Merry Christmas to all!

I hope all of the future Christmases that we celebrate in this house will be completely different from this one, but it wasn’t so bad for what it was. I hung a string of lights in the shape of a triangle to serve as our tree. We slept in a little bit and mostly laid around watching Christmas episodes of TV shows we like. And we ate even more popcorn than usual.

Today we managed to do a little more work on the house. We got the sub floor down on one end of our future bedroom. It took a shocking amount of time to get it flat, using leftover shingles from our roof replacement to shim up the joists. Since Brad had to reinforce and add new joists to the old crummy ones, there was quite a bit of variation. Thankfully I was able to observe and come up with some suggestions that I think made things go a little smoother for the second half of the process. Once we got the two pieces of plywood down I started getting REALLY excited because it is looking like a real ROOM again. I can’t wait to start putting the hardwood flooring down because that means it will be my turn to take over – decorating, hanging artwork, finding the perfect pieces of furniture.

I’m off for break until January 5, so I am going to try to make progress on some tasks without Brad here:

• Once the sub floor is down in the bedroom, I can paint the ceiling in there (it is currently the same green as the walls).
• I want to get a cabinet quote from Home Clearance Center, to compare to what we got from Lowe’s. We hope to purchase cabinets in January.
• I also want to set up the asbestos inspection and get that done while I am home.

We haven’t made much progress since my last post.

B did a lot of work on the floor but it is slow going when it is mostly just him working on it. I made one last stop at our old apartment and turned in the keys to the property management company. We spent Friday night in Boulder to see our friends before they leave for the holidays. We had a long drive home on the snowy, icy roads and we needed to take our cat to the vet after that. We got about half a foot of snow in our area and spent some time clearing off the sidewalks and brushing melted snow out of the garage to keep it from ruining our possessions which are piled up on the floor in cardboard boxes!

Sigh. So now it is Sunday and I have to put together some homework problems for the week and get supplies for my horticulture class. I’ve been helping somewhat with installing insulation in the floor in our bedroom. But with both of us in there I was able to point out spots where the joists were still not reinforced enough because I could see them move when B walked on them. We wanted to get the sub-floor installed today, but I am not sure how far we will get with that. B’s mom and stepdad are arriving on Wednesday, so I also want to clean as much as I can to make our house look like less of a disaster (its really a disaster on the whole main floor). We have my work holiday party Tuesday…when will all of this happen?! I am going to need extra coffee this week for sure…

The good news to share from the week is that many apartment showings later and I finally found someone to move in! They signed the lease, so its all done. I’m glad I no longer have to spend the time showing it, but ALSO that we wont have to ever pay both rent and mortgage. That makes me feel more financially secure, so we can proceed with planning the larger expenses at the house (…kitchen).

However, there are still issues holding us back. Based on the age of the home and the level of demolition that needs to happen in the kitchen, I think we need an asbestos inspection. B got some quotes and we are going to have someone come maybe next week. That will set us back probably $500, but will be worth it for our peace of mind. I’m not even going to entertain the idea that the old drywall or the ceiling tiles actually contain asbestos, but planning for the cost of remediation is also keeping me from wanting to order kitchen cabinets.

While we wait on getting those kitchen issues taken care of, B is working on the flooring in what will one day be our bedroom. After he and Ryan ripped up all of the old wood flooring last weekend, they realized that the sub-floor was basically trash as well. The planks were very old and cracked – some even had major holes. Underneath the sub-floor is a really weird concrete slab…it was covered in dirt, weird bits of wood, wire, and other garbage. We found a part of a toy gun, as well as some old papers that a child used to practice writing words! I am going to save those and make them into a piece of art for the wall in the smaller bedroom (someday nursery).

So this weekend B is working on cleaning up all of that situation so he can install a new sub-floor. Apparently even the joists that hold up the sub-floor have issues. They are too small or too far apart or something that I am thankful my engineer husband knows how to identify. He was on the phone with his engineer dad last night for nearly 3 hours talking over the problems and drawing up plans. I am not kidding, my father in law sent him multiple hand-drawn engineering plans for options to reinforce the joists. I think even this morning they are still tweaking it. It is quite heart-warming for me to watch him take such an interest in this project for us. With someone as experienced and intelligent as him involved, I am confident B will be able to fix all of those issues.

And for my part, I am feeling a little guilty for not having more motivation. I am putting a ton of energy into work right now, which I love. But that doesn’t leave me with a lot to put into our house. Jess helped me paint the bathroom and prime a bunch of the living room (and the horrifying brown trim around the windows), for which I am insanely thankful. I need to go back and touch up the bathroom still, as well as put a second coat of paint on the bathroom door. Yes we have been surviving this week without a door on the bathroom. But thankfully it couldn’t be farther from the basement where we are actually living right now! I am hoping I will get all of that done and maybe paint the living room and small hallway as well. We will see…I also have to plan some lessons for school, though being stuck in the basement makes it hard to find motivation to do that either.

Oh and our hardwood floors from Lumber Liquidators are due to arrive today! They will need ~10 days to acclimate to our house before we install, which is fine since we don’t even have a sub-floor in the bedroom at the moment. Check Instagram for photos!