Renovations begin

Well, that was a week.

Started out crazy, got bad, and then gradually improved.

One thing I've realized since buying/moving/renovating this house is that it TAKES OVER YOUR WHOLE LIFE. It's all we think about, talk about, shop for, spend money on... I even dream about it. Last night I'm sure I solved our entire closet dilemma while sleeping. Too bad I can't remember.  I'm pretty sure there was a big Civil Rights anniversary this week, and that we are about to start another war in the Middle East, but honestly it's all kind of hazy because "oh my gosh what color will we paint the dining room?!"

My facebook feed is all "anyone know a demolition company?", and "look at our old wallpaper!" Forgive me. I own an old house. It's kind of like having a baby I guess, in the way it takes over your whole being. Only babies smell better.

My house smells like old cats.

So, anyway, if paint colors and renovations and "before!" , "after!" stuff interests you, stick around. It's all I can talk about. If not, come back in a few weeks. I may have found I can still talk about adoption and child rearing and racism and all the other stuff that I used to ponder.

Here is a glimpse into what we've been up to this week:

Taking out the trash

Ripping out old carpet

Painting (okay, paying someone else to paint)

Ripping off old ugly wallpaper to find very old, pretty wallpaper

Is there anything more satisfying than pulling off wallpaper? No? 

Daniel's forest room

no carpet! no wallpaper!

What all the floors will look like someday, we pray.

This kitchen gives me hives. And smells like cats. Mom's not cooking much these days. :(

Then we moved in. I almost had a panic attack, but didn't. Barely.

The best present Andrew ever got me. Hands down.

moved

Years and years ago, at the mature young age of 19, I helped a good friend move to her first apartment. We loaded up her father's car with all her belongings: a couple of cardboard boxes, a mattress, a big suitcase, a dresser, a teddy bear.  She was renting a bedroom in an apartment in Queens. We were so grown up.

When we arrived her landlady was nowhere to be found and the kitchen looked like a scene from an insect post-apocalyptic horror movie, if cockroaches made films.  We set up her bed and her cardboard boxes and unpacked her suitcase into the dresser. We ate some take out sitting on her bed and watched TV and then lay down to sleep on her mattress on the floor.  It was summer. It was hot. It was a long night. Mostly because I spent the whole night making sure that not one inch of me was touching anything other than the mattress. Certainly not the floor. In the morning I left and she (my wonderful, amazing friend), started her independent life. Which, thankfully, no longer involves cockroach infested apartments in Queens.  :)

Fast forward 2 decades and a husband and two kids to last night.

We moved. We moved into our dream house. Or at least, the glimpse of our dream house. No dishwasher yet, no laundry room yet, no AC.  We dug our way out of the cities of boxes in our living room and lay down to sleep on a mattress on the floor. (Our box spring couldn't fit up the stairs.)  It's summer. It's hot. It was a long night.  All four of us trying to find some rest and comfort on a mattress on a floor.  As I did so many years ago, I desperately tried NOT to touch anything other than the mattress. Certainly not the filthy cat hair invested carpet.

Just when you think you are all grown up something propels you back in time. I'm 19 again, hoping to grow up and not quite sure if being an independent grown up is worth the sacrifices and hard work. I'm 37, not quite sure if having a "dream house" is worth all the sacrifices and hard work.

And then I found myself going shopping for an AC and some more paint and a thingy to hand our towels on...

So I guess here we are. Starting our independent life. Again.

What's your favorite (or terrible) moving memory?

It's all happening so fast...

I'm heading, it seems clear, into my second night of moving-related insomnia.

It's just all happening so fast, all at once! Packing, shopping, list making, calls, painters, contractors, electricians. It's all good, but my God, it's so much.

Here was Daniel's room on Wednesday.

Here is Daniel's room Saturday. 

Wow, huh? I'm so happy with those greens. The floor needs a bit of TLC still. 

We move Tuesday. I have about a weeks worth of things to do in 3 days. 

Daniel said today, "please don't make us move again." 

Never sweetie. NEVER again.