I can see clearly now…

Before we get into what’s new at Casablanca, let me tell you about a home renovator’s dream come true… getting to meet most all of the sweet people who we love to watch on HGTV’s Home Town in Laurel, MS!!! For our 6th anniversary, Eric and I stole away from our own home renovation to hop over to Laurel and see what they are doing – having NO idea we’d run into all the celebrities in town! If you haven’t plugged into Home Town yet, look out for it coming up – Season 2 starts January 8.

While in Laurel, we stayed in the lofts above the Sweet Somethings Bakery. The whole building has been restored and it’s just beautiful. Let me know if you’re heading that way and I’ll send you a link!

We checked in, ordered some vegetable soup and cornbread in the bakery, and then Ben walked in! Ben Napier is the 6’6″ teddy bear of a HGTV renovation superstar. He and his creative wife, Erin, are the main gurus on Home Town and he could not have been nicer to us. He posed for a pic and even looked at photos from our own renovation at Casablanca. Bless him, you know every person who ever changed a light fixture wants to stop and tell him about it. So nice!

So, of course we had to go shopping at the Laurel Mercantile – the durable goods shop in downtown that the Napiers own with friends and family. Sweetest place, everything made in the USA, could have brought it all home! (We brought a bunch of stuff home!) We even met Aunt Mae, Erin’s aunt who is their top “sales girl”!

Well, wouldn’t you know… we ran into the Rasberrys on the front steps – Mallorie and Jim, co-owners of the mercantile and regular designers and contributors on Home Town! They also could not have been nicer to talk with us about Casablanca. It’s really fun to talk with people who understand the pain FUN involved in bringing an old home back to life!So, as you can see, we basically met all the celebrities in Laurel!

We went down the road to see a historic home in Ellisville and truly found a jewel. If you don’t know the story of the Free State of Jones, look it up! We have a similar (albeit different in many ways) story in the Free State of Winston here in Alabama. Anywho… this home had a haint blue porch ceiling!!! Just more confirmation that we must have one at Casablanca!It was a wonderful getaway with the cutest hubs who ever lived. 🙂 Here’s to about 6 million more years with Prince Eric!

Oh, and this happened…

Roll Tide!

On to what’s new at Casablanca… Windows! We have new windows (and now we can see clearly… SEE what I did there?). Here are the windows in the bedroom nook. I cannot wait to sit here with a book and take in the view!In the very near future, that view will NOT include a stack of chimney bricks and and a dumpster with all the gunk that has come out of this house. Just pasture, horses and Canadian geese heading South!

Even though these windows are new, seeing this one inserted in the old house just highlights how much work we still have ahead of us. These rough edges are soon to be smoothed down in the coming weeks.

The old part of the house is getting an insulation update, so all around the house are these holes – drilled in order to blow insulation into the space between the sheet rock and the outside boards. Odd, but useful, hopefully.

Picture ode to how much I love seeing what’s on the inside of the walls – this would have been the south-facing outside boards of the original house. Love.

This isn’t big news, but I like this photo. I was walking by it tonight and wanted to document this small slice of our experience. It’s a piece of paper with the house footprint outlined on it. Eric and I have marked where we want various things like plugs, lights and switches. During any given week, we will mark it up then hang it on the nail. The contractors will get it the next day and leave it there for the next time we need to draw out our requests. Old fashion communication strategy right here:

Dad’s tree update… even at its young age, the Fall beauty is coming through.

Driving in to Coaling this afternoon, I asked Eric to stop and let me catch a shot of the post office. I love this building! How cute is it? Seems like it should say “Mayberry” across the top, but I’m glad it’s still Coaling – our new Home Town.

I hope you get to come visit us in Coaling soon! Have a fantastic week!