Trials and tribulations

Hmmmmm.

We should be into day three of excavation. Yes, yes. We should be.

There's just a little problem with obtaining permits. And finding that our current design doesn't meet current zoning regulations. (Of note, our lot as it was platted 80-some years ago also doesn't meet current zoning regulations. This is a bitter pill, I must say.) And trying to reach the architect who needs to make changes to the plans so we can meet the current zoning regulations and obtain the permits.

OMG. We haven't even started and we're behind schedule. I really thought we had escaped the ever-loving foot-dragging, now that Tom the Builder is running the show.

O. M. G.

Cozy

No pictures today.

Rob, Sara and I have moved "out" for now, and I'll admit it was a little strange when I left last night, realizing that I don't have many -- if any -- more nights sleeping in our bedroom. Our new room has yet to be built.

Weird.

So for the next several months the three of us are huddled together in my sister's spare room. Actually we're not really all that huddled and for now we have plenty of room to sleep, get dressed, get away from each other, etc. But we'll see. We have a way of letting laundry creep in and surround us. Somehow though I don't think the sister will put up with much of that. :)

Excavators were out last week getting the lay of the land. We should be breaking ground two weeks from today. I can't wait!!

Windows: Before & after

One of Skip's first projects... Awesome! Hooray for windows that work!

Big doings this week! The porch is gone -- or at least going, in lots and lots and LOTS of little pieces. Skip and Rob both spent some quality time on the end of the jackhammer and the concrete slab is no more. Poor Sara looked out of Nanci's window and said "What happen my house? It's all broken!"

That's an understatement, sister.

Third installment (batting out of order)

These pictures were actually taken last spring/early summer but show that there has also been a big effort underway inside, too. One of these days I'll take some pictures that show the results of all this hard work!

Second installment

Big work outside this week. We got a hungry chipper and Rob & Skip had plenty to feed it! Skip built a wood shed, too, for all the soon-to-be- (or later-to-be-) split fire wood. Make way for that addition!

Let's start at the beginning

I'm Amy, and this is the story of the house I grew up in, which also happens to be the house where I now live with my family.  We haven't named the place -- "home" suits it just fine -- although it did have a nickname for a period after all the kids were grown & moved out.  (More about that another time.)

We live in Indianapolis, IN, in the Warfleigh area of a neighborhood known as Broad Ripple.  From the best we can figure, our house was built in or around 1936 (which just happens to be the same year my mother was born). My parents bought the place in 1959, just before my brother CJ was born. 

Mom and Dad both lived out the rest of their lives in this house.  They raised three kids, a couple of dogs and a cat here.  There were countless vegetable gardens and flower gardens, a constant rotation of cars in various states of repair, and a few dozen Christmas Eve parties spent with family and friends.

As we go along I hope to tell you the story of our home:  the people, the events, the things that make it special (at least to us).  I'll also be posting some pictures, from the past and the present, to help tell the tale of where we've been and where we're heading.

Here we go!