My apologies to February

I tried.  I actually typed tired there at first.  Fitting.

I said I would try to take pics of things other than our house.  And I did. . .

 See, extensive pics of paint swatches of which to get samples and cans upon cans.

Probably not the intention of the goal however.  ;)

Painting was the rule of the month, and so to stick with that theme (because I have no other choice) here are the other photos I could scrape together. . .

 Sprayer 1, Me 0

 Stained concrete, check.  Does anyone else have some concrete for me to stain, cause I really have the hang of it now and it's fun??

 My kids added creepy details to this after I took the picture.  Mama is so proud.

She's excited about her new room.  She helped me paint the whole thing.

I'm no groundhog, but I'm calling this winter over

So today I remembered that I had/have a blog.  I decided I'd hook up my phone to see if there were any pics on it to upload.  Umm yeah, I don't know where January went, but I have very little to show for it.  

I thought, hey, I can post the pics of the girls doing their new year resolution papers.  Cause they did cute ones and I'm sure I took pics of it.  Ummm no.  I've got the papers of course, but no photos taken of them doing it, or with the finished product.  Ugh.  I couldn't even think of another idea to post about.  

I am failing 2017.  

Here is what I did find. . .

My girls are REALLY unhappy about not having my office accessible.  That means no projects!  They are wasting away without projects.  Miley is soooo starved for arts and crafts that she got out an origami book to fold some paper the other day.  And I am so tired of having so much stuff displaced in my house that just having her pieces of paper out was too much for me.  Once my new office is finished, we may never leave it again.  Send cupcakes in please.

This pic is of them doing some projects I got them for Christmas.  It was a taste of the good life that had been missing.  Unfortunately, that's all they've had in awhile.  

 (color your own bird wings from Seedling, and paint your own tea set)

Sadly, now all I have on my phone are house pics and the occasional Jovey selfie.  She needs to work on them though.  ;)

Stained/glazed/sealed the new door.

This was our buffer from the coldness in the new part.  It REALLY wanted to get inside.  The air was blowing out the vents and so the cold air had to go somewhere.  I'm glad we are now warming up.  It was a much toooooo frigid winter for us.

I cleaned and etched this floor to get ready to stain it, and then the rain would not let up.  You can't work with concrete in high humidity or cold temps so I had to wait to work on it and waiting meant moving on to the next step in the process.  Insulation installed, mud traipsed everywhere.  Back to step one floor.

The nasty aforementioned rain.  It lasted weeks.  Our moat was significantly worse than this at one point, but I didn't get any more pics.  It was just too depressing to document after so long without the sun.

The skies cleared and I enjoy seeing the snow far far away from me.

This is how much rain we had. . .

The real gauge of time I had to wait before I could do something on the house. . . about 6 books.

And one brand new and immediately broken umbrella that Miley used to go to school.

Now that the sun is back and as far as I can tell, here to stay, we're back to cleaning the floors. . .after the drywall covered them in chalk dust, on top of the mud.  ;)  Fun stuff.

Next month, the plan is to take pictures. . . of something, anything else.

words, some of them good

Today the cloudy sky makes me think of the word doldrums.  Which makes you think sadness and depression, but actually doldrums means no wind, calm.  Kind of like how I always thought sanguine meant sad, but it's the opposite.  It just doesn't sound hopeful to me.  Ah well.

The girls are back in school so I have a minute at my computer unencumbered by chatty children.  It's been a long month and I'm pretty sure it just started.

They say construction/renovation projects are taxing on marriages.  I don't feel any tension with Dave, but I have developed a strong dislike for subcontractors.  ;)  OK, they've been fine too, it just takes FOREVER to get anything done.  Maybe my issue is with patience.  Shocking.  Too many people doing too many different things.  It'd be nice if someone just knew how to do everything and could wrap this all up for me.  And while I'm wishing I'd also like to wish there was no city inspection for every stupid thing we do.  There.  This was most definitely our fault.  I was not cut out to be a contractor.  Too much time on the phone and meetings with subcontractors.  STOP asking me questions.  No, I need them to ask so I don't have to go back and fix a concrete issue twice. . . learned the hard way.  Maybe I just need my children to ask me less questions for a short time to compensate.  Yeah fat chance.  ;)  Curious and chatty little stinkers.

Since the new addition has been tied into our house now, it has made it all a tad colder and much messier.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is long and drafty.  And it rains insulation from time to time.  Dave went to the store the other day with it in his hair.  I forgot to tell him it was there.  oops.

One perk was demo day.  It is quite cathartic to rip off drywall when you're frustrated with anything.  I've got one more piece to take down today and I think that will fix my sanguine doldrums.  Yeah, interpret those as you wish.  ;)

Who knew buying lightbulbs could be so annoying.  The different color temperatures give me a headache.  I need 3000K to make it feel like we're not swimming in mustard.  Maybe it's me.  Too picky.  ;)  Thank you for disagreeing with that, I know you did.

Oh and finding ceiling fans that match our existing ones.  Dang.  I shouldn't have come to the computer today.  I've got too many complaints on hand.  My apologies.  This is us, this is our real right now.  And my washing machine broke.  Sad.  I knew we should have moved before it all fell to pieces and left that for the next owners/suckers.  I guess the sucker is us now.  I am Tom Hanks, welcome to our money pit.  ;)

After an emotionally taxing December, January has been mentally exhausting.  Oh and physically a lot of work.  Man, we're getting an overhaul here.  I need a vacation.

You totally want to visit now, right?  What?  You don't even want to talk to me anymore until this is all over. . . I understand.  I am Eeyore.  Did you know that's how you spell it?  It looks weird.

OK I have insulation to inhale and things to hit with a hammer.  I should go and let my uplifting words end here.  ;)  You are welcome.

Construction pictures

Time for a glimpse of our construction progress. . . too bad I didn't take video cause that would complete the experience with the beautiful sound effects.

Good bye plants.

Watching this drive up our hill toward our house and over some of my cactus was a tad nerve-wracking.

Naked house.

Things I've learned about construction so far:

1. Don't pay any subcontractor until a week after job completed.

2. You are on the phone a lot.

3. Don't trust the city to remember which inspections need to happen.

4. Inspectors always come when you are in the shower.

5.  Shower at night.

6.  This experience may cure my dogs of barking.

7.  Traffic has increased by our house.

8.  There is a fee for everything.

9.  Being our own contractor isn't so bad.

10.  Having good contacts/help is THE reason #9 is true.

I already started taking Christmas stuff down

Yeah, I did.  I'm feeling overwhelmed with stuff.  I couldn't take it anymore.  Slowly but surely I'll be removing decorations until Christmas day.

The trouble:  My office has been displaced.  The room with the most stuff in it had to be emptied for the renovation. . . so my office is everywhere.  Everywhere.

I like to think I'm a minimalist and then I see all the crap I had to haul out of that one room and I shudder with the realization that I am a fraud.  Dang it.  There will be some serious purging once the house is done.  I say that, and hopefully it will happen.  By the time it is done I might be so tired of everything that I'll just shove it all back in someplace and worry about it another time.  Things are not looking good for my minimalist lifestyle.

We sold Dave's bike.  Mine is still on the market.  So some purging it happening.  My backyard already looks cleaner without Dave's huge grill and bike.  I'd live outside to escape the claustrophobia, but it's a tad bit too chilly and I am already freezing in my heated house.  My blood runs like water these days.

I cannot escape the stuff, it follows me, I swear.  It has eyes and evil intentions.  Have you seen those weighted blankets to help with panic attacks?  I'm going to need one.  I guess my stuff piled on top of my would work just the same. hmm

Maybe when they break open the walls tomorrow I'll feel less confined. . . and more frozen, but it's a trade-off.  I will lose my front door tomorrow.  That's a big you are not welcome sign right there.  And well the port-a-potty out front.  Ewww.  Though Miley is a big fan of it.  Maybe that's a keeper.  ;)

I feel like I should be installing a moat with this project.  The poor UPS delivery has to come through a minefield to get to my house.  I told them to leave it by the garage, but so far they aren't so good at reading instructions.  Moat it is.  That will keep everyone away.  I'd really like an alligator.  They say you need to confront your fears and I am really freaked out by alligators.  I must get one as a pet for my health.  I won't have to feed it, that's what solicitors are for.  I don't have room inside for more bodies anyway.  ;)  Or stuff.  Oh the stuff.

So I never posted much about our current project.  Consider that remedied right now.

We once had a front yard.  Full of rocks and plants that I took great care of and they grew ginormous.  Neighbors (if we had any) put to shame.  ;)  And then we cut them all down.  It was a sad day when everything was plowed over.  I couldn't watch.  Ten years of care uprooted in minutes.  They were efficient destroyers of my cultivation.

Anyway, no more useless front yard.  Now we will have rooms. . .

We're extending our entry way around 4 feet, adding a hallway to a flex room.  They put Family Room on the plans, but it turns out that this addition is mostly all for me.  They should have put Mindy's wing.  I didn't realize this until recently.  I'm feeling a tad bad about that, but what's done is done.  ;)  The Family Room will be a library with floor to ceiling book cases built in.  See, for my stuff problem.  Though calling books a problem is hard for me to accept.

There will be a half bath and then my new office with nice large closet for all my STUFF.  Dang it.  I'll never be rid of it.  My former office will become Jovey's new room, or the play room if Dave has his way and talks the girls into sharing a sleeping space.  We shall see.  I'm not hopeful that his plan will work out.  That room will have a hallway cut out of it, but it will also be lengthened to compensate for room lost.  Jovey's current room will be a play room if Dave's plan doesn't work and also a great place to park a lot of stuff.  Oh I am being swallowed up by stuff.  Do you picture a hoarder now?  I have a closet full of just canvases and frames, FULL.  The stuff I don't hang up anymore.  What to do with all that?!

So Jovey's old room will be a play room/extra room until we decide to take on another project. . . that of expanding my bathroom and closet. . . which you can't see in the pic, but if/when that comes to the docket I'll let you know.  Because I'll be complaining about stuff again.  It's my thing.

As for the current project (aka maybe only project ever if it drives me mad), right now we have the foundation poured and the concrete cut, that's for my office.  I'll have a stained concrete floor that looks like tiles.  It should work out nicely, for when I spill paint and everything on it.

The demo crew and framer will be here tomorrow.  We've already had some demo done to put in the foundation, but this next one will be crazy and loud, and dusty.  Did I mention the dust yet?

Dust on all my stuff.





*Disclaimer:  I realize this sounds like complaining over something good and exciting for us.  It is.  And we are good and excited.  Complaining for fun is just my thing.  But hopefully you know that and understand that I'm not serious.  Well not 100% anyway.  ;)  

**I do have a stuff problem.  Someone come and take my stuff.

*** I hate adding disclaimers.  Like I need to explain myself so no one gets offended by my ingratitude.  Insert eye roll and more dramatic sighing right here.  New post complaining about disclaimers coming soon.   ;)