Yankeeland!

Well, it’s been almost two months since we pulled out of T-town to begin our cross-country journey to Yankeeland. A lot has transpired, and things have not slowed down yet!

Spence started working and has been on call every fourth night since the madness began. He feels tired. I think he is thriving. =D I started work on the 7th, and I was ready! Hospitals require mega-orientations, so I haven’t been on the floor much. I have been on it enough, though, to know that the patients can be very sick and this will be a very tough but also very rewarding job. It is strange and a privilege to be with people during what is probably the scariest and most difficult time in their life. They just trust you and are thankful for your help. I’m getting emotional just thinking about it!

Well, on the home front we have made lots of changes to the house with LOTS of help! Unfortunately half of the work is not even visible in pictures; those changes were subtle but necessary.

It’s time to share some before and “pretty much after” photos. We’ve done most of the big stuff to the house (besides paint the outside), so any more changes will be fairly small. We do still, however, have to make big changes to the guest and “Fireside” room (more on the quotations later). They are still like they were when we moved in.

Here we go!

So that you don’t have to scroll down if you forgot, this is a picture of our wonderful, lovely house in Rochester’s historic Corn Hill. To learn more about Corn Hill, you can visit http://www.cornhill.org/. If you look under Gallery and Pets of Corn Hill, there are pictures of Meixel and Woosley! We love this neighborhood!




I will go through the house like you’re coming in the front door!


This is the living room BEFORE.



Here we are working on painting and pulling the carpet up to reveal the beautiful Rochester piano wood.


It’s called piano wood not because it actually is about the size of piano keys, but because pianos that used to be sent here were sent in boxes made of this wood. So they started reusing it for the floors!

This is a picture of the floor right by the front door. A piece of wood came up when we were taking the carpet up, and we saw this newspaper underneath. So funny! This house is so old!!


Here is the living room AFTER all the work! It is basically done. There are just a few more pictures and things to hang up.





This is the “Fireside Room” or “Den” or, as I like to call it, the Talkin’ Room. Spence thinks this name is inappropriate since we are educated and not in the south anymore, but it has a special meaning from when I was little, so it’s going to be the Talkin’ Room to me!



It has a nice fireplace, bookshelves, and a desk area. We haven’t done anything to it yet. Eventually we will paint it, get new curtains, and make the bookshelves look nicer.


Okay, now for the dining room! It’s the next room after the living room. The Talkin’ Room/Den is just on the side of the dining room.

This is BEFORE.


Here we are in progress…


And here it is after! Again, it’s pretty much done, but there are a few pictures we gotta hang up. Pretty!




Now the kitchen! We “de-chickenized” it and now it’s a rusty red.
Here’s what it looked like before.





Here we are in progress.


Here it is after!




And the decorated fridge just makes it feel like home!



This is one of my favorite parts of the house. It’s a circular staircase up to the office.



This is the powder room which is not completely finished. Unfortunately I didn’t get a before picture, but you can imagine that it just looked like the rest of the house before. My dad put down slate tile and we painted it white and red. It’s just off the kitchen.




Okay, so if you go up the stairs right by the front door, you’ll encounter this hall and the cute little round window.



Then there is the guest room straight ahead. It has had no work on it, and I don’t have any pictures to show yet. To the left is the bathroom. Some of the changes are subtle, but it looks and functions a lot differently now.

Here is the bathroom before.


Here is the bathroom after.


It’s hard to see, but now the curtains are a nice, soft brown material, and my genius dad made an apparatus inside to make the shower curtain function beautifully!


We also inherited this beautiful armoire.



If you go through the bathroom, you’ll get to the office. It is a mess in the "after" picture and a work in progress now. First, a before picture.


Now…



Last, but definitely not least, is our beautiful and peaceful bedroom/refuge. I can’t find any before pictures, but I can describe it to you. The walls were yellow, there was off white carpet, and it was just blah. Now, it’s perfect!




So that’s our house! I apologize for the small size of pictures, but if I don’t make them small, the blog will cut them off anyway. That just means that if you’d like a clearer picture, you’ll just have to come and see us!

It’s still weird to me that we are all the way up here and actually living in New York, but we have been having so much fun! The summers are absolutely gorgeous and nice and cool and green! You know I love green! I was talking to one of my patient’s families about how we were enjoying the cooler weather here and how Tulsa is soo hot in the summer. They actually said, “Not hotter than here though?” I almost choked on my spit. I schooled them on the absolute fact that this is ridiculously mild and that they would probably not ever want to visit Tulsa again if they went during the oppressive summer heat. I think they believed me. =D

Anyway, two of my favorite places that we’ve gone on excursions are Mendon Ponds Park and Hamlin Beach. Of course (not good for you, but we'll go again I'm certain), I was just trying to enjoy the moment and didn’t bring the camera, but here are some general pictures of both. The boys loved it, too!


Hamlin Beach



Mendon Ponds (which we’ll also be visiting in the winter for cross-country skiing!)



Well, that’s all for now. Hopefully it’s a good enough update to tide everyone over for a bit. Things are indeed busy here, but we are very happy and having fun (but missing our family terribly!). Thanks for all your prayers and help getting us up here! We have some extraordinary people in our lives that we could never thank enough!



P.S. Other exciting news is that my two best girlfriends, one pretty much a sister and one a bosom friend forever, are tying the knot this year! I am soooo happy for you both and just can't believe it! Love is in the air!