Town Hall for Hope

So I finally got a chance to watch Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope. It's a great contradiction to the doom and gloom on the news. He tells the other side of the news - like how much the stock market has gone up since it hit its low.

So if you need a little bit of financial hope, or if you think that government will save you, check out this link: http://vimeo.com/4491396

Little Changes make a Big Difference

We're making a few changes around the house. Not big changes, but they are making a big difference.

First, we are removing the door to nowhere. Our house was built as a two bedroom. Later an addition was added to make it 3 bedroom plus an office. This was accomplished by splitting one of the bedrooms into the office and a hallway. But they left the doorway to the "bedroom" there, effectively leaving a door in the middle of a hallway. So we finally decided to take the doorway out.

I got things started by tearing out the doorframe and some of the drywall. Jason took out the rest of the framing. It was a team effort to get the lightswitch moved over and the three-way switches rewired. And then the rest has pretty much been up to Jason - taking out the paneling, putting in some replacement drywall where the door was, and mudding in the holes. It's still a work in progress - here's a half-way through picture:

The other difference is that I found a kitchen cabinet to help with the shortage of storage and counter space. I sold my trumpet a few weeks ago and used the proceeds to purchase this estate sale find.

It's in the style of a "Hoosier cabinet" with a bread box and flour bin. The table top slides in and out for additional space. I had never heard of a Hoosier cabinet before, so here's where you can get more info about them.

"Loaded with labor and time-saving conveniences, the Hoosier cabinet was among the earliest design innovations of the modern American kitchen. This culinary workstation allowed owners to maintain an efficient and clutter-free kitchen by centralizing utensils, cookware, tools, and ingredients all the while providing a space in which to prepare the meals of the day." - IU Press

Anyway, I'm really excited. There's a lot of room inside to store things, so I'm trying to plan where I'm going to move things around in the kitchen to be more efficient. Hurray!

Farewell to the Fairlane

This post is a bit late in coming, but in March we sold the Fairlane.

Jason bought the 1970 Ford Fairlane for $300 several years ago, when he bought an antique truck. He intended to sell it to pay for the shipping of the antique truck, but one thing led to another, and he ended up driving it daily for over 3 years and putting on 18,000 miles .

But he took it to the shop and they informed him that the transmission could fall out at any time because the frame was rusted through, and we decided it was time to part ways with the car. It sold on Ebay for $205.

Goodbye Car!