A New Year a New Life

It's time!  Time to slow down, reflect, and enjoy life.  Well, almost.  I can't wait for the time when my to do list is only a few items (never happen) and our lives are "back to normal" (what's normal?).  Every time I finally get around to sitting down to do my post I look back on just the past month or so and realize everything that has changed and what we have accomplished since I last sat down.  Amazing!

Well, the biggest thing for us is that we moved into our "new old not so big house"(NSBH).  Just after Thanksgiving we packed it up once again and moved into our "almost" finished house.  (It sure would be nice to just stay in one place for a while.)  We received our SG shipment and have somehow managed to fit all of that and everything from our uptown condo into a house that is literally half the size of our previous home.  Yep, we had to purge once again and somehow we still don't seem to have a place for everything.  I am sure that once everything is done, there will be a proper place for everything.  

Once we moved in, we began preparations for Christmas.  My family all came to town as well as the Hubby's Mom.  What a great time!  We all celebrated with a big Christmas dinner in our NSBH.  We had 13 people for dinner and it felt festive and cozy!

Once Christmas was over it was back to working on the house.  We have completed the laundry area, added a large shed in the backyard, completed the larger bath and have put our sunroom in working order.  The to do list is still pretty long with little things, but we are living here and it looks great!  Just a few more months and we should be finished!  Then we'll begin work on the outside of the house. (Ohhh!)

We are so excited about living in this neighborhood!  We can ride our bikes all over the place and are just minutes from the light rail line and the greenway.  Our favorite brewery is just down the street too!  Not to mention we love our neighbors!

The hubby and I are both taking a week off; he for a boy's ski trip and I for a mission trip.  Unfortunately, he messed up his knee, so he won't be skiing, but hopefully he will get quality friend time and some R&R as well. Once I get back from my trip, I hope that I will be able to take some more time and write.  I also hope to have a post on the total before and after with photos!

 Moving day - AGAIN!

 Watch out Santa!

The new pad all decked out for Christmas

 Grandpa and his grandsons

 Cozy Christmas dinner

All of my family (minus a couple)

Me and my family

The hubby and his Mom

Back to work!

 Yep, that's me - tile cutter apprentice

(I did most of the cutting on the shower tiles and some on the floor tiles)

 Shower niches 

Let me just tell you, not all mosaic tiles are created equally.  These took an hour to find the pattern and match them up.  Crazy!

 Back wall

 Prepped and ready for tile

Shower tile completed!

 Floor tile

 Niches complete!

 Floor completed and grout done!

The hubby's new "man cave"

 Our first visitors!  Hello Mr. Oriole!  

(I have never seen one in our area, so beautiful!)

And Mr. Cardinal too.  Doesn't he look pretty on our cool new feeder?

More photos to come soon!

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)