Fall brings new hope... and a ton of dust.

Hi friends,

I apologize for my lack of communication these summer months. We moved back into the house (as you may have seen in my previous post from July) just after heavy demolition had been completed and the new floors installed. Everything was unfinished. Our kitchen had been taken literally down to the studs and that's how things have stayed until today... more or less.

I'll backpedal a bit and explain that in order to adhere to our tight budget (around 150k when all is said and done TOTAL), each contractor comes once. We're going step by step rather than room by room. That means for example, the sheetrock crew comes once... so no walls could go up until the addition was also ready for walls. Same thing for counters and cabinets. We can't have a kitchen until the bathroom in the addition is ready for cabinetry and so on.

So, in August, the addition was structurally completed. Eric and our amazing pal Ryan ran duct work over to the addition. Electrical and plumbing were run. A roof went on. Insulation went in... all working up to today when we got walls.

Next, the sheetrock gets drywalled (mudded and sanded). Then we're ready for interior paint.

Meanwhile, siding will go on to the addition and I'm hoping beyond hope that it will match the existing siting as well as the new roof matched the 2 year-old roof. The siding is original from 1949, so not sure how they're going to do it but I'm choosing to have faith.

Then floors can go into the addition. The halls will get the beautiful Hickory continued from the house. The master bedroom and recording studio room will be carpeted. The bathroom will be tiled.

There's so much still ahead, but I feel like I can finally see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. This week my homeowner homework consists of things that feel like finishing touches like choosing paint swatches.

The air quality in the place has been affecting my health - though thankfully my three guys my propensity for "wuss lungs" as my husband so delicately put it.

Oh! Also the fireplace insert was ordered and it's lovely.

It's allllll happening. One little step at a time.

And we're living in chaos... but managing ok. I was telling a neighbor friend this evening, aside from the whole dust-mascarading-as-air dilemma, we're sort of used to living this way. We're an adaptable bunch. I've stopped counting how many weeks I've been without a kitchen and have just gotten good at doing dishes in the bathroom. My kids have adjusted to granola bar breakfasts and meals out. We're liking life without TV and enjoying more time in close quarters. All in all, we're ok.

All silver linings aside though, I'm juuuuuust about over it. Someone asked me how my summer was the other day and I snapped some salty quip at her... I won't repeat it, but it was a clear sign that my ability to see this project through rose-colored glasses all the time is waning. I'm ready to be done.

The first real fall-feeling day happened last week. I longed to whip out the crockpot and make autumn risotto or chicken soup from scratch. Bake banana bread and muffins for the kids... Looking forward to baking up a storm sometime soon.

Alas, life has moved on! I'm in my 4th month at the new job and finally feeling like it's where I belong rather than like I'm just the newcomer. The twins started Kindergarten and are settling in well. Eric's insane work season as tapered off to a manageable flow. We're planning Halloween costumes and looking forward to what's ahead. The band has a couple of new members and we're gelling and co-creating.

Life is good. And messy. And wonderful.

xo
Jenn

Moving in... what have we gotten ourselves into?

Friday, we moved out of the lovely house we'd been renting rooms in from our wonderful neighbor... and back into our house. Right smack into the middle of something straight out of the HGTV channel. All drywall dust and unfinished business.

The heavy demolition has been completed. The floors have been laid in the main house and they are lovely:

We sent the boys to Papa's house so we could tidy up the place and make them some semblance of normalcy to return to. Dad rebuilt an insanely complex (even for IKEA) bunk bed and I unpacked their room and made it cozy and bright.

That night, the dust was so bad in here that I slept in a painter's mask:

So the next morning, I picked up some air purifiers. One for each bedroom and a borrowed BIG one for the main living space. They are all working overtime, but it has helped incredibly.

So, the here's the current state breakdown:

The addition has been plumbed and is awaiting windows and a roof before the wall can be cut through to the existing structure.

Floors are in the existing structure (not in the addition)

Walls have been knocked down in the existing structure and framed in - including the removal of two closets to gain kitchen square footage.

Wall knocked down and new closet framed in what was the boys' room.

Our future kitchen is plumbed, but literally nothing else has gone back into it. See for yourself the gaping hole where a kitchen once stood:

The kitchen, currently. 

So, yeah.

My best friend started us a meal train if you feel like feeding us over the next 4-6 weeks :) I'll let you see my un-kitchen!

So, we've got a fridge in the garage and have gotten creative with the bathroom sinks. Grateful that we have clean running water and a roof over our heads. I keep telling myself this will all have been worth it. I told myself that when I threw my back out swinging a mattress on to a bunkbed. I told myself that when the movers broke our TV. I told myself that when I couldn't shower for three days because the hot water heater couldn't be used... and I'll tell myself again tonight. Grateful that we're getting to make our home just right for our little family. Grateful that the location is where we want to live among wonderful neighbors.

Right now, we're in the thick of it, folks.

But gratefully so...

xo,
Jenn

2/4th of Longbines down...

Today was the day.

I hopped out of the house early for important work meetings... after my first, I see texts from the Hubs saying his back was causing him so much pain that he'd become stranded at a meeting and couldn't drive. A colleague helped him to urgent care where he collapsed in the parking lot and had to be hauled into a wheel chair by a Good Samaritan.

After meeting 2, I sped out to get pain meds and then to pick him up from urgent care and get him home and settled. Then back to work.

THEN home to get Easton for a last minute dental emergency. He'd woken in the night crying in pain. I gave him Motrin in the morning and crossed my fingers that he could make it to our 4:30 appointment.

Luckily, Eric's prognosis isn't as serious as we'd feared. He should be back up in a couple of days. As for Easton, no major dental issues. The theory is that he's been grinding his little teefers while he sleeps causing jaw ache. Totally normal for his age and we walked away with tips to help.

Easton also found himself a new lady love and now has a new future aspiration: to become a dentist.

This too shall pass...

xo
Jenn

Moving out, in, and onward...

Holy cow I don't even know where to begin... so I'll begin where I left off.

Last Friday, we moved out. The movers that were estimated to take 4-5 hours took 10.5, largely due to the fact that Eric and I had only managed to pack maybe 8 boxes ourselves with his work in peak season and my new job (which is amazing) taking up all my available brain cells. So, a very long day (and a workday none the less) we moved EVERYTHING out of the old house save a few items stashed in the twins' bathtub and the laundry room for "safe" keeping... and into a lovely home where we're renting two bedrooms from a fabulous lady here in our neighborhood.

So, we slept here one quick night and then hauled off to the coast for the long weekend... we hiked on the bay at Ledbetter Point, taught the kids how to shoot off Roman candles on the beach (it's cool, we were in Washington), and had some sparkler fun.



Back in town, now we're seeing BIG progress on the interior existing structure of the house, truly every day. It seems the crew have shifted focus from the addition work in an effort to speed through some of the heavy demolition and get old floors out and new floors in so we can move back in a couple weeks.

Yesterday they tore up all the flooring.



I popped over to check it out and saw one disturbing thing... there appears to be some water damage in what was our bedroom and will become the boys' room. Fingers crossed it's nothing major.



Today, they demo'd the kitchen. I'll pop by for photos in the next day or so. For tonight, I'll leave you with this pretty sunset snap I grabbed on Long Beach last weekend. Hope you had a safe and happy 4th!

xo,
Jenn

The dream of the 90s...

The dream of the 90s was alive today, indeed. The framers are in the home-stretch as you'll see in the pictures below. Their productivity today was motivated by a 90s playlist that was second to none. REM, Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, Everclear, Sublime, Counting Crows... all since I've been home. I can only imagine what I missed earlier in the day. Luckily, the crew is working overtime tonight so the hits keep on coming.

I'm happy to know that those sweet 90s vibes are being infused into the very walls of the addition. I'm sure we'll have nothing but good luck (albeit maybe bad hair) in there.

The roofers are staging their portion of the project which they'll start soon. Friday, we move out. That's a post for another day...

For today, I'll leave you with this little gem:

Raise the Roof

It's been a slow process these past weeks, but we're seeing progress once more. The bank has been super slow to grant our first big draw request, so not much we can do.

This week however, the crew popped out our south facing master bedroom window and walled it off. With two more windows in the room, there's still plenty of light.

Now the interior walls are done on the addition and the roof is beamed and ready. Picture attached!

Xo
Jenn




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Wall to Wall Walls

Framing is almost done on the addition and it's really coming along. I can tell they're getting serious because they brought in a HoneyBucket.



The walls are up, the subfloor is complete, and they're framing out doors and windows. Take a looksie: