Throwback Thursday
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:11 am
Wouldn't you know it? Here I'm finally feeling 100%, ready to go out and get into some mischief and it's snowing here! According to the local weather forecast we're supposed to get 4 to 8", If you live in a snow belt you understand how it can vary that much. I have seen times I have gotten 6" of snow, drive 10 miles in one direction and they got 2" but if you go 10 miles in the other direction they got a foot! It is very dependent on the exact wind direction and intensity.
At any rate having been in self isolation for the past week and a half I had a lot of time on my hands so I went through a lo of old photo albums and did a lot of reminiscing which got me to thinking. Yea I know a dangerous concept! Yes I have some dark times in my life but I have had a lot more good ones as I am sure all of you have. In that vein I am declaring today Throwback Thursday! WTF is Throwback Thursday I am sure all of you are asking yourself right about now. It is a day to reminisce, tell a story from your past either good or bad, post a picture from your past, whatever you want.
I'm posting a picture from 2011 but there is the back story to it. My 2nd husband Jim was working for a company that decided to close the plant and move the work elsewhere and he ended up unemployed. Not going into the details as it is a long story but he eventually got a job at a company based in Traverse City, well technically Williamsburg and we ended up moving up there. We eventually bought the house here on the lake. We both loved the location however were not happy with the house as it was so we proceeded to undertake some very major renovations.
I am sure most of you have done some remodeling on your house at one time or another so you know the chaos that can create. We completely redid the house both upstairs and main floor even removing walls some which were load bearing which means structural changes. In addition we relocated the main staircase to the upstairs and added a second one. There were times I would get home from a week downstate and it would look like a bomb had gone off in my house. There were even a couple of times we get a hotel room for various reasons. Sometimes to escape the disaster out home had become, sometimes out of necessity as the water was going to be off for several days to redo plumbing. To say it was frustrating at times is very polite and more than once we would look at each other and ask "What the hell were you thinking?"
As with any major remodeling project it took a longer than the 4 to 5 months we were originally told, it was over 7 months from start to finish. There were also cost overruns some due to what was found when they started the job, some just underestimating material costs or hours necessary to accomplish the job. Finally came the Monday morning I was getting ready to head downstate for the week and the contractor promised me when I got home that Friday he and his guys would be gone and I would have my house back. To say I was leery is kind but I tried to stay hopeful. I had an easy day that Friday and was home by about 5:00 after a 3 1/2 hour drive. Jim met me on the porch with a bouquet of red roses and told me to close my eyes before he led me into the house. Yes it was finally done and the furniture all back in place!
After a tour of my own house we decided to go out for a celebratory dinner at a bar not far from the house he had heard about from a guy at work, that's a whole other story! As we were getting ready to leave Jim grabbed one of my cameras and snapped this picture of me. I have always loved the look of contentment I have here. I'm probably 15 lbs heavier here and not sure about the hair though.
OK there's my Throwback Thursday for this week, what's yours?
At any rate having been in self isolation for the past week and a half I had a lot of time on my hands so I went through a lo of old photo albums and did a lot of reminiscing which got me to thinking. Yea I know a dangerous concept! Yes I have some dark times in my life but I have had a lot more good ones as I am sure all of you have. In that vein I am declaring today Throwback Thursday! WTF is Throwback Thursday I am sure all of you are asking yourself right about now. It is a day to reminisce, tell a story from your past either good or bad, post a picture from your past, whatever you want.
I'm posting a picture from 2011 but there is the back story to it. My 2nd husband Jim was working for a company that decided to close the plant and move the work elsewhere and he ended up unemployed. Not going into the details as it is a long story but he eventually got a job at a company based in Traverse City, well technically Williamsburg and we ended up moving up there. We eventually bought the house here on the lake. We both loved the location however were not happy with the house as it was so we proceeded to undertake some very major renovations.
I am sure most of you have done some remodeling on your house at one time or another so you know the chaos that can create. We completely redid the house both upstairs and main floor even removing walls some which were load bearing which means structural changes. In addition we relocated the main staircase to the upstairs and added a second one. There were times I would get home from a week downstate and it would look like a bomb had gone off in my house. There were even a couple of times we get a hotel room for various reasons. Sometimes to escape the disaster out home had become, sometimes out of necessity as the water was going to be off for several days to redo plumbing. To say it was frustrating at times is very polite and more than once we would look at each other and ask "What the hell were you thinking?"
As with any major remodeling project it took a longer than the 4 to 5 months we were originally told, it was over 7 months from start to finish. There were also cost overruns some due to what was found when they started the job, some just underestimating material costs or hours necessary to accomplish the job. Finally came the Monday morning I was getting ready to head downstate for the week and the contractor promised me when I got home that Friday he and his guys would be gone and I would have my house back. To say I was leery is kind but I tried to stay hopeful. I had an easy day that Friday and was home by about 5:00 after a 3 1/2 hour drive. Jim met me on the porch with a bouquet of red roses and told me to close my eyes before he led me into the house. Yes it was finally done and the furniture all back in place!
After a tour of my own house we decided to go out for a celebratory dinner at a bar not far from the house he had heard about from a guy at work, that's a whole other story! As we were getting ready to leave Jim grabbed one of my cameras and snapped this picture of me. I have always loved the look of contentment I have here. I'm probably 15 lbs heavier here and not sure about the hair though.
OK there's my Throwback Thursday for this week, what's yours?