I know most of the time I post our happenings and current pictures of the kids, but it's been quite awhile since I really updated on what we're busy with in the day-to-day. Two words: house projects. A whole list that just keeps growing. Welcome to having an old house. *sigh*
The biggest project right now is of course the
dining room. It is going so slowly. Because of all the rain we've been having we really haven't gotten anything done in 2-3 weeks! But two nights ago I was really feeling frustrated with it, so I sat down with Kevin's work schedule and made a time line of when "we" can do what. Just trying to make the most of his days off since that's really the only time he can work on it. Kevin has to stay up all night tonight since he works tomorrow night, so he's going to finish sanding the drywall mud, wipe it clean, and put on the final coat of mud. Then hopefully in his next days off we can get moving with all the rest of it. That should all go MUCH quicker. The next step will be painting! We're going to paint the walls before putting on the window trim, molding, base board, and flooring. Then we don't have to bother with taping everything off or worry about dripping on the floor. I'm pretty excited to paint, because not only will it make the room feel like a room, but it's something
I can help with for once! So I'm getting pretty excited for the coming weeks!
Another project we're working on right now is replacing all the
outside doors for our house. The INSANE WINDS we have here have broken
three of our doors in the last year!! The wind catches the door and smashes it against the wall or whatever is near it, ripping it apart wherever it hit. So. We're pretty much getting all new doors. And each entry door is kind of an all-day project because it includes ripping out and replacing the
entire door frame too. The front door we picked needs painted so we're painting it dark brown. Should look really pretty. We got the front side painted today, first coat, so it's in progress, and it's something I can work on while Kevin's at work! {Can't WAIT to have a new front door because currently the front door knob is broken and to get to the porch we have to go out the back door and all the way around. Annoying.} And I'm excited about the side door that enters the dining room. Because it's a nice room now instead of just a side entrance into a mud room, we picked a nice door that looks
like this. And the storm door is just a full glass all the way to the bottom. We didn't really need a screen door there since the dining room has such huge windows anyway. I can't wait to see it!! It's going to be so pretty! And after we ordered it I realized it matches exactly with our
French doors to our office. Oh this is so fun to see things coming together!
And in the very near future we need to get our
electrical redone {so it can handle the window unit air conditioners we will be running very soon!!}. We're hiring out for that project. And we're also hiring out for the downstairs
bathroom remodel {since it's in our main living space. taking out the closet behind it so we can add a sink in the downstairs bathroom. cuz ya know, most bathrooms these days have a sink in it! LOL} A couple weeks ago I noticed floor crumbling down into my laundry area from the bathroom above. We taped it off and haven't been using it since. Well, last night I had Kevin evaluate what was
really going on with it, to see if we REALLY have to re-do the whole thing right NOW {as in, before Eli's birthday in July so we can have family-who-can't-get-up-stairs over} or if it can wait til later in the year or even next year. Looks like there's a leak somewhere causing the basement plaster to crumble apart and just the flooring surrounding the toilet is rotting. {Lovely huh} So we can just replace that part and we should be okay to wait with the rest of the project for now. Something like that anyway.
AND I'm also getting ready to do some
interior painting. Because
Hannah's room has been painted for quite some time now, Eli's been asking for his room to be painted too. So that's coming up soon, hopefully in the next month on a weekend that Eli goes to Grandma and Grandpa's. Not doing anything fancy with it. Just doing two walls blue and two walls a gold color. Not quite the fire truck thing he keeps asking for, but oh well. Also have the paint to complete the master bedroom transformation. And we need to fill cracks and repaint the upstairs bathroom with special bathroom paint because there's mildew issues on the walls in there.
Oh
AND there's something up with the water softener causing it to constantly recycle out water instead of doing it every couple days. {or something like that} We think the water situation is what has been agrivating my eczema so badly lately. AND there's something up with one of the pipes out in the yard because in the last couple of weeks it's been blurbling up a constant flow of water. Kevin stuck a stick in it and that's plugging it up for the time being. AND we got a new fridge about a month ago that didn't quite fit in the fridge space. It was exactly the size of the spot and couldn't open all the way at all. So we ended up having to take out the cupboards that surround it. So in addition to having our dining table in the kitchen right now we also have cupboards placed in new spots for now. The kitchen remodel (cupboards, flooring, countertop) is low on the priority list so it's just going to have to wait for now. Once the table is out of there, it'll feel so much better! In addition to all of that, the AC units need installed, the grass needs mowed every week (3 hr project that I usually try to tackle on my own, with kids, since Kevin doesn't have time by the time he's off work), and the garden-that's-not-looking-too-hot-this-year needs tended. Oh and we have three kids under 4 that all require constant care and attention all the while doing all the above tasks.
Speaking of that our new
mama cat and kittens still seem to be doing well. They're still hiding out in the top level of our shed. And our two other tom cats are still kicked out of the shed. They've been leaving for days at a time, but they always come back.
So. Overwhelmed would be the word I'd choose these days. Almost every day this week the dishes have sat waiting 'til the next day. And there's been 5 loads of clean laundry in the living room waiting to be put away. The basement has quite a bit of water in it from all the rain we've been having. And the house just feels like a mess.
But in the midst of ALL THIS, I'm determined not to lose FAMILY so we're still taking breaks for together time, like
walks around the pond, Sonic treats on hot days, and family movie night. Because THAT'S what it's all about!
