House Updates!

Well, it's been a while since I have done a house update so I thought it would be best to just do a blog post. 

We spent all day yesterday driving around getting things taken care of for the house and then we had church so we were gone from about 8:30-8:30. It was a long day, so we decided to do something fun with the kids today. Splash Country it is!

If you noticed, the sky is very gray and cloud covered. It's only about 70 degrees, so this is my current situation:

I know, you're probably shocked that I'm completely wrapped up in towels. 😂  I am hoping the sun makes an appearance before I freeze to death! 

The past few weeks, Isaac and his crew have been working on the deck. They want to get it completed so it will be easier to install the doors and windows. This is the bottom level that faces the road. 

One day we went for our daily check-in of what was completed for the day, and discovered that a bear had used the guest room for a toilet! He even wiped his bottom on the wall! I really hope they get those doors on soon. 🙄

 Our deck before was split into a bunch of levels where we didn't even have room to put a table. Now we have a bigger platform where the hot tub will be where we can have a table. It looks so much bigger already!

Here is where the front bottom deck steps up to the platform. Isaac has made it so much more user-friendly and it is so sturdy. The inspector told him this is the way everyone should be building decks. That made me feel good to know it is solid and not going anywhere!

Do you see the two little monkeys invading our house? 😊

 We also now have steps going upstairs! No more climbing up a ladder. Hallelujah! If you know me well, you know I am deathly afraid of heights. I have video to prove that Janae is just like me. 😂

There's those monkeys again, hanging out in my bedroom! 

Now that we have stairs inside, they will be coming to measure for flooring this week. We placed our order for appliances and finalized our kitchen design this week. It's all very similar to before because we had just remodeled it and loved it! After Isaac measures, we will order our cabinets. This week they will be putting on the metal roof and working on the upper deck. It's moving right along!

My final thought for the day is this:

How many old men does it take to figure out how to place a special order for drawer pulls? Three. How long does it take them to figure it out? An hour. How many times do they claim someone has placed a special order for drawer pulls? Zero. I find that hard to believe, but I will be SHOCKED if I get what I was trying to order on the first try. 🙄 We had some good laughs with these gentleman though. 😊

Tree Removal

Ahhh, I have been waiting to blog until we had some major progress to share, but things are moving slowly. We've been in the process of getting our trees removed for the last 2-3 weeks. We have about 20 trees that need to come down because they are burned or too dangerous to keep. Most of them are 100+ feet tall, so they require climbers to get them down. If you look closely in the center of this picture, you can see a climber high up in the tree. I'm afraid of going up my mom's staircase, so this is definitely not the profession for me! 😂

The rest of these are just pictures of what they have gotten down so far. As you can see, we are going to have a lot of debris to remove once they are all down! The city will come pick it all up, but it has to be cut a certain size and in rows at the bottom of the driveway. Not an easy task!

One day after school, we went over to pick up trash off of the hills. We own the hill above our house and below our house, and they are both quite steep. There was not only trash from the fire, but also from years of being on the rental program. Our neighbor told us that people were always throwing stuff off of our deck at his house and they were so glad when we moved in. 😊

Look how steep this is! I was so afraid the boys were going to slip, but they were not afraid at all. They worked so hard picking up trash. Especially Easton. He was determined to not leave a single piece behind!

Notice you see everyone working except Miss Selfie Queen! Shocker!

Since the BOYS worked so hard, we took them for a treat. Talan has no idea how to eat an ice cream cone. He makes an absolute mess. Brett told him to lick it in a circle. He shoved the ice cream against his mouth and started moving it in a circular motion. What a dufus! He will need a lot of training before he goes out on a date. 😂

Easton had to make a box for his Valentines to go in at school, so we decided to make a monster. Easy, but still cute!

I added a pink heart at the top of the tail, but that was a no-go with Easton, so we settled on a blue triangle. 😊

He must have been all tuckered out from his party at school, because he fell asleep between home and Texas Roadhouse. I love his little double chin when he sleeps! 😍

My grandma was so sweet and sent us a gift card so we could go out. Of course, Janae wanted to sit by her daddy and the boys wanted to sit by Mama! 😊

Christmas Break Fun

 We decided early in December that we would not be returning to Indiana after Christmas as we had planned. There was just too much going on with the house and running here and there trying to get things figured out with insurance, FEMA, the SBA, the Red Cross, etc. I have a small(ish) rant about that. We discovered early on that if you have insurance, some people, including the government, are not interested in helping you because they assume you have things covered with that. Although we had house insurance, we were in the process of refinancing and switching from rental insurance (since we rented it out when we first bought it) to residential insurance (not sure if that's what it's called, but you get the idea lol). What that means is we got insurance money back for the entire value of the structure of our house, but just a small amount for all of our personal belongings. We were not able to go through and itemize our belongings like most people do. They just wrote us a small check that will basically cover our furniture. We also had insurance on Brett's truck, but that thing had over 235,000 miles on it. It was worth a lot more to us than what the insurance said it was worth because it was still going strong! FEMA and the Red Cross only see that we had insurance though, so we were not able to get any help from them. That's so frustrating to me because we paid insurance like any responsible people would, and it's like we're being punished for it. So please know that all of the clothes, blankets, gift cards, money, etc. that you have sent mean soooooo much to us due to the lack of funds we were able to get from insurance. And as a public service announcement, PLEASE check your insurance and make sure you are fully covered! End of rant. Lol

Since we weren't able to go to Indiana for Christmas, Indiana came to Gatlinburg! First up was Brett's parents and they brought a surprise with them...Madi! I love this girl like she is my own, and I was so excited to see her. I love seeing her and Janae together. They love each other and fight just like sisters! They remind me of my cousin Mandy and I when we were that age. 😊

One night we went to The Island and had dinner with friends who were in town, Doug and Tara Tonkel. Would you believe I didn't get a single picture with them or Randy and Diana?! Selfies and pics of the kids it is! 😂

A gentleman gave us free unlimited tickets to ride the ferris wheel. What a nice surprise! One time was good for me and my motion-sickness-prone stomach though and then we passed them over to the Tonkels and the girls. Rumor has it, Doug was the only one who didn't cry. 😂 

The view up there is amazing, especially at night. I'm not sure I would pay full price for the tickets, but if a stranger hands you free tickets, you must try it! 😁

Brett's parents and Madi left on Friday morning and my parents came that afternoon. When they are in town, I gain weight. We all gain weight. They take us out to eat everywhere! I know, I could order something healthy if I really wanted to. But with this sudden change in our life I haven't really felt like it. So 😛. Lol I know once we get back into our own house I will get back into my workout and clean eating routine, but for now, we're on a break. 😉

On New Year's Eve, they took us to Lumberjack Adventures, which the kids have been dying to see. We have a friend who works there, and she hooked Janae up with some face paint and the boys with axes and caps. She wanted to paint little beards on them, but they were having NO part of that. 😂

The food was delicious and the show was outstanding. All of Dolly Parton's shows are fantastic and we are never disappointed.

This was the last day of shows before they close for the season, so we were glad we were able to get tickets. I was happy to see that they also included a manger scene acted out to Dolly's rendition of "Little Drummer Boy" that gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes. I was on the edge of my seat, thinking just MAYBE Miss Dolly Parton herself would appear. She didn't, but that didn't make the moment any less special. It was yet another reminder of Christ's love for us and the blessings he has given us. 

Later that night we ventured downtown in the rain to watch the ball drop. We were probably four hours earlier than we needed to be. We need to remember that for next year!

We went to Pizza Hut late in the evening to dry off and warm up. We were always under the impression that only Pizza Huts in Northeastern Indiana were good, but Sevier County has changed our thinking on this! We've been to two different Pizza Huts down here. One thing that is different though is that they don't have any servers. You order at the counter and go pick up your pizza when it's ready at the window. 🤔 Now I'm curious if they do this in other parts of the country too!

Later in the week we went to Bush's Baked Bean Factory...

And Texas Roadhouse. See, I told you they take us out to eat everywhere!

 

Then Brett and I got our first date night since we moved here! We ate at our FAVORITE local restaurant, Billy Goat Tavern. They have since changed the name to Local Goat. 😂 Word around here is that they a) wanted people to know it was not a chain and b) didn't want people thinking it was just a bar. Good thinking, weird name. Oh well, the food and service still rocks AND they give a locals discount. I'm really glad I got this pic of us in front of the old sign though!