Blessed and Thankful

For some reason the month of October and early November are always months full of events in the Willis Family.  I can't say why; maybe it is the way the stars align or something.  We have been so very busy and lots of fun and exciting things to share.  

It's hard to believe that November is almost over!  It seems that we were just preparing to vote for our new president.  Congrats to President Obama by the way.  Honestly, I was glad the election was over.  Over the years the presidential election years have taken on an aire of competition and political loyalty to say the least.  It has become more like rooting for your team rather than thinking about what is best for our country.  Let's just hope that everyone can unify, support our elected officials, and do what is best for our country. 

We are in the final weeks of our whole house renovation (or at least we hope so).  So much has happened since I last updated everyone.  

• Countertops installed
• New smooth ceilings (no more popcorn!)
• Painting
• New crown moulding
• New bathroom framed out and drywalled
• Lighting outlined and switches placed
• Hardwood floors refinished
• Appliances ordered
• Old furniture and appliances sold
• New tankless hot water heater installed
• Gas lines run to the kitchen and fireplace
• The condo we have been living in now has been rented
• We sold our old house!
• Our sweet E had her 6th birthday 
• 3 days after E's birthday she lost her first tooth!

It has been a lot of work, but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Unfortunately, we won't be settled in our house by Thanksgiving, but we will be by Christmas!   

It has truly been a blessed week!  God was thinking of us, that is for sure!
We listed the condo for rent and in 2 days we had 2 persons who wanted the place.  Our new tenant moves in Mid-December.  The best thing of the week was that we sold our house.  Our friends that have been renting it decided to buy and we closed on Tuesday.  JOY!  Both families feel blessed.  God is good!

So, this week is as packed as last!  We have our new appliances being delivered on Monday and our Singapore shipment arrives on Tuesday.  Not to mention we are finally getting to have our Uverse installed this week.  We have only had to reschedule that at least 10 times.

Our official move day is December 3rd and we still have a lot to do.  

As I close for this semi short post let me just say how very thankful I am!  Like I said, God is good!  We are Thankful for:

• Having a place to live when we returned from Singapore
• The ability to keep in touch with all of our new Singapore friends
• Our friends and family for supporting us with childcare, help at the house and just a listening ear during this renovation
• All of the businesses and individuals that have done fantastic work on our new old house
• Great neighbors who offer a beer after a long day and letting us smooch off their wireless network
• The the leaves of fall
• Halloween, dressing up, trick or treating, and traditions
• Democracy and being American
• Cooler weather
• My health
• And most of all my wonderful little family!

Thank you God!

New Countertops

 Where is she going?

 E found a little nook

 Putting in the smooth ceilings

 Now that's the way to sand drywall

Finished ceilings, preparing for hardwood refinishing

 Refinished Hardwoods

 The new hallway

Bye, Bye old window

Some more things that we found that came from the attic when we tore out the ceiling.  The slide is a picture of a military base

 Our poor toilet, just waiting to get back into our new old house

 The trees of our new old backyard

The home renovation pumpkin!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pondering God's Plan

Things are coming along on the renovation as we continue to live our lives in the Queen City.  We have made much progress these past few weeks.  Thank goodness as I really needed a boost!  Some days our goal of a Thanksgiving move in timeframe seems next to impossible.  Every morning (I try) to take time to reflect and "be still" pondering our life, God and how everything fits together.  It seems my devotional continually reflects on hardship, adversity, challenge and how it makes you a stronger and better person.  I can't say why our lives lead us in the direction of where it goes, but I know that God has a plan.  We never know where he will lead us, but I KNOW that it will be a worthwhile path.  I have trusted in this so many times in my life.  When I lost my sister, met my hubby, never thought we would have a family, nearly lost my life, our precious E was brought to our lives, and we moved to Singapore.  Everything has a reason; we just don't know what it is until he is ready for us to see it.

So, the kitchen is nearly done with all of the cabinets in.  The hubby did 80% of the work himself with a little help from me.  Our contractor guy helped build out some supports for the dishwasher wall.  It's is amazing to think that we did it ourselves and when we step back and look at the results we are proud!  We know how every cabinet is hung and how everything works.  We put each and every drawer, hinge, door, and leg in place.  Counter tops are ordered and we are weeks away from kitchen use!  

The small bathroom is near completion as well.  We decided to hire out the tile job for the shower.  Good thing too as once I saw Paul the tile guy do his work I knew that task would have totally stressed me out!  Sometimes it's better to just let someone else do it.  Even with the extra cost it is worth it!  I learned a lot about tiling and ended up searching all of Charlotte for just the right threshold to the shower.  That took an entire morning and the results  were amazing!  We made the right choices and our teeny tiny bathroom looks almost "normal" size.

One thing that we have been trying to do is to stay true to the period of the house with necessary modern upgrades.  To keep with the style we are trying to match all of the doors and moulding that was original to the house.  That has put me on a quest to finding doors to match the rest.  I started with an architectural antique store.  I found one door, but at $65 a pop I decided to keep shopping.  On to the ReStore (Habitat for Humanity Repurpose Store).  Score!  I found the perfect door for only $8.  I had decided to strip the door and repaint it as it was in pretty bad condition.  Little did I know that it would take hours of work.  Was it worth it?  I would say yes, as the door looks fantastic and I learned how to strip paint from an old door.  After that I thought I might hire out doing the rest of the doors in the house.  Not going to happen!  The first quote for 6 doors came in at $1800.  Ouch!  I think I will find a different way to fix my doors.  I also, found another door from a neighbor via our neighborhood facebook site!

Last week demolition began on our hall bathroom.  This bathroom has had little to no improvement since the house was build.  Originally, the tile was yellow and black which I had refinished some years ago to white.  The white had since been stained and the grout cracks were back.  The hubby and my nephew started the job and the hubby finished it off.  Again, he did pretty much all of the work.  I think he is actually starting to like this work.  He even mentioned wanting to make home rehab his "new" job.  Really?  Please dear God, help him find something else he likes better!  I don't think we are cut out for that type of career.  I will say, he is pretty happy doing it.  So, we are currently in the process of re-supporting the floor and all of the floor joists.  Again we found plumbing and ductwork placed by someone cutting through floor joists.  There was so much sag in the floor that it had dropped as much as 1 inch.  Well, we know that our house will be solid and well supported when we are finished - Right?

Still much more to do and lots more shopping to come.  (tile, bathtubs, vanities, appliances)  That's the fun part, right?

Door Rehab

My door ready for a new life!

Bathroom Demo

Look how thick that plaster was behind the tile!

Mold and rotten floors

Nothing like some bangin' on a cast iron tub for some stress relief

No more tub!

Newly supported floor

Bathroom tile 

(That red stuff is called Red Guard, seals the seams and turns red when it is dry)

Ready for grout! Beautiful!

Ikea cabinet installation team!

Sink wall

Fridge and range wall

Our cutie in our cubby

Our office

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Renovation Realities

Where to start!  It seems like ages ago that the DNC was here and I have not posted anything about our new old home renovation.  I think about it every day, but when I get home from working on the house, making dinner, putting E to bed, and going through the paperwork for the day I am pooped!  When I do feel enough energy to sit down and blog, it seems that I don't have  a private space to work or the mental bandwith to devote.  But, yes, I think about it every day and wish that I was blogging about our renovation daily!  I started this post almost 3 weeks ago and finally I am pressing the "publish" button. There is so much to say and show.

Working on the house has been both rewarding and depressing.  To be honest the hubby and I both have our moments of just getting through, and lucklily one of us is there to bring the other up.  

Our little blue house has had a few problems along the route of our renovation journey.  And as a wall comes down or a floor comes up we find problems that MUST be fixed.  Some days we feel like we are on Holmes on Homes or one of those renovation shows on HGTV.  Honestly, they would have quite a show filming our crazy life.  Humm, there's got to be a good name in that somewhere too.

So, we have just about finished 3 of the rooms that we started on.  In the kitchen we found past water damaged floor joists that needed to be replace, past renovation mistakes (who would cut through a floor joist to place a heating duct?), and unsupported walls  just to name a few.  Each thing set us back and each HAD to be fixed.  The back bedroom had paneling that we thought we could live with, but in the end we decided to take it down and put up drywall.  Not only was there 1 layer of paneling, but 2.  After the 2 layers of paneling came down another layer of problems reared their ugly faces.  We found no insulation, disintegrated sills, and wet walls.  That week was devestating.  We weren't even going to do that room!  Well, I guess it is a good thing we did.  Once the problems were fixed the hubby and I went to making the room new again!  New insulation and dry wall at last.  The hubby hung all of the dry wall and I taped and mudded the room.  My nephew gave me a lesson on drywall finishing and I went to town.  After priming and painting the entire room we moved on to crown moulding.  That is a nemesis for sure!  Cutting and getting the angle just right is a skill!  The hubby did great and we now have the most amazing crown moulding in our new old kitchen and refinished bedroom and bathroom.  This week the hubby finished laying hardwood floors throughout those 2 rooms.  Wow!  What a transformation.  We have accomplished a lot and learned how to do so many things!

I think when we went into this project we thought it would be as easy as taking down and putting up, but nothing is ever that simple.  Through this we are learning patience and how to deal with unexpected problems.

Our goal is now to be in our new old how by Thanksgiving.  I think we can do it with help (we are going to hire out a few jobs).  Say a prayer for us!

Bedroom redo:

 Nothing like finding light coming in from the outside when you pull off paneling

The second layer, and there used to be a window?  Why would you close that off?

 New insulation and vapor barrier too!

 Drywall in !

Nice tape and mud job!

and Paint!  (getting close!)

The Kitchen:

 The cubby

Sink wall

The side stoop:

 Before

 Demo

It's gone!

After

The hardwoods floors:

 Nice job honey!

The old with the new.  We'll blend when we have the old refinished.

The hubby under the house, glad he is doing that job and not me!

And, our E entertaining herself with leaves and a paint roller.

She sure can get creative!  Who needs all those plastic toys?