We got a kitchen!!

I know originally we said we were just going to leave the kitchen the way it is and live with it - however, we scored this really cute kitchen from offerup for just $50 and I'm really excited for it to be done! It's a slow process because I have no idea how to install cabinets and Damien is always at work, but here is a few photos of what it looks like so far. We started with the upper cabinets. We definitely should have painted them first, but we started painting after they were hung. Next time.

Here are a few before we started painting them:




Here are a few after we started:

Wake up with determination.. go to bed with satisfaction.

I have about 6 or so weeks left until my due date! YIKES! Most people hope their babies come on or even before their due dates, and even though I might be as uncomfortable as ever, I am completely happy with Fried baby girl #2 showing up in more like 8ish weeks. We have made some progress since I started painting but not as much as I would have hoped. Everything takes way longer than you expect. Well, at least way longer than I expect, anyways. And Damien works a lot so that leaves me to do stuff and I can only do so much because I'm about the size of a small boat right now. So there's that.

Be the change.

Covering up the paneling

We just spent a week at the beach & I think that is just what I needed to jumpstart getting more work done on the trailer. Staying in a 6,000+ sq. ft. 1.9 million dollar home really makes you want to come home and make your place a little nicer! We had a really nice time despite the weather and I feel recharged.

Right before we left for vacation Damien's aunt and uncle gave us several gallons of paint for the interior. One of them was a blue color. I wasn't sure what I thought of it but I wanted to try it out in the bedroom. It matches a quilt (also given to us by them) so I thought it would work out. It took several days but I just about finished up the painting and putting the room back together.

Here are some photos of our room when we moved in. There was nowhere to go with anything but eventually I got it organized.





I still have some other things I need to do (like get a closet door) and touch up some areas of paint, but overall I think it's really cute and almost looks like a real bedroom! It's hard to get a photo of the room because it's small but on the opposite wall is a tall dresser and to the right of the bed is a closet. Also to the right is a little "nook" type area where we will put baby #2 in her bassinet. We moved the bed to the other window too.

The heart of the home.

I forgot to share any photos of our makeshift kitchen! We are in the process of putting it back together again but for now we have a makeshift counter top, no stove, and a large row of top cabinets with no doors that need to be ripped out. We have been here several weeks now and things are going okay and I'm adjusting to living this way. Although I can't wait to get the kitchen looking better! We used up a lot of our funds having to do so much work that we did not anticipate so unfortunately we have to live with makeshift stuff a little longer than we planned. So far it has been okay. We have several small appliances that allow me to make regular meals and Damien has been doing a lot of grilling lately.  We found a sink/faucet that was only $20 at the ReBuildIt store. The one that was here was disgusting and didn't work properly. We had to call in my dad again when we were trying to hook up this sink because the pipes were (of course) totally screwed up and leaked and needed replaced. He came to the rescue (again) and since we've been here everything has functioned properly... knock on wood. It just isn't very pretty!

 Trying to build the counter top right after we got here.... in a huge mess.

This is basically how our makeshift kitchen is looking right now. Not exactly how I envisioned my kitchen to look when I owned a home but hey - it's functioning for now and it's only temporary.
We are about to leave for vacation but when we get back I plan to tear down those top cabinets because they are all messed up. Damien is going to build some shelving for me to put stuff on. We will probably look around for a good deal on a small kitchen sometime in the future. But right now our main priority is getting flooring in.

The Other House...

Damien has not been to our other house in about 6 weeks because he's been spending all his extra time getting the mobile home livable for us. Now that things are (somewhat) in order here, he had to go work over there this past Monday. We received a certified letter from the borough about a side porch/overhang needing to be removed or we faced a $1,000 fine. We were almost at the deadline so it needed to be taken care of.  We don't have a building permit yet but you are able to knock things down without one so that is all that was done. Enough for now to keep the borough happy (hopefully?) and keep us from getting fined (hopefully?).

Here's some photos of the house before & after. Obviously not a huge change. Our plan was to work on the inside and then tackle the outside but it seems as though we may have to do the opposite now that the borough is after us to get it done. We knew as soon as someone new owned it we would start getting into trouble so we are just trying to figure out what is best to do when. Next we are thinking we will find someone reliable to cut down a gigantic tree in the front yard that makes us very nervous. It's huge and if God forbid it ever goes down it's either going to crush our house, the neighbors house, or block the road - so we really just want to have it removed.

Obstacles do not block the path, they are the path.

So far today has been a pretty big bummer! I woke up this morning with high hopes of doing laundry and organizing things around here. Yesterday Damien spent the afternoon getting the washer and dryer hooked up. Under normal circumstances that wouldn't take a whole afternoon and two trips to Lowe's but the pipes coming into the trailer leaked so they needed replaced. He also ended up having to replace the receptacle for the dryer because at some point they changed the outlets on dryers and the one here did not match up with our plug.

So this morning Damien finished up hooking everything up and everything seemed to be working. There were no more leaks and the receptacle was good to go. I was so happy as laundry has been seriously piling up here lately. That's when things took a turn. The funny thing is that you can work so hard on something and think for sure it's fixed and then some random thing goes wrong that you never thought would. That is what happened to us this morning. Damien turned on the washer empty to run it through a cycle to ensure everything was in working order. Things seemed great..until the drain cycle... when everything went terribly wrong. Out of nowhere the drain hose ripped off the back of the washer and water started spewing hot water EVERYWHERE. We tried our best to stop the water but there wasn't much we could do. Damien tried to block the water from coming out the back while I used a bucket to get it out of the washer. Eventually we were able to get the washer to the back door to drain the remainder of the water out but not before probably about 20-30 gallons of water went all over our new subfloors. Now Damien has ripped those out and they are outside. We are hoping they can be salvaged but we'll see.




We went out and got a new drain hose and have successfully ran a load of laundry through the washer without any more water issues. It was scary as could be turning it back on but things are okay now and the trailer is smelling like Gain and bleach and we have some clean towels!

Now on to the next obstacle!

Happiness is peace of mind.

Yesterday was the final day we were able to be in our house, so we had to move into the "little house" as Abigail calls it. The place is basically a disaster zone right now but she couldn't be more happy. My dad thinks it's because it's such a small place and we are all now really close together. Either way, it's amazing to see things through her eyes. This is such an exciting time for her!

Yesterday was a very stressful day but we successfully got everything out of the rental house and into the mobile home without an inch of space (or time!) to spare. Each corner of this place is crowded right now and stayed crowded through the day today because we were all way too tired to do anything about it since we were moving and cleaning extremely late into the night.

We had to call my dad in for help with the sink we got because (of course) it leaked when we hooked it up - just like everything else in here. It ended up taking him last night and today after work but we are leak free at this point and our sink and drains work.  It was a huge relief to have his help because we were unable to turn on the main water without having that sink hooked up since there wasn't shut off valves for the faucet. Guess what? There is now!

Here is how things were set up for sleeping last night at about 1:30am when the three of us finally were able to go to sleep: a mattress thrown down on the floor and two couches. Perfect.


The "kitchen" is a complete mess. I moved things around a little bit today for my dad to come fix our sink but otherwise I did absolutely nothing.



It doesn't look much different right now but I'm hoping tomorrow to get things a little bit organized around here. At least to the point where we can all find outfits in the morning.

Tonight Damien made some delicious chicken on the grill and we ate it off paper plates and it was a great feeling. While we were eating he said "I know we are living in tornado alley right now (because of the mess) but I can't help but feel such a sense of relief." I couldn't have agreed more.

I love my family so much and though things are completely unorganized and a mess and only half work sometimes - I feel so blessed.

Slow and steady.

It's been a really long couple weeks. I'm sorry that I haven't posted, however in my defense, not a whole lot to report! We ran in to some issues with the water and that took us a long time to get working. Eventually, we called in the reserves, AKA, my dad, to lend us a helping hand.

Thankfully, things are now back in order. The water is currently shut off but that is a good thing because it's because we are installing a "new" sink and counter in the kitchen!


The water situation in the bathroom was really frustrating and broke my heart because it messed up Abigail's paper bag floor THREE different times. That made me sad because I put a lot of effort into the floor. I guess I should have waited to ever fix it instead of fixing it each time - but each time I thought the water thing was situated and then it never was.





We finally ended up replacing basically everything and anything we could having to do with the shower. And when I say me - I mean Damien. Eventually we (Damien) settled on these awesome things called Shark Bites. If you are EVER doing any kind of work to pipes I highly recommend them. It didn't take long at all to install and immediately fixed our problem.
 

Note to self: Stop expecting.

My biggest problem with this whole mobile home remodel is that I expect to accomplish too much in one day. I really need to stop doing that. Since I have realized I do this, I am also now expecting to live in the mobile home longer than I think we will so I'm not let down when all the projects at our house take way longer than we plan on them taking.

I guess when you buy an older home as you start to remodel you uncover things underneath that need work, too. That is how things went for us today. We spent a solid eight hours working and I thought for sure when we got there this morning that by the end of the day the bathtub would be redone with new faucet, shower head and walls and that the window would be completed and last but not least that Abigail's room would be painted. The window is done. Ok, not done but it is installed and sturdy. Everything else I mentioned is a hot mess.

I promised in this blog to show my readers even the worst part of remodels. I am not going to gloss over the worst days. Here is how we ended our day in the bathroom..