HAMmer down now!

So I conquered my first ham and I DIDN'T BURN IT! Then I broke that pretty white pan, dang it! Shattered it!

Quick story for anyone who has been to my house while I have been baking something. When you turn on the oven, the house is completely permeated with propane. By the way, this is the second stove that has done this to us. I thought that cleaning would help burn the smell away, so I set it to clean and left for work last week, paranoid that I was going to burn my house down. When I got home, the house was sooo foggy and there was a light coat of black dust from one end to the other. Seth checked it out and we ended up calling the Mr. Fix It guy from Pocatello Electric to come and check it out. He used his little sniffer tool and the verdict...A deadly level of propane was being emitted when you turned on the stove! I was so mad/freaked out!!! What if we had a baby in the house? The guy said the levels of propane being pushed out were enough to put someone to sleep, forever, in about an hour and a half! But, it's fixed now, so it's all good!

Sheet ROCKing

Seth has been project king at our castle lately. He has finished sheet rocking our storage room and I have to share a funny story. We were trying to hang a big 8X12 piece of sheet rock on the ceiling and he had screwed at least 1/2 of it in as I stood on 2 boxes, barely holding the other side up. I wasn't really doing anything, so I asked if I could leave and go to do some laundry. So, I climbed off my two boxes and started to walk out, turning around just in time to see that recently hung piece of rock fall down, crashing on Seth's head. It was hilarious (I only laughed after Seth said he was alright). He spit out a long list of fine words, punched a hole in dangling half of the sheetrock, and then proceeded to tell me how ____ bad he hated sheetrocking :) . When he stopped his tantrum, I asked, "Are ya done?" Then we both laughed our heads off and hauled out the damaged piece of rock. I am truly impressed with his work- Jack of all trades!

Seth and I finally bought some bar stools for our kitchen. Now...it's really project time. I have gradually accumulated the supplies needed to refinish the kitchen chairs- yes, that means I have to say good bye to my pink MR. and MRS. wedding chairs:). I will post a pic of them when I get them done.

The unveiling!

Man, I haven't updated my blog for a while! Here are a few interior pics of the house. I don't want to put a ton on here because I am a little paranoid- so if you really want to see it, give me a call and come on out!!! I think we will have an open house after we get a sidewalk put in (it is going to be soo muddy once everything starts to melt). This is the living room (upper left) and the dining section of the kitchen. I found this table at St. Vincent de Paul in Pocatello for $20. It was hideous when I bought it- Seth complained to me about bring home junk again- and it sat in the 3rd stree garage for almost 1 year. Sethro helped me sand the old finish off so we could start fresh and now, it looks like a custom table! The wood grain is beautiful. It even has two leaves (that I still need to finish) to go with it! Our chairs are miss matched- but hopefully, I will be able to refinish them this weekend. They will all be re-upholstered and painted. The pink chairs are antiques- they are the Mr. and Mrs. chairs from our wedding.


This is the entryway- I just finished putting the clavos (little metal pieces) on the front door this weekend. The chandelier was given to me by a lady at a local thrift store. It was really funny- she told me that she had thrown this gawdy thing out in the alley hoping someone would steal it and think they found something sweet, but no one had taken it yet. This is one of my treasures! It is SO heavy. I had new glass cut for the panes and cleaned all 50 or 60 years worth of dust off of it so it could garnish the front room. I plan to make this room my antique collectible room. I will have to get a pic of the antique pie safe I received for Christmas. I recently refinished it as well, now we just need to move it upstairs into this room! The picture on the right is the other half of the kitchen. I absolutely LOVE my kitchen! It is my favorite room in the house. The large windows give the best natural light, the cabinets turned out perfectly, and we finally compromised on a floor that pulls all of the different wood colors together.

Eddy Hansen, our neighbor when we lived in the old house, is a metal artist and he created this piece for our banister. We gave him a picture of our house and a picture of the mountain range behind our house and he put it together to give us this awesome custom banister. All the construction guys (Seth, Jared, and Steve) were really skeptical of me using 6x6 timbers for the newel posts and top rail, but it came together nicely. My initial idea was to pull the timber entrance into the house by incorporating the timbers inside (the column entrance, the mantel, and the banister). I had to remind Sethro to trust my judgement several times in the past year!

Here is the main bathroom. I love having two bathrooms! Now we don't have to race to the throne when we get home:). The granite in this room is my favorite piece in the whole house. There is so much contrast and the quartz pieces are HUGE! Love it!


So, now yall have an inkling of what the inside of our home looks like. I know the walls are bare, but I plan to take my time decorating. Plus, my cash reserves are a little damaged:). I will try to keep updated, now that we have the internet again!!! Woo HOO!

LUSK family get together, Arbon, ID

I know, I know... I am the forceful picture feign of the family!!! But I promise you will all thank me for this in at least 10 or 15 years!!! I love having pictures to look back on and so do you all!!! This was the first time in almost a full year that we (the Lusk clan) finally were together as a whole family!!! Landon was the only one who was M.I.A. Baby Zane sure is a fun little addition! Maybe, sometime in the next few years (wink wink) there will be a few more cousins to come.

We enjoyed some kick butt Pepsi chicken, Drew's awesome BBQ ribs, and a few other yummy dutch oven viddles. CaroLynne even toughed out a bout of pneumonia so we could get together at their home. Drew, Jess and Seth and I were finally able to share our Christmas gift exchanges!!! Christmas in March is fantastic! It was so fun to have everyone together! I can't wait for our summer paintball party up in the hills:)

Seth, Zane, and Kolby here, looking good for the camera. Kolby is our Little Drummer Boy! This kid has a talent like you wouldn't believe! He is going to graduate this year (weird)! It's amazing how fast time goes by.

Katie, me, and Shance just kicking it on the rockin' love seat. I can't believe Katie is 16!!! She is beautiful isn't she!?! Kolby and Katie belong to Ross and Heidi, along with Jaxson, Tanner, and Tyler. We are so glad they drove from Ogden to hang w/ the fam! They have the furthest to drive and are always the last to leave...Hmmm....maybe if they WOULD MOVE CLOSER we wouldn't have to worry about that!

Seth and I are so pathetic:-). Auntie "H" (Helen) was teasing us because or dogs are like our kids and Seth was holding Josie like a baby while I was standing near him with Zane (a REAL boy). Who knows...maybe kids are in the near future. (Please, no assumptions:)! ). I want to give a big shout out to Shancy for helping to train me- THANKS girl! I am going to need all the help I can get! Also, check out the amazing mantel in the background of this picture. Steve (Seth's dad) created this out of an ancient, knotty cedar tree. I should have taken a picture of this alone- Steve is sooo creative!