The Old Girl

Remember this girl?

I love my girl!  I remember the first time that I saw her.  She was a beauty!  She still is.

We don't really know how old our girl is.  On the books, she is listed as a 1890 farmhouse.  That was the year that the one story part of the house was added though.  Feeling adventurous, I went to the county and looked at plat maps.  There is a house and barns on our property  shown on the 1858  maps.  So like a true woman, we are not sure of her real age.  Crafty ole bird!

Our girl was starting to show her age though.  The roof was starting to wear.  The last winter had taken quite the toll on her and shingles were starting to blow off.

Crap....

I am a very lucky girl and married to a very handsome and talented contractor!

There he is!  My very own fiddler on the roof!  He's probably thinking what the heck did she talk me into now?!

You see.... it's not a simple but down a new layer of shingles.  Oh no....  The roof already had 3 layers on so we had to strip off the old shingles to put down new ones.  Code in Michigan is no more than 3 layers.  But look at what we found!

The original cedar shake roof!

Be still my heart!

We considered repairing the cedar shakes and keeping the original roof.  Big problem was having 3 layers of shingles nailed through made for lots of nail holes.  The above pic is actually after we painted it with Deck Restore.  Did not fill the holes....damn....  

Goodbye beautiful old cedar shake!  I loved you dearly for the short time that you were showing!

Okay, the bad news was I lost my cedar shake roof.  The good news is.....

....I guess you have to come back to see what it is....

MUAAAAH!

When Life Hands You Lemons.....

HELLO MY LOVES!!!!

Miss me?!  I have missed you sooooo much!

I needed a break from blogging.  I thought it would be a couple of months.  Life decided to hand me ALOT of lemons!  One thing after another and now....BAM!  Four years later!  I have so much to tell you about to get you up to speed too!

First of all.....my kids!  My children are AMAZING!!!  You never realize how amazing your children are until they become your lifeline and reason for living, but enough of that!

My girl graduated!  Whoopwhoop!  Such a proud mommy moment!

Now it is this one's turn!  He's such a goof,but I wouldn't want him any other way!  BTW isn't his girlfriend a cutie?

And last, but not least, Not So Bitty Anymore!

Here are all of them dressed and ready to go terrorize the neighborhood.  If the boy behind Bitty looks familiar, that is my nephew!  He grew up too!

One more pic of the nuts, then we will move on....

Remember this old girl?!

She has had major surgery!  I mean MAJOR!  You won't even recognize her!  But that is to come in future posts.  It all started innocently enough with needing a new roof....  You won't believe her now though!

This old girl got a makeover somewhat too!

When we started our house remodeling, I pulled out of alot of volunteer work,including Relay For Life.  I told them I had "no time".  I think back about that now and laugh.  I found a cyst on right breast right in the cleavage.  It didn't change or anything, so I waited  til my once a year visit with my OB/GYN.

New Year's Eve, Bitty's birthday, I got the news....I had cancer.  WTF?!  I screamed, I cried, I begged, I bargained....nothing changed the fact that I had cancer March 5, 2014 I had a mastectomy of my right breast.  Just when I thought I had no time, I found how to make time.

I hate cancer.  I am also grateful.  This experience taught me alot.  It made me realize who I am.  It brought my family together to be supportive of each other.  To come to together when one of us is down and bring them up.  This was one of the hardest challenges I have had to face but thankfully I didn't have to do it alone.  My family and friends were right there beside me ready to take over when I was weak.  I am so blessed!

Now.....bring on the remodeling!  Hope ya'll come back to see what the crazy lady has been up to  in between surgeries!