The Last of 2008.....

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! Jordan and I celebrated Christmas in the new house around our first “live” Christmas tree. I say alive but we all know Christmas trees are just dying a slow death in our living rooms, which ends this weekend with the tree going into the chipper.

The weather here in Georgia has been odd during the early portion of winter. It was an informal holiday tradition for my family to go and pick out the largest tree on the lot on what usually turned out to be the coldest day of December growing up. This year, the tree was only 6-7 feet tall and it was a warm and sunny afternoon we when got it. All I know is that I would love to have some snow this year. It has been forever since I have been sledding.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home and then travelled to both of our parent’s house over the long weekend. It was amazing to be in north Alabama during the end of December and be wearing short sleeve shirts. While we were visiting north Alabama, Jordan and I ventured into Decatur, AL (funny how Decatur in both GA and AL produce our best finds) and stumbled across this beauty.

We love the Haywood-Wakefield stuff, but just in moderation. We think this will end up in the basement between a couple chairs. The table is in overall good condition however, maintains a couple cigarette burns (a sign of the times I guess). In addition to this Christmas present to ourselves, we were very fortunate to receive a wonderful new component to the kitchen.

Jordan’s parents gave us the new refrigerator this year and we both love it. It is the ideal configuration for a refrigerator that we have come across. It maintains both style and great functionality. If you think back to the previous post, you will remember a brief mention of three inches causing us a huge headache. Well, these three inches relate to the distance that we had to raise the kitchen cabinets in order to fit the fridge in the kitchen.

It was a pretty smooth process over all, and the additional height requirement required by the refrigerator does not impact the ability to use the cabinets. The tricky part was the builders of the house used nails to attach the cabinets to the wall. These nails were a real bugger to get out. A little patching to the wall and cabinet backs and then some paint and we were back in business. It looks good, and I think once we tackle to counter tops, we will be able to tie the refrigerator and stove into a more cohesive portion of the kitchen.

2008 has been busy and stressful at times but has been amazing. We are both so thankful to everyone around us and understand how a little hard work can really lead to great things. To everyone, have a safe and wonderful New Year’s Eve night and let’s all work on achieving a more positive perspective in the New Year. While it is often much easier to be negative about things, we all live in an amazing world with boundless opportunity and a place where we should all celebrate.

Happy 2009 to Everyone!

Some Loose Ends......

I wanted to take a second to fill in a few loose ends and to let everyone know what is coming up on the blog. I guess you can call it a teaser, as we just wanted to keep everyone up to date and perk your interest maybe a little.

Fall Fest 2008

Jordan’s parents were staying with us that weekend, but both Jordan and I volunteered and were able to begin meeting many of the folks that live in Northcrest. I was only taking food tickets which required me to be directly by all the BBQ and let me just say that the smell of all the food was wonderful.

Jordan worked in the children’s arts and craft station and she loved hanging out with all the kids. I’m sure Jordan (aka Fattycakes) loved sharing here crafting and art skills with all the great kids. Actually, I spotted Jordan in one of the photos from the Northcrest Club website (more of which can be found on the club’s website). All and all it was a great way to spend the afternoon and everyone that organized the event should be congratulated on their efforts. We both cannot wait till next years!

Northcrest in the News

One of our favorite magazines is entitled Atomic Ranch. The magazine serves as both a reference tool and inspiration. Anyone with any interest in MCM would benefit from picking up a copy of this magazine. Well, there is a great article complete with amazing photos concerning our little neighborhood. The best part of the article is that it was done by folks who live in the neighborhood. After beginning to meet some of the people in Northcrest, it has become very apparent of the pride that people have for the neighborhood. This feeling of pride comes shinning through in the article.

Speaking of teaser, you can go to their website or click here and click on the link to North by Northcrest and a .pdf of the first page of the article will come up. Reading it will make you want to go out and pick up a copy of the magazine for sure.

Works in Progress

The absence of recent blog posts relates directly the projects we currently have going on. Evenings after work are usually filled with more work on the house and then weekends are now held hostage (not in a Gitmo way) by the house. It is amazing how quickly a weekend screams by now.

Kitchen
Anyway, most of our attention has been focused on the kitchen. To any of you that keep up with the blog, your probably saying to yourself “I thought the kitchen was in a good place for now” after the previous post (Putting the kitsch back into the kitchen) concerning it. Well, not to give the whole story away now, but let’s just say major work had to be done and it all relates to three little inches. More about this soon!

Basement
The basement is one of those spaces in the house that we want to get finished up quickly but at the same time do it correctly. So, I have turned my attention finally to the stairs leading down to the “rumpus room”. The carpet has been removed and I’m about half way through refinishing them. Here are a few photos updating this progress. Hopefully they should be completed by this weekend. They have become quite a thorn in the butt so far but most of the real hard work is complete. We will be sure to post the whole story once they are complete.

"Before"

"At this moment"

Also, we spent some time painting the basement and the basement bathroom. The bones of the basement are now in place and we should be able to make some strong progress towards completing it in the near future. Again, stay tuned!

Painting
So, the next sentence I’m about to type is filled with relief. We have completed painting the interior of the house! When we moved in, the house was a empty beige canvas basically. The previous owners clearly followed the advice of their realtor and made the interior neutral or sterile in my opinion. As you can see from earlier posts, we are not afraid of color and all of the interior painting has really paid off. As my Dad said to me on the phone the other day, when they came over for Thanksgiving as soon as they walked in he said the house felt like a home. That meant so much to the both of us that others understand what home means to us and can see it reflected in the choices we have made so far.

Jordan finishing up the living room

Lighting
It is very unfortunate that the house had been stripped of all the original lighting fixtures and replaced I assume over time with bargin basement Lowes fixtures. As such, we have replaced most with collected vintage fixtures that Jordan and I have been dragging around with us for I don’t know how many moves. Jordan was right that one day they would be put to good use. I’ll get some pictures of the lighting updates over the next few days.

So, that is where we stand in the house. It has been a lot of work and there is a lot more on the horizon. But unlike my day job, the rewards are immediate in most cases and that sense of pride in the neighborhood I talked about earlier is certainly being applied as we work through the various projects. Thanks for taking some time out of your day to read these ramblings and STAY TUNNED!

Another Thanksgiving Meal That Could'nt Be Beat, Just Without The 27 8X10 Color Glossy Photos and The Implements of Destruction!

The cold air has started to blow into Northcrest during the past few weeks. I’m constantly reminded by Northerners that I work with that we “southern-folk” don’t know what cold is. Either way, the crisp chilly air that has come to town means two things. One, Pizmo has an extra degree of craziness which translates to her running around the house at break-neck speeds when she comes in from the outside. Secondly, these chilly winds usher in my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving.

I have fallen behind in talking about what we have been up to in the house, which is quite a bit. I will say that I will get everyone up to speed on our progress ASAP, but for now I want to tell you about our first Thanksgiving in the new house.

The stage is set, the chairs freshly re-covered

My fondness for the holiday clearly has roots in early childhood memories of food and family. My grandmother was simply an amazing cook and women. Her cooking was not something that you would see in a gourmet food magazine or on a Food Network show. It may have lacked fancy ingredients, sauces, and garnishes but her cooking came from her southern heart and soul. The food was real. I can still taste her chicken pot pie and chicken pastry (or her version of chicken and dumplings). In my travels as an archaeologist throughout the south, I have searched for a meat-and-three place that could match the flavor she created with little success.

But as I think about it now, the flavors she created were really just metaphors for her life experiences. These experiences blended with traditional southern entrees and vegetables created a glue that united my family together, especially at Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving holiday was always held at my Aunt’s house and was really the only time of the year when I got to see my Aunt Marisa and Uncle Bob and my cousins. My family has always been small which taught me to cherish these moments when we were all together.

When my grandmother’s health began to decline, so to did events in which the family came together. There became a gradual shift from gathering for celebrations to coming together during times of sorrow. Instead of looking forward to seeing my extended family, our gatherings became isolated events surrounding the passing of my grandparents.

Recently I heard a “celebrity chef” on TV talking about cooking. They were saying that the nicest and most real thing you can do for someone else is to cook a meal and share it with people you care about and love. I miss my grandmother terribly at times. I hate the fact that Jordan will never get the chance to meet a women that clearly had a huge influence on me and the person I have become today. So, this years Thanksgiving was an opportunity to pay tribute to her through food and by attempting to rekindle a shared family experience.

Our Family

Thanksgiving 2008, while not the first Thanksgiving meal I have cooked, was the first meal in our home with both of our parents present. I addition to family and food, Thanksgiving is wonderful because it is a holiday all about being thankful. With the poor shape of the economy today, there really was not all that much attention placed on Thanksgiving this year as everyone seems to be focused on Christmas and whether or not people are going to go out and spend money. With everything that is going on, maybe this year people should have thought more about what they already have, and not what they want.

The Main Attraction

Let's Eat!

So, with everything that has happened to Jordan and me over the past seven years, we really set out this Thanksgiving to celebrate what we have achieved and the fortunes that have fallen on both of our families. I wish that more of her family had attended as meals of celebration should be shared, but excuses seem to be rampant these days. But, once the oven was off, our parents and we sat down to a meal that was cooked from my heart and soul in a way in which I hope my grandmother would be proud.