I cannot say that we weren't warned about the stress and strife involved in a major remodel. This project has surely delivered. Unfortunately, Scott knows too much. He knows the ways of building things, what products to use, asks too many questions and insists on certain materials. He and the builder are having difficulties 'playing nice' together. On the other hand, as a vegetarian, I question things like why I'm financing his Slim Jim habit. There are so many decisions to be made. All. The. Time. My Mother's Day Out days are spent at the garage and running all over time buying things we need of the upcoming days' work. I'm exhausted at the end of the day and rarely have energy left over for activities like making dinner. Eating out when you're already hemorrhaging money isn't wise. The last couple of weeks have been a struggle.
My daughter has been a true bright spot. She's been very patient about going to the garage almost daily and, as a reward, I've made sure to try to include something fun or a special treat for her each day. She reminds me to go outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather while we still can. She insists on stopping to read books or have dance parties, or tickle fights. She is joyful and wants to be happy and each day gives me a reminder that I should strive to do the same. Doing this project while having a toddler is difficult, but I'm so grateful for her throughout this process and the vital role she's playing in keeping me sane.
Fortunately, each time I go to the garage now I see progress. (It was hard to get excited about seeing mud up on the drywall or watching them sand.) For example, I have a finished shower!
It took so long to do this shower. The rocks (which are inexplicably brown now that it's done) were uneven, making it very difficult to start the first row. The shower niches took a long time. (Here's where I digress: One of our big beefs with our builder is that if there are two ways to do something, he never asks us our preference. He bragged on the shower niches talking about how good they looked and the fact that something like that takes time and that the guy spent an entire day making the cuts right. Personally, I would have just carried the pattern through and not framed them out, saving a lot of intricate cuts, time and money. Sadly, I was never asked my preference.) Now that it's grouted and sealed, I was finally able to take off my shoes and walk around on the stones for a bit. They feel every bit as good as I imagined.
It's not just the shower that's complete. I also have an entertainment center!
Once it's backed we'll be able to hang our television on those support beams on the back. It's been framed out to look like one large built-in.
We also have the beginnings of a kitchen.
Let me assure you that there's nothing tiny about this kitchen. In fact, if anything, it seems out of scale with the rest of the space. Seeing as I cook at least 19 of the 21 weekly meals, and countless other snacks, having a large kitchen is worth it. They will get going on the island next because they're coming to template for the granite on Monday.
Stuff is happening, and to be honest, many of these pictures are already dated because each day there are so many changes. I'm going to try to be better about putting up daily photos from here on out so that we can really see.
When we began this project in October the builder assured us that we would be able to move in on December 5. Last week I pulled out my calendar and we looked at all the work that needed to be done and the realization hit that there was no way we would be able to move on time. Then something amazing happened. He started having his workers work longer hours and on Saturdays. They're nice family men and I'm so sad that they're the ones having to sacrifice family time in order to meet our deadline (even having to work the Friday after Thanksgiving), but I'm so grateful that we will only have to move once and this is looking on track to be complete. Please cross all your fingers and toes for us.
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