Clearly there is not enough floor space in my 2650 square foot house to allow my cats to not have to cram into their carriers two at a time!! (Calvin & Malcolm pictured here) 

Me in gardening progress.... 

L.C. of course, loves the new garden. Loose dirt to roll around in, what is not to like? 

This is what I just finished - a small vegetable garden ! Compliments of MK, Amy & Ninja-G, via a Home Depot gift card for my b-day (this is the first half). 

Here it is weeded...this weekend's project. Doesn't look like much, but I sure was sore. 

This is my back garden area. As you can see, I hadn't weeded there in the last round on working on the yard. 

This is the latest project...this is an air compressor (named Fluffy), that is going to be powered (we hope) by a VW Rabbit engine (named Rabbit). Combined together, it is now named Fluffy Bunny. It's not quite done yet, but almost.... 

So my Gramma and her senior citizen friends are trying various ways to raise money to keep their senior center open. This is an article from the local paper, that covers the "Rockathon" that Gramma participated in. People sponsored her 30 minutes of rocking. Gramma is 88. She rocks! LOL :) The caption says, "Three generations from one family rock at the Ypsilanti Senior Center's Rochathon on April 29. From left to right, Connie Chapman, her daugher Melissa Chapman, and Connie's mother, Thora Keene. 

There he is - Teddy in his new stand ! :) 

View - top down. 

Oh yea - almost forgot. No shop is complete without a drill press. 

Here is Teddy's stand all welded up. Now it just needs to be cleaned and waxed. It is so heavy, I can barely lift it.  

The machine you see here is called an ironworker. And you thought an iron worker, was just someone that worked with iron, right? 

Here is the stand Chuck is making for Teddy - work in progress. This is a couple of days ago. 

Oh yea - you can't work on iron without a forge. Who knew we would have one of those. (I had never even seen one before.) 

L.C. is SO happy it has warmed up. She darts out whenever you open the door. L.C. says "hi" to Bob! 

Another pretty one, that also needs a bit of work. That's Chuck's semi in the background. It's name is Nitty Gritty. 

Fred, the prior owner, put in some pretty plants/trees. This one needed some pruning and got it last weekend. (After this picture.) It's like alfalfa, with the sticking up branch. 

This is 6 days later. Gotta love Spring. 

This was April 15th. 

Spring. 

Sometimes we just use our dress to clean up. 

Aleigha...for such a little girl, she has a big shadow. 

Aleigha with Mom. 

Pop ! 

Gotta love a picnic

We babysat for my goddaughter Aleigha a few weeks ago. Chuck and I, then we got Mom, Dad and Gramma to all come out to enjoy the fun.

Desem is so excited Spring is here. Chuck is going to build a fence out of iron, so we can get the dog off this $%^& dog lead. 

This was one of my "birthday preliminaries". Last time I was in OC, Chuck put a beer tap in the refrigerator door. Fantastic! 

This is Melissa & Jim's new baby - Jack. With his uncle Garrett. 

Hi everyone ~

So not a ton being done on the house. Work is busy and I just started yard work last week. 8 hours in the yard, just to get it decent lookiing. Spring is here in Michigan - and it rocks. Everything is starting to bloom.

We are working on the planning for the house and the new iron business. Chuck is going to teach me how to do iron working and in the meantime, he is getting the shop setup in the garage. Welders, ironworkers, cutting things, all kinds of machines.

He is working on my b-day present, a rockin' steel pot holder for Teddy (the huge jade that I lugged across the country in a trailer.) It is a wonderful piece and it's a great prototype for some of the work we want to do. The pictures are from end of March through current.

Hope you all are well.

:) Melissa

Lazy Calvin... 

Oh my GOSH - Clara has arrived. 4 weeks early and just perfect! She is 5 days old here. :) 

The cats and dog are making nice...slowly but surely... 

Calvin loves the cat jungle gym. 

And this is what it looks like with plywood. :) 

This is me last week, with Kim & Eric at their baby shower. Seriously, the girl does not look like she is going to have a baby in 4 weeks - crazy, lovely. 

Well, we know how I love insulation. Here is 9 inches in the ceiling. Turns out with 10' ceilings and wood floors - everything echos! 

March 2006 - Here's the ceiling, on it's way back out. 

Feb 2006 - So I had drywall put in the downstairs living room, after ripping the ceiling out. However, I didn't consider how INCREDIBILY LOUD this house is and subsequently didn't insulate it. So, we tore the drywall back out and insulated, then put plywood up because we are going to put in tin ceiling in the entire first floor (not the rental.) This is Chuck and his son Charlie - workin'. 

Chuck & Aleigha makin' dough for fresh bread. 

Turns out sometimes L.C.'s head disappears... 

Feb 2006 - Turns out L.C. secretly loves Desem (the pooch.)
 

For those of you that know Allison, Tony & Cyber. Here is Cyber in his new svelte glory! 

early Feb - Kitchen, in progress. 

Feb 2006 - Who doesn't like countertops and appliances? 

The upstairs kitchen, when I bought the place - mid renovation. Wow, seriously, someone picked that wallpaper, come'on. The cabinets were in but no water or appliances. 

I know, who posts a picture of the toilet. But check it out! It's the old fashion kind with the bowl and tank separate. The things homeowners get excited about, jeesh. We also have steam heat, so the old radiators work and make wonderful towel warmers. :) 

Behind...huge surprise? I think no.

Hello everyone ~

So I ran into some technical difficulties and was unable to update and found myself with no time to figure out the issue. Issue resolved for the moment. :)

The following (or above) are pictures from a ways back. I will note when-ish in the picture.

Hope all my peeps are fantastic.
m

This is the bathroom finished. Look a person can even take a shower. 

This is the bathroom half done. 

This was the upstairs bathroom when I bought the place. The open area is for a tub. The box holds a toilet. 

And it's been 5 months...can you believe it?

I can not believe 5 months have gone by since I closed on this house.

Things aren't moving as quickly as I had hoped, but that's what you get with a ridiculously aggressive timeline.

Post receiving the highest gas bill of all times, we insulated. But all of the heat was still going upstairs, so plans were changed. We moved upstairs. It had an unfinished kitchen and bath that is being finished enough for living for a while. The kitchen will eventually be a master bath and laundry room, but until then, the entire upstairs will be a living area. Chuck is plumbing the bathroom and kitchen right now. Pre and current pictures to be posted soon.

Once we get this livable, we will determine the revised plans for downstairs.

Hope all is well with my friends. Take care. J mc

This is the main attic, off the second floor....somewhere between 12-16 inches of insulation. It's like a snow storm in there.... 

So I got my first gas bill - $675. Wow! So Chuck and I spent X-Mas eve and the day after X-Mas putting in 105 bags of blow in insulation. Merry X-Mas to us! This is the first floor attic. 

The rental bathroom...almost done...finally... 

My (psudo) godson Scotty. 

My (psudo) godson Tony. 

This is my godkid's birthday party - David turned 17 and Aleigha turned 1. So sweet... 

My godson Charlie. 

My goddaughter Erica. 

Chuck: This winter the shoveling never ends.... 

We have snow! It's 32 out and the snow is heavy, wet and comin' down fast! 

Some of my peeps at the kbb X-Mas party 

Violet (of course) had a good romp, cold or not.  

Calvin: not intrested in leaving the house, but wanted to take a peek. 

L.C. (a California cat) has her first experience with snow. 

Malcolm & Violet being lazy. (You can't really see it here, but Malcolm has is back leg on Violet.) :) 

Thanksgiving again, this is me and my partner Chuck. 

This is my Papa and I on Thanksgiving.  

It's Snowing...

And that Murry picture was from this morning, it continues to fall....

The first real snow. Murray is not a fan. 

This is the dysfunctional kitchen. Oh my gosh! ACK!!! 

Post move-in. As you can see, Malcolm is not terribly affected. He didn't leave the bed much the first couple of days, but overall took it pretty good. Certainly better than the other kids.

 

The kitchen in what will be my place (much later). "We have walls." 

The first snowflake. I couldn't get a great picture of it, but it was absolutely perfect. So much detail in such a tiny little thing.
 

For those of you that didn't get a chance to see it...this is Amy's SECOND stained glass piece. Isn't it fantastic?! 

My peeps... 

Who is happy to be married? These two, absolutely! Oh my gosh, aren't they the cutest ever?
 

My Kim & Chris friends...on their Wedding day! 

Violet - This picture says everything about her. She is in Murray on TOP of the window. 

This is what everything looked like when I got back from OC. What happened to all of the leaves? The Japanese Maple is on the far right. 

My favorite tree (early November), a Japanese Maple... 

The latest (and stupidest)...

Hello friends ~

I have been a bit remiss lately in updating the blog. The cold weather arrived here in Michigan and man; it makes for a slow-moving grumpy-Melissa time. Let’s see, to catch you up….

So I decided to not formally move in until I got back from my last OC trip. Less traumatic for the cats. Less rushed. Easier for the contractors.

So I go to OC, with plans of my painter working on the last two rooms in the rental (my temporary quarters.) Well, he never calls and then also never calls me back. Since I was busy with work-work, I didn’t have a chance to ride him. So I came home to no paint and not much of anything else done either.

So the state of the place at this point. The rental unit, where I am going to move in temporarily: 3 rooms painted (but need touch up). The bathroom completely unusable, since we took everything out to put in the shower. And we wanted to paint before putting all fixtures back in. The kitchen a catch-all disaster: tools, parts, dirty and in deep need of some wall finished.

On the other side. We have a living room where the ceiling drywall is almost done. But keep in mind the place if filthy. The dining room is still without ceiling and needs to have plumbing done for the upstairs before the ceiling goes in. (I am going to put in a laundry room and a rockin’ master bath.) The kitchen how has drywall, ceiling and walls and is in the midst of being taped. When I arrived back in Ypsi, the drywall wasn’t done. The bathroom is usable (no demolition in there, thank goodness.) It has a small old bathtub (no shower) and the radiator leaks all over the floor. But it’s the only room on this side that has a radiator hooked up, so at least there is some warmth.

The bathroom that works is as far away as you can get from the bedroom where I am temporarily quartered, basically its right next to it, but there is a big wall in the way.

So I get back into town and I putz around and DO NOT paint or generally get ready to move in. So what happens – well of course there is trauma. On Wednesday night last week it drops to 25 degrees. Wow. I mean that’s probably normal for here, but the prior weekend, I had been outside working in short sleeves, so there you go. 25 degrees means it’s freezing, which means all the pipes in Murray freeze – not good, not good. So Thursday I have to reprioritize, take the day off work and spend the WHOLE DAY, out in the (still) freezing cold, unfreezing all of the pipes and then draining Murray. Meanwhile, then moving into the disaster of a rental unit. Needless to say, for those of you that know me, this is NOT a way I like to live.

This last weekend, I primed the bathroom and worked on finishing the walls. (They were rough.) And it turns out that I haven’t painted anything for 15-20 years, so I am not all that great at it. And drywall patching, never done that. Also, not good at it. So it’s a slow process, if you couldn’t have guesses. Very soon I paint the bathroom, so we can get the fixtures back in and have a bathroom close to the living space.

So much for the grand flourish of an entrance to living in my first home. But things don’t tend to work the way you think they are going to, do they. J

mc