Our Friday Night

Today I decided to do some laundry.

Currently the original washer & dryer are still in place in the basement.

The basement is disgusting. Especially around the washer & dryer. The ceiling tiles have been removed for electrical and plumbing work. It's very musty and dirty down there.

But sometimes laundry MUST be done (especially when your baby gets sick in her crib) so I ventured down earlier this week and began using the washer & dryer.

Other than the "old" smell, they have worked fine. That is up until this afternoon.

Of course when I decide to wash our sheets (the only set we have right now because I still don't know where our box of sheets is located) the washer breaks. It stopped draining and didn't go through the spin cycle. So I've been waiting for Cary to come home and fix it!

I started to make dinner (more on that later) and came downstairs to this...





Cary was sucking on the end of the white hose that is shown in the VT bucket to syphen out the water from the washer. I gagged. He is definitely a better person than I am.

Amos (who is ALWAYS under foot these days) was very curious as to what all the action was about in his neck of the woods.


Thankfully we have the washer & dryer from our old house just hanging out in the garage and Cary just swapped them out!



So.

Back to my dinner!

It was the inaugural cook top meal!!! I dreamed of something a bit more glamorous, but I love tacos so that's what I made.





Here is a glimpse of my view from the cook top!


If you look closely you will notice the top drawer of the cabinet below the cook top is missing.

We have some tweaking to do to that drawer since the cook top is gas and there are hoses and "stuff" in the back.

You might also notice the extension cord running into the drawer. It's little things like this that we are still working through. The electrical outlet that is for the cook top doesn't work for some reason. So for power we pulled out the handy and used all too much these past 2 weeks, bright orange extension cord.

Honestly, I think this is what is becoming more and more annoying to me. There are several little things that aren't completed yet (because Cary and I can only do so much in the evening) and these little things keep us from making much progress on unpacking. (SIGH)

So. I'm hopeful we'll make some decent progress on stuff this weekend. Since we'll be snowed in. However, I am still praying Home Depot & Lowe's are open because if I want a Master Bathroom we'll need to make a few trips to the store for supplies.

And that's what's up with us, folks! :)

No pictures yet because I don't want to show the messiness of this house...but then again I did post a picture of the packed Man Room a few weeks ago...soo I might have to rethink this. Hmmmm

AND

Ellery & I have both been sick this week. So not much has been done, which is REALLY frustrating for me.

Since we'll be snowed in this weekend I think I'll set the goal of having all doors painted and knobs installed....that would be nice, don't you think?

My Tired Sweetie

I included 2 pictures so some of you could see just a glimpse of the mess we are in right now! HA!! I can't help but laugh.

Because it's been too long...

We are working so hard to get this place put together. However it still looks like a disaster and nothing has been done.

At least Ellery has some fun stuff to play with while I'm working on putting things away in the kitchen.



Cary and I work on something every night. Last night it was hooking up the dishwasher.







You can see from this picture the granite I selected. It's great! I love it!

Today we were focused on installing the under cabinet lights, selecting and installing the cabinet hardware and finally unpacking the kitchen.

We are both DONE for the day. It's exhausting!

At least we were able to take a little break and walk around the neighborhood. I did make brownies, however I still have to get to know my oven and microwave a bit better. The microwave takes longer to heat things up than I'm used to and so does the oven. Oh well...I'll figure it out one day.

Alive

Hello!!

We are alive!!

We survived...a bit worse for ware, but we're still here.

No cable or Internet until Thursday. But today I am at my parents house trying to get Ellery to sleep and do some laundry so I grabbed a computer and wanted to let you know we are okay.

Let's see....the last update included lots of tears and chaos, right?!

Saturday we had an ENORMOUS amount of help from so many wonderful friends. I didn't take a single picture.

My heart was so full from every one's generosity and support.

The house still looks like a major disaster zone.

We have no counter tops, which means no kitchen sink. We are still with out our cook top (although Cary told me yesterday it could be 3 weeks before that is actually delivered-WHAT?!).

No working electrical outlets in the Master Bedroom. One light bulb works in the recessed lights in the Master Bedroom. No work has really been done in the Master Bath. The vanity is ordered but I think it should be in sometime this week.

We are washing dishes, brushing teeth, filling sippy cups and any other random cleaning that requires water from the little pink sink in Ellery's bathroom.

Cary DID get a new shower head for me in that bathroom, which I'm delighted about.

The floors are so dirty from all the construction guys still tramping through our house that I'm afraid to let Ellery play on the floor (another reason why I brought her to my folks this morning).

Speaking of Ellery, her sleeping schedule is all messed up so she screamed for about an hour and a half last night because she was so tired but refused to got to sleep. THANKFULLY she cried from 8:30-10:00. I could handle that just fine.

I say all of this just to give you a verbal visual of the current craziness we are living in. However, we are not discouraged or upset about any of this. It's just life!

I think it's pretty safe to say we would like to get Kenny, Josh (the kitchen cabinet installer) completed with their work ASAP just for some privacy.

When we moved into our "old house" we were with out sewer for maybe a bit over 1 month. I wont go into detail of how we worked in a house with limited sewer, but we adapted and after a few short days of adjusting our expectations and schedules a bit we were just fine. By the time the county hooked up the sewer line and we could shower in our Master Bath and could flush the toilet as many times as we wanted and actually use the kitchen sink it was amazing.

I'm sure we'll have the same reaction this time around.

Cary and I are blessed beyond measure and I look at living IN the end of this renovation as more memories created.

Let me just take a minute to list some POSITIVES from our move:
Great family neighborhood
Master Bedroom is PITCH BLACK in the morning (which I'm sure Cary LOVES)
Brand new kitchen
Morning sun fills the living room and I LOVE it
Close into town, with a blockbuster, CVS and several other stores just on the next street over
Cute, cozy home that will be filled with love and family

Some Pictures

I took these pictures earlier this week.

Walter & Lynn came back into town on Monday and worked tirelessly until Thursday morning. So much was accomplished because of their help.



Master Bath closet system.


Ellery's room. The stripes are complete but this is the picture from Monday night.


Master Bedroom walls complete.


The kitchen.


I'm still trying to decide on the granite. These are the 3 choices I've narrowed down.






This week has been a long blur. So much going on.

Honestly, today is REALLY tough. I have to keep myself super busy so I can't stop to think that it's my last day in this house, otherwise I break down into tears.

No words left. Just emotions to be processed through.

Hopefully Ellery will wake soon so I can take her window treatments down and head over to the new house.

LOTS of cleaning and prep work left to do before the friends arrive tomorrow to move our furniture.

Kitchen is going in!! So far it looks great.

Walter & Lynn came back into town to help around the new house. They are busy painting, cleaning and installing the closet systems.

I'm still packing.

Kenny is still installing floor tile.

LOTS GOING ON!! Hope to have pictures for you soon.

Saturday before the Big Move

After a week of packing with Cary's parents, we took a couple loads to the house.

We had a little picnic lunch on the basement, "Man Room", floor.


Currently we are storing our "stuff" in the Man Room.

Oh. Good. Lord.




Of course the most exciting part for me was checking out the floors.




Kenny was installing the floor tile in the Sun Room.


However, he forgot the 3 times Cary told him that I wanted the tiles installed in a brick pattern.

NOT straight, like he was installing them when we showed up.

So unfortunately for Kenny he had to take up all the tile and start again.


Good news is that he did a great job, once he got the pattern right.

Tomorrow we begin painting!!

Just packing...


and packing....


and more packing....

A Work In Progress

It's gonna be great.

I'm so happy with the color! It's exactly what I was expecting.

Soo excited!!

Anxious

I am still waiting for our floors to be stained.

He was supposed to stain on Monday.

Monday turned into Tuesday.

Tuesday turned into Wednesday.

Today turning into tomorrow morning.

Typical construction. I should know this.

I even made a special trip to the house this afternoon to check things out. As I was driving on the highway I thought, "I bet the floors aren't even stained yet."

Cary took a load of stuff to the house tonight and I made sure to send him with my camera.

He came home with no pictures.

COME. ON. ALREADY!!!!!

(in the refinishers defense, he HAS been on the job every day all day since Monday; and I am very thankful he's showing up to sand and work. I guess the refinishing is proving to be a bigger job than any one of us anticipated.)

I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the hole in our Sunroom brick wall is now closed!!

I had to take this picture from the deck yesterday because the floors were being sanded and I didn't know if I could walk in the house. Turns out I could.

This week the floors are being refinished, the brick has been replaced/repaired in the Sunroom, the doors are being prepped for hanging and I think the thinset will be installed in the Sunroom (that's the cement type flooring that has to go down before we can install the floor tile).

The kitchen cabinets were delivered yesterday! Cary asked if I opened one of the boxes to see what they looked like. HA! I was so concerned with checking off the inventory as it came off the delivery truck and worrying about Ellery being scared that Kenny was holding her that I completely forgot to open a box & see the cabinets.

Once the floors are finished (Friday or Saturday) we'll begin installation of the kitchen cabinets.

This is the part of the renovation that gets me excited. I'm beginning to feel like hours and hours of packing and dealing with the mess of selling a house is worth it.

I even woke up this morning and was anxious to get to the new house just to BE in the living room to see the beautiful morning light shine in. Now THAT is a miracle.

My Little Helper

I was working on packing a few days ago in a space adjacent to the nursery.

So I let Ellery play in her room while I worked.

I came across these adorable slippers which were a baby gift. They fit her perfectly now.




As any baby would, she loves to try to take everything off her feet.


When she realized she couldn't get the slippers off that easily she decided to "help" me pack.


She managed to pull almost everything out of her armoire in a few short minutes.


Good thing she's cute!!

Finally...

It seem like we'll have a "quiet" day after maybe 2 straight weeks of insanity.

The floor refinishing begins today which means nothing can really be done inside the house.

So Cary is home. I feel a bit more calm having him around me.

We will be running lots of errands related to moving and the renovations but at least we'll be doing them together.

Being in each others company makes this stressful process a bit more bearable.

Yesterday we had quite a bit of "stuff" moved to the new house. My dad took a big truck load and he was followed up by our good friend Tim who brought his trailer and another big truck. I ran out of things to give him!

Thankfully Cary's folks are coming into town this week and they are always so eager to help. On their "to do" list will be, 1-play with Little Miss 2-help me pack! :)

Happy New Year!!