The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Overall, this remodeling process has taken very little toll, that is apart from eating all things microwavable, spending less time with our friends, putting large debits in our checking account, living amidst uncontainable clutter, and working every weekend ALL weekend long. Seriously though, this has been a great experience. I love the constant flurry of activity, I love building something from the ground up, and admittedly, I even love the physicality of the project. But most of all, I LOVE seeing transformations.

This is not to say that there hasn’t been some really challenging moments. Last weekend we experienced the “ugly” in home renovation. Pure mental and physical fatigue coupled with long, hot, grueling hours on the roof made emotions run very high. There was some bickering, some crying, and a whole lot of “woe is me.” Thank you dear husband for putting up with me at my worst. You’re my rock solid companion and I love you.

We’ve also encountered some “bad” jobs along the way, but certainly taking the cake would be roofing and insulating our house. Though insulating is not heavy, back breaking work, it is terribly uncomfortable. Being covered in specks of fiberglass makes you cough, eyes burn, skin itch, and nose run. Now add in a day that is 95 degrees and 100% humidity and you’re in for a real treat. Now try crawling under your house in the dirt to insulate the floors in a 2 ft. crawl space, add in the heat, sweat, and shards of fiberglass and it’s like a dream come true.

Even amidst some of these unpleasantries, there has been such an abundance of “good.” Scott and I were lucky to have a couple days off this week and we got through about a week’s worth of work in a two day time frame. We passed our insulation inspection with flying colors, which is our last inspection until final, and we sheet rocked our ceiling. Our brother in-law, Travis stopped by yesterday evening to help Scott put up some of the wall boards, and my parents are coming over tonight to bring us dinner and help us get more rock on the wall. Hopefully Scott and I will be able to finish the job on Saturday so we can take a much needed day of rest come Sunday.

We decided to bite the bullet and hire someone to do the muddying and taping, they are also going to do a knock down ceiling in all the common areas in our house. They start bright and early on Monday morning and I expect they will be working through Friday. This means we’ll be painting by next weekend, better yet, it means we’ll be installing cabinets in less than two weeks. Calm my beating heart—I cannot wait!!