This afternoon I finally got back to work on the basement rec room.  I decided to prime the fireplace wall to start.  Fortunately I did not cover myself with paint this time, nor did I get my hair in wet paint.  Last week I leaned forward and got primer in my hair.  The white paint finally washed out after several days.  Every time I prime a wall, the room looks so much bigger!  I love this.  I will do the second coat of primer tomorrow.

 

After painting, I decided to do more demo.  I successfully (with help from Walt) removed the door frame from the entrance to the room.  I also removed the trim around the closet door and center support to the room.  Finally, I took down the remainder of the wallpaper. 

 

At this point the only demo left is to expand the entrance way to the room.  Currently, we cannot bring larger pieces of furniture into the room because of the narrow door.  I am looking forward to using a power saw on that! 

 

Walt and I are hiring professionals for some of the jobs that are beyond our skill level.  Today we had the air conditioning repair man our to service our unit, which is now running more efficiently.  And Walt is working with the foundation guy on our quote and time frame to repair.

 

Basically, things are going smoothly...

 

- Lisa Lounsbery

Your Rapper Name Is...

Vanilla Wino

Somehow I find that appropriate...hmmm 

http://www.blogthings.com/rappernamegenerator/

- Lisa Lounsbery

Yesterday we went to the The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, TN.  As caverns go, it was impressive in regards to the magnitude of the rooms.  The rooms were enormous, and some of the natural formations like the "mini grand canyon" were interesting as well.  I was not impressed by the stalagmites or stalactites.  If you are interested in those, then I recommend Natural Bridge Caverns to the Northeast of San Antonio, TX.

 

The Lost Sea itself was pretty cool.  It is 90 below the surface and a 3/4 mile hike to it.  Once there we took a glass bottom boat ride around the underground lake.  On the boat tour we learned that the Rainbow Trout in the lake were brought there by the cavern officials and are not indigenous.  Also at one time the cavern officials dumped red dye into the underground lake to see where the water flowed to.  They managed to tick off the local farming community due to the fact that their well water turned pink.  I was not impressed with the total disregard for the preservation of the ecology in the caverns.  They have allowed plant life to grow, damage to be done by allowing people to bring soda into the caverns, and many stalactites have been broken by people throwing things like flashlights at them (per the tour guide, Charlie). 

 

Back to the Rainbow Trout:  the trout were brought in to see if there was a path the trout could take to get out of the caverns.  The trout could not leave and started to die due to lack of food.  Well, in the infinite wisdom of the cavern officials, they started feeding the the trout liver pellets.  Fortunately the water is too cold for breeding, so eventually the trout will die off.  Hopefully they do not restock the underground lake.

 

Our guide Charlie was a little misguided by the information he was feeding us.  He informed our group that the caverns were used as a fall out shelter during World War I and World War II.  Walt and I both looked at each other and raised an eyebrow.  I remember learning in school that the worst thing in WWI was mustard gas, and that nuclear weapons did not exist until the end of WWII with our bombing of Japan.  Thanks to Charlie, about 15 children now think there were nuclear weapons in WWI.  Wow.

 

After the tour, we went and saw the glass blower shop nearby.  It was awesome.  He was creating glass art as we shopped.  Walt bought me a beautiful piece with a girl shooting a basketball and my name done in glass in front of her.  I bought Walt a copper and glass sea horse for father's day to hang on the porch off our bedroom. 

 

Overall we had a nice time.  I just wish our tour guide new the facts better and that the cavern officials would leave the ecology alone.

 

Good Grief, I am turning into a tree hugger...

 

- Lisa Lounsbery

 

 

We closed on the house on Monday, June 11th.

 

Tuesday, we began the demo work on the Rec Room in the basement.  Walt and I tore off the all the molding at the floor and ceilings and started priming the horrendously dark paneling.  Former owners did the basement in dark paneling, molding, and 2x4's across the ceiling.  Alot of the trim looks like an ax murderer went crazy in the basement.  It is just horrible, and absolutely had to go.

 

On Wednesday, we took down the 2x4's on the ceiling, finished priming two walls and starting removing wall paper.  It was amazing to see the difference in two days.  The room looks brighter and bigger now.  I am so proud of the hard work we did, and I know that I am capable of transforming this house into our home.

 

We stopped working on the room temporarily due to our stuff arriving on Thursday.  We have been unpacking for two days and are taking a break today to go to the Lost Cavern.  The next steps in the Rec Room are to finish removing the wallpaper, expand the doorway to the room so that we can get furniture in there, prime the final two walls, paint, and trim out.

 

I have discovered that I love doing demo work and working with my hands.  After years of sitting at a desk, it is nice to do physical work.  It's very rewarding and a little exhausting.  I just need to remember that the remodeling of the house is a marathon and not a sprint.  My goal is to transform the entire house and yard in 18 months.

 

- Lisa Lounsbery

Last Saturday we decided that after two days of driving to take a walk in the woods.  So we drove off to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park for a lovely stroll in the wilderness. 

 

On the way from Knoxville, we drove through Pigeon Forge.  Pigeon Forge offers family activities such as go karts, miniature golf, Dollywood, shows, and outlet malls.  It reminded me alot of Branson, MO.  I am looking forward to shopping there soon.

 

Upon entering the park we stopped at the visitor's center which was a mad house.  We purchased a gold pass to all National Parks for a year and membership to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  By the way, there is no fee to enter the park.  Walt and I purchase the pass and membership in order to support our national park system.

 

For our hike, we decided to go to Clingman's Dome.  When we arrived, we discovered that it is one of the park's most popular trails.  Any hope I had of a serene hike was gone.  The trail is 0.5 miles to the observation tower, and it is all vertical hiking.  Unfortunately, the trail is paved,but it does have spectacular views on a clear day.  Also, there is a restroom at the trailhead, but not at the observation area.  If you are out of shape, this can be a strenuous hike.  Make sure to take it slow and bring water.  There are benches along the trail to rest if you need it.

 

When we began our hike, I told Emily and Walt to procede without me and that I would meet them at the tower.  I have to take steep trails at a slow pace due to tearing my MCL in my right knee years ago.  I hiked to the top with two nice families with young children.  By the time I reached the top Emily had been up and down the tower twice, and went back up with me.  The views from the tower were awesome, and could only have been improved if there had not been so many people up there.

 

For the hike down, Walt walked with me while Emily would hurry down the trail and run back up to us.  She kept telling us to hurry up, but we had no intention of doing that.  I have learned over the years not to overdo it because I would be sore the next day.  Emily kept running up and down the trail, and I commented to Walt about how much energy 13 year olds have.  By the way, the next morning Emily could barely walk (LOL).

 

I would like to do Clingman's Dome again, but on a week day.  There were way too many people on the trail.  And most of them did not follow hiking etiquette and disobeyed the rules.  I saw dogs on the trail that were not service dogs unless Yorkies help the disabled.  The amount of people yaking on cell phones was ridiculous, and there was one older lady talking on the speaker phone!  People:  when in nature leave the dang phone in the car!  Also, if you can't hike without a cigarette, then pack it out with you or just don't hike.  When I hike I don't want to see butts all over the trail and I certainly don't want to breath your second hand smoke at 6000 feet.  I have a hard enough time breathing at that altitude without having to endure that!

 

So in the future, I will stay on the less traveled trails on the weekends and hike the popular trails during the week.

 

Hike On...

 

- Lisa Lounsbery

 

 

 

Are we there yet?  Are we at least close to Tennessee?  Nope.  That's both fortunate and not so fortunate.  It's fortunate because I need the next 5 days to finish up our house in Carrollton, TX.  Unfortunate because I am so sick of packing and cleaning...literally. 

 

I was sick yesterday and got very little accomplished.  I managed to have lunch with my friend Merilyn (former co-worker and really close friend) and hang out by the pool with Emily.  I tried my mother's philosophy by putting some makeup on, but that failed to perk me up.  Why mom, why do you really think that if you are sick as a dog that a little makeup will make you feel better???  Every time I am sick I put makeup on, but it does not help.  I am really confused as to which universe that works in??? 

 

The only thing that helped was drugging up on aspirin and sudafed and laying in bed after dinner.  I did find out that there is alot of interesting stuff on HGTV, TLC, and the Discovery channels on Friday nights.  I learned all about selling a house, what not to wear, and crab fishing off Alaska.  I really like Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel.  Way cool, and my favorite boat is the Northwestern.

 

Anyway, I am feeling much better this morning after 10 hours of almost non-interrupted sleep.  I was interrupted a little before 6am by my little beasts, Pumpkin and Rosemary, fighting.  To make a long story longer I have taken all the curtains down in the house to be clean and packed.  Now nothing blocks Rosemary's view of the outdoors, and that is bad for Pumpkin.  Apparently Rosemary saw a stray cat last night by one of the windows.  I heard her head-butting the window and her tail thumping loudly.  The next thing I know all heck is breaking loose in our living room.  The hissing, growling, and yowling duo were at it again.  Pumpkin had the misfortune of being in the vicinity of one ticked-off Rosemary.  And when Rosemary can't attack the cat outside, well she just wants to kick someone's butt and Pumpkin's will do.  Rosemary heard me get up and ran down the hall to greet me all happy and purring.  WHAT THE HECK!!!  She woke me up and then is all happy.  I guess she knew that the Alpha Cat was ready to yell at them, so cut me off at the pass.  Oh well, I went back to sleep for a few more hours at least.

 

Please, oh please, are we there yet???

 

- Lisa Lounsbery