by Amy | May 14, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Dear Mr. Gorbachev,
I tore down the wall.
So it’s almost 9pm on Monday night and I haven’t had dinner. {Strike one.} And I haven’t seen yesterday’s episode of Mad Men. {Strike two.} I’ll show you progress on the second floor renovation…before I strike out all together.
I had an amazing crew of 5 friends and one visiting mother {a friend’s, not mine}. And one awesome contractor. Together, with professional guidance we tore through my wall and made one nice sized master bedroom. Here’s what I started with:
To clarify, that’s two rooms. One is blue, yes…very blue, I know. We used it as an office. The other room is the “master” bedroom. It’s pink. Pink floor, pink walls. I took this photo from the very corner of the room. I drew in those fancy white arrows to show you what wall was torn out.
Now…if you missed the previous post when I talked about ripping down the closet wall…you should go read that now.
1. Demo started bright and early on Saturday morning. That’s Darell. He’s starting in on the wall with a giant sledge hammer, nbd.
2. My house is old. So, go figure, the wall is old. We we a dirty mess from ripping out all the plaster and lath.
3. I’m very bummed this photo is blurry, but I love it anyway. As you can see, the girls were posing for a photo…leaving the boys to work.
4. Once we tore into the wall, we realized that there was originally a door connecting these two rooms. I just can’t figure out why. If you have any inkling why a doorway would connect a bedroom and a very small room {that had a closet of it’s own at one point}…let me know in the comments.
5. Good bye old closet!
6. Hello new closet!
I was so amazing how quickly we got the wall and debris out. It took about 90 minutes total. I told you I had good help.
This picture cracks me up. At a certain point there really wasn’t anything left for us rookies to help with. So we were pretty much just standing around telling awkward stories while Darell did the skilled work.
So now that all that is done, where does that leave me? Good question. I’m doing a lot of the easier tasks myself. Easier…meaning they don’t take years of industry experience. Not, easy like…easy on the body, un-time-consuming, or won’t make you sweat.
That means I’m piecing in hardwood between the rooms. Putting a thin coat of mortar over the chimney, which became exposed after removing the wall. I’m mudding and texturing all the drywall. Oh, yes and resealing the hardwood floors. And of course, doing the fun jobs like painting, picking finishes, installing a closet organization system and moving all the furniture back in.
Remember. The due date on this whole thing is June 8th. {And I’ll be gone 7 days of that…Florida calls to me…} I really hope I can make it. Who am I kidding…I’m Amy Allender. Of course I’ll make it.
{I hope.}
I’ll keep you posted.
Amy
by Amy | May 3, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Please, oh please tell me you’ve seen the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” It’s a 90’s classic. And you know how I feel about the 90’s. {FIY I love the 90’s.}
For those of you poor suckers who haven’t seen it, I’ll give you a brief…very brief overview. And a tip: Go rent it. It’ll only cost you a dollar.
Iggie Threadgood is a rough and tumble tom-boy living in Alabama in the 1920’s and 30’s. She isn’t ladylike and she has no desire to be. She is courageous and mighty and adventurous. Whenever she does something really brave {like rescuing her BFF from an abusive husband} she yells “Tawanda!” Or “Tawanda, the amazing Amazon woman.” I don’t know the backstory on that, but that’s just what she says. Later in the movie a present day Cathy Bates yells Tawanda while she rams her car into a punks vehicle at the grocery store and when she tears down a wall in her house.
Tawanda!
It’s a very hear-me-roar phrase.
Anyway. As you can see from the photo, I’ve started another project. As I alluded to in my post about the chair and the Gliffy program. This is my biggest undertaking to date. And I’m totally in charge. Which is fun, but stressful and challenging all at once. Ready?
I’m renovating my 2nd floor. What does that entail? Lemme tell you. Removing two walls, expanding the guest room closet, framing a master closet, refinishing hardwood floors, learning to texture plaster, framing a new master closet, framing a new wall…and of course painting and finishes.
I told you it was big. But don’t freak out. I’ve enlisted help. I’ve hired a professional to help me get the big wall down. He’s coming May 11th. And somehow I’ve suckered lots of friends into helping get walls out, carpet up, and debris to the dump. Man, I’m blessed.
The prep is well underway. My sweet, darling, lovely friend Emily has been husbandless this week. Her sweetie was off doing some training. So she volunteered to hang out with me…Tawanda style. Together we’ve ripped out a closet wall and removed nearly all of the carpeting that needs to go. I really should mention that we took that crappy closet wall out mostly with roundhouse kicks. Yep, because we are that awesome.
Our biggest helper is her dog Ellie. {Panda has been hiding in the basement. She doesn’t like dogs or loud noises…it’s been a rough week for her.}
So, things are good. You know it’s been a productive week when trash day looks like this:
I’m calling this demolition therapy. You like? Oh, and I should mention one more thing. I’m on a timeline. My family will be up to PraCan to visit June 8th…so all the work {yes all} needs to be completed by then. Tell me one thing. Amy I totally crazy, or just a little?
Have a great weekend. I hope yours includes less carpet glue remover than mine will.
xoxo Amy
by Amy | Apr 19, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Adventure
Well, we made it Minneapolis.
Barely.
Let me tell you…if warm weather late into fall is called an Indian Summer, I don’t even know what to call the weather we are having right now. Well, I know what to call it, but those words are not appropriate for my younger readers.
Okay, I’ll say it. It’s poopy. Down right poopy, I tell you.
Our day started out great. Blue sunny skies in Minot. We got coffee from Sweet and Flour {the best place to get coffee in Minot} then headed out.
But about half way the weather turned into this.
I thought for sure we’d drive out of it eventually. I thought wrong. This lasted the rest of the drive. 5.5 hours later {it takes 3.5-4 hours in clear weather} we arrived. Yes, that is the highway. Speed limit 70. Traffic pace 40 mph.
After a good dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the weather looked like this.
Poor Katie! She’s just a little California Raisin. This is no way to treat a girl on her birthday.
Good thing our hotel offers a free shuttle to the Mall of America. No more driving for us until it’s time to go home. Hopefully by then it will be over.
Seriously, this is nuts.
Amy
by Amy | Apr 16, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects
Today’s adventure? Snow removal and stuffing replacement.
When I came home last night {about 9:30 pm} the snow was falling hard as ever. And it kept falling all night. And all morning. When it had finally let up I made a move to go out and shovel…only to find that we had received nearly a foot. 10 inches to be exact. But where snow drifts are concerned, nothing is exact.
I have one word for all of that: Woof.
This was the absolute hardest shoveling I’ve done all season. So heavy, so deep. I only cleared what I needed to get my car out and a single shovel width path down the sidewalk. I know, that’s the cheap move. It took nearly an hour and my sweatshirt was drenched in sweat by the time I came in. I think I may have hurt my back a bit too. It was seizing up all afternoon. Yuck.
Since Derek left I have really been fine, but I did miss him fiercely today. Not in the sense that I only want him around to do the heavy work…that’s not it at all. Instead, because I really felt his absence today. Our routine was unable to go on. If he was home, he’d have shoveled last night, then again early this morning. He doesn’t do it because I nag him to. Just because he enjoys taking care of me. And it’s a way to allow him to care for me.
Bummer.
So I came is sweaty and gross and bummed. Then 15 minutes later I heard a snow blower unusually close. I looked out and found my sweet neighbor Henry clearing my driveway. Even the stack of snow I’d piled on the unused part of the drive.
I needed to leave so I went out and thanked him. He assured me it was no big deal and that the work wasn’t too much for his heart. {He had a heart attack in the fall…but is the time that refuses to quit working for even a minute.} Your prayers are being felt my friends. This isn’t the first time divine intervention has stepped in right when I needed it most. Your prayers are getting me through this time.
As for my second adventure: AKA the first project of spring…well, take a look.
I spent the rest of my down time today replacing the stuffing. In fact, I’ll be completing that task as soon as I finish writing you tonight. {I should really get back on a schedule for writing…but that’s an adventure for another day.}
Tomorrow I’ll show you how to repad a naked chair. Until then I’ll be cleaning up the mess I’ve made.
Amy
by Amy | Apr 14, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Adventure
I don’t think I need to say much. There were rumors {at least I had hoped they were rumors} about snow coming our way…but this is ridiculous. In case you didn’t know the date, it is April 14th.
Today I went to the Minot High School spring play. The key word is spring. Newsflash, this doesn’t look like spring. When I went in to the play it was barely snowing. When I came out I could barely see.
I’ve been home for a few hours now. The snow has yet to lighten up. Locals say this is atypical. And I really hope so. Welcome to my first Practically Canadian “spring.”
by Amy | Apr 10, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Design
This is going to be a summer of letter writing. Writing more letters was on my list of to-do’s for 2013…I just wasn’t expecting this kind of push to get me to act on it. But alas…here we are. Yes, we do live in a world of Skype, Face Time, email, and Facebook. Yet, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get giddy when a real life letter shows up in the mail box. Am I right?
There is something so special about a letter. It’s a piece of the person who sent it. Their handwriting. Their pen. It’s a piece of someone you love that shows up in a tiny box outside your house. For the low, low cost of $0.46. It’s really so very special.
And writing only becomes more fun when you have fun stationary to write on. So…without further ado…I give you
The Great Stationary Giveaway of 2013!
What does that mean? Well, put simply, I’m encouraging all of us to write more letters this summer by giving away custom stationary to all of you lovelies!
The top two examples are obviously fit for anyone. The bottom examples are specially crafted for my Minot spouses also flying solo for a while. {The icons in the lower left corners are Minot area landmarks…}
So what do you need to do to snag some swag? Easy peasy. The Minot Special is free to download. You can get the file here…Minot Stationary and Minot Stationary Horse. These measure 8.5×11 inches. Once you have the file saved insert it as a “picture from file” to a Word document. Resize it to fit and print it out.
The initial stationary is a little trickier since not all of us have names that start with “A.” To get your hands on some custom stationary you must do the following. I promise it’s easy.
1. Give the “Amy Allender” page a like on Facebook.
2. Leave a comment on the wall or drop me a private message with your what initial you’d like and an email where I can send it. Also let me know which design you choose. {Arrows or confetti}
If you are already a follower just write a comment on the wall or a message. I’ll give you the hook up.
Just an FYI…the initial stationary is sized 5.5×8.5″…so you can fit two on a page. Enjoy! Start liking! But act quick, the Great Stationary Giveaway ends on April 24th, 2013.
Amy
This post is linked up at Home Stories and these great parties.
by Amy | Apr 3, 2013 | Blog
I think it’s happening. Finally…
The snow is melting! Before Derek left we spent our last weekend completing a task that we’d set before us at the start of winder {back in October.} We wanted to build a giant snow man. The problem was that after the snow falls here it just stays so very cold that it never is melty enough to make snowballs or snowmen.
A few weeks back it was deep and icy enough that we cut a tunnel through a big drift in the yard.
But just a few days ago, one day before Easter to be exact, temps had been above freezing {about 35} so the snow was prime for building. So we suited up and got started.
Now, when I say we wanted to build a big snowman I wasn’t kidding. Not big like large. I mean big, like…feat of strength big.
You may be thinking, “Isn’t that snow heavy?” Yes, very. Each piece was very, very big and very heavy. We tried team lifting. Grabbing each others hands to make a cradle then lifting from a super deep squat. Yeah, that one didn’t work too well. {Guess who the weak link was there…}
So we supplemented our brute strength with science. We got our bags board out of the garage and made a ramp. It took a lot of pushing and put a lot of snow down the front of my jacket and into my sweatshirt {yikes}…but we got it up there.
The head was a little easier. It’s a bit smaller, even though it doesn’t look like it in the photo. Once it was up the ramp we could lift it up.
After that it was a simple task of shaving the surface smooth and sculpting it’s features. I’ll admit, this snowman is a masterpiece.
But if you think that’s impressive…check out this regal Easter bunny we also made. It’s totally okay and understandable if you are jealous.
Amy
by Amy | Mar 15, 2013 | Blog
Total transparency…I’ve had this photo for a while. I just keep neglecting to post it. However today seemed very appropriate. You see, yesterday temps here in PraCan reached nearly 50 degrees. My heart knew it was too good to be true. Today we received 7 inches of snow…and it is still falling.
Speaking of falling, I just shoveled the driveway and I feel like my arms might fall off. Luckily Derek pulled in and I tagged him into the ring. Thank you Lord for tag-teams.
Back to the point.
You may remember my first “Just Two Bros” post back in the fall. You see, I’m fascinated by boys and their friendships. They are so very different from girls. So when I see a random “Bro-Moment” I like to snap a photo. Plus, it’s always more fun to add the words, “Just two bros…” to the start of an awkward bromantic scene. If you didn’t read the first post, you should. It’s good. You’ll laugh.
Today’s photo is a bonus, because there are more than two bros, there are THREE! The key to a JTB photo is that it happens organically. It’s something you see unfolding without coaching.
On this particular day Minot had gotten its first big snowfall of the season. {I told you I’d had this for a while.} At the time snow was new and exciting {not so much now…} so after having dinner with friends we went on a walk. And, well, this happened.
“Hey bros, nothing is better on wet jeans then a metal seat in 20 degree weather.”
“Yeah, bro I totally agree.”
“This is awesome, but I wish we had a fourth bro to balance things out.”
If you spot a bro moment that you’d like to show off to the world, please, by all means, send it to me. I’d love to make an awesome caption for it and feature it right here.
Have a great weekend!
Amy
