Making House a Home

This past week we began the long and tedious process of home renovation and I must say, even though I knew we were in for a bunch of work, the list of "must do's" continues to grow almost daily. I was naive in determining how much time it would take to mark things off the list initially; the first blunder being that I set the carpet installation appointment for last Monday, thinking we could get all the popcorn off the ceilings and then re-texturize them, prime and paint every wall upstairs, and stain all the wood trim and doors... all somehow over the weekend, without help, with a baby to tend to, and church activities (which, make no mistake, are the highlight of our week and no chore... they just take up half of Sunday, so in reality we only had a day and a half to work before the carpet was to be installed). Needless to say, we had to move the appointment back for later in the week.

By Sunday we were running ragged and it showed... I had spent much of Saturday scraping all the popcorn off the ceilings, keeping my arm above my head for long periods of time which resulted in swollen fingers and terrible arm cramps throughout Saturday night. Come church time, we shuffled in to the very back row exhausted, eyes glazed over, and my right arm shaking involuntarily. I'm sure we looked pretty ridiculous! Our small group leader's wife, Katie, noticed our less-than-refreshed looks and offered her assistance throughout the week if we needed it. Initially, I thought it was a nice idea but I didn't plan on taking her up on the offer. That was until Monday came and we found out that Nick would not be able to take any of his vacation time during the next few weeks and it was in my corner to get the bulk of the work done while he was at work. Then calling for help sounded like a pretty good idea! I was hoping for maybe an extra hand painting for an afternoon, but was blown away by Katie's generosity; already taking a spring break, her twelve year old daughter, Mariah, offered to watch Luke in the backyard and Katie came three days that week, with her painting supplies in tow (and we're not just talking brushes... we're talking big ladders and scaffolding!). I had no idea what a pro she was at home renovation but what a Godsend to have her assistance! Katie is definitely one for details (which I am not) and not only did she provide an extra set of hands, but she was a wealth of knowledge on painting and staining. Thank goodness for her expertise... I can't imagine how bad my paint jobs would have turned out without her help! We used wood filler, joint compound, tape, and mudding to fill holes, sand everything smooth, texturized the ceilings, and got all the painting done in the bedrooms by the time she left on Thursday. Ultimately, the meant we were able to get carpet installed on Friday like planned (what I learned to be still too soon had I tried to do everything on my own during the day). By the end of the week, we had spent over 50 hours working on the house (Nick & I combined) but there were signs of progress throughout the house that made it well worth it.

It became apparant soon after starting work on the house that we would need to have new windows installed throughout the entire house... and expense we were not hoping to incur until later down the road. After getting several estimates, we found a company we felt good about going with. However, it is going to take a month before we can have new windows installed (three weeks for the custom order on the windows, the week after for installation). While there will be many thing we can work on after we move in, we are going to have the windows- as well as a new steel door and locks- installed before we move in. This sets us back farther than we initially aniticipated moving in, but thank the Lord, we aren't on a time bind and Nick's parents have been so generous in having us stay as long as we need to (their words not mine, though I'm sure they'd love to have their house back!... what was initially going to be a three week stay has turned into over three months). The blessing of this is that we will not have to kill ourselves to get everything done as fast... I can "leisurely" get the rest of the ceilings texturized, walls painted, the entry and hall bath tiled. This will probably be a better scenario for poor Luke, who has had to spend more time in a playpen than he'd ever care to while Mommy & Daddy work on the house! I know he'll enjoy more attention and it will be nice having some downtime together as a family a few nights a week.