Summer Wrap Up

What a summer this has been! I wanted to make a hodge-podge post with a bunch of updates from the rest of our quite eventful summer! The kitchen building is coming along nicely and our renovations are at a good steady pace. Atom has been busy building our custom cabinet pull-outs and other cabinet doors and kitchen things.

The 6×8 island has been framed and is in place. Since this photo was taken, the top plywood has been bolted down and is ready for the concrete to be poured. Just last week we purchased the rest of the wood we need to finish the kitchen (YAY!) so the rest of the cabinets should be fabricated and finished in the near future.

About a month & a half ago I had my third heart procedure within the past year. It was a doozy and we had to travel down to Indianapolis for it where the top cardiologist in the nation for my issue is. I lucked out on scoring him as my new cardiologist. He’s beyond amazing!

It was actually my second time this summer going down but the first time the procedure was cancelled literally at the last possible minute due to it being deemed “too risky.” I was devastated because all I wanted was my heart to be working properly and not have to deal with the awful symptoms that have plagued me so horribly for the past year and a half. The procedure was rescheduled for the end of July and I woke up 7 hours later and for the first time in a VERY LONG TIME I didn’t feel my heart beating. I can’t even describe it. Such a weird, foreign but awesome feeling. Besides the wicked pain I was in I was no longer aware of every single torturous dyssynchronous beat like I was before. I looked up on the monitor in the ICU and started crying. To see my heart rhythm that looked “normal” on the monitors was something I had almost given up hope for. I recovered remarkably fast which was amazing, and within only one week I was back up and ready to take on the world. I had to wait a month to be medically cleared from my cardiologist before I could do a ton but now I’m good to go!! I had used the hashtag #myheartisanasshole for a very long time and I couldn’t be happier to now retire it. With everything I have gone through with my heart over the past year & a half (technically 10 years, but things had gotten a ton worse recently) I knew I wanted an anatomical heart tattoo. Atom designed and drew my lung tattoo that I got in 2015 after I had Bronchial Thermoplasty (my lungs are also a-holes but that’s another story for another day) which symbolizes my own lung journey and also my profession as a Respiratory Therapist. Atom spent an afternoon designing my heart tattoo and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

While I was home recovering the first week after the procedure my neighbor gave me this hilarious kitchen towel as a ‘get well soon’ gift. It’s quite perfect for our haunted mansion!

Our garden is super fun and while we aren’t getting as many veggies as we had hoped for, we are still really enjoying it. We should have started our seeds much earlier than we did but lesson learned for next year. The massive volunteer pumpkin patch has more than made up for it! We currently have at least 20 pumpkins growing! Atom cut one of them off the vine Sunday afternoon and roasted it to have with dinner. It was absolutely delicious!!

A friend of mine gave me a rainbow pepper starter and that plant has taken off and we have purple bell peppers! They’re so much fun and taste really good!

Also growing are tomatoes, green beans (which are our oldest’s favorite to pick and eat raw) cantaloupe, zucchini, and onions. I already have my list of things I can’t wait to grow next year.

Now that it is September it is officially fall in my head. I love Starbucks probably more than I should and it’s pumpkin spice season which makes me so incredibly happy. I can’t wait for the trees to start changing colors.

Getting the all clear from my cardiologist meant I was able to return to my love of worship music. Picking up my guitar last week and preparing for the worship service at our church felt so good. I was amazed how easy it was for me to sing an entire line of a song without having to take a breath mid-way. Total game changer.

Lastly, our boys room (you know, one of the 826370 side projects we have going at the same time) is starting to make some progress. Each of our boys have worked with Atom to design their 15×20 bedroom with beds built into the walls and secret passageways. The three of them worked all weekend to get the frames up.

We found all of these crates on clearance for $1.50 each and the boys picked out what colors they want to be storage inside their closets. Our daughter requested a couple pink ones for her room and for the price we got them, we were happy to oblige.

Atom and the boys worked all day yesterday to get the other wall frame built and into place. It has been a lot of fun watching them being so involved in the planning as well as building their own rooms. They are already thinking of paint colors for the walls and what kind of curtains or shutters they want for their windows. I can’t wait to see what they each decide on!

We are so ready for fall! We have started planning our second annual block party for our neighborhood as well as another taco party complete with an epic dodgeball tournament in our basement, a few private ghost investigations in the building, apple picking trips and other fun fall festivities!

Bring it on!

~Theresa

Did someone say side projects?

I think any homeowner would agree that there is constantly at least 4 projects going on at once at home. Probably more like 40. Some are huge major renovations while others are small, relatively quick projects. This is our life. Only on a massive scale. Our list of projects (both big and small) is literally a mile long and trying to budget and put them in order of importance can be dizzying.

We are taking things a bit slower with finishing up the kitchen so we stay within our budget each month. The same goes with all of our other projects. We are completely debt free and we want to remain that way, even if it takes us a bit longer to finish all of the reservations and eventually open a business. It has taken awhile to really find the stride and pace that works well for work/life balance when it comes to fixing up the building.

This past month in between painting the newly sanded & fabricated cabinet doors & pull outs for the kitchen, Atom and our boys decided to rip up all of the carpet in their room and finish the original wood floors underneath. The floors that have never seen the light of day. This room is roughly 20×30 and we will be putting a wall up across the middle to break it into two separate 20×15 bedrooms for the boys and they each have 100% designed their space themselves. Here’s what the room looked like with the carpeting once their beds and dressers etc were moved out.

Underneath the carpet was this lovely (eye roll) green super thick linoleum that was also in the office that was converted to our daughters room shortly after we moved in. We were hoping it would have been just carpet over the wood like it is in the open living room/kitchen/dining room area but nope. Couldn’t be that simple.

Ripping up the linoleum was the easy part. The thick fibrous padding underneath was extremely difficult and took many days of tedious scraping to get it all off.

Atom purchased some mega industrial strength adhesive remover at the hardware store (a gallon of it) and sprayed it all over which was the saving grace of the darn floors. It made it come up so much easier! Still took some elbow grease and patience, but it was definitely easier!

After all of the padding was scraped off Atom sanded and sanded and sanded. He used a combination of a small electric hand held sander and our industrial floor buffer with gigantic sanding pads that were 60, 80, and 120 grit.

Once he was done sanding and we scrubbed the floors they were so incredibly smooth by themselves & were super shiny. They were even slippery when walking with socks!

We chose to finish and seal the floors with wood oil. We chose not to formally stain the floors any specific color because we really liked the natural look of the wood. We knew the oil would change the color of the wood a little bit but it wouldn’t be super dramatic. Atom put one layer of the oil down and then when it was totally dry he buffed it and then repeated the same process again two more times. We couldn’t be happier with the end result! The final photo is after the third coat of oil while it was still drying. Now that it’s completely dry it’s the same color and even still looks shiny!

I can’t wait until we are able to take up ALL of the carpet in the rest of the big open kitchen/dining/living room part of the second floor because the wood floors are so pretty underneath. But that would add yet another project to our current 472637 already in progress.

Baby steps.

~Theresa

Taco Vacay!!

Warning: tons of photos ahead!

June has been such a fun month for us! We have been planning a trip back to San Diego to visit my family and our friends for awhile. It was the first time we had been back since we moved to Indiana last spring. We were so looking forward to 3 weeks of fun in the (not humid) sun! On my last day of work which was the day before we left, we were under all kinds of severe weather alerts. The wind and rain was super intense. I walked out into the ambulance bay at work and took this photo:

I emailed it to the local news station and within one minute they had it up on their live broadcast of the storms. It was also featured on the evening news that night! I was so glad that we were leaving on our flight early the next morning and wouldn’t have to worry about gnarly weather for the next 3 weeks.

Atom and I had talked about how we weren’t sure how we would feel being back in the city we grew up in and the only one we had ever lived our entire lives. Would it feel weird? Would we be sad? Would it feel foreign? I had so many emotions about the trip. Once we landed in San Diego, it was definitely a weird feeling being back in town but at the same time it almost felt like we had just been on a really long vacation. Except for the fact that we no longer had a house there. My dad picked us up from the airport and being late afternoon on a Friday evening, the traffic was awful. Typical for San Diego, but we definitely don’t miss that part! We arrived at my parents house at dinner time and my amazing mother had 4 dozen rolled tacos waiting for us.

After we ate our weight in tacos, we all crashed for the night. We were still on east coast time and it was a very long travel day, especially for the kids. They are fantastic travelers and never complained once on the flight.

The next morning we went to our absolute favorite Mexican place (Las Cuatro Milpas) to have tacos and menudo for breakfast. If you know me well you know that tacos are my love language and I can eat them any time of the day. We also went to the store to get some of our favorite produce that is significantly cheaper in San Diego.

After attending our former church on Sunday we went to the beach for a picnic lunch (of you guessed it, tacos) and of course the weather was perfect.

And yes, those are wicked awesome cat swim trunks that Atom is wearing. I saw them at Target a few months ago and HAD to buy them! He’s such a good sport and such a stud!

San Diego understands my love for tacos 100%. I need this food truck to live in my parking lot.

Literally every single day and evening over the course of those three weeks had things planned and people to visit. We had so many people we wanted to give hugs to and visit with. There wasn’t a lot of ‘resting time’ on this trip but it was so worth it.

A huge highlight of the trip for me was playing guitar and singing with my former worship team at our former church, Newbreak. I had missed them all so terribly and having the opportunity to worship with them all made my heart so incredibly full. I feel closest to God when I am singing his praises and worshiping him through music.

One morning we went to our favorite tide pools in La Jolla and had a really nice walk along the beach as a family. On this particular day the tiny clams were all on the shore digging themselves in the sand as it was low tide. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of them that went on for easily a quarter mile!!

This is probably my favorite photo that I took the entire trip of the underside of the Scripps Pier in La Jolla (I took a total of 638 photos).

And of course we had more Mexican food for lunch (are you noticing a theme of this vacation yet?)

One night a longtime family friend graciously babysat for us so Atom and I could go to a fancy dinner at Flemmings with my parents and my sister & brother in law. We celebrated my sister & brother inlaws 16th wedding anniversary, my sisters birthday and our 14th wedding anniversary which was this month as well.

We had made several lists before we left on the trip of places we for sure wanted to eat at as well as ethnic markets we wanted to shop at to bring spices and such home since they are significantly harder to get in Indiana. We went to our favorite Indian market and stocked up on some favorites and grabbed 2 bags of lychee fruits which are a favorite in our household.

I wish we would of had a way to get all of this rice home with us!

I am very thankful that I had time to see my very best friends many times and we always have so much fun together. We text and video chat every day but it’s so much better to be able to hug them in person! We laughed until our sides hurt. I am so thankful for their presence in my life.

Atom was also able to get together with his “man friends” more than once and had a great time on a brewery crawl in Los Angeles and also a game night with them just like they used to do every other Friday evening when we lived there.

I had dinner with my TAPS team and we also investigated one of our favorite haunts in San Diego. Man I miss investigating with them so much! I was also able to sneak away for some daytime investigating aboard the USS Midway one morning before joining up with Atom and the kids and getting a personal tour from our dear friends who work there. I have given ghost tours on the ship with a group of other investigators for many years around Halloween time so I knew my way around the massive aircraft carrier but it was so much fun watching my children be in absolute awe as they explored it for themselves for the first time.

Atom & the boys were super stoked to do a ton of snorkeling at their favorite snorkeling spot- La Jolla Cove. If you’ve never been there, the cove & beach is shared by the local sea lions.

The 3 dots out in the water are Atom & the boys. They’re quite the little fish and don’t even need or use floaties!

My favorite souvenir of the trip was this AMAZING large piece of labradorite, which is my absolute favorite stone. The flashes of blue and green are stunning. It will go in the library on display.

But the real MVP of the trip is my sweet Apple Watch tan. LOL!

On our last full day in town we went to the zoo with my sister and nephew. We have always had year passes to the zoo since I was a child and we were happy to go back and see all of the new exhibits that had been built since we were there last.

Atom & I flew home and our children got to stay for an extra 5 days with my parents and they were beyond excited for their extra “Mimi & Pappy time.” We are incredibly blessed that our kids have such amazing grandparents that are my parents. They FaceTime and we send my parents photos all the time of our kids multiple times per week but our kids actually being able to spend time with the best grandparents in the universe is priceless. They are the best role models and the kids love them so much. We are so glad they play such an active role in their lives. We CAN’T WAIT until my dad retires next summer and my parents move to Indiana and we will be able to see them often!!

When Atom & I flew back home, we had to drive through a wicked bad storm. It was downright scary. Lightning was all around us & at times it was raining so hard we could barely see. I took this photo of a super scary cloud formation. It was like something out of a movie. We drove right though it too. I kept looking up waiting for a tornado to send us flying.

Thankfully we made it home safe & sound. When we pulled into our parking lot we both gasped& started laughing when we saw the worlds largest volunteer zucchini or pumpkin intertwined with possibly a melon growing on the front lawn! It’s HUGE!

As much fun as we had on our trip and as many tacos as we ate, it sure felt good to be home. Yes, home in Indiana. We miss our San Diego friends and family terribly but Indiana is home. The slower pace of life and our amazing little town. These city slickers were destined for small town life. In a giant 20,000 sq ft mansion……

Now it’s time to FINISH THE DAMN KITCHEN!!

~Theresa

We have kitchen countertops!

What a process these countertops have been! I feel like that has been out motto for pretty much everything when it comes to the renovations. But it’s all good!! We knew we wanted to do concrete kitchen countertops long before we even moved in. In our previous house back in San Diego, we ripped up all of the carpet on the first floor and Atom acid stained the concrete floors and they turned out amazing. He wanted to do a spin on that for our countertops.

Originally we wanted to get the kitchen built as fast as possible directly after we finished the guest bathroom. But then we changed our mindset and decided to take it a bit slower and really make it exactly what we wanted and take our time doing it, rather than rush to just get a kitchen built. Having a massive commercial kitchen in the basement in the mean time isn’t too shabby either. We have become quite fond of having 7 ovens, 12 burners, a flat top griddle and a commercial deep fryer to cook with! Here is the part of the second floor before we started the kitchen construction (after Atom had pulled up the carpet and finished the original wood floors.)

Finding places to anchor the wood into the walls was a challenge because it’s all plaster and blocks of some sort (I forget what they’re called). Atom had to use these giant anchor bolts and a huge drill bit to drill into the walls to anchor them in place. Being that the building is just under 100 years old, it isn’t built with the traditional drywall & wood so it has made the process MUCH more difficult.

One night I was feeling silly so I brought up the crockpot and we “made our first dinner” in the kitchen in progress. Haha!

Once all of the wood was in place for what will become the cabinets underneath, Atom laid the treated board down that would become the base of the countertops and seated the sink in place. Karen, one of our very curious bengals kept a close eye on the entire project. She thinks she’s basically a dog, or a human.

Wire mesh was bolted down to help with the concreting process and the sink was completely sealed off.

The first layer of concrete was mixed and put down. Atom added color/dye to the concrete to make it a “light sand/tan” color.

After that was all spread around, Atom came in with more concrete and really smoothed it out. He spent almost 12 hours coming back every 30 min or so smoothing out any bubbles and imperfections.

Once it dried, we had to wait 30 days (yes you read that right) before he could start the grinding & sanding process. While doing the initial grinding, there were several spots that basically crumbled and Atom had to add more concrete to those spots and then wait ANOTHER 30 days for it to completely dry & cure. Are you starting to see why this process has taken so long?! He initially tried sandpaper of various grits but that didn’t work well and after a weeks worth of constant sanding and going through 25 full sheets of sandpaper, he switched to diamond buff pads and got the entire length of the countertops buffed until they were as smooth as marble. He used 50, 150, 300, 500, and 1,000 grit of the diamond buff pads with the grinder. What took him an entire week with the sand paper only took two days with the buff pads. Live & learn! It was pretty incredible to feel the concrete as smooth as it got, I had no idea it could feel so amazing! I’ll have to admit the plain concrete looked pretty darn cool by itself even without any stain on it!

We initially had decided on some sort of brown/tan with a hint of red for the acid stain. But then late one night Atom & I were looking at stain colors to order online and came across a turquoise color & we both pretty much knew we wanted to incorporate it into the counters somehow. Not too much, but something to accent it here & there. We ordered a small bottle of it along with the gallons of the other colors.

We decided to make some earthy looking cracks with the turquoise. Atom being the artist he is, got to work.

There were a couple of places on the concrete that were the low spots that Atom had to add more concrete to fill in and they were left a slightly different color/look than the rest of the concrete so we decided to stain those the turquoise color as well. There are no mistakes in art after all!

After the turquoise mostly dried, Atom started applying the base brown/reddish color all over. He used a stippling & dabbing technique initially with a corner of a giant car sponge to give it a textured look and then sort of painted over it to blend out the edges. It’s hard to explain. With acid stains, you will want to blend it a bit to prevent harsh lines. Unless of course that’s what you are going for. Then by all means go for it! We wanted a more natural(ish) look. As natural as a brown/red countertop with a few giant turquoise cracks though it can look. Haha!

We did 3 separate applications of the stain. The first one burned for 4 hours. Then you have to wash it with a ton of soap & water (or if you’re fancy you can buy neutralizer stuff from the store. We went the budget route and used soap & water) to neutralize the acid & stop it from burning and wait until it is completely dry before adding another layer. The second acid application covered about 80% of the surface, focusing on where we wanted more of the shadows etc to be and burned for 6 hours & then had to be washed & neutralized. The final (3rd) layer we did was mainly touch ups and a few specific areas we wanted to darken. We left that one to burn overnight for about 10 hours or so & washed/neutralized it the following morning.

Once everything was thoroughly washed and air dried, Atom put two coats of this wicked expensive food grade porous sealer over the whole thing. After a couple days it was dry & then he put the final wet look concrete sealer over the top of it. He did a total of four coats of this stuff and each one took 24 hours to dry. Holy moly the end result is amazing and we couldn’t be happier! The countertops are SUPER SHINY!!!!!

We decided to go with a half-brick backsplash and Atom put those up this week as well and just grouted them in yesterday afternoon. Once the grout is all set we can clean off the bricks and we will use the same wet look sealer to seal them (but only one coat- don’t need to go crazy with it on the bricks). We will reseal the countertops annually.

We already have all of the wood purchased for the cabinets and all of the appliances as well. The bummer that came of the countertops is that from all of the sanding/grinding, the wood floors will have to be totally redone all over again. Sucks, but it’s a lesson learned. We’re going to build the giant island in the middle of the kitchen BEFORE we refinish the floor. The appliances will all go into place to have the kitchen fully functional & cabinets built & stained/painted before we start on the island.

Our children are super excited to be out of school for the summer next week so we will be spending a lot of time with them working on our giant garden (stay tuned for that post!) that they started alongside the building a month ago as well as other fun things over the next 3 months until they go back to school. And find time to keep working on the kitchen!

It’s also time to start planning our annual summer block party!!

Happy summer friends!

Theresa

Small town USA, aka Main Street Disneyland

Last Friday evening was the kickoff to the “Music in The City” series that our town has each summer. The first Friday of the month the Main Street that goes through downtown is closed down and there is free live music on a stage at dusk and it is an all around great time! There is usually a food truck or two and the local eateries are also open late as well. We started attending these events last summer and it was so much fun to see so many people come together and just hang out and listen to music and be in community. I met Atom and the kids down there as I worked last Friday and went home to change and then walked down to meet up with them.

Everything about the evening was PERFECT. The weather, the company, everything. Our friend Joey’s band Roustabout was playing and they are seriously so so so talented!!!! I was sitting in my lawn chair eating my giant ice cream cone from our favorite ice cream and soda shop Antiqology and thought, THIS is happiness. Small town life is our calling. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times Atom and I have looked at each other throughout the past year & said “how did we get so lucky to live here?”

As I was looking around I had another realization that made me literally laugh out loud. Atom asked what was so funny. I looked up and down the street and said, “have you ever noticed that our downtown is basically Main Street, Disneyland?” He looked at me like I had two heads.

Ok, I know what you are thinking. How could our little town *possibly* be compared to the happiest place on earth? Stay with me as I explain.

Growing up in Southern California, my family made yearly trips to Disneyland and I have always been a huge Disney fan. It has always been a magical place for me. That feeling you get when you walk through the gates and into the park. Main Street, Disneyland in particular has a lot to offer to make a person happy.

As I was sitting in my lawn chair last Friday listening to the music I realized that there were so many parallels that our little downtown has to Main Street Disneyland. We have an ice cream and soda shop (Antiqology), we have a coffee and home made candy shop (The Party Shop), a bakery (Sugar Mama’s), several amazing restaurants (The famous Nick’s Kitchen, The Berg, & The Brick House Grill to name a few), an old theatre that is currently for sale where local plays were once held. Our downtown has parades, live music, a water fountain, clock tower and I could go on and on. Are you starting to see the similarities?!

Many of the buildings have been restored and painted and brought back to life and are absolutely stunning. At least to this city slicker.

The city building/police department looks like a castle so there’s that…..

Even the bricks are magical! We have many yellow brick roads as well! (Not to mention our building is made of half yellow brick)

Another thing about Disneyland that has always captivated me since I was a child are how many colorful flowers, plants and trees are in the park. Over the past 2 weeks our town has literally EXPLODED with color. It has truly been a sight to see happen seemingly almost overnight. We don’t remember seeing it happen last year because everything was already green before we moved into town but it seems spring took her sweet time arriving this year. Flowering trees that I have never seen in person before have literally taken my breath away with their beauty on our walks and the tulips and daffodils are blooming in everyone’s gardens and popping up all over the place. I have taken a ton of photos because I’m like a kid in a candy store when I see these trees in full bloom and it has been hard to choose which ones to include in this post. So I’ll throw some of my favorites below from around town:

(Magnolia photo credit- Shannon Zuercher)

While we might not have Mickey & Minnie & the gang running around nor the Main Street Electrical Parade, I think our little town is pretty magical and we are pretty darn happy here. Our daughter (age 4) is always telling us there are all kinds of castles in our town. She tells her friends that she is a princess and lives in a castle herself. I prefer to think of our building as the “Haunted Mansion.” 😉

Find magic where you are friends! If you look you will find it. Promise.

Theresa

One Year Here!

One year ago today we pulled our little suv and trailer into the parking lot of our building at 1:30am. We were absolutely exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. We had been driving for 36 hours straight, taking turns at the wheel just to get here. And who can forget the water pipes exploding in the boiler room 30 min after our arrival from freezing the prior winter before our arrival as a result of our botched attempt of winterizing the building?! That was a fun experience! LOL!

I have to say that this year has blown by so incredibly fast!! Like we blinked & here we are!! Ever since I was little I used to try & imagine what the future would be like. But not the far out future- like 6 months to a year from that particular moment in time. When we left San Diego I struggled with imagining what a year from then would be like because I just couldn’t imagine what it would be like but it didn’t really scare me because I knew we would be okay and things would be great. God had his plan and even though it hadn’t been completely revealed to us yet, it would be in due time.

Sometimes we feel like we haven’t gotten as much done on the building as we had hoped but then we look around and realize that we really have accomplished SO MUCH! I mean really, when tackling a 20,000 square foot 92 year old building that needed some serious renovation that Atom is basically doing 100% BY HIMSELF with help from me when I’m not working at the hospital, it’s going to take significantly longer than if we were just hiring it done. And that would have costed an ungodly amount of money and taken the fun out of the whole project. When we were writing down the plans in detail for the order of the projects and projected completion dates long before we even left San Diego we had such unrealistic expectations which led to feelings of disappointment when those deadlines weren’t met in the beginning. Once Atom & I sat down & talked about these silly deadlines and literally tossed them in the trash and decided to just enjoy the journey with our children even if it takes us 5 or 10 years, our whole outlook on this project changed. We still have the same goals and aspirations for the building, but we are enjoying the ride.

I have become quite attached to our building and can picture us staying here for the long run. I’m fiercely protective of it, just like Earnie once was. It almost has a Beauty & the Beast magical castle quality to it (maybe that’s just the library & the staircase) as if the walls could talk. So many stories are contained within these massive four walls. I still meet people all the time who have their stories to tell me of their time inside the building for dances and fancy dinners. Hearing these stories will never get old.

I have so many emotions today. But mostly gratitude. We are so thankful for our little town. I’ve said it before but this town truly has welcomed us with open arms and took us in like we belonged here all along. We have made awesome friendships that we didn’t think could be possible after only a year here. We have the BEST neighbors in the whole world- our entire block is just amazing. I seriously don’t know what I would do with out each & every one of them. Our church family has been there for us in ways we didn’t even know we would need but they sure did! As we attend Sunday service this morning I know there will be tears because it will mark one year of our family being members and being so beyond grateful that God led us to The Well and knew exactly where we needed to be. Since we were so active for so long at our previous church in San Diego (shout-out to Newbreak!!) I was super worried that we wouldn’t be able to find another church that would spiritually fulfill us. Silly me. God totally had our backs on that one.

I have been thinking about what I would write about in my one year here post for awhile now and to be quite honest I’m still not sure and as you can see I’m pretty much all over the place. And that’s okay.

I have definitely had a lot of fun blogging our progress both here and on the Facebook page (and Instagram/Twitter). When we purchased the building making a separate renovation page and blog were not even on my radar. It was suggested to me from a couple friends because they thought it was a fascinating project & other people would want to read about it. I had my doubts but decided to give it a go to see what would happen. It still blows my mind that our Facebook renovation page now has over 7,000 followers from all over the world and that number is still growing organically daily! My original live walkthrough video that I filmed on a whim (after being begged to do so from friends) back in October of 2016 when Atom & I flew out one weekend to get the keys to the building long before we moved here has over 24,500 views and that number is also continuing to climb. The support and cheering on we have received from our followers has definitely helped us keep on with the drive and determination with this massive project. It will become our legacy.

Thanks for being along for this wild ride friends, we hope you’ll stick around for years to come.

One year down, a lifetime to go!

Cheers!

Theresa

Dubliner Cheese

Atom and I are both irish by heritage. Both of our bloodlines are (mostly) deeply rooted in the Emerald Isle. To say I bleed green is an understatement.

For those who know Atom and I well know that we have ALWAYS had a huge St. Patrick’s Day party at our house every year. We’re talking a grand affair with tons of our friends and family packing our home for an evening of food and fun. Traditional irish lamb and beef stew, irish soda bread from a recipe out of a recipe book we bought from Kylemore Abbey on one of our trips to Ireland, Atom’s home brewed stout, Baileys, 8-10 different varieties of imported irish cheeses, irish butter, a ton of fingerling potatoes and of course corned beef (which is actually an American-irish dish rather than a traditional irish meal but whatever. It’s delicious and we still love it and eat it often regardless of the time of year.)

We knew this year would probably be different. We mentally prepared ourselves that we more than likely wouldn’t be having our large party and we were okay with that. We have been busy with renovations with the kitchen and now simultaneously the master bathroom remodel and at the same time tearing down the basement ceiling which can only be done in segments as the dumpster is emptied biweekly. So we ended up just planning a super low key dinner at our place with a couple friends. While I was at work last week Atom went shopping for the corned beef and such. We decided against the lamb stew this year again to keep it super simple. We already had everything we needed for the soda bread at home thank goodness. What I wasn’t prepared for and what surprised me was when Atom told me he couldn’t find any of our favorite irish cheeses anywhere. I was so upset. It sounds silly to be so upset about cheese. But having those irish cheeses at our parties every year were pretty darn important to me. I don’t know why, but they were. And they were darn delicious. Oh well. Nothing I could do about it now. We had some other really delicious cheeses in our fridge that I had impulse bought at the grocery store (who doesn’t love a good quality cheese?!) and I had planned on serving those and making do with what we had instead.

This morning we woke up to some “wintry mix” weather conditions which turned to a bit of snow and icy roads. Bummer because we had planned on a family hike through the wilderness before dinner this evening. Trying to make the best of it, we quickly switched up our plans & decided on a family game day indoors instead.

This afternoon I took a quick trip to the small grocery store here in town for a couple things and as I was walking past the produce aisle toward the back of the store I saw it out of the corner of my eye:

A tiny block of Dubliner irish cheese. I let out a literal gasp and my heart skipped a beat. Tears began to fall and I couldn’t stop them right there in the middle of the supermarket. One tiny block of cheese felt so familiar and I needed that so much today. The joy I felt in that moment over a silly block of cheese meant the world to me.

When our friends arrived for dinner they brought over some lovely desserts along with this:

They had no idea the silly cheese struggle we had been battling all week and just so happened to have this cheese in their fridge. What are the odds?!

I wish I would have taken a photo to share of the soda bread when it was fresh out of the oven but truth be told, we tore into it immediately and devoured it. Sorry friends.

We had a lovely evening and the food was great as always and maybe next year will be a grand affair.

Here’s a photo I dug out from Atom & my first trip to Ireland in 2006, pre kids.

Go raibh tú daibhir i mí-áidh

Agus saibhir i mbeannachtaí

Go mall ag déanamh namhaid, go luath a déanamh carad,

Ach saibhir nó daibhir, go mall nó go luath,

Nach raibh ach áthas agat

Ón lá seo amach.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!!

Sláinte!!

May you be poor in misfortune,

Rich in blessings,

Slow to make enemies,

quick to make friends,

But rich or poor, quick or slow,

May you know nothing but happiness

From this day forward

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Cheers!

~Theresa ☘️

“Wintry Mix”

There are still a couple “official” weeks left of winter but I can feel it in the air, spring is right around the corner. It is hard to even fathom that next month we will have lived here in Indiana for an entire year. It feels so weird and awesome to say that.

We survived our first winter! Sort of. There has definitely been a learning curve about living in freezing (literally) cold temperatures that I have never before in my lifetime felt and having them go on for weeks at a time. Yeah, that was super fun. We sure picked a good winter to be our first! Apparently the past few years have been very mild in comparison as we have been told by many locals as far as snow fall totals and temperatures go. This winter we have gotten a decent amount of snow (although we have been warned it can be much more) but there were some temperature records that were shattered that dated back to the 1930s. Help me out locals because I can’t remember the exact details. There was a long stretch of days where the temperatures were in the single digits & below zero. The windchill temperatures were another new experience for me! People out here go more by that than the actual temperature. Another thing that doesn’t really apply in San Diego. In my head when the sun is out it’s a nice 72 degrees, not 16!! And then I walk outside and it feels like a thousand tiny daggers assaulting my lungs. It’s such a trip!

When it is that cold and icy the kids aren’t able to play outside so there were several weeks where we couldn’t play in the snow which was such a bummer for all of us and thank goodness we live in such a big building and the kids have plenty of room to play!

The back & forth in the weather is just so odd. It was pretty cold & stayed cold for a good deal of time but in the past few weeks the 30-40 degree temperature swings within a 24-48 hour period have been awful. The snow would half way melt & then completely freeze. Hence my completely frozen ice rink of a parking lot we had a couple weeks ago:

There is no water in that photo. That is 100% frozen solid ice. It was wild. It may have been super slushy the day before when it was 54 degrees but the day I took that photo it was 20 degrees. No joke. This is Indiana. The state we have grown to absolutely love. Even with its wicked sense of humor.

My parents flew out for a week to surprise our middle son for his birthday and we had a great week with them as always. They got to experience the up & down temperature swings as well! On their last day in town we got quite a snowstorm that produced really wet snow that made the trees look super neat and fuzzy! I wish I could have gotten a better photo but it was pretty late at night and it had all melted off of the branches to the ground by the morning.

Atom & I have joked all winter when we see the term “wintry mix” used on the news forecast that it sounds like a radio station or a pandora playlist. We even started coming up with songs we would include on such station. And of course when we would talk about it we would use our best radio DJ voices. Haha!

During this winter I conquered a huge fear of mine which is driving in the snow/ice. I am by no means an expert but I am very slowly gaining confidence. But let’s be real- I drive REALLY slow. One thing I am super proud of myself is I did not fall once while waking & slipping on ice this winter! If I can keep my lucky streak going the next month or so that will be fantastic! I’ve mastered the penguin walk!

This past weekend it warmed up enough to take a family bike ride to the park. By “warmed up” it was a balmy 42 degrees. That felt surprisingly warm to all of us! Even Stewart was excited to run around!

The building is slowly coming along (you know, the usual) so this isn’t going to be a major renovation update or anything. Last month Atom stripped, sanded and painted two old mismatched doors that were down in the boiler room for who knows how many decades. They have been repurposed to become sliding barn doors that now close off our laundry room that is off the foyer of the second floor. It is so nice to finally be able to close off the laundry room when I want to in order to give the foyer a classic look.

For any locals who have been inside the building at one point or another, you might not recognize the basement if you walked inside in its current state. Atom has been painstakingly removing the ceiling, which has proven to be quite the slow process. Only so much can come down at a time because our dumpster is only so big and then we have to wait for it to be emptied and so on. We are removing the ceiling because we are wanting to go with more of an industrial look with the exposed beams and eventually the plaster will also be removed from the bricks on the walls. So far it looks really neat but we still have a long way to go.

The kitchen is a work in progress but we are making good headway! Starting from literally nothing and building this kitchen from the ground up I think will be our biggest challenge in the building. Everything else comes with at least a jump start. I have been in absolute awe watching Atom tackle everything so far. Here’s a sneak peek of one corner from last month. Steady progress has been made since this photo.

All of my life my favorite season has always been Fall. After going through my first winter here in Indiana I think my new favorite season is going to be Spring. Not because I dislike Winter, I actually have absolutely loved experiencing all 4 seasons here now since we arrived Easter weekend last year. I noticed last week that there are buds on the trees and the fields are just starting to turn green. So cool! The bitter cold of Winter (especially this year) has been difficult for my health but every time I walk outside and see the snow falling it makes me feel this joy unlike any other. I can’t explain it. It’s just so beautiful. It’s quiet and peaceful. And it was nice for three months and now I’m ready for Spring.

Theresa

Is this real life?

Early last month I got a phone call from a friend of mine who also is a member of the local County Historical Society. She told me that Atom and I had been chosen to receive a Historic Preservation Award for 2017. It wasn’t until several months after we had moved into the building that we learned that there was a chance that the building could have been torn down had the Masons not found a buyer. I can understand that there are time constraints when selling a property and only being able to hold off for so long before having to make the decision to ultimately tear down a piece of history. I am sure there were financial reasons as to why that was a potential possibility. I’m not here to judge. But I can say that I AM SO GLAD WE BOUGHT IT! The mere thought of our breathtaking building being torn down brick by brick is devastating. I have always been a lover of old architecture but if you would have asked me a couple of years ago if I could possibly become so attached to a piece of history I probably would have laughed. Funny how things change when God intervenes.

We wanted to move to Indiana and own a 1800s farm house with a dreamy wrap around porch with a swing and a couple hundred acres of farmland with goats and chickens. And now we were being honored with a historic preservation award for 2017? How is this possible? How are we worthy of this honor? We are just a crazy family of city slickers from sunny San Diego who made a wrong turn 2 summers ago and stumbled upon this beautiful building. Humbling is an understatement.

The awards ceremony was held this past Tuesday evening at the courthouse downtown. It was really nice!! There were 4 Historic Preservation Awards given out to people in the county for various projects. Hearing their stories was truly inspirational.

We were given the award after an introduction & slideshow and we spoke briefly about our project and we have come to know that pretty much everyone in town already knows who we are (haha).

I absolutely LOVE meeting people here in town and hearing their stories about being inside our building at different times in their lives and for different events. It never gets old.

Being newcomers to this amazing community, we were truly blown away that we were even considered for this award. We love our building and we have had so much fun renovating it over the past 9 months. Don’t get me wrong, there have been moments of frustration thrown in there too! But it has all been a learning experience. Oh the joys of home ownership- just on a *slightly* larger scale.

Now back to kitchen building! It’s coming along!

Theresa

125 Hours

You are probably wondering why we haven’t finished the kitchen or shown any progress photos. We have a really good reason.

A dollhouse.

Toward the end of October Atom & I were talking about what we wanted to get the kids for Christmas this year and making lists for shopping etc. Every year we get each child one “big” gift from us and then the smaller gifts are from Santa (although our boys had “the realization” this year but promised to not spoil it for their sister.) We wanted to get our daughter something that she would be able to play with for years to come and something that would be meaningful. Then it came to me. My dollhouse. When we were packing up our old house in San Diego, my parents had given us some boxes from my childhood that were in their attic. One of those boxes contained a complete dollhouse kit that had been untouched since it was given to me on Christmas morning in 1991 when I was 9 years old. My older sister and I both got these elaborate dollhouse kits and my dad had full intentions of putting them together. He literally got about 1/16th of the way through putting my sisters dollhouse together before throwing in the towel. We weren’t upset about it at the time and had other dollhouses to play with so there wasn’t any resentment at all. Promise. The boxes lived in the attic for the next 26 years until we moved.

I asked Atom what he thought about putting the dollhouse together for our daughter for Christmas. He said it sounded like a great idea. He could work on it at night here & there after she went to bed upstairs in the “Egypt” room & could easily get it done before Christmas.

Famous. Last. Words.

The egypt room up on the third floor became the dollhouse building room and Atom quickly realized he was in for quite the task.

This dollhouse kit wasn’t just an easy “glue it together & paint” type of kit. Nope. Not in the least. This was a THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of pieces that were meant for the expert level hobbyist that would probably normally take a solid year to put together. Major props to my dad for even considering trying to assemble this thing when I was 9. Holy cow! There was no way he would of had time back then with working full time and then building TWO of these things?! No way.

Once Atom realized everything that was going to go into this thing he was committed and the renovations slowed to a crawl. So he got to work.

There were eighteen 2 foot by 3 foot planks of wood that had to have all of the sides and hundreds of smaller pieces of wood punched out of them. Then each piece of wood that was punched out had to be hand sanded, and either primed and painted or stained and sealed. There were over 100 individual slats of hardwood flooring that had to be laid down & glued into place, sanded, stained and sealed. 400 individual wood roof shingles that had to be individually glued into place.

Atom was really clever & took our daughter to the hardware store & asked for her “advice” about paint colors. He said he needed her help picking out some paint that she liked that she thought mommy would also like. He said she pointed at a paint swatch with 3 varying muted pinks that were perfect for the Victorian theme. Easy peasy.

I spent many hours up in the Egypt room with Atom keeping him company & helping move clamps around etc. But I take zero credit for any of the work. It was 100% his doing. The details are absolutely amazing. The creators of the dollhouse are something else! There are glass panes on the windows & doors and all of the doors & windows open & close and were individually assembled. Every single wood embellishment on the interior & exterior was individually glued into place. The bricks were a powder that Atom had to mix and paste onto a stencil. This part was an issue because it was so old and will need touching up which isn’t a big deal since Atom is an artist.

Atom worked every day on the dollhouse all the way up to Christmas Eve night when we were glueing the final shingles onto the roof and giving it a dusting of glitter (her favorite thing) and adding the last few pieces of crown molding before carefully carrying it downstairs and setting it next to the tree with a giant bow on top.

I had an old box of wooden dollhouse furniture from when I was little that Atom was able to use wood glue & repair & we also gave that to her on Christmas morning. When she woke up and saw the dollhouse she was absolutely beside herself. She was jumping up & down and couldn’t wait to play with it. She has played with it every single day since Christmas. It will be something she will treasure and pass down to her children someday and she will be able to tell them it was a gift that her Pappy bought for her Mama and her Daddy put it together for her.

How cool is that?

Now that the holidays are over, IT’S KITCHEN BUILDING TIME!

Theresa