No blog

Just a recanting of last week's blog - there will be no life AND basement remodel. This week there was life - it was nice - a vision of the future. It will be nice to help international students with homework and have a guest room for company passing through. It will be nice to have family dinners with space for 15 people. It will be nice to go to the lake with my parents each summer for the next 20 years. That will be nice - WHEN THE BASEMENT IS DONE. So that is where I will be until then.

Coming back

So how are you? I really want to know. I feel like I am climbing out of this all-absorbing-self focus hole we dug.... but it is a long climb... and I hadn’t wanted to admit how far down we were.
Sure, most of our family conversations still either begin or end with something to do with the house. Our “free time” is still absorbed by internet search of price comparing ventilation systems and concrete sealers. There is a 40 hour work week - on top of the 40 hour work week (but that is a cut back). And my poor father is still spending more “quality time” with me grinding tar off basement floors than I am sure he ever imagined.
And yes, we have been changed by this. I have biceps for the first time in my life. I am on a first name basis with 5 guys at the hardware store and I have home depot’s phone number memorized. We know about strippers, grinders, and blasters now. And we have plenty more to learn. There is a long journey ahead of us, but this week the house fit into life - instead of the other way around.
There was a full week of home cooked meals, 2 baby showers, Vacation Bible School, daily drop-ins of various international students, cousin sleep-overs, trips to the pool, park, museum and a relay for life. Life “after” the house project was an illusion - but life during the house project ... may yet be a possibility - IF you’ll have us.

All that to say... I haven't yet remembered to take PHOTOS of life outside the house project... but maybe next week - you gotta be patient with me.

"holiday" Survived

Well, we survived the tornado of last week and the sandstorm of this week. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Friday night....

"sealing off the upstairs" - Jude says, "stand back mom - this is a job for me!"... and I can kind of tell a five year old did it by how much dust settled over this place.


Saturday morning...

Dad "going in"



by Saturday at noon the fire department had been called and our insurance company drove by REALLY slow... as did almost everyone who drove by that day.

Saturday night....

It's kind of a mess...


Monday night...

When one is just as likely as turn their house into a beach as a livable apartment you start to feel a little desperate

Tuesday....

(Same spot as the sand art - only with well used tools!)

I am telling you people - I wouldn’t trade our family for ANYTHING. 2 tons of sand, dirt and paint chips in 4 hours. They rock!


We also had a close call with a 20K window expenditure but a really nice city inspector told me everything I needed to hear to put my little freakin’ out heart to rest.

Jessie moved in the last night after the kids were in bed and left for work this morning before they were up, so I am looking forward to the next few weeks of getting to know her.... and adjusting to life that is a little more multifaceted. I better go cook dinner... that actually sounds so relaxing.

Here are a few photos of the house - the day we got our first student: It ain't done - but it is home. I know - I have already dusted it a half dozen times.

Laundry room


Bathroom


Kid's room


Guest room


Women's "Loft"




Back entrance

Life Unexpected

So tonight, as Jarod was trying to capture a bat in our living room without injuring it - I couldn’t help but laugh and think, “Huh - I would have never thought to put this on my to do list.”
When will I learn to let it go - and enjoy the unexpected? To roll with the punches? To ride the waves? To heed all of the annoying cliches? I do not know.
But some unexpected came this way our week - and they were fun. Bats, blue jays, my aunt and uncle coming for a visit, my sister-in-law doing a choreographed dance in a wedding dress in a back yard, my ‘brothers’ hauling an entire room of concrete out of my basement - as well as 4 other loads of garbage on their “days off,” Lucy enjoying her first ring-pop, and dozens of fuzzy little peaches hanging on tree I swore was an apple.
Other unexpected things came this week - not so fun - Jarod throwing his shoulder out (you would have thought it would be the uncoordinated men in their 50’s hauling concrete - but NO it’s Jarod sleeping wrong), bad news from family members (that probably wouldn’t have come as such a shock if we weren’t so self absorbed - please do tell us if there are any other elephants in the room that we are missing!), and finally when our house got up to 90 degrees and I wanted to open the windows and turn on the fans - I realized that half our windows don’t open and that there was still a good 1/2 inch of dust on the tops of the ceiling fans. OOPPPSSS.
Well, the next week involves sandblasting and our first tenant moving in - so I have a feeling a few more shocks are on the way. However, both my parents and Jarod’s parents just called to say that a tornado is heading our way... so I should go “batten down the hatches” - because if a storm hits us hard I really can’t say IT was unexpected - now CAN I?


Leave it to Chrissy to have trentenira. We celebrated her 30th b-day with Latin 15th birthday customs. Bob changed the shoes - and we are all so glad she is finally a woman... wonder when I'll get there.



Here are the best brothers in the world hauling off our nasty basement. The quote of the week was Randy, dripping with sweat - as sincere as can be, "Manda, thank you for letting me rip up your junky old tile." Ummmm... You're welcome? That just doesn't seem right. Oh yeah - and he got hit in the head with a cinder block - talk about unexpected :)


And finally- I thought catching bats was a strange way to end the evening. The basement has finally come in good for something.


GOOD NIGHT from 703 Fort

We interrupt this project...

To start another one. Really? We really want to do this? 12 weeks. Ready, set, go. BASEMENT

The kitchen sink - isn't in the kitchen... it's in the hall under the steps. So that's gotta change.


The bathroom - well - it's a gonner - I mean jackhammer, sandblaster already scheduled kinda' gonner



The bedrooms - oh wait - the entire basement has moisture issues.



And the storage room - you can tell the family who had lived here for 50 years cleaned out the whole house and then got to this room and said "We're done."



Me too. I'm done. I think I'll take a vacation and let my husband and father handle this one. Or maybe I'll just keep decorating. Like the dining room? We are getting there. (oh all the "after" photos are late at night... I'll take better lit ones - someday...)

Good Day

It's been a stormy week at 703 Fort; not only in weather but emotions. But today, we had a good day. After a late night freak out session by me pouring over receipts and an even later night hauling off of our second refrigerator because “the cat pee smell” just wouldn't go away – we were in deep need of a good day.
So, when the alarm went off this morning I rolled over and prayed my favorite prayer of all time... “help me, help me, help me, we can't do this alone.” He knew that, and had the perfect help lined up. Dad spent his third morning in a row here and by noon he and Jarod had the impossible microwave mounted and I had the final boxes unpacked. During the late afternoon I received a phone call from the local SEARS guy that we had been anonymously gifted a refrigerator and I should come pick one out before 7 p.m. While I was still crying on the phone to the SEARS guy (His job isn't much like the flower delivery girl and I am not sure he knew what to do with a happy sobbing lady), I got a call from a friend saying she wanted to help us get a fridge. I gathered myself together enough and humbled myself enough to say, “Well, we were just given a fridge – but would you like to help us pay for the window AC for the girls upstairs?” And she did. Our credit card will thank her – as will Seon Jin, Jessie and Ma Lina!
If that weren't enough; a friend dropped everything to pick up our fridge, a stranger walking down the sidewalk stopped to help us bring it in the house, my dad stopped by with dinner, I stopped to get the mail and found a check from our home warranty company that covered the electrical work, and our energy bill that somehow credited us $7.82, and Jarod's mom brought over a coffee pot and 5 lbs. of delicious Honduran coffee.
Now that is a good day. And the best part is – we are learning – to be patient and just say “thank you” -and that it will all be ok (but I'll probably freak out a few more times just cause I can).

Like super skinny people on TV – “before and after” shots in home remodeling are optical illusions. HGTV is of the devil and real life has no stop action wallpaper peeling or electrical work (although a fridge donation could be like something off of one of those shows). So here is the Before and “the beginning of after” kitchen shots... there will be more of this room and others... as they finish... and as the kids graduate from high school – whichever comes first.

7 deadly sins of home ownership (so far)

While we have learned many beautiful lessons during our brief time as home owners (chiefly gratitude), we have also learned some very hideous things about our nature that had thus far been very well “controlled.” But alas, humility awaits on the other side of the slough of despair. And we forever wait at the foot of the cross, knowing that without His grace the very best things in our lives do nothing but bring out our own evil.

Gluttony. Though we have both lost weight in the last 5 weeks it is more due to McDonald’s induced malnutrition than under eating. The low points of the junk food inhalation were a dinner of cold leftover fried chicken skin, and two consecutive mornings of the breakfast of champions - “late night jalepino dorritos.” Also, you will not necessarily die from eating Pizza hut meat lovers pizza that has been left out all night.

Child neglect. The kid’s child care has been next to none over the last few weeks. Kuddos to all involved. But - we want them back. I am again humbled by the blessing of abundant time Jarod and I have always had with our children. Also I am putting it in writing - I am not woman enough to have full time job and children. How do you people do it? When I am dead tired and pick them up at 7 p.m. the 2 hours before the crawl into bed is a torture of (normally joyous) questions, requests, discoveries, and dialogue.
SHUT UP!!! That’s all I think when I’m tired.

Severe myopic perspective. There was an earthquake in China? I am painting this trim. Your father has cancer? I am painting this trim. Your husband hasn’t spoken to you in 3 days? I am painting this trim. You are dealing with some issues from childhood that are breaking you and your parent’s hearts? There were bombing and volcanos this week in the news? You had a baby? Well, I’m sorry, I’m busy painting this trim and well if it doesn’t turn out just right... well then, well then... SERIOUSLY. How can I care so flippin’ much about something SO unimportant? I don’t know, but I can. Sit anything in front of me for enough hours and it becomes the world. It’s really very frightening.

Self centeredness. Piggy backing off of my unimportant trim, let’s move on to ME, MYSELF and I. It is as if I have to continually remind myself that the lives of everyone I know haven’t revolved around my house for 5 weeks. That life went on. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Bruce went to Cancun? - well I missed that. And about a million other little things. Like that Saturday, the day I wanted to move, is Katie’s birthday, and when she called to invite me a party I almost wanted to whine, “But you can’t have a birthday then...” But she can, cause life goes on without me, wether I want it to or not.

Arrogance. Hummm.. wasn’t that quite apparent in the last one? But to add insult to injury, I am not only “me” obsessive about those outside my house project, I am “me” obsessive about everyone helping too. “you put that down and help me do this,” - “No, do this first, not that, ‘cause then I can do that other thing that I want to do” - “My way is the right way and that was a dumb idea.” And I am sure the effects of my arrogance are much more far reaching than I would like to think, “Oh, I am too busy to rinse out these rollers, or clean out these pans - my convenience is more important than the environment right now.”

Impatience. We will not be moving until next Tues. 6 weeks. Not 5. And I am not very gracious about that.

Coveting. I fill online shopping carts for fun now. I cannot go to bed without checking the local online classifieds. Jarod is trying to buy gas stoves in 4 different states and can hardly walk into a store with electronics without eyeing the TV’s. I sent my sister-in-law to search through more than stories of an old hotel looking for cheap furniture. I can’t possibly make a list of all the things I want - and 5 weeks ago, they had never crossed my mind.


Besides recognizing our sinfulness in a whole new way - we have refinished floors this week. Almost 3,000 sq. ft of floors.
Here is a preview of some before and after shots:

The stairs:




The kid's room: