A Dining Experience

At the house I rented with Maggie she provided the table and chairs and before that my apartment had an island that served as both cooking and eating space.

The mismatched chairs.

When I moved into my house my grandparents gave me a collection of chairs for my dining area. They didn't match or hold up well to daily use, but it meant I didn't have to pay big money for dining furniture.

A little over a year ago my dad moved in with me for a month or so. When he came he brought the dining room chairs from his apartment and I went ahead and got rid of the chairs that were falling apart. When he moved out he didn't need his chairs immediately so I convinced him to leave them at my house until I got a chance to go shopping for new chairs. A year later I finally sucked it up and shelled out around $400 for a set of parson chairs that match the bar stools my aunts and uncles got me a few years ago for Christmas.

I debated buying six chairs instead of four, but the cost was prohibitive and I didn't really have a place to keep the two extra chairs when the table didn't have all the leaves in it. I'm hoping that if I do decide that I need extra chairs someday I'll be able to find something that will match what I bought, either the same chair (I bought them from Pier 1) or something that I could use at the head and foot of the table since those chairs occasionally look different from the rest. 

You can see the matching
bar stools in the background.

I spent a lot of time comparing prices and styles, I'm pretty sure I could have found a cheaper set, but I was afraid it wouldn't be as well made. I also didn't want chairs covered in cloth (as a lot of parsons style chairs are). The set I bought it a faux leather material that should wipe clean pretty easily.

Of course my table is my mom's old breakfast table from ages ago. She gave it to Spencer when he got his first apartment and he gave it to me when he moved out to join the Air Force.

I do think it's funny that I managed to get a complete outdoor dining set (check it out here) that I can only use three months of the year before I got the dining chairs I wanted. 

At least now I won't be up a creek next time Dad comes over and threatens to take his chairs back (he's usually half-kidding). Plus, I actually got to christen the new chairs the same day I bought them since I hosted my small group from church that evening. It was lucky I still had Dad's chairs though since we needed them all.

What do you know about ICE DAMMING?

We haven't gotten as much snow as we did during "snowmagedden" a few years back, but I thought our inclement weather lately was a good chance to share the Perryman family's experience with ice damming. Have you ever had to deal with this?

We moved into our new home in the fall of 2010. We immediately went into Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We did our best at unpacking, but still it did not feel like home yet.

THEN the worst blizzard in Oklahoma history came upon us and our home suffered ice damming. It was shocking to have our ceilings and walls falling down because of water damage. We repacked our things, moved furniture to the center of the rooms, covered everything with tarps and so began our 2 month stay at a hotel. Eight weeks people. We learned A LOT.

The BEFORE

PART ONE

I woke up and headed to the kitchen to fix breakfast and immediately noticed a huge brown stain on the ceiling about 3'x3'--it was dripping. Then I looked over at the kitchen table and see that it is covered with water from another leak. Since it was it was dripping only in those two rooms and it happened to be above the two bathrooms, we were confident that a pipe froze and busted.

We turned off the water and waited 2 days for a plumber to arrive at our house--because all 20 that we called were snowed in and could not make it to our home. While we waited things only got worse. The kitchen ceiling fan began pouring water in a stream, the light fixture over the dining room starting streaming and room by room, water started dripping out the ceilings.

Here is what was weird, since we had no damage to the second floor, we could not figure out where the water was coming from.

The plumber came and tore a hole in the kitchen ceiling and confirmed that it was not a pipe. He said to call a roofer. We did and he suspected that we had "ice damming". We headed to the internet and after looking at pictures and seeing how the rooms were being effected we did indeed have ice damming.

Basically ice damming is where solid ice prevents water (the snow that is melting) from running off your roof. Instead, the water is forced up under the shingles. The water was running down the walls and pooling on the first floor ceiling.

PART TWO
We called our insurance company and they had a restoration team come out to take a look at it. We decided to go ahead with the removal of the wet sheet rock and we were totally shocked.

Here is what we saw in every room wall and ceiling...

OUT ---> and  OUT   ----> and MORE OUT ---->

Then they began covering everything with tarps from top to bottom.

Dining Room

Bathroom

Then they started tearing it out!

This is our kitchen ceiling.

Dining Room

Living Room: wall and ceiling

Foyer: wall and ceiling

Home School Room: wall and ceiling

In the end, all rooms but two had either a wall or ceiling removed or parts of both.

Another Disaster Strikes
Some of you know of our raccoon saga. We found out when we moved in that we had raccoons living in our attic. We had them removed, but they left behind tons of damage to the insulation and piles of feces. We knew that we needed to have it all removed and replaced, but just couldn't jump because of the expense.

As the guys started tearing everything out, they noticed the soggy poo insulation and they had to stop. Raccoons carry a bacteria that can cause meningitis and even kill you. They returned in protective gear to suck out all the old funk in the attic, remove the final ceilings, blow in new insulation, re-sheet rock, trim and paint every room.

Our insurance covered most of this damage. It did not cover any roof damage as it was a new roof and was installed to code. It did cover the removal of the insulation and putting new in, but not the sanitation. It covered all the inside construction work. And the cherry on top for me, they had the carpets cleaned once the job was done. Hallelujah. All in all, after we paid our deductible, Adam and I felt that we have been very well taken care of by everyone involved and we can see God's provision and working all this restoration of our home for our good.

We could not stay in the home due to raccoon feces, fans blowing and other construction issues. We expected to have a little vacation; the kind where you don't have to wash your own towels, which I like very much. But as I mentioned above that mini-vacation extended into a two month stay.

The After

During that time we had two major family crisis', everything broke and really, I could go on. But the Lord sustained us through it all.

And my reward feels sweet. Here is my new kitchen!

We went with bold Sealskin colored walls and in my dining room, I painted the scripture, "He brought me to His banqueting table and His banner over me is Love." It is indeed feeling like home!

The Perryman's live in Tulsa, OK with their three children and Natasha blogs about life, home, cooking and more at: http://perrymanfamily.blogspot.com.

Just Hangin'

I've been trying to reorganize my cabinets so that I can make space for all the stuff I brought back from my gramma's house--mainly her standing mixer (circa 1970).

One of the things taking up a lot of cabinet space in my laundry room was the tabletop ironing board that I use once every five years or so. It is too wide to push flat against the back of the cabinets so it was hogging up half the space in the laundry room cabinets.

In a moment of brilliance I decided to hang it on the wall instead of storing it in the cabinet. Why not? The fabric cover has a pretty pattern and it isn't so heavy that it needs more than a couple nails. Plus it's more easily accessible on the wall than it was in the cabinet, who knows maybe I'll actually iron stuff more often now! Of course, I'll need to stick to clothing I don't care much about since I'm notoriously bad at ironing. I wouldn't want to burn a hole in anything like I did my high school graduation gown.

My laundry room has been one of those rooms that hasn't received much TLC since I moved in. I don't spend much time in there, but I'm trying to make it a more welcoming space. With that goal in mind I've been clearing out clutter, reorganizing storage and adding art to the walls.

I went to a painting class with my friend Karen recently and we painted owls (the theme for the night). I initially thought my sister might want the painting for her dorm room, but apparently owls are "creepy". So I hung it in my laundry room instead since I think my owls turned out pretty cute.

Here's a close up of my painting, it's hard to make out the detail in a photo. I used the paint to create a lot of texture.

I've considered painting the laundry room a brighter color, like a sunny yellow or soft orange. Of course, someday I would like to add a second bathroom to my house by moving the washer/dryer hookups to the opposite corner of the room and adding a toilet, sink and shower to the other half of the room (with a wall to divide the bathroom from the laundry). For now that project is out of my price range. And I'm not even sure if it is feasible space-wise.

In addition to sprucing up my laundry room I've been working on getting my spare bedroom fixed up. Since my brother moved out I haven't done much with it, but now I'd like to create a cohesive look for the room (without spending a fortune). I'll be sure to update you on my progress!