Team Carstens

Halloween is right around the corner...

ok, so it's like 5 days away.  Do you know how hard it is to think up a costume for your kid?  And me, being the type A personality that I am, has to have her kid in a non-store bought costume.  A costume that (a) either no one else will be wearing or (b) at least no other kid in his class of 12 will be wearing. Thanks to Claire, he now has a homemade costume.  I bought a pattern off E-Bay and I also bought glasses to go with it, but the glasses were way to big for my kid's 10th percentile head.  I ended up finding ones at the dollar store - for, you guessed it, $1.00.  So what if they are +3.50 strength reading glasses.  That just means my kid will be walking around cross-eyed all night.  It's alright, I'll be there to hold his little hand and guide him from door to door.  This actually works out in my favor as he won't be able to see the candy I am taking + eating from his stash.  Come on, give me credit, I am not THAT bad. We took the lenses out.  I can't wait until Halloween to post pics of him in his costume.  I still have a few finishing touches to add before it's ready and I also have to make him a prop that goes along with his costume.  Big shout out to my friend, Brianne, for coming up with the idea.

What else can I report?  Oh, we are selling our house and it's officially on the market.  So, if you know anyone who wants to live in the Uptown area of New Orleans, within walking distance of Audubon Park and near Tulane University - tell them to email me.  I just might have the house for them.

And of course, I cannot end this post without adding some recent (last Thursday) photos I took of my little boy.

  

Every Thursday, when Fletcher is home from school, we listen to music and dance around the house. Here he is, raising the roof...

 

dining room rug

wow! this is a momentous occasion. i bought this rug before andy + were married, back in 2004. 2004! i never, ever opened it. i didn't even remember what it looked like. it was bought for our other house, but it never was opened + laid down. we've been living in this house since late 2006 and just TODAY, i decided to open it and put it in the dining room. claire (my mother-in-law) is, i'm sure, jumping for joy. she's been on me to get this thing down and out of my hallway.

opening it it up:

VIOLA:

christmas at calhoun street

christmas is almost here and i am almost finished decorating. we got in last night from ny and i had a ton to do today, so maybe i will do some decorating tomorrow.

xmas tree:

xmas cards from friends:

we've been so busy!

the upperline house is almost finished, thanks to jon b.!  he came in (thanks to pam k.) and was able to finish up the carpentry work after we had to let the other contractor go.  it's amazing how quickly jon + colin work and they did an awesome, quality job.  i will have to post pics of that when i can.  this past week, jon + colin built a back deck and a side deck at upperline and it looks great.  they are pretty much finished with the inside, so now andy + i need to get our butts in there to paint everything.  once that's done, we can list the bigger apt to be rented.  the smaller apt is already rented out.  i am so glad that house is finally coming to a completion.  i feel like our past year has been consumed with house renovations and we haven't really had much time to enjoy our lives.  now we can really focus on family time instead of, "what do we have to do with the houses this weekend?"  i hope another katrina never, ever happens.

fletcher is on the move!  he's been crawling all over the place and now he is cruising all over the place.  he can't sit still and all he wants to do is pull up on everything.  that's fine, but i don't think he realizes that his knees can bend.  when he's ready to sit back down, he either let's go and falls backward or he uses his hands to crawl back down.  all of this without really bending his knees.  i tried to show him, but you know how babies can be! 

what else is going on?  work...i've been swamped with work and sam (fletcher's nanny) is on vacation for 2.5 weeks.  we really miss her!  i kept telling myself (and everyone around me) that i was going to cut back on work for the summer and it still hasn't really happened.  i just need to say, "no!"

oooh, we bought a vespa scooter last weekend.  i will have to take a picture of it and post.  you see, andy works about 1 mile from where we live and he drives to work everyday.  our master plan is to get rid of my car and be a 1 car family.  i think we can do it since i work from home, anyway.  the vespa gets about 60 miles per gallon and it goes about 70 mph.  it's pretty darn fast. 

my car is for sale, if anyone wants to buy it...

2004 Land Rover Discovery II / 38K miles / still under warranty until 2010 (it has an extended warranty).

i was going to post some pics, but i think i deleted them.  i will take some and post.

our house is just about finished!

we felt like we would never get to this point.  we are almost finished with the renovations on our house from hurricane katrina and the flooding.  the only thing we have left to do is to paint the oustide, and re-do the master bath upstairs.  but that won't happen until after the summer.  it is way too hot to paint during the summer in new orleans.  what else?  oh, i need to hang drapes and some artwork.  the walls are pretty bare right now.  i also plan on painting a dr. suess mural on fletcher's wall in his room.

here are a few before and after pics...

Because the house is a raised house (3 feet off the ground), the floors are heart pine and there was no sub-floor, we were able to salvage all the floors in the house, except the kitchen floors.  We were also able to salvage most of the brass + glass hardware that are on the doors.

Front + Back - we haven't yet landscaped...excuse the boring-ness.  We are also planning to paint the house and probably put up an iron fence.

 

In the kitchen: we were able to salvage the custom cypress cabinets on the top (with the glass over the stove).  Everything that was on the floor had to be tossed out because of damage from the flood water.  We also kept the old copper awning as the hood over the stove and the copper backsplash behind the stove.  We used 3cm absolute black granite on the countertops (to match the black granite on the walls on either side of the stove) and we used 2cm granite on the breakfast bar over the sink.  We tried to save the wood floors in the kitchen, but we would've had to replace the wood and we couldn't find the heart pine (that is throughout the house) to match.  We ended up using 18" inch porcelain tiles, in a diagonal pattern.

Hallway from Dining Room

This is on the wall outside of Fletcher's room.

Dining Room: it's hard to get a good picture of the dining room.  We were able to save the iron fireplace surrounds in the dining room and my office.  They are orginal to the house (1870).  They were all rusted and needed some serious cleaning with a wire brush and some smelly rust cleaner.  Ick.  The paneling the dining room was also salvaged because all the wood is cypress and there was nothing behind the paneling to trap moisture.  Once we had the house mold remediated (American Mold Guard A+++++), all the wood work looked new.  I wish I had pictures to show.  I think I might, I need to dig around.  Anyway, I decided to go back with color in all the rooms instead of the neutral palette that was throughout the house.

Looking into the dining room from living room and pocket doors that lead from the dining room into my office.

Here is a good picture of my office before I actually moved my stuff into it.  This is from the shower we threw for Hadley.  Oh how I miss a clean office!

Living room: this is a post-flood pic and also a pic from Christmas 2006.  I still need to hang drapes.  I plan on making my own drapes because the ones I really, really like are also really, really expensive. :(  Part of the problem with the drapes is that the ceilings are 12 feet high.  When you hang drapes in a room with high ceilings, you're supposed to hang the rod directly under the crown moulding.  Do the math on the amount of material I need.  Sucks.

Downstairs bathroom 1: this bathroom is directly across the hall from Fletcher's room.  I've thought about making it his bath, but this bathroom is also the closet bath to the dining room.  Won't work.  I have yet to decorate because I am procrastinating.  The claw foot tub is orginal to the house and it has a s'bath (shower/bath - think europe) faucet.  The sink is a new vessel sink and we got a cabinet in the Duncan Phyfe style because it goes with the antique furniture that is in Fletcher's room.  It is also my favorite style of antique furniture.  It mixes well with modern pieces.

Downstairs bathroom 2:  this is a hidden half bath under the stairway.

Master Bedroom: I couldn't really get any good pics of the bedroom.  The day I was taking the pics, Andy was in bed sick with food poisoning from some bad sushi.  I tried my best.  I will post pics when I get a chance.

One the dressers in the room -                                         Master bedroom closet - excuse the mess!

it's also antique Duncan Phyfe.

Master bedroom laundry room - it's awesome having a washer + dryer in the room!

Master Bath - here's where we are a little embarrassed to show pics.  We hate this room.  We hate the tile, the shower, the layout.  We plan on gutting this room in the fall and going back with either slate tiles or beach glass mixed with something else.  we also plan on making the shower bigger with a bench seat and moving the tub.  personally, i would be happy if we nixed the tub and made a 2 person shower.

Ok, we bought a Toto toilet and seat.  It's a nice toilet and the seat is cool because it lowers down on its own.  But overall, probably not worth the money.

Porch - we have a side porch off the kitchen that is covered and we have a back deck off the kitchen that is not covered.