Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Fill a house with love and it becomes a home.
When we sold the trailer we agreed to be out within three weeks. Three weeks was up this past Thursday. We weren't at all ready. The girls and I had to stay with my parents, while Damien stayed at the house trying to get things in order. We ended up having major plumbing problems that took forever to fix because my husband isn't a plumber nor did he know a whole lot about plumbing before he took this project on. However, with a lot of hard work he figured it out and fixed our issues and thankfully at this time, we don't have any leaks.
We originally thought the tiles that were damaged in the kitchen was an old leak. It wasn't. Luckily this ended up being the easiest part. The toilet tank cracked and when the water was turned on, it all leaked out. So all we had to do was replace the toilet and problem solved. The worst part was the basement - where every single pipe was leaking. Now everything in the basement is brand new and so far, no problems.
When Damien finally finished all that, we ended up having a valve in the kitchen blow off (he hadn't replaced those yet) while we were away for the night and flooded our kitchen and basement. That was a huge drag, but after a few days, everything dried out and we pressed on. It just ended up holding everything else up and we were unable to get the house as put-together as we thought.
Our tile floor is completely laid and is just waiting to have grout added to it. I am hoping that happens sometime this week.
Abigail started 1st grade yesterday so we moved the girls in Sunday night. It's not easy at all, but we're making it. We don't have a fridge yet (just a cooler we borrowed from my parents), our kitchen cabinets are currently in the dining room, and the rest of our stuff is all over the place. But little by little things get accomplished and as that happens, things get just a little bit easier. I'm hopeful that in the next week or two we'll have a fully functioning house. I don't think it will ever be "done" - but I hope to have it put back together soon.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Let there be light.... and paint!
Once in awhile, the universe decides it's time to throw us a bone. This past weekend was a great one at the house. Lots of fun things are happening! First, Joe & I got the living room and dining room painted this weekend! Damien ended up picking the final color, and I was nervous at first but I LOVE IT! It's the perfect mix of blue and gray and it really looks awesome.
We got our electrical work done on Saturday and passed our inspection too! Over the weekend we did have electric though because Damien made a makeshift plug that plugged into the generator and then into an outlet which powered about half the house.
Our water should be on within the next ten days or so. Unfortunately we have to wait until the foreman gets back from vacation which won't be until next Monday. We are crossing our fingers they can get their end handled some time next week so we can have all the utilities worked out by the end of next week.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are"
We sold the mobile home today! We don't even own it anymore. The countdown is on to finish things at the house. We have 21 more days to be out of here (August 25th) and are only 10 days until our goal of being out by August 15. The ship has sailed for being out by August 15th because of the water issues, but we will definitely have the house in order enough to be out by August 25th. We don't have a choice anymore.Yesterday we went to the house. I finished up painting Abigail's walls that needed a little touch up, and Damien measured and figured out how many boards we need for our dining room floor and also planned out getting the electric fixed. That should be fixed on Saturday, which means we should have electric by early next week.
This weekend I plan on painting the downstairs while Damien fixes the electric and hopefully gets started on repairing the floor in the dining room. In case you forget what it looks like, this is what we are dealing with.
We have about 11 boards that we need to replace including the grate. Here's to hoping we can get this all worked out in the next 21 days!
Monday, July 25, 2016
Team work makes the dream work.
I'm trying *really* hard not to get my hopes up but we showed our mobile home lastnight to a couple who really seems interested in purchasing it. Fingers crossed that they were serious.This past weekend the heat was horrible! We did manage to get a couple things worked on at the house. Damien is working on a plumbing issue and got supplies needed to fix our electrical problems too. Luckily neither of these problems is (so far) ending up being a huge deal and should be things that he can do himself.
While Damien worked on the plumbing, our friend Joe and I worked on painting Abigail's room. I wasn't sure about the color when she picked it, but it really looks nice!
We got all the walls painted and it was looking like one coat was going to do the trick. I'll have to check back in on it this week because we left before it was completely dry. I was really impressed because the color we covered up was really dark.
That is the before picture of Abigail's room when we first got the house. I definitely recommend Glidden paint & primer in one. It works great!
Monday, July 18, 2016
"That's the meaning of life - trying to find a place to keep your stuff."
Another day. Another obstacle.This weekend we worked on the floors and sanding the walls. After sanding floors for hours and hours over the weekend, we've decided to only have wooden floors in the living room and dining room and carpet the upstairs. We feel like it will be more cost efficient and make more sense. The time it will take to sand combined with the cost of stain and materials coupled with needing to buy area rugs (at least for the girls rooms so they can play on the floor) made us realize it would just be easier and faster to put down carpet.
The floors in the dining room and living room are looking great so far.
We found out today that the water shut off outside is broken, so our water was never actually shut off, they only came in and turned off a valve in the basement... after it had flooded. They will need to tear up the sidewalk to fix that, which means our work on our pipes is at a standstill until that part is done. So now, we wait. The borough said it could be as long as the second week in August, which was going to be our move in date. Fingers crossed they can somehow make it happen faster than that.
The good news is that even though we failed our electrical inspection, I've lined up an electrician to fix the things that need addressed and it isn't going to end up costing a fortune so we may soon be able to put aside the generator and actually have power in the house!
This upcoming week we will work on repairing the walls and getting them ready to paint. We are hoping to start the painting this weekend so we can move forward with getting carpet installed. The only room color that has been picked out so far is Abigail's. We let her pick her own color and she chose a color called Sky Watch. It may not have been my first choice but she is really excited about it.
Here's to better news this week!
Monday, July 11, 2016
Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.
This weekend's work at the house kind of ended up being a bummer. We rented a floor sander on Saturday thinking we could get all the floors done. When we got it into the house we realized it didn't work properly and the hardware store had already closed. So, we ended up working on sanding walls and focusing on small areas that we hadn't done yet, like the landing and it's one million tacks still in the floor. I also finally pulled out all the tacks on the stairs. It's kind of boring right now because we are just doing tedious stuff like this but it all gets it closer to being done. Getting the floors sanded would have been awesome and really felt like we were getting somewhere, but that's the way it goes.
There were tons of tacks and tiny pieces of carpet padding on all the steps. It took me a couple weeks to finally sit down and pull them all out. It's hard work.
I also finally decided to start on the bathroom a little bit. It's really dirty but everything can be cleaned up and used which makes me really happy. There was a few odds and ends in there and when I went to throw away the bathmat I pulled it up and found this underneath.
It isn't the first dime I've found in this house. As a matter of fact, we have found several. Not everyone agrees or believes in finding dimes, but I do. Especially when I find one in such a strange place as under a bathmat. It immediately brought tears to my eyes. I don't know exactly who it is, but it makes me really happy.
If you don't know what I'm talking about.. here's a little info.
The Meaning of the Angel Number 10 (and Finding Dimes)
Seeing the number 10 (or finding dimes) is often a message of validation that you are receiving guidance and insight from your angels and from the realms of spirit. Release any fear or uncertainty and know that you are loved and supported. Things are working out for you for the highest and greatest good.
The #10 is also a call to pay attention, to trust your instinct and honor your intuition, especially regarding making changes to move forward in your life, and to take action to create positive change as you’re inspired. Part of making positive changes is keeping focused on what you want to manifest… Call on your angels to help align your thoughts with what you want to experience in your life.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Being organized is being in control
We picked a move-in date for side #2... and it's quickly approaching. We picked our 6th anniversary for our date, which is August 14th. That is only 37 days away. Will it happen? Well, we are going to try as hard as we possibly can for it to happen.To do this I realized I need to come up with a strict timeline and schedule. When you have a lot to do, sometimes you don't know where to start and you just end up accomplishing nothing.
I'm still not done with the schedule because it's more time consuming than I thought. But, it's mostly broken down and it seems like we may be able to make our deadline. It basically depends on whether or not we can get the water and electric straightened out and stay within our tiny budget for that.
Aside from all the work that needs done at the house, I also have a list of stuff I'd like to get done during the week when I'm home with the kids. It's tough to get anything done, but sometimes Amelia does sleep a little. I'm sleep-deprived, but this stuff has to get done and I can rest when we move.
I've started visualizing all the rooms and picking out what I want. When we moved into the mobile home we got rid of nearly everything, so we are almost starting from scratch. I have several pieces of furniture I want to spruce up to take with us to save some money.
Today I got a gallon of my favorite paint - marshmallow. I can't explain why I love it, but I do. It's not white, it's not off-white, it's not eggshell - it's marshmallow and it is the best. I'm going to use that for furniture that I plan to put in Amelia's room.
This dresser, chest, and glider are the pieces that will go in Amelia's room.
The glider needs the arm fixed. It also needs new fabric, but all three of these pieces are really sturdy and real wood, so once they are painted they will work great.
I'm also going to use it for this little $5 table I found & turn it into a Lego table for Abigail's room.
I haven't started on any of the furniture yet but I have started on our awesome "new" front doors. We picked two of these up for $50 and they are nearly identical to the original door on side #1 that I was so bummed to not be able to use anymore. Our plan is to refinish them and I've started on that but it's taking forever because there is about 20 coats of paint/stain on them.
Here is how the door is looking now. It still needs another coat of stripper to get the final coat off, but it is coming along.
I also picked out this doorknob for them. I can't wait to see the end result!
I see a lot of late nights in my future, but it will totally be worth it!
