Monday 28 July 2014

One month down

Whew, where the hell did July go? Another 5 weeks and summer is over and Miss K. starts school.

This moving and renovation thing makes time fly. Or makes you so exhausted that it seems like time is flying.

The new place is good, we've been there a month now and it's good. Tiring, but good. The majority of the boxes are unpacked, theres still some to go, but some of that is stuff that needs to stay in boxes, like Christmas decorations and other knick knack type stuff that may not get out of boxes for a while either.

Big C has the barn mostly organized and things put away, the little garage is navigable now too and every room is looking less and less disaster ridden.

Except maybe the second floor. It does look like a bomb went off. At least in the room where we're piling all the drywall, wood, trim and so on to eventually go in some sort of dumpster. That room is definitely not pretty, hazardous even but there is a purpose to it all.

What is to be Miss K's room is stripped of wallpaper, sort of, the backing is still on and needs to be removed. It's going to be hell to get it ready to paint too, the former owner was a house painter, would you think they would know the benefits of priming drywall before doing anything to it? I guess not, simply put, pain in the ass to remove wallpaper when you don't prime the drywall you dumb ass.

Oh well, gotta love a challenge. Big C busting his butt to get all the demolition done so we can load everything into a bin and then get going on the plumbing and other stuff.

He's really really working hard, too hard sometimes I think. We are under a time crunch to get this done by the end of the year or else the bank won't give us the money they've held back for improvements, but not that much of a time crunch.

He worries me a bit, I hope he's not pushing too hard. I want to help more in the demolition part, but somebody has to keep the kid and fur kid occupied, and do the laundry, cooking, groceries other fix-it jobs around the house. It is a team effort, but not really working in the same room if you know what I mean.

Miss K thinks its all kind of funny, walls missing from our bedroom and big piles of stuff in the middle of bedrooms, but most of all it is sort of oblivious to her.

She's an in the moment sort of gal and I feel bad for not spending a ton of quality time with her lately but she's happy enough, sleeping well and not getting into trouble so she must be doing OK

We're on vacation starting middle of this week, so I'm thinking that it will be a good break from house stuff at least for a little while, time to get some sleep and maybe think about something other than renovations and where to put stuff.


Til next time…I hope the mosquitos don't carry me away

Friday 4 July 2014

It's home


Well we're home. It's been a week since the movers were here with all our stuff and it's home. We moved all our belongings out of the in between house last weekend to put an end to that chapter in our life and start in our home.

Miss K put it best. "We don't have to call it our new home mom, we can just call it home now. And she's right, that is what it is.

It is still chaos and boxes everywhere, but it's functional and it feels homey. It really does. We're still exhausted every night and we'll be wondering where the hell stuff is for months to come, but it's home.

Even the dog thinks so. He never seemed quite settled in the "in between house", he was happy enough, and didn't cause any trouble, but he really seems to enjoy the new house.

He plops himself down wherever he likes and seems comfortable doing so. There's no wandering, or aimless pacing looking for a spot to call his, he's just claimed it as his house as it should be.

Miss K is doing remarkably well too. This past week we've been trying to have her kick her nap while at the sitters. This is probably like playing with a loaded weapon considering all the change in the last week, but she's really doing well. Almost too well really, but it's been great.

She loves her toy room, loves the back yard, loves the barn, loves that we've got strawberries and soon to be raspberries right in our own yard. She likes her "in between room" as we have some major reno's to do before she can be in her permanent room. She's adjusted to everything really well. There's even minimal crankiness due to not having a nap which is a bonus.

Big C and I are doing ok too. We haven't killed one another yet, even though we have extended our "whatever we say to one another doesn't count" for another couple months until the renovations are done.

It feels good, to be in a house that you know you will be in for a while. It's an older place, so we know there will be the issues with having an older home, but there is still a comfort in being there and a happiness despite the speed bumps along the way.

I can see the look of satisfaction and calm in Big C when he surveys the barn and sees the endless possibilities for storage and keeping our stuff.

There is much work to be done and still about another 100 or so boxes to unpack, but we're there and I think happy for many years to come.

I still worry about the money and if we can actually pay for it all, but we'll be fine, I just have to convince myself of that while enjoying all that there is to offer at our new place.

Til next time, wherever it is that you call home I wish that it truly does feel like home to you