Drywall

Drywall is some heavy stuff- even if it is labeled "lite"... The drywall was delivered to Tori and Matt's house on 5/6/16.  It was 70 boards that 4X12 foot boards  and 37 4X8 boards.  The 12" weighed 60 pounds a piece and the 8 weighed 40 pounds.  Keep you calculator put up, I'm going to do the calculation for you - that is 5,680 pounds of drywall.... Yep, all this had to be carried into the house.

Matt and Rod headed over there in the afternoon and started carrying them in.  My Dad didn't want to be left out of the fun so he had to come help.

Going up the steps was not easy.

Taking a break and stretching out their back.

Union Awards

Friday morning had us getting up early and heading to Union. Tori had been notified that she was getting an awards on Senior awards day.  We didn't know what the award was until we got there.  Very proud of her for bringing home the academic medal (that she gets to wear at graduation ) for the highest grade point average in her major.  She is graduating college in 3 years with a 4.0 GPA.  She has worked hard and is very deserving of her award.

While at Union, they were handing out the printed edition of their magazine.  We knew that there was an article about Tori and her Spanish ministry in the magazine.  I was very proud to read about her servants heart in serving this under served Spanish prisons. If you have 2 minutes, click on the link.  It is a quick read. http://www.cardinalandcream.info/2016/found-in-translation-letter-ministry-reaches-out-to-prisoners/

FFA Banquet

FFA has been very special to Tina.  She loves the organization, but she especially loves the adviser.  Mr. Silvey has been a big part of her high school career and has been a stable force for 1st period for three years in a row.  This year as the President of the Sycamore Chapter, Tina has worked hard to help make the club the best it could be.  At the awards banquet this year, her and Peyton spent a lot of time setting up and making it a success.  Tina got both outstanding Junior plaque and the Leadership Award.  Proud of how hard she has worked for this club.  She will miss both FFA and Mr. Silvey next year!!!

Electrical, Plumbing, Framing, Sub Floor

With the drywall about to start, it meant a huge rush to get everything done.  At some point I will make a post and really take the time to think everyone that has helped out.  This push included Mike hanging lights and running wire, My Dad working every single day crawling in the crawlspace to run new electrical.  Rod running plumbing, Rod and Matt both working on framing, and Rod and his Dad replacing sub floor. That is two in the over 60 category working hard!

Too much work was going on for good pictures... but here is one picture I got of Mark.

Happy Big 90 Granny!

90 years - The Great Depression, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Birth of the computers, Pearl Harbor, First man in Space, and many, many, many, many other things.... Granny has been around for an amazing amount of events.  She is one of the most creative and talented people that I have ever known.  At 90 years old, she is still sewing every day.  In the past year for my family alone, she has pieced together 2 quilts from some squares that were Mrs. Maynards, repaired my quilt that she made 20 years ago, sewed many items for the wedding, and an AMAZING table cloth for Tori's wedding gift.  This doesn't count the items she has made for others in the family and the sewing that she did for charity.  All I can say is I hope at 90 I can get around like she does and that my mind is as sharp as hers!  I love you Granny!  Happy Birthday!!!


Granny gave up having her birthday party on her actual birthday so that Tori could have her bridal shower.  So we had her party on Sunday.  She had two surprises for her birthday.  The first was that all my cousins from Dallas flew to town and she didn't know they were coming.  This is the first time in many years that we were all together.  We used this time to do a picture that I have been wanting to do for a few years.  The picture starts with Granny in the center, then a picture of her children (Mom, Aunt Sandra, and Aunt Carol), then a pictures with my cousins generation.  I still hope one day to be able to take the next row with the great-grandchildren of Granny's but we will see if I can ever get us all in 1 state.

The second surprise was a joke.  Mom, Aunt Sandra, and Granny had went to a cancer benefit at Granny's physicians church a few months ago.  There was a man there that was being auctioned off for a date.  Aunt Sandra was determined to buy the date for Granny and she won the auction.  Well Granny didn't know it...but she had a date for her birthday!

BTW - this was the day after the bachelor party... we might have had a few that were feeling rough for the party :)

Bachelor Party!

Ah the bachelor party... Matt has two best men - Scott is his "married" best man and Zane is his "unmarried" best man.  So, Scott organized all the guys to head to downtown Nashville to celebrate Matt's impending nuptials! The night was full of dancing, waiting on their turn for karaoke (they never did get to sing) and many, many shots!  All in all, for the most part everyone had a good time.  Christy, Tori, and I went to pick them up, which meant no one was worried about driving home.  The gang included - Matt, Scott, Zane, Rod, Mike, Larry, Chris, Rick, and Matt Baker.  No Rose didn't get to go!

Rod, Scott, Chris, Zane, Matt, Mike, and Larry

 Not many incriminating pictures were taken... but her is one to show that Matt certainly enjoyed his time.

Showers, Showers, Showers EVERYWHERE!!!!

We have been so consumed with Tori and Matt's house remodel that we have let slip the fact that - oh yeah, there is a wedding exactly 1 month from TODAY!!!!!

The wedding showers have officially started.  Last weekend her friend, Megan, and her mother, Tina, give her a small shower.  Although all the gifts were in good taste, Rod still wants to close his eyes and not think of these gifts and I am not posting pictures of them either.  But we had fun and she got some great gifts.

Sunday brought the ladies of the church out to shower her with gifts.  Every time I am at her church, all I hear is how much she is loved up there. Makes me so proud of the young lady she has grown into.  I am not sure who all had a hand in preparing this, but I know that the food was great and the company even better!  A special thank you goes to Ms. Lori Whitworth for I know she put in a lot of hard work.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the group of ladies who were there!  But here are some pictures from the party:

Wednesday night - Tori calls me on her way home from her internship and we go over a fairly lengthy list of things she has to do that night.  She tells me before she starts on things, she is going to go with Abi to Target.  What she doesn't know is that was just a way to get her out of the apartment so that they could throw her a SURPRISE shower!  Her friends in Jackson: Abi, Chandler, Hannah, Vennela, Damu, Katherine, Hailey, and Rachel.  When she called me at 8:45 pm she told me she hadn't gotten to any of the list yet :)  But she was so excited to tell me all about it.  Chandler (the amazing cook of the group) cooked some reeces cookies for their desert.  All the guest wrote their favorite memory with Tori.  She pulled one out, guessed who it was and then opened their gift.  I am so very grateful for the wonderful friends that Tori has made while at Union!  

Dirt Bike

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... we do try to live by that philosophy.  We have done a lot of work over the past month (who am I kidding, we do a lot of work all the time!)... but we have been especially busy since Tori and Matt bought their house.

Luckily we took time out last weekend to have a little fun.  Rod bought Tina a dirt bike.  He had her on it and riding the trails within an hour.  Apparently all those horse riding lesson pays off.  She is a "loose" rider in the saddle of a horse and in the seat of a dirt bike.  Rod was hugely impressed with how quick she picked it up and her ability to ride the trails!  10 minutes in the back yard and they were off on the trails!

Spray Foam is in

After weeks of work, Tori and Matt's house was ready for insulation.  We had to get all the walls down, all the old insulation out, all the nails holding the old drywall out, the electrical and plumbing roughed in, walls taken down, other walls built, and everything cleaned up.  All of this was happening under a time crunch before the spray foam insulation appointment.  Tori and Matt realized that the spray foam costs approx 30% - 40% more than if we had done  batting insulation, but they will reap the rewards of lower electric bills for the entire remaining life of this house.  We were very pleased with Tru Solutions (http://www.thetrusolutions.com/). They sprayed the rafters in the attic, all the walls, and the crawl space. 

All Gutted

Tori and Matt's house is officially gutted! Last week (with lots of help from me, Rod, Tori's Nana and Granddad, Wanda (Matt's Mom), Tori and Matt, and a few friends) we were able to get everything stripped out of the house and hauled off.  Next step is to remove a load bearing wall, then spray foam insulation in all the walls and attic...the list is still very long..but moving right along.  Amazing how much we were able to get done in 1 week.

The insulation removal crew

Fun to kick in the ceiling

The kitchen

Looking from the kitchen down to the back bedroom

standing in the living room and looking down the front of the house.

How we roll...

Roofer one minute.....on call Dollar General system administrator the next...Tori and Matt are fortunate to have lots of helpers

Demo has started

Tori and Matt closed on Monday and we started demo Monday night.  Working late into the evening every night since....we have come a long way in a short time!