Rise Up From the Ashes

So, my parents' house is pretty exciting!

After the fire, I'd drive by about once a week to see if there were any changes.  Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Then suddenly, on May 1, the entire roof was gone!  And then things really started happening! 

They changed the floor plan slightly, and the house is sooo nice! Just yesterday Bruce helped my parents move their bedroom furniture into their house, so officially the house is done—or at least done enough to live in. :-)

So I'll show you the rebuilding of the Johnson home, in pictures:

When I drove by these guys were tearing the roof apart.  I assumed they were construction workers. ;-)

Later that day the roof was all gone! Well, all gone from the top of the house, anyway.

A couple days later the new roof was going up.

Now I lose track of time—exactly when everything happened—but I'll try to get it in order.

This is the window of the basement bedroom Peter was in when the house was on fire.

So you have a better idea, the window on the right is the original size; the window on the left was made bigger. The original windows opened down from the top, so that they only propped open about four inches and there was a metal frame dividing the window into two panes, each pane about 1 square foot.

Looking in from outside the dining room. They didn't take down all the walls, but the southwest part of the house pretty much had to be entirely rebuilt.

I thought this was funny.  The whole house is torn apart, and there's this roll of TP hanging in the bathroom.

This is the old house plan.



This is the new house plan.  Can you see the changes?

This is probably where you'll see the biggest change. You are looking in from the back door.

See? Mom always used to worry that a child would run in through the back door and knock someone down the stairs. Now they have moved the laundry room upstairs where the stairway used to be.

Dad walks to the front door to greet the next-door neighbor. He (the neighbor) had a lot to say about the construction of the house. I'll leave it at that.

Gregory and Mom are standing in the new laundry room. Bruce is there too—can you see him?
Gregory helped redesign the house, and was the main liason with the construction guys.

Here's a peek at the basement.

Working on the roof.

When the roof is on they do the plumbing and wiring. They put in a lot of recessed lights now that they didn't used to have. Nice!

They hang the outside doors and start putting up the sheetrock.

New windows in the basement.

A shingled roof and new siding.

The front stonework is begun.

The walls are painted, the tile is laid, the AC is running, and the hardwood floors go in.

The cabinets are hung. (Light fixtures are in, too!)



Lindsey inspects the kitchen.



Looking good!

We spend a day going through boxes that the disaster cleanup people had been storing.

We are happy to see that the contents of Mom's old cedar chest survived!

I haven't been to the house in a few weeks.  I know that the living room and dining room furniture have been delivered.  Bruce helped move the bedroom furniture from Melanie's house to my parents' house yesterday.  It must be time to go make a visit with my camera! ;-)

Pretty exciting, huh?

The Art of Fashion

Remember when I was telling you about drawing croquis'?

Well, with the help of some quick and dirty PhotoShop I've made myself a croquis! The proportions may not be exact croquis proportions, but they're pretty close.

Observe:



This is me, modeling the coat I made in Tailoring a year or so ago.  This is what I really look like.  :-/



This is me, after I've been put on the rack and stretched to (approximate) croquis proportions.

Now, I'm not exactly thrilled with my body in the first picture; I wouldn't mind being five or six inches taller and dropping twenty pounds. But my croquis body is . . . extreme? . . . unrealistic? . . .

. . . just weird!

Ahhhh. The art of fashion!

I Think I've Got It!

The question:

How will my attending college contribute to the diversity of SLCC?

My answer:

I have been considering the question of diversity for several weeks. What do I have that contributes to the diversity of Salt Lake Community College?

I could list my talents, which are many. I could talk about my children—which are also many—or about how my pursuing an education will set the example for eight growing minds to also seek higher education (which could further contribute to the diversity at SLCC). I could point out that I am fifteen to twenty years older than the average student at SLCC; I could say that because I am older I’ve had a different education and upbringing. I could tell you that I have had many life experiences from owning and running a business, to performing on stage, to moving across the country on less than a shoestring, to being a mother.

Instead I would like to submit that simply by being human I contribute to the diversity of Salt Lake Community College. Every human being on the planet has different education, different personalities, different genetics, different life experiences, different outlooks… And the list goes on.

I am one of them. I belong to this group—this puzzle that we put together, simply calling the finished picture “humanity.”  I am a human being.

Answer This Question

No. I am not asking you to do my homework for me.
I want to apply for a scholarship for next semester. If they would put it through based on my grades only, it would be nothing but net. Swoosh!

But, no.  They want me to answer this essay question:

Why are you attending college and how will it contribute to the diversity of SLCC?

Well. I am kind of stuck.  How will my attending college contribute to the diversity of SLCC?  And, by the way, don't you think diversity is kind of overrated?  I thought it went "United we stand."

Anyway, give me some great ideas on how my attending college contributes to the diversity of said college.  If I have a good start I can write a great paper!