Remodeling and other Silly Updates

I went to Lowe's today where I think I have a "rep." Actually, I was impressed the chick at the commercial desk did seem to recognize me as I bought my seven gallons of paint (four in "Mark Twain Oak," one in "Sand Swept" (kinda yella) and one on "Utterly Blue." And two rooms of ceramic tile, and a new cool retro diner-y looking light fixture for the kitchen, and some paint (yeah!) for the countertop. They make countertop paint now! I hope it works. It'll be cool like dat if it does. And copper paint for the over the stove cool old fashioned vent thingy. We also plan to paint the outside of this currently a blah primer white with ugly green shutters and I picked out a pretty blue for that. It's gonna be purty. We aren't, on this one, pulling up the carpet like we usually do because the people who might rent like carpet (I hate hate hate it. But I'm not living there.)

Anyway, the point isn't so much to talk about all the painting but my Fangtasia T-shirt, which I am wearing. It's got an address, right here in Shreveport, which, if you follow the True Blood series or Charlaine Harris books, you know is where the vamp bar is. On Industrial Loop. I got a TON of attention for this shirt at Lowe's today. I've worn it before and only had one person notice, but apparently the show is better known now and people were all excited. One guy said he was gonna go "check it out" (the place where the shirt says Fangtasia is.). I told him to be careful; there's vampires there.

Now for lunch and prep for a friend to maybe come into town later today. Which equals: cleaning the guest bedroom. Not a hard job, just gotta do it.

Silly updates. What's for lunch? Will someone bring me some Monjini's?

Day One

Those of you who have been here a while know about Sean's speech delay. Last year at this time I was involved in figuring out what was going on, what we could do about it. Over the summer we had tests, tubes put in his ear, meetings. He has had private speech and occupational therapy since mid-August, and it IS working.

But not really fast enough. Not that I want him to be perfect or anything, but he's still testing as about a two year old on his language skills. Since he'll be four in June, that's pretty delayed.

He can talk. He'll sometimes surprise you and come out with a whole sentence, perfectly logical, communication of his desire or need. But most of the time I prefers, like Bartleby the Scrivener, to not.

So, we finally agreed to put him in the "Special needs" class at one of the local elementary schools. He was qualified to do this before but I was afraid of what he might pick up from kids with more severe problems than his. He is such a sweet kid-- I don't want him learning temper tantrums & violent behavior. Many of us probably felt that way in elementary school, ourselves, but just had the ability to control it. :)

Anyway. Yesterday we set him up to go and today was his first day. I have to go pick him up in about two hours and he was pretty good when I dropped him off this morning.

There are all kinds of things to be anxious about. As a twin, he (or his sister, for that matter) have never really been on their own totally. Oh, sometimes, to a doctor's appointment or something. But they hold hands. They play with each other well. They are with each other almost constantly. Maia is mad because she wants to start a new school, too.

I'll have a shorter day of freedom/work ability, myself. I could put him in after school daycare, but why spend a lot of money when I can pick him up and he'll be so happy to get some "private time" with mom? But I think it will be good for him.

Anyway. This has been a big transition. Admitting that your kid needs help, that he get to ride "the short bus" at least for a while, overcoming your fears about how other people will treat him because of that above. Knowing that he'll be exposed to new things that you can't control. But wanting, so badly, for him to say "I love you mom" or "I'd like some ice cream"-- simple things most parents get way before now. Knowing that it will be worth it when he communicates better than he does. Being a little afraid that he never really will, in spite of all evidence that he OUGHT to be able to. That he has the lights on upstairs just fine, just doesn't choose to answer the buzzer when you call.

That, and Andrew probably found us another rental property, also in the local historic "Highland" district. This one will take A LOT of work, and it will be a duplex apartment. But it could be SO cool if restored, and if it doesn't have any major structural problems our inspector will go look for, then it could be a fun but very, very busy summer for me working on the restoration.

We call ourselves slum lords but really, if we really were, we wouldn't be restoring these places and doing all this work; we'd leave them the way they are. But it's super cool. We're going to post some "after" pictures of the place I've been working on the last few weeks soon. So there. Day one of two things. Sean + possible rental property project.

And life goes on, and there is so much more to think about.

Adventures in Home-Repair

So our rental property is all set to go. We have tenants-- a sweet couple who don't have excellent credit but who are trying. They have three cute kids and love the house and I think they have paid the same rent for a real craphole in a bad neighborhood and so are thrilled to be getting something much nicer in a better neighborhood. In other words-- they know what is out there and they know how much we ROCK. I really really wish we had thought to take "before" pictures. The place was such a mess-- dark, smelled musty and old-lady, with ugly 30 year old curtains that fell apart when I moved them that had been stapled to the walls to keep them tight, ugly ORANGE carpet in one room, blue dingy nicotine stained wood paneling in one bedroom, three layers of wallpaper from various periods peeling but stapled (seriously) to the walls in the hallway/foyer. Lamps that looked stripped, as though if you tried to change the bulb you'd get a shock. Etc, etc.

We finished up the last little things last week. I put up wallpaper, we had our handyman refinish the wood floors. Yes, when the tenants tried to move in a fridge, the movers scratched the floor a little (figures). I put up "lace curtain Irish" pretty curtains. We put up the pretty little part glass, part nice plastic chandeliers you can see in the picture-- from Lowe's, not super expensive but soooo pretty.....

It just rocks. Seriously. I love this little house. If I were living there, I would probably make some of the rooms bright, bold colors, and we did this place in white, mostly, but I still really love it. One of the things that I feel good about is fixing up a historic house from a sad state of disrepair. And when we get the roof done, that will be even more so because while the roof isn't yet leaking, it's not long til it will be and that would just trash this "diamond in the rough" home.

So I'll shut up about it and post some pictures. The first is the view down the Living Room/Dining room area. You can't really see the big awesome china built-ins. But that's allright. The other picture is Maia. While I was doing the last bits of cleanup (vacuuming, picking up shreds of the ancient wallpaper from the closets) she wanted so much to help. I put her to scrubbing up the bits of white paint that someone (Andrew, maybe?) tracked over the fresh wood shiny stuff. (It didn't work. And the place is NOT perfect. But still.) Our little Cindermaia, hard at work.

I just have to finish off saying that I truly hope the local authorities don't freak out so much about this incoming Hurricane if it isn't truly coming this way. It looks like it's going to Houston (where my sister just moved, funnily enough...) so we do not need to cancel everything here in our little town. I JUST got my syllabuses re-organized, please!!!