What we've been up to lately...

Time for another blog entry! Lately, we've been busy as usual. Jim is teaching and spring is a busy time for FFA, especially February, with FFA week, speaking contests, judging contests, etc. I am busy with my last semester of actual classes and planning my 12 months of clinical rotations, which start in May.

On January 11th, Jim and I were sponsors at the baptism of our first godchild! Bekk is Jim's cousin and we are so proud to be his godparents!

Laura with Elling, Jim and I with Bekk, and Jim with Dane.

The third year of veterinary school has included some really amazing experiences so far. My absolute favorite has been the Bovine Surgery Elective, affectionately known as "Cut-A-Cow." The nickname might sound a little crude, but basically what happens is this:

The school purchases cows already on their way to slaughter. We don't get any history on the animals, but they are usually dairy cows being culled for reasons likely related to poor production. The cows spend a week at the vet school's facilities (a regular bovine resort!) and 3rd year students in the elective course get to perform an exploratory abdominal surgery. This can be done when the cow is standing and she isn't sedated (usually) but we do inject anesthetic around the spinal nerves so she can't feel what we're doing. We opened the abdomen, got to have a feel around inside, and then practice an opentopexy. An omentopexy is done by suturing some of the tissue around the cow's abomasum (4th stomach compartment) to the body wall and is often done to correct and prevent a twisted stomach (displaced abomasum or DA.) The we sutured up our incision and after a few days of rest, the cow is back on her way to her original destination - slaughter. Not a happy ending for the cow I guess, but since they are going there anyway, they get to do us a favor by taking a little detour first to help us learn some surgical skills.

My partner Kaitlin and I with our cow

Our incision (has to be big enough to fit an arm through - good thing for the cow we both have spaghetti arms!)

Having a feel around on the inside (amazing!)

All stitched up and in one piece!

That's all for now, until next time!

Love, Steph and Jim

I'm a bad blogger!

Even though six more weeks of winter are apparently on their way, today felt springlike so I decided to put up some photos from springtime in our yard last year. Also, I'll include some recent photos of Marney, our coonhound mix we adopted in November.

(Actually, half the reason for these photos is that I haven't posted in a while and we've taken a time-out from house projects, so I had to pick something else!)

Spring Flowers

Spoiled, lazy Marney, ready for a nap

Out in the yard

Enjoying a good stick

Going crazy with my mitten!

Until next time...

Love,

Steph & Jim

Master bedroom - during & after!

Finally, our bedroom is finished and we stayed in it last night!

***Warning! If you haven't read any of our posts yet, scroll down the page to start at the beginning! It is more fun to see the photos in order from start to finish!***

This has been our biggest project so far, and it's taken a long time (mainly because we just didn't spend every spare moment on it.) And, we've had a TON of help and a lot of borrowed tools - my brother Tyler and his friend Jon did most of the rewiring, Jim's parents Dan & Lori helped us jack the whole house up from the basement, redo the floor joists and new subfloor, make the entry to the attic for storage, build the closet, hang drywall, install trim, etc (all under supervision of Sadie the dog, of course.) Jim's brother Mike and his wife Jenna helped with the drywall, as did our friend Nikki. Jim's brother Krist was here helping pretty much every time Dan & Lori came, except when he was away at college - he spent many hours and a few late nights here when he likely had more exciting things to be doing! My mom did much of the drywall taping and mudding (man I hate that job!) I'm sure I'm forgetting more helpers but I'll add them as they come to me. Anyhow...

The room without lath & plaster. The weird hole in the wall would eventually become a small entry into the attic space above the dining room/kitchen (for storage.) My brother thought it would be a good place for a hot tub...sadly we decided against this ;) You can see some of his wiring and that the subfloor isn't in yet. We discovered that the joists had been cut at the ends in order to make new additions to the house, so the old floor was very poorly supported. Jim and his dad added new supports to the joists to support and level the floor. (We had a nearly 2 inch drop in part of the floor due to settling and bad joists!)

Other side of the room looking into the hallway and small bedroom. I pulled out the remnants of that old chimney between the doors.

Now with some of the drywall up...you can also see the ceiling fan and recessed lights (on a dimmer switch) we put in.

Building the wall for the closet...

Mirrored sliding closet doors.

Paint! Window trim! Crown molding! Some of the laminate floor!


Finished!

Other side


Closet. Still a bit to do in here - like add lights & shelves at each end, and finish up the storage doors.

Small trim details...aka Jim's more affordable alternative to buying a compound miter saw

Oh no a scratch already! Oops...we'll fix that.

Alibi helping Jim put together our new bed.

Voila! New bed (with split box springs because there's no way a regular one would go up the stairs) and our fancy new bedding which was a wedding gift from Mike & Jenna.

I think we plan to take a break before starting any major new projects, but stay tuned - we have photos from the bathroom and other stuff when I get around to posting!

Love,

Steph and Jim

Photo tour of the house

Before I write about our big project just completed - the bedroom - I figured I should put up some pictures of the house from before we moved in.

It looks so big and empty without all of our stuff!
Inside the entry/front porch. Haha this is stuffed with piles of our things STILL!


A view of the living room. You can see into the dining room/kitchen, the door to the upstairs, and into the room which has been our bedroom up until last night! (Soon to be home to the desk, guitars, and futon.)

The picture window in our living room.

Two views of the dining room/kitchen area. We believe this part of the house was added at some point in a lean-to fashion (note the slanted ceiling.)

In the kitchen, views of the doors to the side porch, bathroom (yes, only one tiny bathroom in the whole house and it's right in the middle of the kitchen) and basement.) More photos of the bathroom to come in a different post - we have made some big changes in there!

Kitchen as viewed from the other side, from the side porch. The old stove and fridge are gone now (well by gone I mean taking up space in the garage) and we now have nice, new-to-us appliances from my aunt and uncle, Barbie and Rick.

Side porch/laundry room (with the free washer and dryer from the neighbor of some friends in Baraboo - no more laundromat!)

Cool screen door on the side porch.

Part of the front yard from the side porch.

Part of the back yard from the side porch.

Views from the bottom and top of the stairs. STEEP! This is after the previous owner paid to have them made better...somehow. The stairs were the big sale-killer for this house. It will be a big project for us - maybe this coming summer?

At the top of the stairs in our little "hallway" looking into the two bedrooms upstairs.

Small bedroom as viewed from the hallway door. It is connected to the master bedroom. the actual door is gone, but we'll replace it soon.

Now pay attention! These are the "before" photos of the master bedroom! The room had one, maybe two outlets, conduit on the walls for "updated" wiring, carpet glued on top of some really funky rainbow-speckled linoleum, entirely uninsulated walls, cracked plaster with holes, a VERY creaky, springy, unstable floor, a tiny "closet," etc...

Read on in our next post to see the transformation of this bedroom!

Love,

Steph and Jim

Welcome to our blog!

Yeah, like I need another distraction online to keep me from working on the important stuff! I have never been that interested in "blogging," but recently my friend Erin started one and what do you know - it seems like a really easy way to keep friends & family updated on what you're up to. I really enjoy reading her blog. Plus, this way I can show photos to people who aren't on Facebook.

So for now, I think our blog will be all about the work we are doing on our first house. Jim and I bought our first house on March 31st, 2008, and considering the place is 139 years old and could benefit from some updating, we have been busy working on it! (Not that other things, like school, our wedding, or a new dog haven't also kept us busy.) The house is in Evansville, WI and we hope you will enjoy seeing photos of our projects as we (slowly but surely) complete them.

Love,
Steph (and Jim)

20 Water Street
Turns out we don't have a good picture of the house from the outside, so this one of the porch will have to do. Ignore the rocker on the sidewalk...