tim will be digging a trench in the flower beds behind the house to re-route the laundry plumbing (seriously?) since it wasn't done properly in the beginning.  Hot flashes here I come!

Amy