She has a name!

And it is Izzy! Short for Isabelle, of course. We had to pick a name today so that we could bring her to the vet to get checked out. She checked out great, with two exceptions. The vet believes that she is a little older than we were told. Based on her size, he estimates that she is closer to 12 weeks than the 8 weeks we thought. She also tested positive for an intestinal parasite which is very common in puppies. No big deal. The vet gave us some medicine to give her daily for the next couple of weeks. She had her first dose tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seriously.

She weighed in at 13 lbs and was adored by everyone at the vet clinic. It didn't hurt that we interrupted a nap to make our appointment. She was very docile.

THE HOUSE!

So a small, but important update about the house. We met with Patti Crum on Sunday (father's day). For those who don't know her, she is Mr. James' sister. If you don't know who Mr. James is, consider Patti to be Jenny's aunt. She is working (at no charge) as our interior designer. We discussed what we needed to in order to get things moving again. We can begin sheetrocking shortly. We have chosen interior and exterior colors for the house. I am excited. I hope to have the den done for football season.

New Addition!

So this post doesn't actually pertain to the physical structure of the house itself, but rather to those who live in it. We got a puppy! She is cute as a button and no, she doesn't have a name just yet. We are working on it. Her mother is a black lab and her father is a champion cattle herding Catahoula hound (state dog of LA). She and her siblings (I'm told there were 4 altogether) are the result of a hook-up at a social function for the owners of her parents. Her mother weighs in around 50 lbs and her father around 60-70. Hopefully she will be smaller than either of them *not holding breath* but we'll just have to wait and see. I am going to start a photo album for her.

Suggestions for names are welcome. She's active and likes to chew everything and is quickly learning what she she is allowed to chew on and what she is not. She loves playing outside and especially chewing on leaves, grass, and anything she can find. We are working on the house breaking thing and that's going okay. Right before we got her she learned to retrieve and can do that pretty well (for a 7 week old, come on...). She seems pretty smart.

She says "rwoo rwoo rwoo"

Explanation...

This post is a result of harassment from the peanut gallery via facebook. The reason that the blog hasn't been updated recently is because there hasn't been much progress :( The last couple of weekends have been pretty busy. My birthday weekend we threw a crawfish boil on Friday, recovered on Saturday (and played a lot of Mario Kart at Miranda's) and then went to another crawfish boil on Sunday. This past weekend we went to dinner and Will's show on Friday. Cleaned house, grocery shopped, moved my BBQ Pit and the buffet, etc. on Saturday. Sunday we hosted Mother's Day for Mom, Cherie, Mimi, Nanny, Ms. Shirley, Dad and Uncle Joe. And Tuesday night we had Grandma, Aunt Linda, Paul, Christy, Brandy, and Ms. Shirley come over after dinner (at Sammy's) for cake and a tour of the house (and some Mario Kart).

The one bit of progress I have made was yesterday. All of those dangling wires seen in the last post are a result of removing the closet. I used the VERY limited knowledge of electricity that I have to get the two receptacles and fan that weren't working back into service. And I didn't shock myself!! (this really surprised me; I usually find a way)

I will post as soon as there are more developments. Hang in there!

The Closet is gone

After a bit of sweating and cursing, the closet it gone. I guess there's not too much to really say about it. I used a flat bar, maul, and hammer to take it all out. I'm having a bit of trouble getting the top plate down. My boss has offerred me a larger pry bar and I think I am going to take him up on that. I'm sure I can get it down otherwise, but I think it'll be easier with a larger lever.

We now have to get on to the much larger and more daunting task of laying out the room (basically the electrical/lighting) and then hanging sheetrock. Anyone who wants to help (especially anyone with experience) is welcome!

Progress has been made!

So I know I haven't maintained my previous frequency with the updates. Trust me, I know more than you do! I haven't been making the steady progress on the house that I once was. We were out of town last weekend. I have been doing various small things and have not made a substantial amount of progress in any particular area... until today!

The main project going on right now it the remodel of the "den." In a prior post, the desk/shelving unit was demolished. Today I began to "demo" the dryer closet. 'What is a dryer closet,' you might ask. Apparently many years ago (long before I existed) people had washing machines, but no dryers. Apparently it was in these prehistoric days that our house was originally built. When the den addition was constructed, dryers were in vogue. In order to accomodate this new bit of technology, they built a closet in the den to house the dryer. This placed the washer and dryer in two distinct (although adjacent) rooms.

Some time ago, I set about moving the dryer (vent and electrical outlet) into the laundry room proper. Today I cleaned all of my stuff out of the closet (Jenny removed her stuff earlier) and began the de-constructing. I decided to remove the paneling before breaking out the maul. I think it is less messy this way. It also allows me to view and dismantle the wiring before destroying the framing. Today I got all of the paneling from the closet, the shelves in the closet, and all trim molding. Jenny also assisted me in hauling all of the debris to the curb.

I took pictures to post here, but Jenny damaged her hard drive and the new one apparently does not have the necessary software to link up to the camera. I will work on that for next time.

Update...

Not too much to say. Jenny and I are away this weekend and so won't be able to get any work done. The custom blinds that we ordered came in this week. They're just your standard 2" Faux Wood blinds. I have about half of them up so far. They're easy to put up, but I've been scrubbing each window as I go along. That's the pain and takes a while. I will update later this week as I hope to get some work done during the week. Stay tuned!

Shelf Demo

On saturday, after my previous post, Kristen, Chris B, and I took out a built-in in the den. I had mostly disassembled the shelves on a previous night this week. Chris and I finished it up while the girls picked up lunch.

It didn't take very long and was pretty uneventful. I have posted some pictures of the work. Just one more step in the sheetrock project.