My first photo shoot

This past weekend I went down to God's country, aka Starkville, MS to spend some time with my cousins, re-visit college memories and most importantly take some engagement pictures. Melinda and Patrick are getting married on January 09, 2010. I wanted to take engagement and bridal pictures for Melinda as my gift to her. I've always loved photography, but it has been one of those dreams that I have not pursued so I never could fail. Well, no longer. I committed to taking the pictures and no matter what my nerves were saying - I was going to do it. So anyways - are a couple of the pictures. I am very happy with some of the pictures and not so happy with a few of the others. I know that I really need to work on lighting of pictures - but practice makes perfect. So enough about that:

New Demolition

So, our posts have been very absent of late because not too much has been going on since the last post. David has been studying for and taking several of his ARE exams and I have just been working. We did go to Jackson last weekend to spend some time with the family on our long weekend and it was wonderful! I got to meet up with some wonderful friends and got to spend some relaxing time out at the pool. Going back to Jackson is always so peaceful and relaxing. Which was a good thing, because I knew as soon as we got back to Nashville, we were going to begin tearing down our bedroom. We returned to Nashville on Sunday night about 8pm and had the room cleaned out and the drywall off of the second ceiling before 10pm that same night. Boy were we motivated. The next morning we loaded up that drywall into David's truck and tore off all of the drywall on the walls before David left for work at about 9:40am. I then spent my Labor Day laboring. I tore down almost all of the plaster off of the walls by 3pm. I say almost because I couldn't reach the top 2 feet even when I had a step stool. I was worn out by the end of the day but very proud of myself for how much I had accomplished on my own. A lot of times when it comes to the house, I do not feel like I am contributing too much to the renovation, but this day - I felt I had earned my keep. David's reaction was even better than I imagined when he got home. I believe he said "wow" about 10 times in a row. Since then, David has taken the remaining plaster off and all of the strips of wood that are on the back of the plaster and loaded up his truck several times to take materials to the dump. My job today once we completely had the room cleaned of plaster was to vacuum around the bottom. I went ahead and swept and mopped so that we will be ready to get rolling tomorrow. I probably will end up mopping again today because the amount of dust that hits the floors is absurd. Anyways - Tomorrow we will begin framing one wall and the new closet as well as the window. We are actually making this room a little bit smaller with the renovation so that we will be able to add to the future master bedroom (which is currently the office). David is off of work on Monday and tuesday and he hopes to get the electrical done as well as the insulation. After that comes the drywall!! I am very hopeful that we will be able to get this room put back together soon!

So here's what you've probably been waiting for.

Before and After pictures of the demolition. There are no in-between pictures because I really didn't want to take my camera into the crazy dusty room.

Before with furniture:


Furniture is moved out, still have short ceiling:


Drywall down, plaster down, 10 ft ceilings opened up:




Hopefully, we will be better about posting updates over the next few weeks.

Possible upcoming posts:
- Trip to Fall Creek Falls with friends
- my parents coming to Nashville to help demolish our office. :)

Wow - I can't believe it has been a month since either I or David have posted. Time has just gotten away from us lately. I really had planned to post about my point of view of David losing his job and then I realized that I mostly felt the same way he did. So glad he is out of a job that he didn't enjoy. That's not to say, I won't be happy when he gets another architecture job and we can go back to the salary we were used to, but as of right now - things are good and my hubby is happy - that's all I need. I didn't fully understand how David getting laid off must have felt to him. I didn't understand until the same reality almost came true for me as well. A couple of weeks ago, our company had to lay off 60 people in the US. 10 people in the TN office alone. I lost the other two assistants that I worked with. I had to take over their roles as well as train a new assistant. So, I've been super busy and haven't been in the mood to come home and post. So, that's my excuse. And david - well he's had a a sporadic work schedule and I've been putting him to work as my "house husband." Plus he just finished his 2nd ARE exam and is about to start studying for Test #3.

I promised a while back that I would post pictures of the dining room when we finished. And I am finally putting them up. The first is the dining room once we finished and painted it. The orange in the living room was before we painted it grey. The second picture is of the living room.




We are probably about 90% done. We still have the baseboards to put up. However, we want to replace the floors (and the water mane underneath) before we put the baseboards up.

Taking a leap...

by David

About a year ago I began searching for a new job, while still at my old one. My current job had not turned out to be what I had hoped...far from it actually. However, there were tons of firms interested in me but the economy had started tanking and there were no opportunities so I sat and waited...which drives me even more crazy! Then a month ago I got called in to speak with two of the firm's principals..one of which was the president. I hadn't had a sit down conversation with him and only one person away from my desk the whole two years I had been there so I knew what was coming...Yes, I got laid off. They tried to explain it and rationalize it to me...but I tuned them out and let them talk since that part is more for their guilt than for me. It was a shock to be laid off for the first time...I got choked up saying goodbye to everyone but deep down I was excited! I was being forced to take the leap I couldn't make myself take.

So how has it turned out?

Well, things were uncertain but I had two weeks severance pay and then could get unemployment so, with that and my lovely wife who still suffers through her 8-5 job, we are fine financially. I took about two weeks to slowly find a part time job to get me out of the house and supplement the unemployment pay so I'm not solely relying on that. And I ended up getting a job for the place that was my absolute number one choice! I now work about 3 days a week for Cumberland Transit, an awesome local outdoor sporting goods store. I do camping and mensware and am slowly getting trained in the bike shop. I get paid to play around with the gear all day and hang out with people my age (the closest guy my age at the firm just turned 39...I'm 26) and you don't realize how nice it is to have a friend at work until you don't have one... Plus I get some wicked discounts on gear...just no money to buy any with...haha. But I have gotten to split my time between finishing projects on the house and work and my mental state has been so much better! Things are really working out and aren't solid yet but I know will continue to get better and better. Things may be uncertain and get tough for awhile but I'm am seeing what really matters to my heart and what really makes me happy. So now I'm working on the house, working part-time, studying for my next arch exam and trying to do little carpentry, furniture, and handyman jobs that I hope will turn into some income one day.

Life is good.

Before and Almost After

So, I was going to wait to put before and after pictures up once we completely finished, but I've had a couple of requests for pictures, so I'll just have to put up FINAL pictures later.

Enjoy our hard work!!

Barron and Tripp

So, last weekend David and I headed down to Mississippi because I had a doctor's appointment and it's always nice to see the family. We spent lots of time playing with my aunt and uncle's new puppies and laying by the pool. On Saturday, we had a fish fry with the family and some friends. I was so glad that Alisa (hope I spelled that right) and Dave Mosal were able to come and bring their precious two boys. Tripp just turned 2 in January and Barron was only 4 weeks old at the time of the fish fry. Here are some pictures I took of the boys.
















Don't worry Cynde - I'll post some of my pictures of the puppies soon!!

Update on the dining room

Here you go, mom!!

So as David posted below, the first project after his first Architecture test would be the dining room.  And we have officially begun!!  We are actually about a week and a half into it.  Last weekend my parents came up for Easter weekend.  For some reason, they always want to help us around the house.  But, we were not complaining.  They were AMAZING.  David had pulled all the wood panels down on Wednesday night (so my dad would not have to see that destruction). 
 Thursday, my parents arrived.  While mom and I went shopping, David and dad took down the wood frame holding the 7'4" ceiling and began tearing down plaster.  
When mom and I returned, we joined in on the fun.  I mean the work.  Actually, it was super fun just beating the plaster down and really taking out some frustration out (literally) on the room.



 On Friday, we took out on all the wood pieces that held the plaster up.

 We began about 9 am and finished about 11:30. And that includes cleaning!!  
We went to Cirque de Soleil, which was amazing, that afternoon.  For the rest of the weekend, we gave my parents.  After they left, David took out the plaster 10' ceiling which created a terrible mess.  

But, wow - how large the room seemed.  We were super excited about all of the transformation going on:

This past Saturday, our wonderful friends, Jared and Cortni came over and Jared and David took to the major task of putting up beams to hold all the weight from the two load bearing walls that we wanted to tear down.  Late on Saturday night, the WALLS CAME DOWN!!!
 I literally was jumping up and down and even ran across the street to tell our neighbors that they just had to see what we had done!  


Current view from the door:


Current view looking towards the door:


Next up is the electrical - which is what David is working on right now (that's right, a husband who can do it all) and the drywall. We are hoping to get all the dry wall up by the end of this weekend. After that it's painting and some floor patching.