Even I Was Surprised...

I imagine a few - if not many - of the tears that our seller cried upon returning to grab the rest of her belongings out of the garage can be attributed to what she saw lying along the side of the driveway. Curtains, drapes, blinds, wallpaper, carpet. Basically everything but the studs we threw away. And that included the circus themed bathroom below. In my defense, I offered to let her take any and all of her window treatments with her which isn't the norm when you sell a house. But I knew I wouldn't keep it and hated to see it end up in a dumpster. But in the dumpster it did go. And down her cheeks the tears did flow. Oops. 

Anyway, other than ripping down the curtains and mirror I left the rest of this bathroom untouched since possession day last month. I've been trying the to pull the trigger on wallpaper for at least one room in the house (If I had a limitless budget and no filter I'd wallpaper every single wall in the house. Major. Obsesssion.) But not having a single store in KC where I can go see things in person makes me a little trigger shy. I've ordered a few samples and bombed out. The stuff I know I'd love is out of our price range. Plus you either have to factor in the cost of labor to have it hung well, or factor in the probably poor quality of my first ever wallpaper hanging. I feel like I need a warm-up/test run before splurging and ruining it.

I know. My confidence runneth over. But in the last few days alone, I poorly hung a light fixture in our entry (which worked for a few days!!) only to have it blow the circuit (still not sure what I did wrong) and need to call an electrician. Then this morning, while trying to attach a diaper sprayer to our toilet I somehow loosened the wrong nut and had the entire 3 gallons of water in the back of the toilet come rushing out. Any wonder that my home improvement confidence is a little lacking?

Lest you still wonder, I also spilled a gallon of paint in Annie's closet on the six-day-old refinished hardwoods. And last night I knocked a big chunk of plaster out of our living room wall as I hung an expensive Restoration Hardware gold curtain rod. Definitely just paid to have that living room wall filled in, skim-coated, sanded etc. so the new hole is very, very unwelcome. And the curtain rod most certainly got scratched at some point during the whole ordeal. Why wouldn't it? Why in the world would I spend that much money only to have the damn thing go unscathed??

Shall I go on? Let's see, I need only mentally scan through each room in the house and I can easily pull out a DIY fail per room. For instance, I left a wet, but mostly clean paint roller on the vanity in the upstairs bath thinking I would replace the vanity, but have now decided to keep it and must thus live with the lovely paint stain. Basically, I'm retarded and my overzealous impatience are causing some major problems at home. I need to slow down and learn to leave some things to the professionals. Yikes. I hate that I have to write that sentence. I want so much to do it all myself. But there's no one better than a man at a his trade. And sometimes it's worth the extra money to have it done well. 

So if I ever get around to wallpaper, here are some inspiration shots that make my heart flutter...

sources found on my pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kylie_scovell/pins/

Now, back to our bathroom. Ugh. I know some people like yellow. I'm just not one of them. And I know that in some homes yellow works to their charm. In fact, I know it's a perfect fit for some designs. And I know some shades are way better than others. But this home has not a single shade of yellow that works. And let me tell you friend, it has lots of shades of yellow. But I was prepared to live with it while I trudged on in my journey to find, buy and install wallpaper upstairs. 

Sometimes, though, John surprises me. He's coming around, kids. The one time couldn't-care-less-about-design husband is slowly getting roped into the whole home aesthetic thing. Mama's very impressed. And last week he persuaded me to just go ahead and paint the bathroom with some leftover paint for the interim. Given that I usually force a paint brush in his hand with a promise to make out with him later, the fact that he would actually propose and encourage painting was a little baffling. So I acquiesced despite my longing for wallpaper. 

And even I was surprised at what a little leftover paint could do...

I ought to slap a big ol' PROGRESS sign over these pictures because even since I took them on Friday a lot has changed. But for the sake of cranking out a post while I have some Internet at my parents' house, I'll just roll with what I've got. 

This bathroom - up until this morning's plumbing fail - has been one of those flawless afternoon redo's. Painting was quick. I didn't run out of paint. I didn't spill paint. I didn't accidentally paint the ceiling. Pat myself on the back.

(By the way, I've left nearly all the painting to John while I've stayed out of the house. But I've done a few of the small rooms given that they take so little time - less than an hour,- that they've had major ventilation going and that they were done using the more expensive, no-VOC, no-fume latex paint. Oil based is what's risky to a pregnant woman. They say there is no evidence of acrylic being harmful. But I've minimized my exposure nonetheless, amped up the air circulation and used the no-VOC paint just in case for the few times I've done the painting. So there you go for a quick little side note. I promise...I've been careful. Oh, and I look super sexy while I do it. Hello face mask.)

Back to the easiness of this upgrade. The electrical in the bathroom went up without a hitch. It was one of those days when you think you may have actually gotten the hang of this whole house flipping thing. And then the next days happens and you can't go five minutes without screwing something up.

But in addition to not being a frustrating experience, I'm also super stoked about this bathroom because it wasn't a bank breaker. Not even close. Like I said the paint was left over. We obviously already had all the painting supplies...brush, rollers, pan, etc. We re-used the original medicine cabinet. I found the sconce for above it on Ebay for half-price. The towel holder came from Urban Outfitters for a mere $14. The waffle shower curtain, rod and rings came from our condo.

Even though we planned to replace this sink vanity with a similar, but more modern one, we basically lost steam after installing the two downstairs and are learning to appreciate the datedness of this one. It works and it's white and that's good enough.

Now that more unpacking has occurred, the toothbrushes have moved to a different cup and a different spot. And an outlet cover was located at long last.

Our trip to Ikea in Denver left us with a few odds and ends that I guessed we'd want adding two bathrooms to the mix.

Slight rewind, here's what the bathroom was looking like post-paint. No light fixture on the window wall. Because the electrical box was hung so close to the soffit that I was having a hard time finding one that would not only fit, but work with the George Kovacs one from Ebay. Plus I couldn't decided if I really wanted another mirror to hang there. Mainly because that meant buying another mirror.

But to my sheer joy, unpacking later that afternoon I came across a fixture I bought from the Habitat Restore last year for $4 which I had then promptly forgot all about. Holla! Not only was it totally in line with where I wanted to take the bathroom, but the fixture itself was from the same era as the one I took down. So, all the hardware matched, and I did nothing more than attach the wires before we were golden. Literally. And figuratively. No installing a new mounting plate. No searching for screws that didn't make it home from the Restore. Just solid success. And icing on the cake...the wires from the wall were neither white, nor black. So I hadn't a clue which was hot and which was neutral. I guessed. And would you believe that the Lord above was on my side and I guessed right. In yo face. Modern day electrical miracle.

The other miracle you see below is the precious baby in that picture frame taken back at our townhouse rental in Branson. Couldn't love her more. Even on days like today when she's a total brat. :) Gotta love the terrible twos. And really I suppose that I should be thankful that she wants to fix her own lunch so I don't have to do it anymore. But somehow her insisting on making her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the absolute OPPOSITE of helpful to mommy. I must learn to welcome stickiness into my home and heart in order to make it through this stage of life. Purple jelly shall become my new best friend. It shall. It shall. It shall.

Anyway, as for the jewelry box labelled garbage in the shot above, before I begin sounding too green (and too cheap) I found it in a pile in our old condo's basement that was gathered together to be taken to the dumpster. I think someone was moving out and didn't want it. I forgot to take a close up of it. But it's leather with an embedded sort of Moroccan design thing happening. So no true dumpster diving went down. I'm not that eco-friendly.

And the clothing hamper that you can barely see is one of those unlikely scores that you never knew you'd like so much. I probably bought it ten years ago when I was heavy into Shabby Chic and it made the cut for it's major shabbiness. It was labelled "potato basket?" at a flea market and I bought it for less than $10. For a while I had it lined and used it for fabric scraps, but for the last 7+ years it's been our dirty clothes basket. It's perfect in that it can breathe and in that it, oddly, doesn't rub off any sort of rust on our clothes. Plus it has handles. And for whatever reason, it probably makes my list for top ten favorite things I own. I can't explain it. I just love it.

What you can also barely see and what I also forgot to take a picture of is our new Q-tip holder. My husband is nothing if not a Q-tip lover. Weird obsession. He must clean his ears daily. Is that normal? Maybe I'm the weird one. Anyway, it was basically his only request. Make the Q-tips accessible. And what better way to make them accessible than to dump two boxes into an old sangria carafe that my mom was going to pitch because it leaked. You can see it hiding beneath the Ikea mirror in the picture above.

And I can't end without giving a major shout out to the major storage going on in this bathroom. Although we have two full baths in the house, this is the only one upstairs and the only we'll be using on a daily basis as a family. Oh, I just can't say enough about all the storage. A closet AND a two-door, deep cabinet AND a medicine cabinet. Plus an odd little cubby where our extra toilet paper will be living. Anyway, I'm pumped about finally having a spot for towels and sheets. Instead of being tucked inside this old chest. It's glorious. So glorious. And oh happy day that I also found a shelf deep enough for a big, random drawer my mom brought home from an antique store years ago. It now holds our hair dryer, curling iron, etc. I can't tell you how many times I almost threw that odd drawer away. But thanks be to God, it now has a purpose.

And that is that. Except I'm going to take a few more pictures and do a follow up later this week. You're probably wondering what more can I say about these 25 square feet? And what more could you possibly care to read about? Well for one, I can tell you about the amazing music-playing shower head my dad won at a golf tournament and gave to us. And I can tell you about my plans for the window and the vanity top.

But for now, I'm just forever grateful to John for persuading me to paint the bathroom after all. Wallpaper is still in it's future. But now the future can wait a little and maybe in the meantime I can deliver a baby. For reals. When is this kid coming out of my body??

My Closet - Before and Nearly After

One of the more frustrating aspects of this remodel has been that it seems like EVERY corner and surface of this house is grimy, dirty and in bad shape. There hasn't been a single closet or bathroom that's been good to go. Not a single light fixture that wasn't partially broken, chipped or beyond cheap looking. And the story was the same with what will be my closet. (Although I have to give a shout out to those bathrooms - a coat of paint and new light fixtures straight up brought them from 1983 to 2013...pictures to come once we unpack the shower curtains, etc out of the POD tomorrow night.)

The problems in my closet were two-fold - the first being it just felt and looked so dirty. There was old, gummy tape that couldn't be scraped off and tons of old nail holes where I imagine someone once hung all their neckties. The wood pole was splintered and the shelf above it had somehow warped and wobbled when you set things on it. But more importantly, the closet wasn't practical. It only had one rod to hang clothes on with lots of dead space below and above it.

So my simple plan was to basically mimic what was already done but instead have two rows of hanging space. But I couldn't for the life of me remove the old 1x4s that were nailed to the plaster wall without doing major wall damage. They were in there real bad good. I decided to just leave the wood and remove the shelf and pole.

Then Annie and I headed to Home Depot and bought half the store. I had a 10% off coupon which doesn't sound like a lot but it's about as much as you ever get off at Home Depot. So I bought everything I could think of that I knew we'd need around the house in the coming weeks. Including a very, very exciting present for myself. A finish nailer and compressor! I'd been dreaming about one for years now and we decided to cash in all our credit card points for Home Depot gift cards. So guess what came home to mama!

Yeah, that's right - both shopping carts AND the orange rolling thing behind it were full of the stuff I bought on this outing. It was embarrassing. And thrilling. All at once :) Some get their kicks from new shoes and clothes. I get mine from tools. They make me swoon.

And between having a miter saw and now having a nailer, this project was easier than I ever could have asked. The nails went in like butter, people! It was glorious. With every punch of air shooting through that compressor hose, I went weak in the knees. My whole DIY amateur carpentry future flashed before my eyes and seemed more feasible and exciting than ever. It was like Christmas morning. And the pre-packaged Closet Selectives I bought as a back-up backed themselves right back into the car to be returned.

And I'm proud to say that my dearest daughter seems to be following in my tool-loving ways.

Anyway, I'd describe what I did but it was super straight forward and I don't know any of the terminology.

As you can see I had to leave the pre-existing 1x4 up on the wall but it will be covered by clothes so it ain't no thang. And once I can get the rest of my tools and supplies out of our POD next week, I'll fill in the huge holes from where the old pole went.

I did grab some wood filler and caulk and fill in all these old holes.

Then we primed the raw wood and painted everything using the leftovers from a sample pot of paint that I bought for the exterior of the house. I think it was Analytical Gray. And, yes, I've been scolded by my local paint store a dozen times over for actually using those sample quarts on real projects. They tell me there are no 'guts' to those sample paints and that I shouldn't expect any durability. But if they want me to waste those quarts they need to bring their prices down all around. Gallons are a hair shy of $50 a pop and we've bought over 20 between the outside and inside of the house. So far. And I haven't even chosen colors for the nursery. Or the dining room. Or the kitchen. Or the entryway. You do the math. So needless to say the closet got the short end of the stick.

So while this doesn't win the award for coolest closet ever, at least now it fits twice as many clothes in it and is decently clean. Being that it was the only room in the house now on the more finished end of things, it was lucky enough to receive all the odds and ends that we needed to do away with during the week of refinishing floors which is part of the reason I didn't get around to taking better pictures. And in the event that everything goes as planned (which it has yet, too, so not holding my breath. I mean how many people can say that the guy in the middle of skim coating your ceilings died of a heart attack last weekend?) the carpet in the master bedroom will be installed after lunch today. Wall to wall sisal - including the closet. Thus the nearly finished part of this post title.

As far as a little update on the rest of the house, things are finally coming along! The hardwoods are curing after the last coat of poly Friday, but we're going to go ahead and move in tomorrow night. The kid in my belly is darn near ready to come out and I'd love for his first nap to be in a crib, not a pack n play. Major progress has been made in all three bathrooms. Some of the light fixtures have finally been hung. The living and family room have been painted. The electrician came over to undo what I had screwed up and we finally have power on the first floor again! Yikes - I'll stick to cutting and nailing wood in the future. Electrical is a little - lot - out of my league as it turns out.

And dear, sweet John has finished his FOURTH - and final - coat of paint on all the ceilings throughout the whole house. Plus priming all the walls that previously had wallpaper. In case you're wondering, this is what that looks like.

John is a worship pastor at a church in Brookside and after service last week someone came up to him and told him he had some paint on his ear. And in his hair. Oops. My bad. I probably should have added it into our wedding vows somewhere that in exchange for all his house labor I'd be sure to thoroughly check his face and clothes for paint before he embarrasses himself. But in my defense he had paint on his eyelash and when I pulled it, he freaked out and wouldn't let me near his face the rest of the night. What more could I have done??

Anyway, nothing like working yourself to death only to still have a room that looks as far from unfinished as one can look.

But Annie has had some major bonding with her grandparents these last few days, and John and I have come a heck of a lot closer to a liveable living space for tomorrow. 

The Problem With Making Mud Pies

I snap so many pictures of the house project on my phone that there seems to be an unending number of things to focus on with the renovation on this blog. But obviously life as a family continues to march on between the plumbing and the electrical. And nothing about life with a 2 year old is normal. So weaved throughout this post are VERY random iphone pictures of homegirl from the last few weeks.

Anyway, beyond the obvious discussions about paint colors and whatnot there have been a lot of conversations and considerations about balance when it comes to this house remodel. Considerations in the context of finance and considerations in the context of family and considerations in the context of faith.

Financially, we've tried to balance what we can afford with what the house can handle for resale down the road. The last thing we want to do is drown our savings only to never make that money back if we ever decide to move. So figuring out how much the neighborhood can handle has been a huge question mark. If we repave the driveway will we get that money back? But everyone else on the block has a partially unpaved driveway so maybe we're over-investing in that way. Would the kind of family who would want to live that far east care about having marble countertops? Or are the people willing to spend that kind of money wanting to be on the Kansas side anyway? Thoughts like that are constantly being cycled through our minds as we pick between high end and middle of the road finishings. And knowing all the while that to base our decisions off of the unknown person who may or may not ever buy this house in the future would be silly, too. Because, heck, this could be our forever house. Or at least our 10 year house. And even if it's only our 3 year house, don't we want to enjoy it for those 3 years?

But then there's the very big consideration of balancing family in so far as this remodel is concerned. How do we create a lifestyle where we can focus more on our kids and our marriage than on the project happening in the next room? How do we make sure we're not shuffling our kids off to watch a movie so we can finish up the closet we're building or the vanity we're trying and failing to install? How do we manage not to cry when Annie grabs John's roller full of primer and smears it across the living room walls we'd finished painting the day before? Because she didn't ask for this remodel. And her childhood shouldn't be dictated by it. So how do we find that balance? And yes, we could go ahead and replace the garage door to fit 2 cars this fall. But by doing so we'd be ripping up the patio and a lot of the yard. Is 2 cars under 1 roof worth removing the opportunity of playing in the backyard with our kids this fall while the work is being done? Are new curtains worth having to clear off the dining room table of the sewing machine every night in order to have dinner?

Living through remodels is stressful. We've never done it on this large a scale before but I tell you what if I didn't have some sort of painting/tiling/molding project going on every week of the year at our condo last year. And it was trying on our family life.

I'm a big believer in your home needing to be a place where you can breathe. That it ought to be a place of peace for you where you surround yourself with beautiful things that you love. But getting to that point can be messy and chaotic. And it begs the question, is it worth it? There's a balance that John and I wrestle to find. How do we create the home we want to raise our family in and yet not destroy our family in the process of creating it?

And finally, and most importantly, there's this Jesus guy and how he fits into our remodel. I know, you're thinking, what? Kylie, he doesn't fit into your remodel. But, for real, you have no idea. It's a big deal to Jesus what shade of green you pick out for your nursery. And he's not a fan of popcorn ceilings. So get 'em gone, people.

Ok, I'm kidding. Those things are just big deals to me. But Jesus is a big factor in this remodel. Because spending more time on Pinterest and Lonny than in the Word is a problem. Or maybe it's not something you judge by increments of time. But caring more about getting in your design blog fix in than in spending time with the Lord is a problem. A big one. And I do it. Nearly daily.

As basic as the 10 commandments, we're told not to put other gods before Him. And though we may not have wooden statues or golden calves that we bow down to, we easily worship other gods before Him every day. Tim Keller says in his book Counterfeit Gods that an idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. It is in such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotion and financial resources on it without a second thought. The true God of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention.

An idol is a good thing made an ultimate thing. I believe that designing your home is a good thing. But not when you live and die by it more than you live and die by Jesus. Not when it becomes the determining factor of most decisions you make. Not when it's what you turn to get your affirmation, your acceptance and your approval.

And for me, in a remodel like this, it's the greatest threat. The biggest problem of this remodel is not whether the countertops will be installed on time. It's not whether the hardwoods will dry in time. It's whether designing this house will clutch my heart more than Jesus. It's whether I make an idol out of it. It's whether I'm more concerned about creating a beautiful room than I am about my relationship with God. And today, I am. Today and yesterday I focused more on making a statement with the backsplash than I did on Jesus.

Maybe for you it's your job. Or it's your idea of the perfect family that has become your idol - that has consumed your thoughts. Maybe it's your body. Or your income. Maybe your idol is the image you give of yourself on Instagram. Maybe it's all of the above. I have a long list of idols, too. But the house is at the top.

I've never forgotten a lyric I heard Mac Powell sing years and years ago. He said, "Lord, take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to you." That's how I feel. I'm not saying we're pulling the plug on the kitchen remodel. I'm FOR SURE not saying that. Because, by golly a plywood box of a kitchen with no appliances is no way to live!

But God, rip down this house from the highest place in my heart. Put it in its right place. Put it in a good place. A healthy place. And God, create in me a clean heart. One that adores you above all else. One that is more concerned about carving out time with you than about carving out time with a stack of Domino magazines.

So, yes, this remodel has been stressful. There are have been unforeseen construction problems. And financial considerations have weighed heavily. But above all, before all and beyond all, there's the problem of my heart and whom I've given it to. I've given it to a house with chipped brick and patched stucco, creaking hardwoods and uneven ceilings. I love, love, love how C.S. Lewis says it in The Weight of Glory:

<<The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust in them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.>>

I think God has placed in me a passion for design. I believe that. I believe it's a good thing. I believe it's something I ought to pursue and develop. But I can't let myself believe in it. And if I did let myself continue to believe in it as I have recently, I would be selling myself short. If I let myself be fooled into thinking it's the ultimate giver of satisfaction and joy, I'd be sorely dismayed.

<<It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.>>

Lord, let me not ever again believe that more joy will come from a finished house than from a relationship with you. Let me not be satisfied making mud pies. 

This Is NOT Courtesy of Google Fiber

Some blogs you read might tailor their posts to specific topics. Not I. No, not me. If for no other reason than that I rarely finish a single project in a timely manner. I tend to opt for putting my thumb in every available pie at once. So before and afters are hard to come by. More like before and lots of durings. So that said here's a meandering post about everything and nothing. A lot that has begun. Nothing is done.

How about I do a run down of hiccups. This will be the fun post John and I get to reread a few years down the road and pinch ourselves for making it through the unforeseen road blocks. Before I start though, I figure I ought to let all you well-wishers know, we lost the upstairs laundry. Womp, womp. The bid came back crazy high and something about paying several k's to launder my clothes seemed nuts. Whether upstairs or in the basement, I don't enjoy the laundry. I'd rather splurge on countertops. You feel me? Oh, and we lost the laundry chute, too. Maybe I already mentioned that. It became the new air supply so that we could open up the entry to the kitchen. Paying to have that wall in Annie's bedroom patched became hiccup number 1. Plus it meant doing away with the old air supply on the right. Plus it meant cutting up the chair rail. Glory.

Hiccup number 2 from the past couple weeks was dealing with moving the gas line to our new range only to discover a long ago hidden air supply to the kitchen. Basically the old owner has been paying to pump cold air through a duct that was blocked by hardwoods and a stove. Lovely way to spend your money. And to spend ours in fixing it...Because - you guessed it - by fixing it, we had to rip up and replace more floors.

Hiccup number 3 (which turned out to foreshadow many more problems) involved this pretty little number below.

I came over to see the progress on the hardwood floors only to find that they discovered some loose floorboards in our family room. This was NOT the sort of progress I was hoping to see! They cut a chunk of hardwood out and found this crumbling subfloor with a huge hole. Water damage. Mercy me! Nightmare, people. We had to install new subfloor AND new hardwoods. Plus the problem isn't exactly fixed. Because fixing it would entail dishing out beaucoup bucks to replace these gracefully aged (ha!) windows and the siding surrounding it.

After a little bit of wavering the floor installer decided we ought to just roll with new subfloor and caulk the gaps on the outside where the water has been coming through whilst the money to replace all the windows doesn't exist. 

Here's to hoping for very little rain throughout the years...

So while that guy was installing new floor, I gave installing a new vanity in the first floor bath a go. So, it turns out measuring with tape is mighty important. I most definitely drilled new (permanent) holes in our tile to secure the pedestal sink only to find I was about a 1/8 inch off. Porcelain ain't exactly one known for its capacity to forgive. A 12 inch spread is a 12 inch spread, people, and there ain't nothing gonna change that. I had to readjust everything and drill new holes. Too fun!

And after all that fun I had to patch the floor tile from the old vanity's footprint. 

Two white 4x4 tile options later, I decided neither looked good and went for the less offensive of the two. Below you can see the 4 tiles I went ahead and installed and below to the right, my other option. Luckily the new vanity covers most of it anyway so I doubt anyone will be the wiser. Final pictures of the cleaned up bathroom to come in a couple weeks. But long story short, I chipped away what was left of the broken tiles and used a premixed adhesive/grout to both act as thinset and later grout.

And all the while that we've been poking around doing odd jobs here and there in the house, we've continued to come back to this beautiful room. Imagine your newborn baby's head resting softly against his mattress pushed up against this doll of a wall. I know - it makes you cringe. So we've invested an insane amount of time into cleaning this room up. The wallpaper was unimaginably difficult to remove. And then we had to scrape the walls, pay to have them skim-coated TWICE, sand them and now we're on to priming them. 

There you go. An edited list of the many things that have gone not as planned in getting this house ready to live in. There's more. Much more. Like ripping up the carpet in the den only to find more damaged subfloor (similar story to what the hardwood floor installer found). We took a hose and sprayed it on the windows outside to see if the water damage was from 20 years ago or 2 weeks ago and cried as the water cascaded to the interior through every crack and crevice of every window...My dad said we may have to rebuild the whole wall from the outside in - roof to foundation. So my carpet order for the den has been put on hold :(

And there's the thing about not having air conditioning over this past 97 degree weekend. 

But perhaps my least favorite hiccup of the week was watching Google Fiber get installed for all our neighbors and wondering why they weren't knocking on our door. So I called Google and spoke with one of their representatives. To my shock and his, there was a glitch after our sign-up. And even his supervisor couldn't figure it out. But sometime in the last few weeks our account and physical address got separated and we were deactivated. I'll make this long story short and sum it up by saying that with a receipt and confirmation in my hand that Google fiber sent me two months ago I was not about to let them tell me that they were sorry but we'd missed our chance to now receive the service. So after a tense talk with another supervisor they "tricked" the system into thinking our address was in a still-open Fiberhood and re-signed us up. Sadly though we still missed our neighborhood's installation timeline. And Google being the fine folks they are have no clue when we'll ever get ours installed. Sometime in the next couple months, they said. Major womp, womp. So now we continue on without internet for another indefinite period of time. Blog posts will be thanks to mooching off someone else's internet for yet another season.