Leveling the Kitchen Floor

 When we pulled up the existing kitchen floor. We found the unexpected. Of course.

The Giving Machine

Post copied from Instagram:

We finally got to visit the Light the World Giving Machines! I have so been looking forward to this. They are such a BRILLIANT idea and provide an easy way to tap into the true, giving spirit of Christmas. Give clean water, goats, chickens, meals, toys and other items by vending machine. 100% of the donation money goes directly to local and global charities to help change lives all around the world. We decided to purchase a college course to benefit a local charity helping battered women.
Search “giving machine” to find a machine near you! (Open 24 hours.)

 

Christmas at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

Adam took us on a date to the a Christmas lights display at the Forth Worth Botanical Gardens. It had some magical moments! And it's only the second year they've done it so it wasn't crowded. I imagine it will get better every year and I hope we go again. 

Flooding and Sinking

When we had the chimney removed in March, we noticed our lawn was mushy between our house and the neighbor Bill's home. We contacted him and he consequently ignored the issue until I saw the flooding had gotten MUCH worse—and it was September. 

Surrounding 1/4 of our house was a swamp. The flooding had reached the base of the large oak tree in our back yard, cracks had started showing up inside the house, and our back door suddenly wouldn't close anymore. So, of course I started panicking. 

Thankfully we have no landscaping to speak of yet. So there was no loss in that area.

"Call insurance! What happens if the tree falls on the house. Who covers it?!? Bill or us?" 

"Our house is sinking on one side...what if our pipes crack? Who covers it?!? Bill or us?"

Adam reached out to Bill. We found out he had purposefully been ignoring the leak all spring and summer because of the heat, because he was mourning his recently deceased wife and out of work, and his very poor eye sight. So we realized this was a time to be neighborly and Adam literally dug in to help.

He and Bill spent a couple of days digging and fixing the pipe, but only to find another leak. Adam dug as far under the house as he could and couldn't reach the second leak; he would have ended up under water. 

In the end, Bill still had to have plumbers come over to fix the issue.

Also, the cracking in our house made us curious enough to try a laser level on it. We discovered the foundation truly was shifting and had already shifted by 3 1/2 inches over time. Shifting and settling is normal in Texas because of the clay in the soil but obviously it was starting to be a problem. So, we had a structural engineer come. According to his analysis the west side of the house is sinking. He recommended piers.

Piers will be installed this month. More on that to come. At least I'm not worried about the tree falling on the house anymore.

Cotter Trout Dock

Adam and Lee and their Dads went on an all inclusive, two day, floating fly fishing trip in Arkansas. It was the perfect way to fish for the older gentlemen and they would all return to do it again.

They enjoyed nice weather, wildlife and very good food.

Each person was allowed to keep five fish per day. Our freezer is full of fish who are just waiting for us to have a kitchen again.

 

Kitchen Renovations: in Progress

We picked up on the kitchen renovations where we left off—how many years ago? Four?

Several weeks ago while Adam was traveling for work, I decided to kill the kitchen and started demo work. I took out all the upper cabinets. (It was HARD. They were built in place, ONTO the wall. I couldn't simply take out screws like modern cabinets. I had to break them apart to get them off the wall.)

Here's a picture as a reminder of where we're starting.

Advent Calendars 2023

 The next installment. Sometimes they include me and send a video of the unwrapping—and I LOVE it!

Above: A screen shot of Irie's family singing a song. (The advent prompt said to send a video message to Dwynnie and they sent one to me too as a bonus! It was adorable.)

Process video:

Kitchen Window Install

I've been dreaming of more light in our kitchen since we moved in. And finally after TWO wrong window orders (the fault of two separate companies) the third order finally came in correctly (1ft. x 4 ft.) and we got it installed!