New Life- Week 46 (Demo)

 This week has been all about demo.  As of my writing the wood floors are out in the living room, dining room, and hallway.  The tile is out in the kitchen and the backer board is halfway out.  Everyday we do school and walk Millie and then go to the house and work.  Well....I work and sometimes Merrick works and the girls entertain themselves.  This explains why my pictures on my phone this week are almost exclusively selfies that the kids have taken of themselves while I worked or pictures they took of me working.  I am beyond exhausted and I don't see it getting better anytime real soon.  We found out today that our flooring is going to be installed on the 11th so we are under a real crunch to get all the demo done, the drywall repaired, and all the painting done in the next 11 days.  Wish us luck!

New Life- Week 45 (Here We Go Again)

 This week we finally closed on our new house!!!! It has been nearly two years since we listed our condo the first time and there were many times I didn't think we would ever actually get here.  Miracles do happen though and we are now, once again, homeowners.

This house, like the condo, is a bit of a fixer-upper.  We are approaching the updating a bit differently though because this is a house we are planning to stay in for the long haul.  We will be doing several projects before we move in, but the rest will be done in stages over the years.  Prior to move in, we are removing a wall, painting the entire upstairs, redoing all flooring in the upstairs and stairs, replacing all baseboards upstairs, painting kitchen cabinets, and replacing hardware.  That seems like a huge list, but it's nowhere near all that needs to happen.  We are going to be at it for a while.  My biggest regret from the condo is that I didn't do a good enough job documenting along the way so I am going to try to do better this time.

With that said, here are the before pictures (missing are pictures of the truly spectacular backyard so I guess I will save those for another day) and the progress from the weekend.  We started taking down the wall, started painting the girls room, installed 4 new light fixtures, and built the girls playhouse they got for Christmas.  It's just the tip of the iceberg but its a start.

New Life- Week 44 (Almost)

 As I sat down to write the blog this week, I looked back over the pictures from this week for inspiration and was greeted with picture after picture of ideas of things for the new house so I guess that has been the focus for the week.  We were originally supposed to close on Friday, but that was delayed by some of the repairs needed for close.  Now we are scheduled to close on Tuesday.  We wired our money yesterday,  did our final walkthrough this morning, and will sign Tuesday morning.  It seems like each day was spent checking in and making sure everything was still on track for close.  Between school and house stuff, there wasn't time for much else.

So that's really all I have this week.  I am sure I will have much more next week as we dive into projects.  Until then I will leave you with one cute picture from the week, Elsie with the crown we made her at preschool this week.

 

New Life- Week 43 (New Year-New Nothing)

 The new year is in full swing and more than anything I am seeing memes to the effect of "Dear 2021, I have tried my 7 day trial and I would like to cancel my subscription.  I am not satisfied with your product" and that really rings true.  Not much has changed in 2021 but a lot has happened, including an attempted coup by our current president and his cronies. 

Closer to home, life has been pretty quiet.  We were back to school and routine this week.  We made our own fun at school with dress up costumes.  Carrigan in particular got into dressing up and seeing how many costumes she could wear at a time.  She then liked to wear them to her class meetings.  We also got back to walking Millie again and Merrick continued to play basketball with his crew almost everyday after the walks.

We have also had a pretty low key weekend.  We have been working on wrapping up some projects for my parents before we are knee deep in our own projects.  We did get to see the Ioapo's a bit this weekend.  Merrick had a sleepover last night and Emily came over for breakfast this morning and a makeover from the girls.

Honestly, 2021 isn't so bad if I just keep my head down and don't pay attention to anything happening outside my little bubble. 

New Life- Week 42 (Bye Bye 2020)

 This week we finally said goodbye to 2020.  It has been a long road but there have also definitely been blessed along the way.  All this makes it sound like all the things that made 2020 what it was are done and they most certainly are not.  I told Jeremy just after midnight as we headed into 2021 that I was not very optimistic about the new year.  I have a feeling that 2021 is not going to be a lot different from 2020.  On the other hand, change doesn't happen overnight and I guess we will just take it one day at a time.

As for 2020 I am ready to put it to bed, focusing on the positive that the year brought.

This year we spent way more time together as a family.  Jeremy worked from the home, my work shutdown, and the kids have had online school.  That means a whole lot more togetherness.  For the most part, the time together has been peaceful and full of love.

Despite the huge impact to his business, Jeremy has stayed employed throughout the pandemic.  This could easily have gone the other way and has been a huge blessing for our family.

We sold our house! Ok so this was a LONG time in the making but we were finally able to sell our house and looking back I am really thankful it didn't sell until it did.  We made some treasured friendships in our neighborhood during the pandemic which wouldn't have happened if we sold earlier.

I don't think I have mentioned it yet, but we found a new house.  We close in just under two weeks.  More to come on that later.

Well I guess I lied, when I think back to the positives of 2020, I am optimistic about 2021.  Even as I look back at the passed week I see pictures of us at the park, on a walk/bike ride, with close friends in our bubble, and just hanging out together as a family. I would be ok with more of that in the coming year. I think it will be what we make of it and I am determined to make it a good one.