Craftsman Restoration

Before it all began...

The roofing process begins.

Welcome the the first of what I promise will be many amusing posts documenting the restoration of our 1930's Craftsman style house, who shall hereafter be named Wellington. We bought Wellington in 1999 just before we got married. We fell in love with the fireplace, harwood floors, quaint antique features, bar in the basement (Mark) and it's "potential". If you're laughing already, you know where this is headed. While Wellington is is great shape for his age, he is still 80 years old and quite the money pit in his own right. We put the house on the market for awhile last year and after zero luck, decided to stay and remodel. And while we like our house, that decision will prove to be a test of our patience and luck this summer and fall. For me, blogging about it will be an outlet for my frustrations. But first things first, the history.

Our quaint little town is about 180 years old and my family has been here for at least 80. The town doctor in the 1870's and 80s was Dr. Wellington Holtzman. He then moved to Detroit for awhile but returned to retire here and built our house in 1930. He built it well, it has a solid foundation and the materials are stuff you don't find cheap anymore. Sadly, he died only 3 years later. From what I can figure, we are around the 5th or 6th owners. So in the good Doc's honor, I'll call the house Wellington. We believe Wellington still pays visits but our ghostly side of the house I will save for a future post.

Our goal is to make the exterior as close to the original look of a 1930's Craftsman bungalow as possible. Me being a history major and Mark being an architecture major and both of us loving histoical architecture, we should love this and and be good at it right? (I really hope you all are laughing right now, because this has all the makings of a good TV show) We are also turning the upstairs into a new bedroom and bath as well as various odds and ends throughout the house.

Pray for us, stop by often as we promise to amuse and by the end of the fall we hope that we and the good Doctor are happy with the results!

Dinosaurs & Geocaching Fun

We started geocaching way back in 2002 back when it was just us and Teddy. Now my trusty Magellan GPS is 8 years old and pretty dinosaur-like itself but it still works and since the kids are older, we're trying to get back into it. Z really finds it fun now that he's almost 4. In a nutshell, geocaching is using a GPS to find little caches where you log your visit and exchange little goodies. It's basically high-tech treasure hunting. M was just on for the ride and happy to find pinecones.

We also paid a visit to MSU recently since Z is into the dinosaur phase that almost all kids seem to go through. We only live about half hour from campus and they happened to have a few bones on hand. Funny thing, he really wasn't impressed. (Neither was I. Thumbs down for the MSU museum, way outdated and boring.) I don't think he could quite make the leap from the dinosaurs he was seeing in his books to the skeletons. He's almost understanding what a fossil is but not quite. Too bad he won't be with us when we see "Sue" the T-Rex this summer on our anniversary trip.

Mother's Day

M and Z on Easter 2010.

Flashback 1 and almost 4 years ago...

Happy Mommy's Day to all you moms out there. Can you guess which baby is which? I even had them in the exact same room so you can't tell that way either. It's funny how much they looked alike at birth but look so different now. Man how time flies. Today was a good balance of spending time with them and getting to relax. Mark tried to let me sleep in, Z had other ideas. I didn't have to cook all day and the weather was nice. Today was a nice reminder of how great our own moms are and how much being a mom means to me. It's a job I wasn't sure I'd ever have, the hardest one I will ever do and by far the most rewarding. Lucky for me I had a great example to follow!

I've been a total slacker on posting lately. Sorry about that. This time of year is crazy. Only 5 weeks left of school. AP test is over but we have all the end of the year hoopla to do yet, prom, honors nights, graduation. Z started soccer once a week and we are in the throes of getting our house sized up for remodeling. Somewhere in there we eat and sleep. Sunny days of sitting on the beach and camping up north await though! Check back, I will post more often. Even though I'm a slacker, the kids keep growing.