Jen's Adventures and Creative Projects

For whatever reason, I love to look at a room of a "fixer-upper" and determine the challenges, and how to solve them.  Even more, I love the "dig", taking a room a part, piece by piece, like it is a puzzle, enjoying the unexpected discoveries along the way, and getting it down to a clean slate. This is the picture of the kitchen before I started tearing it apart. Lovely, isn't it?  In it's day, it certainly was, but it probably has not been updated in 40-50 years, and obviously I can't do carpet in a kitchen. One of the first things I did was take the ceiling fan down (of course), and because I could not figure out how to get it down in once piece, this was an added feature in one of our bonfires.  I then took up part of the carpet (which was glued to subfloor for added exercise) and pulled out the refrigerator (guessing it is from the 1960s at the latest).  This, of course, was after I took off the door, because I could not get it to budge, a

So I had the first-time task for me of taking out the chimney in my house.  I think I might have mentioned in an earlier post that I thought I could get a head start on this project while I waited for a carpenter with roofing skills and I would take down the chimney myself, and let him patch the roof. Funny how roofs don't seem that high or steep until you get to the top of the ladder and literally crawl on the roof with claws like a cat. Anyway, I was determined and I made it to the chimney with sledgehammer, hammer and chisel in hand and ongoing prayers for coordination. When I got ready to take the first swing, I noticed a wasp flying out of the chimney, and then another, and then another. I quickly got back in cat-claw, must-crawl position and was now praying out loud to Jesus to please get me down that ladder safely and I will never be this stupid again. He answered.  I made it down safe.  I went inside and tore up the couch. The carpenter had a busy schedule, and sa

So, I had to leave town for a week of computer training, had friends staying with me for a weekend in Nashville, and then had my niece's wedding...so, house progress has not been as fast as I would like (never is). But few things have happened since my last post.  I came home one day after to work to find this Tonka toy in my driveway. My kind brother told me one day that he would pull out the bushes in my front yard as well as cut down the tree, and the next day by golly it was done. Now, you can see the front my house.  I plan to close in the front porch, take the windows out and replace with a couple new windows, and center the door underneath the dormer. Eventually, I would like to add on a front porch, but we'll see what I get done with the rest of the house prior to spring/summer. I have some great friends in my hometown, a few of the guys are sort of like adopted brothers.  So one day, my real brother takes bushes out and cuts a tree down for me.  I go out of

In the middle of the living room floor, on top of the multi-level green shag carpet that needed to be taken up, was this lovely couch.  It's heavy, it is a recliner on both ends, and because I purchased the home from an estate, no one knew how the previous owner got this couch into the room.  Every way the sellers tried to get the couch out, it just didn't seem to fit through the door. Well, I was going to wait a few days to line up some guys to try to figure this out, but it didn't take long to get tired of walking around it.  It stared at me like it had won, and screamed that it was something that I couldn't do on my own. I accepted the challenge.  After my wasp/chimney episode, it was the perfect task to release some stress on something I could do.  I flipped it over, and with a saw, sledge hammer, crowbar, hammer, wrench and screwdrivers, began taking it apart with the back side and underneath so I could see the "guts" of this beast. This is the

It's been a long, long time since I've posted on this blog.  Needless to say, "Jen's Adventures" was foreshadowing for the way life would turn from January 2011 to now.  It's been a learning experience and the summary is:   I finally have a published book with name as a (co-) author. It brought me back home to be with family and old friends. It allowed me to lead a development and renovation of a heritage museum in my hometown. It allowed me to establish a couple downtown events. I was able to purchase and renovate (ongoing) a building next to the museum that I hope to turn into a bakery. I have a vacation home rental property in Nashville now; again, long story, but it's a house I renovated. And in addition to some career shifts, I just recently bought a 1921 house in my hometown of Carterville, Illinois.  So recent that I just closed on the house a week ago - Oct. 12th. So, from here, I'll be blogging mostly on "the dig" as