Hey friends! Happy Sunday to you! The sun is shining here on the NJ Shore...it's still chilly...but happy to have sun. I'm So not a fan of those grey rainy days. And I'm pretty sure we have a few coming our way this week. It's been pretty cuckoo over here, but before I get into all that...Let's start with some happy light stuff.
See this?...it's a little counter top herb garden that Aaron's mom gifted us the other day. We do a ton of cooking and always use fresh herbs. So how fun will it be to have our own basil , and parsley, and chives!? We are so so looking forward to starting a real deal veggie garden here at the house this year. But the yard needs so much clean-up after the town wide flood. Gotta definitely bring in a bunch of soil. Only with so much on our plates right now, the yard has to wait for a bit...but soon enough we just have to make it happen.
One of my favorite things ever are these vintage jewelry boxes...satin lined...with a little lock and key. I have a handful of them. Mostly pinks, creams, and one aqua! I love the gold detailing. And they ALL have that same familiar scent inside. I've found them on ebay, etsy, and at yard sales over the years...and no matter where I find them...they all smell exactly the same. They bring back sooo many memories of being an 80s kid! My grandma had a HUGE one on her dresser! If you are lucky you may find a tiny ballerina inside. This one is the newest in my collection. My friend Jessi had it listed in her Etsy Shop, and I couldn't pass it up!
Ok, so now on to the crazy stuff. This here is our bathroom, and see that hole in the floor...that was not done with that hammer. It fell through...thanks to Hurricane Sandy. With so little time to take care of stuff and no available contractors we had to keep this project on hold and since the storm this bathroom has been closed off with plywood laid over this hole.
I shared some photos a few months ago of the massive piles of debris all over town. They made a make-shift dump down near the boardwalk and every once in a while big trucks and tractors come to pick up the big rubbish piles that are outside of every home in town. So this week those trucks are going to be making their last pick-ups and people are scrambling to get all their demo work done so that they don't have to haul the stuff away themselves. And so many folks have been on pause waiting to hear back from Insurance companies and all that bologna you go through in times like this. Well my little brother decided that yesterday was the day that he would finally tackle the wrecked bathroom. He had a bit of free time, which is very rare for him...and he went wild on this room.
This is the same bathroom not even 2 hours later! Nuts right? Awesome, yet scary at the same time. What a can of worms! And the thing with a project like this is that you really have no idea the extent of damage until you start ripping things out.
And here we are today. Rotted beams and full-on scratch your head mode. Years of crazy repairs...a bunch of "make-do's" piled on top of each other. I'm sure any of you old home owners have seen your fair share of hidden nightmares. So today is all about Walt "sistering" beams and a whole lot of mumbo jumbo.
Oh and the party doesn't stop there, late last night Aaron and I smelled a burning rubber type smell... turns out old wiring in an outlet that our fridge was connected too was shorting out. To temporarily remedy this we had to shut it off at the breaker box...which is how it has to stay till we get an electrician in to upgrade the entire board to a larger board. So now we have the the fridge plugged in via extension cord to the living room, and no lights in our bedroom. Hey! Party! right?! Ah well, what can you do? Nothing...roll with the punches, and keep on task, and hope for the best. Aaron and I still have so much to do for the book and some other awesome projects we are working on. So we're focusing on the good and the creative stuff and simply dealing and coping with the other stuff...because as you all know...there will always be "other stuff".
ok, back to the good stuff! Enjoy your Sunday!
xo, Jenny