I am starting to feel like I am living in an HGTV episode.
You know the ones where everything that can
go wrong, does go wrong? The ones
that leave viewers thinking “HOW predictable! OF COURSE everything goes wrong!”
That is my life right now with this home renovation project.
Last weekend, I was feeling great, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
We were slowly but surely getting rid of debris, and I painted a room!
Progress!
Another room needed a bit more drywall work, and then it
would be ready to paint.
Progress!
I had a plan for what would be accomplished each day and
where I would be by the end of this weekend. I am going out of town for a work
trip on Tuesday and will be gone for three days. Last weekend, I painted the
home office area, and I decided I would feel quite pleased with myself if I had
the dining room and downstairs hallway painted by the time I had to leave on my
trip. Then, I planned to spend next weekend beginning work on my kitchen
cabinets. I know that is going to be a massive amount of work that is going to
take some time, but once they are finished, all that will be left to do before
the flooring can be placed is to paint the kitchen and family room. Again, a
lot of work still to do, I know, but like I said, I was starting to see the
light at the end of the tunnel. I told Tony that if we stuck to the plan, we
could have it all finished and start moving everything back in by mid-July. I
even wrote these deadlines I gave myself in my planner, thinking that if they
were visible to me each day, I would be more likely to stick to them and not
give in to laziness on days and nights when I wasn’t in the mood to work and
would rather sit on the porch with a book and a frosty drink.
You know what they say about the best laid plans, right?
On Sunday afternoon, Tony had a bicycle accident and broke
his elbow and a bone in his hand.
So much for the perfect plan. He won’t be able to do
anything using his right arm (and he is right handed) for 12 weeks.
Nothing got done on the house during the week at all, until
Friday night when Lauren and I, with guidance and some help from Tony, pulled
the old carpet off the stairs.
All week, I felt rather defeated and down about the wasted days,
but there really wasn’t much I could do anyway because the drywall work in the
dining room wasn’t finished.
I am happy to say I finally gave myself a kick in the pants
and decided to look on the bright side of things, because really, in the grand
scheme of it all, what is a little ol’ delay, huh? The work will be finished
eventually, and in the meantime, I really don’t have to clean much since
everything is filthy and there is not really anything that can be done about it
at the moment. Another bonus is that now, I don’t have to feel rushed to get
the cabinets finished, and I can take my time with all the rest of the painting
as well. To celebrate my shiny new positive attitude, I even bought some
flowers for the kitchen so that I can have at least one thing in this house that
is pretty to look at.
Tony managed to finish the drywall work with one hand and my
help, and I came up with a new plan, a much more relaxed plan than the first
one.
Plan B hit a snafu, too.
Thursday night, one of the girls was taking a shower, and
water started pouring into the kitchen from the upstairs bathroom. We had a
similar problem a couple of years ago, but it had been fixed, and there had
been no water leakage issues since.
Now, my already gross kitchen looks like this:
Rachel’s boyfriend was over hanging out yesterday, and Tony
put him to work cutting a hole in the ceiling so that he could try to figure
out where the leak was coming from. He was a trooper, and with Tony’s guidance,
they found the cause of the leak.
When one-armed Tony tried to remove the offending joint and
piece of pipe, he ended up breaking the main line from the bathroom.
Oh, the fun just never ends around here!
He cleaned up and went to Home Depot intending to buy the
pieces he needs to fix it, and wouldn’t you know, Home Depot doesn’t sell those
things. He will have to purchase them at a plumbing supply store, or call a
plumber.
And, it’s a holiday weekend, so no plumbing stores will be
open until Tuesday.
And, the man swears he is not going to call a plumber.
Tony is a very handy guy and can do just about anything.
However, I fear that he may have bitten off more than he can chew when it comes
to fixing the main water line, above his head, with one arm.
Lord, help me. I am praying that he doesn’t cause more
damage when he tries to fix it.
In the meantime, I present the one room (our home office) that is finished and
ready for a new floor. One down, four to
go.
Before:
During:
And after: (The white part under the chair rail will have picture frame molding once Tony has the use of his arm back).
Hopefully, by tomorrow, at least one of them will be coated
in a creamy yellow.
While this home renovation project has turned into way more
than I expected it to be, I am rather enjoying it all, even with the setbacks
we have already encountered. I have been doing a lot of reminiscing and writing
about so many memories from when we were planning and building this house along
with reflecting on good and bad times spent here. I originally planned to blog
about the whole sprucing up process, but I have a sneaky feeling it is going to
end up being way more than that as time goes on. Somedays, I write and write,
and I am rather enjoying that, too. Until next time, Adios from the chaotic construction zone. Hopefully, the coming week will be less eventful than the last.
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