Living Room Recap

The last number of months you as I am sure you all are aware of by now, we have been pretty much 100% been focused on the kitchen and the garden. Other than occasional bouts of fixing toilets, hatching duck eggs, making old window hanging organizers and about a million other things of course.

But lo and behold their are other rooms in our house that need work (HA!). The living room is one of them.

And I realized in surprise the other day that most of you don’t even know what it looks like because I haven’t posted any pictures of it.

*Whack!* That is me kicking myself in the rear to get the house photo tour and outline up for y’all. Soon, I promise. Don’t leave because I’m a slacker please. I’m a loveable distracted person not a slacker really truly. And I did do a sweet giveaway for you guys soooo hug me

In fact the last few weeks that you haven’t heard as much from me, I have brainstormed 2 different businesses, researched running a food truck in our little po-dunk town, started an online petition, chased a now almost walking 9 1/2 month old, and started a new workout program. From here out though my promise to you guys is no more doing cool stuff and not telling you. Deal? Deal….imagine me shaking your hand now.

I’m also working on staying more focused. A lot more focused.

Whew. Got that off my chest.

Living Room. Right. Focused.

When we came to this house I in my pregnancy hormone nesting crazed mind assured Kevin that this house project would be fun. He wasn’t so sure about that.

This is the living room before we moved in:

See the sagging in the ceiling in the left corner? Leak….old drippy leaked on ceiling. Sounding like fun yet?

Needless to say we had a lot of work on our hands. The ceiling was falling in, quite literally it looked as if someone had fallen through the ceiling from the attic in one area and covered it in wood. Some research revealed they most likely had asbestos in them based on the date of the house. So first thing on our menu for the whole house actually was to replace the ENTIRE ceiling. In the WHOLE house. Ourselves. Hahaha. And this was supposed to be fun right?

Well not entirely by ourselves, we did have some great help on this one for parts. We were able to negotiate with our wonderful *landlords to have some help on the cost for paying for the new ceiling and a bit of help from their maintenance staff for the initial install and the texture.

*Yup that’s right landlords, we rent this place! Crazy I know, but we have first option to buy at a set price if we want to and we get rent we can afford!

My parents came out for a week long “vacation” to see little ol’ pregnant me and Kevin too, and survey the project we were getting ourselves into. It was a lifesaver. They worked their fannies off to help get this place into a closer to livable condition the whole week.

Dad and I ripped off the old crown molding, we tried salvaging it and finally gave up on most because it was 1/4 round not crown molding and it was so old it shattered everywhere.

Then the crew (John, Dad and Keith) put up the new drywall while Kevin was at work.

After they got it up Dad gave Kevin the run down on how to tape and mud the seams and screws. Then they had to dry and be sanded. And then done again. And sanded again.

Through the whole house.

This is me asking Kevin, “Aren’t you having fun babe?”

Sure sweetheart.

I’ll just keep doing this for the next….mmm….3 months okay?

Every night. 

Til my arms fall off. Because I love you and my boy that you’re carrying. I’ll do it.

Yup, that’s my hubby. Hardest worker ever. He sanded and sanded and mudded and finally primed all the ceilings in our little house to make it safe for us to live in.

Then they sprayed texture with his help and then he installed new crown molding through pretty much the whole house while I was in Oregon. This brought the whole house up to a totally different standard of living.

But backing up a few steps back to the first week we started working on the house, Dad and I tackled the nasty old heater in the living room:

This old heater was also in the living room and was quite a nasty little thing. The house had been converted to forced air a while back and so this heater was not in service and was the perfect place for critters to live. I knew it had to go as soon as I laid eyes on it.

And Dad said go for it! I felt like a kid in a candy store. I ripped that thing out like nobodies business so fast that it was only Gods grace that Dad stopped me before I pulled the last nail out that would have let the giant asbestos pipe fall out onto my foot. He kindly took over for me at that point and finished pulling it out and the pipe that came crashing down.

Yes.

Meanwhile I ripped out the flooring in the closet. Because if you’re gonna have no flooring it might as well ALL be gone right?

After all that fun was over we prepped. And prepped, and prepped for painting. For eons we prepped. And by we I mean Kevin. At this point I was beyond huge for my little frame.  Between a change in birth control putting 20 lbs on me and 10 lbs from our thanksgiving visit with my grandma (literally!) I came into the pregnancy way too heavy for me. I managed to only gain another 20 lbs total by the end but I was a hurting unit.

This is me end of July last year…..and I still had 2 months to go! Ugh. Never again.

I was so heavy my joints hurt, heck everything hurt. I felt like a beached whale drowning in my first Georgia August after my retreat in the Oregon coolness. When I arrived home I promptly got sick with the worst bronchial virus I’ve ever had for 6 whole weeks. I coughed so long and so hard that at the end I would almost be in tears each time because my body was so tired from heaving. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for little Noah.

Needless to say, I wasn’t much help to Kevin in the renovating department. I planned a nice anniversary trip for us and tried to keep the house somewhat in order. But honestly, mostly whined and freaked out about having a baby in the middle of a construction site and Noah’s crib not being setup.

I’ve learned a lot in a year. I’ve learned that babies don’t care if you live in a construction site and that even 10 month olds can live without their crib being setup. I’ve learned that it’s much more important to live, even in the imperfections and craziness. That people don’t care if your house is perfect as long as you are welcoming and at peace and open your home to them.

I’ve learned that even posts are okay if they have to be continued….