The One With the Live Tour

The One With the Chickens

This is not The One With the Chick and the Duck. Just two friendly chickens and the cutest coop ever! Introducing Paprika and Ginger:


This is their home:


The Larsons helped deliver the coop and then Seth put the thing back together in the dark. Here is the first look at the coop in it's new backyard. Isn't it adorable? It was made by Heath DeWallace.
I am surrounded by amazing people!
I can't believe it, it's been about a month ago now, but I got a text message from Lacey (who lived in the next neighborhood up from us) asking if we wanted their chickens and coop because they were moving away. The same chickens and coop that used to belong to the Ortechos before they moved away. It only took me a nanosecond to say YES! and then wonder why the hell I do this to myself. You see, I was leaving to go to Washington for Sarah and Benjamin's wedding. And wouldn't be back for four days, just in time to do a little packing before working all day and moving into the new house the next. Becoming a chicken farmer really wasn't in the schedule. But there was no way I was turning this down! I had two days to prepare the jungle back corner where we would put the coop, which basically consisted of a quick effort of leveling out the ground.

But I have chickens! And, boy, do we have eggs! They seem to be very happy, well-adjusted chickens. I thought they'd probably have their feathers ruffled (ba-dum-ching!) and not lay any eggs for awhile because of the move, but these chickens are very easy going. In fact, the very first morning I went out to collect a beautiful, perfect, brown egg. I love my little ladies!

The One With the Yellow

As you know, I was concerned about the exterior paint color I chose from a very tiny swatch for a very big house. And the fear was totally founded. When I give people directions to our house I simply say, "Turn down the street and come to the yellow house." No further instruction, no house numbers required. Works every time.

We call this MoFo Yellow.

The One Where We're Moved In

I know, I know... I've left y'all hanging for far too long. And this is all you're going to get for now, but here is a view of the living room on one of our first nights together in the house.


Shortly before I took this photo I walked up the sidewalk and attempted to take some shots of the exterior, but it was too dark. As I was ready to give up and head inside, one of these seemingly innocent ladies opened the front door and mooned me. Mooned me! Seriously. I'll let you guess who... Never a dull moment living with a full house. I love it!

The One Without Carpet

The very first time I saw the house it had this carpet:

Jim ripped out all of the carpet in the house
to reveal these lovely wood floors:

And now they are being sanded and will look beautiful soon:

Funny story about the guy who is refinishing the wood floors, Little Eugene who works with Alex. I guess he's called that because the plumber's name is also Eugene and he's super tall, because Little Eugene is not a little dude. Anyway, Little Eugene was at the house during the framing stage and he was there when the windows were installed and now he's my floor finisher. He's always super hard at work and I've never so much as heard him say a single word, so I assume he doesn't speak very much English since most of these guys are from the Ukraine and their English is a bit spotty. One night after work I went home to drop off my stuff and I went through the back fence, as usual, which puts you behind the garage of the new place. I get about three steps in and realize there is a construction worker peeing right there behind my garage! So I turned around startled and said I was sorry and Little Eugene says to me in perfectly clear English, "I'm sorry for watering your garage." So I replied, "No, I'm sorry for not having a bathroom for you to use." All while he's still peeing. And we're dialoging about the peeing. Needless to say, he doesn't even make eye contact now.

The One With the Butcher Block

So, there is this family that lives just a few blocks over from us whom I adore. I'm always welcomed, even when I drop in unannounced, which is one of my favorite things. They are super encouraging, fun to hang out with, and have a couple of the cutest kids on the planet. Plus, they feed me delicious food and I, in turn, like to feed their children sugar, and the kids like to come over and feed Louie (my fish). I'm so glad we get to stay in the neighborhood and they will always be just a few streets away. Caleb has all these crazy carpenter skills tucked away and offered to install my butcher block kitchen counters. Look at how beautiful they are! I love them with an everlasting love.

The One With Color

All of the walls are painted! Thanks to wonderful friends and their paint skillz once again. (This house is a community house already - it's taking a village to put it together!) We even painted the concrete floors in the basement. We did a lot of prep work Friday night: sweeping, vacuuming, mopping. It was previously painted with oil-based paint, so we had to put the same on again - and boy does that stuff stink! It was like spreading glue on the floor, but it went quickly. I started cutting the edges and Molly rolled. My co-worker, Heidi, joined us in the smelly basement and soon enough Jeanne joined in the fun. Everyone wanted in on the paint fumes! No pictures since we can't walk on it for 48 hours, but you'll have to trust me that the floor looks like a gigantic swimming pool full of chocolate pudding. I hope they turn out well... the suspense is killing me!

Betsy's room is pretty wild and we decided it's the color of a J. Crew sweater.


And then there is the living room. Electric! But I like it a lot!



We still have doors and window frames to paint in the basement, plus both stairways and the doors of the main floor. Oh, and the cabinets. But the house just looks so much more livable with a fresh, clean coat of paint on the walls. I love it!

The wood floors are going to be started tomorrow. I can hardly wait to see how they turn out!