Home Construction

 
   

     As you can see, our home is in the midst of a  destruction construction zone.  When we were in the process of purchasing our home and did the routine inspection, the inspector discovered that in between the two levels of the house that there was a very small sag in one of the bedrooms.  Now most people probably wouldn't notice it all and by no means was it a severe problem that was causing any further issues to the rest of the house.  Once I knew it existed though, I wanted to fix it.  I told Casey that I had this fear that our future children would come crashing down on us since the sag is between the master bedroom and one of the upstairs bedrooms (by no means was this going to ACTUALLY happen, but leave it to me to over dramatize it).  It was definitely still perfectly safe as it was, but I hated knowing my house had this problem that we weren't doing anything about.  We figured if it laying in our bed at night looking up at the ceiling if that's all we were going to think about, then we needed to fix it.  It was definitely going to be easier to fix now than it would be later. 
     Casey and I had planned on buying a new bedroom set for our master bedroom before we got married, but with craziness of wedding planning, we just weren't able to cram this into the busy schedule before the I do's.  Initially, Casey was going to fix the sag going in from the bottom, which would also be the ceiling of our master bedroom (scary!).  Since this involved cutting holes in ceilings and dust/debris everywhere we figured it would probably be best to wait to purchase this furniture until after the sag was no more.  So since Day 1 of living in this house and Day 8 of marriage, we actually have never slept in our master bedroom (Sad!).  Look for an unbelievably excited post from me the day my dream comes true of sleeping here (hopefully in the not too far distant future, and don't worry I have bigger dreams, but sometimes they're just the simple things in life!)  Based on some extremely helpful feedback from my wonderful construction-guru uncle he suggested it would be easier to go from the second story to fix the sag.
     Okay, cool.  The main reason we didn't want to do that in the beginning was that meant ripping up the carpet, which we didn't want to do.  You would think this would mean since the incision was going to be on the second level, we could move into our master bedroom.  Ha!  Think again!!!  After getting annoyed at the too numerous to count pee stains the previous owners pet(s) had left and even after getting the carpets cleaned, still looked not that great, we opted to make the investment and replace the carpet in our house (which is not the whole house, only the master bedroom/closet, stairs, and second floor).  Once the sag is fixed, then comes the carpet, we have to go shopping and purchase a bedroom set, and finally we will be able to sleep in the master bedroom.  No more will it be a room I have to walk through to get to get to our clothes in the mornings or to take a shower, but it will have a beautiful bed in it, the planets will all be properly aligned, and life will be good.  If you have any recommendations on where to go for getting the carpet replaced, let us know!
     After the new carpet is in, I can finish decorating the house and actually invite people over!!  Could this actually come true??  Now that there is a hole in my floor, I am beginning to think so.  There have only been a small handful of friends and family that have seen the insides of our house, but not too many because I do not want your first introduction of our house to be the state it is currently in ( and no, I do not mean Texas).  In addition to a bedroom set, we also need a breakfast room table, and a china hutch.  We'll get there one day.  My hope is just that this happens before Jan. 13th, which would be a year exactly since we purchased our home.  Sometimes, I'm not the most reasonable person, but this seems pretty do-able.
   Like most things we want to do in life, a struggle for us is finding the time to do it.  With both of us working full-time jobs during the week, we only have a few hours each night, when there is not church or something else going on or frankly just plain exhausted from working all day long.  You try to devote some time of your weekends to this, but you also want to do something besides being stuck inside your house.  You want to spend time with friends and family, and then there's other times when you have to go out of town and don't get any housework done at all.  Then there's the nerve of us to want to relax some on the weekends!  So selfish I know.  I feel like we are finally making progress rather than just trying to maintain and keep clean from your basic every day use.  Until next time, my blogger readers...

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”  Matthew 7:24-27

Home Sweet Home

     I have quickly realized how it's possible to not update your blog, because time flies by so quickly.  Sorry for my delay in getting the next post to you for your reading pleasure, but the Hixon house has be on-the-go literally!  The last 2 weekends in August we were out of town in the Marble Falls/Burnet area.  The first weekend a sweet couple in our Sunday school invited our class up to their family's ranch house in Burnet.  Since Casey and I are new to the Honeymooner's class, we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to meet some new people and make some new friends.  I love being home, but I love going away to this part of our state because it's so relaxing and so pleasant to look at what God created.  We headed up there a few hours early and stopped by to visit Casey's sweet grandfather.  This man is so wonderful and easy to love, and always calls me "granddaughter" when I see him.  We visited with him for a few hours, which included dinner at the lovely Bluebonnet Cafe (on a side note, the peanut butter pie is delicious!) From there, it was off to the ranch house! We both really enjoyed getting to really know the couples that were there, such a blessing to meet such great people and to know that your faith is what has brought you together.  The weekend included shooting guns (first time my SUV has transported weapons/ammo in it), playing dominoes, swimming in the pool, singing, spending time in God's word, and just a lot of good, fellowship time together.
     Then there was that whole work thing in between, but it wasn't too bad since we only had to go 4 days!  Casey and I both took off Friday, so we left to go out of town again to Marble Falls Thursday evening.  I tried to unpack as little as possible out of my suit case since most of it was going right back in there.  This weekend, which was also Labor Day weekend, was very laborious for us!  We helped Casey's Pawpaw paint his garage and well house.  The plan I had thought up in my head was that we would paint all day Friday and that way on Saturday we could just relax, go fishing, etc. before we left to come back to Houston on Sunday.  We ended up painting both Friday and Saturday because there was a lot to paint and it took longer to paint than what I first thought it would, the lovely summer heat forced us to take more breaks.  Even after painting for several hours each day, we still didn't finish, but we got most of it, and Pawpaw told us we could stop because that would give him something to do later.
     Now, the main reason for us to go that weekend was to paint Pawpaw's house for him, so it would save him some money from hiring painters and also so he wouldn't fall off a ladder and hurt himself trying to do it all himself.  Ladder and elderly person is an instant recipe for a broken hip in my book.  The almost 86 year old man doesn't fall off the ladder, the youngest person (@ 28 yrs. old) painting does!)  I only fell 3-4ish feet I'm guessing, and there was not any permanent damage.  Though I did get to sport about 5-6 bruises on the side of my leg:)
     Needless to say after my fall, my husband restricted me to ground duty, but I kept on painting!  Casey's mom, his brother David and his wife Taci also came up to the lake house that weekend too, which was wonderful!  I LOVE Casey's family!  I've never had a bad time with them ever, and I always wish I could spend more time with them and reminds me of my own wonderful family!  We celebrated David's birthday with a DELICIOUS home-cooked meal by my mother-in-law and topped it off with my favorite, Great American Cookie Cake!! I'm thankful for both my brother-in-laws for the wonderful men that they are, but I'm almost equally thankful that they choose cookie cake to have as their birthday cake each year!  After church on Sunday, we headed back to Houston again and did some stuff around the house on Monday.
    You would think I could put the suitcase up wouldn't you?  But no.  I went on a business trip to Philadelphia to tour some of the refined products facilities my company operates.  Thankfully it was just a 2 day trip, so I left on Wednesday morning and came home Thursday night.  I was thankful Thursday night that I came home to these things/people:

 

 

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25