I had a wee melt down....

This house repair/reno has taken entirely too long.  BUT, I can see things beginning to come together.  Its quite odd, when you have a vision of how things should look.  And then you see it blending together to become your vision.  Lovely.

When we bought this house, John was laid off, just after we closed the deal.  It was a painful time for all of us.  We bought the house based on his income and then when he was finally able to find another job, his salary was cut literally in half. 

That being said, we had a lot of things we wanted to do to the house, changes to make, etc.  Because of the struggle financially, we were stuck with leaving some things as they were and not making upgrades on other things.  I will not lie, the salary cut, two growing boys and the extra expenses of a larger home were tough to navigate. 

John has steadily been promoted since then and our finances are much more sound, but money is still tight.  We have two in college. Money is still a concern, but at least we can breath again.

This whole repair renovation has presented us an opportunity to change some of the things we had hoped to change over the years. 

We've tried to look at it as an opportunity, not a misfortune.  The amount of time it has take has taken a toll on my body and my mind.  This ol' Dysautonomia body just doesn't cooperate like I want it to.  For example, yesterday I painted what used to be the dining room area....by myself....in one day.  I thought I would be able to rest a bit yesterday afternoon and pull myself together for church.  WRONG.  My body just laughed and laughed at me, as I crawled physically defeated to the bed. 

Tuesday of this week, things all came to head with me seeing so much STILL to be done.  I started making a list of things and the list just grew and grew and grew.  I could hear the characters, in my book, calling from a great distance away, "We want to play.  Please come make us do something interesting!" 

So, I sat down, had a good cry and then cried some more.  Note of advice: Pity parties are alright to have, but they cannot last very long. 

As my pity party was wrapping up, we got word that one of Adam's high school class mates committed suicide.  At once, I received clarity.  This house stuff is just that....STUFF.  None of it matters in the grand scheme of things.  Yes, I've been overwhelmed recently and in the past, but not to the point that I wanted to stop trying.  This young man stopped trying.  I don't know the details surrounding his life.  I wish he could have seen light at the end of the tunnel, because that wee sparkle of light is Jesus, beckoning us to keep trying. 

Please pray for this family.  They will need the vision to see that wee sparkle of light, as they move through grief.  My heart is broken for them. 

Post Script: I promise when this house adventure is all over, I will post a video tour, if I can figure out how to post it  :) 

It all started with a water leak

John was out of town for 3 weeks.  He came home at 6:30 on a Sunday night.  Less than 12 hours later, we awoke to a water leak coming from the upstairs bathroom into the the kitchen.  Welcome home John.

We sprang into action.  Literally.  John went flying across the front yard to cut the water meter off.  He called insurance (BTW-ALFA Insurance rocks!)  They got a restoration crew out immediately.  The bathroom floor had to go, along with the floor in the upstairs hallway.  A hole had to be torn out in the sheet rock because we didn't have an access panel to the plumbing in the bathtub/shower.  Downstairs, they tore out the kitchen ceiling.  Ripped up the living room carpet, along with drywall in the kitchen walls.

Doesn't this sound like fun?  Well, if it does, I'm not doing a very good job of describing it.  IT.HAS.BEEN.AWFUL.  Because the water leak affected so many areas of the house, furniture had to be shifted all around.  Nothing is in it's proper room. 

A well respected, highly recommended (by people I trust) contractor was hired.  Since the whole house was already torn up, we decided to take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, making the space much more open and family gathering friendly.

Due to this decision, we ended up needing new counter tops and tile added instead of hardwood in the kitchen.  (Note to anyone who will listen.....DO NOT PUT HARDWOOD IN ANY ROOM WHERE WATER IS INVOLVED!)  We also changed out some lighting, added two pendant lights and corner shelving on each side of the built in pantry.

That all started 4 weeks and 2 days ago.

We are currently living (John, myself, Adam, dogs Harry and Zeus, and occasionally John David and Tori, the granddog) in our master bedroom suite.  The boys can still sleep in their beds, but they can't use their bathroom and the only place with a television right now is our bedroom.  (Oh and I can't get to the refrigerator because the unplugged stove and dishwasher are blocking it.) Also living in our master suite are the contents of my kitchen cabinets and assorted other trinkets from around the house.  Zeus, in fact, jumped off the couch in the sitting area of our master suite and landed right into a pile of Tupperware and other plastic containers.

The downstairs hallway and foyer are filled with assorted furniture pieces from the living room.  My office is filled with flower arrangements from all around the house and all the artwork that has been hanging on the walls.  (I know...the mental picture is brutal)

I don't like shopping for house stuff.  I don't like picking counter tops and paint colors.  I detest flooring samples and the like.  That means I have been having a blast.  My best friend Angie adored all this kind of stuff and I've shed more than a few tears that she is not here to help me with this.  I miss you Dude.  Always and forever.

I did discover something quite interesting in the past 4 weeks and 2 days.  I do indeed have a style and that style has a name.  "Modern Country".  Think Pottery Barn, Martha Stewart, Crate and Barrel and the like. Clean modern lines, neutral background colors, with rustic and natural elements included.  I've never known what to call my style, so I'm glad to have stumbled upon these two delightful words.  I do like words.

Tomorrow, if the forecasted ice storm decides to stay away, I will be getting the counter tops installed, the access door cut in the new sheet rock upstairs, the pendant lights put in and the ceiling painted in the living room. 

After that we will still need baseboards put down and painted, the hardwood in the upstairs hallway installed and all the painting done in the back foyer, kitchen, what used to the the dining room and the living room.

I'm thinking we still have a good two weeks.  I know it will be worth the hassle and I know there are worse things in the world, but man am I sick of this mess.

I cleaned our master bathroom and put everything in its place in there because I wanted one room, at least one, that was as it should be.  I threatened to delete any person from this family who messes up the bathroom.  So far so good.  All family members are still around.

I will post pictures when this is over.  But for now, please pray for this to be over soon and for my stinkin' Dysautonomia symptoms to play nice. 

Post Script:  The ice storm did indeed arrive as forecast.  But, we didn't let that stop us.  Instead of the workers being here to do what I mentioned above, we have been wiping down walls and baseboards and I'm actually getting a wee bit of painting done in the kitchen.

We are having to use a textured paint, that costs way too much.  But it is because of the difficulty we had getting the old wallpaper off.  Wallpaper is from hell, by the way, in my humble opinion.  The textured paint helps to hide all the uneven surfaces due to the paper removal.

And on a much more lovely note.....I LOVE THE PAINT COLOR AND I ADORE THE WAY THE PAINT AND THE KITCHEN FLOOR LOOK WITH THE CABINETS!

I have always hated the cabinets, they looked pink and weird, but with the right paint color and tile color, they look amazing!  So I miracle has happened in the middle of all this!  I like my cabinets!