While I’ve been too doped up on prednisone and bennadryl to think straight, Teague has managed to be very productive. Yesterday he started putting up plywood sheets, which we’ll be attaching the clapboard to.

Almost looks like a real room! His energy and talent never ceases to amaze me. ;)

WOW.

Who knew an innocent little plant could do so much damage? Since my last entry, my poison ivy morphed into a terrible case of hives. And by terrible, I mean that about 45% of my body is covered in red welts and my skin has been scratched raw. Fun times!

The hives multiplied on Saturday while I was frolicking around Six Flags with my bridesmaids for my bachelorette party. Apparently, poison ivy and rollercoasters do not mix. I ended up in the ER that night, where they gave me steroids and high-dose bennadryl. I’ve been doped up on medicine for 4 days straight. The poison ivy dried up after the first day of steroid treatment, and the hives are FINALLY starting to go away. It’s been a very long, very itchy ordeal – I haven’t had a solid night’s sleep in about a week!

Lessons learned:

– Don’t go near poison ivy, even if you think you’re being careful!
– If you develop a rash, wash everything (body, clothes, shoes, etc.) right away, because the plant oil stays on things and will keep spreading
– If the rash is bad, go to the doctor right away. I put it off thinking I’d get better on my own, and got much, much worse
– Don’t bother with plain old calamine lotion. IvyRest, an anti-itch cream, worked the best for me. Ice and cortisone cream also helped greatly.

The good news is that it looks like I’ll be blotch-free by the wedding. I was seriously considering a bridal turtleneck!

A few weeks ago, I got this undeniable urge to give our living room some love. It’s the room we spend most of our free time in, but we’ve spent very little time fixing it up. It wasn’t a quick-fix room, so it just got ignored. The huge bulging cracks and holes were artfully hid behind paintings, like this:

Barely noticeable, right? Haha.

Months of staring at the nicotine-stained plaster falling off the wall got to me, and I couldn’t take it anymore. So I bought a sheet of drywall and went to town one day while Teague was at work. Keep reading to see the step-by-step process I used to repair some very large holes….
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Another milestone to record…..my first case of poison ivy!

I have a nasty case of it, no doubt caused by my recent obsession with cleaning out an overgrown patch of our lawn.

I wore work gloves and long pants, and made every effort not to touch the stuff, but ended up with it anyhow. I didn’t realize that you don’t even have to touch it, or that the oil can cling to your clothes and spread that way. Blissfully unaware, I’ve been wearing the same (possibly infected, definitely in need of a wash) sweatshirt for three days straight…..

Teague’s father will probably have a worse case than me, though. I showed him the plants I thought were poison ivy. He didn’t think that’s what it was, so picked one and was carrying it around with his bare hands. Ooops.

I just spent the last hour or so covering my welts with TechNu and calamine lotion, but I still itch like crazy. GOOD TIMES.

Teague’s hard at work on the kitchen as I type; he has framed up the remaining side wall and is working on finishing off the roof line. I feel pretty guilty sitting inside on my computer while he’s out there building away, but work calls and my arms itch……..

We were notified earlier this month that our house had been reassesed. It went up 8.5% from the last assessment, which doesn’t seem terrible to me. But I have no basis for judgement.

In the note, it tells us that we can file a complaint on grievance day – March 24th. On the one hand, our house is a mess and there are tons of flaws an assessor wouldn’t necessarily know about that we could bring up as evidence of it being worth less. On the other hand, I don’t think their assessment is ridiculously out of the park. But I have NO experience with this, so I’m shouting out to all you home owners. Have you talked your way out of a higher assessment? If so, how did you convince them? And looking back, was it the best way to go?

I’m sure you’re getting bored with my little progress reports on the kitchen, but, well, tough nuggies.

Ain’t it purdy?

I’ve outlined, in sloppy red Photoshop ink, where the openings for the french doors and a window will be. We’re doing a matching window on the other wall, too. We ended up getting plain vinyl windows despite my hatred for them because the other 26 windows throughout the house are plain vinyl, and we won’t be replacing them anytime soon.

The footer for the other wall is in the process of drying, and soon we’ll have the whole thing framed in. The game plan at this point is to get the shell done, put the siding, trim, etc. on to finish off the outside, and leave the inside work for later. As you may recall, we’re doing this partly for insurance reasons. Right now we only have hazard insurance, and if one of the neighborhood kids cuts through our lawn and steps on a nail we’ve got no liability coverage. Eeek. So once the kitchen looks presentable and safe, we’ll be tackling the chimney before going back to finish it.

This kinda bums me out, cause I’m dying to see what the kitchen will actually look like when it’s opened up, but not all good choices are fun choices, right? And we don’t want the chimney toppling down on some unsuspecting neighbor.
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Just wanted to note that I’ve got nothing against pink (as anyone who knows me can attest!) – and that the author over at Stucco House has the coolest handpainted hammer. I love crafty things like that!
If I had time, I’d be running home to paint mine. And if I didn’t have my own toolbelt, I might have been tempted by the pink one they sell at none other than Pink Toolbelt.com!

I’ve seen Teague eyeing his father’s Carhart coveralls, which are the ultimate set of “play clothes”. They’re rough and tough and will probably last a lifetime. But what about us ladies? Something tells me the Carharts aren’t exactly made to fit us.

I came across this site today, and thought I’d pass it along. Rosies are coveralls made to fit women, with built in knee-pad pockets. Named after Rosie the Riveter, of course. They even come in capri styles and floral prints, if you’re feeling frisky.

Hopefully, as retailers start to recognize the massive market they’re missing out on, they’ll be offering up some woman-friendly gear. I find that most of our power tools are hard for me to grip. Tomboy Tools has the right idea, selling a line of high-quality tools made for women. That aren’t pink.

We can get rid of one of our little progress tracker bars, because all of the demolition work on the back of the house has finally been completed! The dumpster was a very worthwhile expense; we filled it twice, and if we had any more room in there I’m sure I could have found more stuff to pitch.

On Saturday, the back and right walls of the old annex room were still sitting in giant chunks on our back lawn. By noon, they were in bits and pieces in the dumpster. Our neighbors are thrilled to see the mess go and are always quick to give us the thumbs up when they see us outside working. They didn’t seem too sure about us at first, but I think we’re winning them over ;)

Teague and I got to thinking about how much work we’ve actually done on the project thus far; when we added it all up, we were quite impressed with ourselves. We started with a run-down porch and a room that was completely decayed.

Keep reading for a rundown of what’s been done…
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is now lying upside down in our back lawn. Teague is pretty sure the neighbors watched with bated breath while he pushed and pulled and cut and chopped, hoping the whole house didn’t collapse on top of him. As you can tell by the photo, he put in another LONG but productive day:

It’s quite surreal, looking at your house and being able to see through it’s walls and ceiling. Having your old wall in pieces on the ground. Watching the closet door swing back and forth in the breeze. WEIRD, but exciting. Every time I come home from work it seems Teague has progressed to some big milestone on this project. I’m going to owe him big time, because he’s been logging much more time on this one than me, and I hate being a wimply little girl on the sidelines.

Want more photos? Keep reading….
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