Putting the house back together

Except for one more little metal plate to tack down the carpet in a closet, everything is done!!!!! They came in and finished yesterday at 2:30. We're slowly getting everything back in place. I'm throwing out a lot of stuff too, since there's a lot of clutter that we don't need and is getting in the way now. I'm really looking forward to having everything put away. Last night I made pizza dough, and it was the first time I'd done any real cooking/baking in my kitchen in several weeks. Hopefully I'll get to do a lot more of that in the next few weeks, before we leave for the summer.


The master bedroom when we started pulling up the original carpet--you can see the old stuff in the corner, and the damaged hardwood.


The bedding piled in the living room


The kitchen area turned to storage for a day


As did my laundry room


Pretty new carpet!


Most of the master bedroom


There was a small bedroom that got carpet in it too, which is going to be my craft room/storage area, but that room is so small it's impossible to get a good picture of it. It's a weird "T"-shape too!

I'm so glad it's finished. Over half of our house has new flooring right now, so it almost feels like a brand new house. The process was a bit painful, but it feels very worth it, not to mention that it's safe now without all that mold!

~H2

What a Difference

I have a floor!!!!!!!!!!!! They completed the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen yesterday. Hurray! Below is the kitchen area before furniture, and with furniture (obviously facing away from the cabinets, stove, sink, and fridge!). We're still moving some things around, but it will at least give you an idea of the space.





I'm so relieved. I love having my kitchen back! This morning a plumber came by and changed the connection for the dishwasher, so hopefully we won't have any more issues with that either.

Now I'm just counting down the hours until my house changes again. Tomorrow morning the master bedroom and the small bedroom are getting torn up and new carpet put in, so tonight H1 and I will be moving all the furniture out of those rooms. I'm babysitting today, so we want to wait until the little guy goes home before we start moving things. Since there is a regular hardwood floor underneath the current carpet, there's not much concern for running into the same issues that we had in the kitchen, or at least there isn't at this point. We're praying things will go smoothly!

This weekend we'll concentrate on trying to get everything back in place. I'm looking forward to it!

~H2

What to say? Two days after the gross moldy flooring was revealed, my dear friends Dean and Robyn invited H3 and I to come stay with them until the new subfloor was put it. It took about a week before renovation resumed. During that time, I did come back to the house for a couple hours at a time to babysit Aubrey, the sweet granddaughter of my EMT testing partner, Selena. She and H3 get along quite well and had lots of fun playing in H3’s room, with the kitchen area closed off so the moldy fumes didn’t spread in the house.

H3 playing with plastic Easter eggs---cereal pieces were hidden underneath


H3 and Aubrey


Aubrey


Last Saturday morning, H1, Robyn, and I decided to take all the girls to Busche Gardens. We didn’t tell them where we were going until we arrived. Were they ever excited!
Even without knowing where they were going, Julie got into the spirit of things…maybe in response to Robyn’s driving? Just kidding Robyn!


Robyn with Julie and Natalia


H3 enjoying the water park portion in the Sesame Street Forrest area


H3 and Julie riding the little Clydesdale ride


To my delight, my friend Kristina came to visit from Florida on Friday—even though my house was a mess! I took her to Williamsburg and put her in the stocks. I’m a nice friend huh? Seriously though, we had a wonderful time catching up. I got to go to her wedding in July 2007, but other than that we haven’t had a chance to get together since college graduation.




And now for the fun part! Renovations have resumed! Last Wednesday (the 5th) the contractor came in to start on the subfloor. Between that day and Thursday morning, he got it done. So below is what my kitchen and laundry room look like now.



Today is May 10th. It’s been 2 weeks since the floor was torn up in my kitchen. We’ve been dealing with lots of clutter with everything relocated right now. I’m so thankful for Dean and Robyn opening their home to us. Thanks to them, H3 and I were able to avoid living in the mess for most of the time. H1 had to stay there except for weekends though, because of his job. Still, his exposure was very limited, and that was the goal. This morning, there is a guy laying down a layer on top of the subfloor. If all goes as planned, they will be putting down the rest of the floor tomorrow and the kitchen, laundry room, and one bathroom will be done. Later this week will start the master bedroom and one other room having the floor torn up and replaced with carpet. The end may be in sight! I’m just praying that it will go more smoothly from here. H3 has done really well with the major detours from her normal schedule, but she does seem out of sorts! I'm so looking forward to the end result of all of this!

On another happy note, the weather has been incredibly gorgeous here! We've been spending a lot of time outside enjoying it! For all weeks that this could have happened, at least God gave us sunshine!

Back to babysitting a six month old today, more updates to come this week!

~H2