I’ve been AWOL lately because my house has been (unhappily) under shrink-wrap. We’ve have a house painter here – for about 4 weeks now – and though I’m doing my very best to stay focused on the bigger, brighter picture, the realities of having the entire family crammed into a third of our usual space has left me feeling rather stabby, to say the least.
Really, I’m trying not to sound spoiled. It’s an enormous luxury to have hired someone to do this job for us. My husband is EXCELLENT at painting, but given the scope of the job, and the hours spent at his own day-job, he just wouldn’t have the time to get it completed before, say, June.
What started with we really, really need to repaint the entrance and that room with the water damage from three years ago turned into well, we might as well paint that room while we’re at it… which means we have to do the hallway… So we’re doing everything but the kitchen and bathroom at this point. We have plans to do the rest… later.
I thought it would just go faster than this. To be fair though, we’ve intended to make these changes for well over a year now, so no work-schedule is fast enough for me. And I hadn’t really considered all the sanding. Sanding! Of course!! Which means epic amounts of dust to be breathed in my everyone in the house, while it’s busy settling for several weeks. Our family of four slept in the same room together for five nights.
It’s been like staying in a crappy hotel with no amenities or service. I’m off my stride in taking care of our home-life too, because I’m running odd errands, and there have been too many PED days, and sickness… we’re running out of milk and coffee, and clean underwear, and the drycleaning gets forgotten. What’s for dinner tonight? Oh god. Not again…
And staying out of the house dust as much as possible means I’ve not been home. And I’ve had no time/space/inclination to do much more on the computer than email. Le sigh.
But there are worse things though. I know.
Worse things like how last Monday morning we woke up to a lake of water surrounding our kitchen island – the culprit was a steadily leaking faucet we’ve been meaning to look into (until then, a small bowl to catch the drips had been sufficient) but as the reno-gods are not smiling on us, we now have buckling hardwood in our kitchen. We’re waiting on the faucet part to arrive. I’ve had no water in the kitchen since then.
On Tuesday I started to hate the trim colour I chose for all doors, moulding, and ceilings. It’s blueish and it’s bugging me – especially since the taupey-greys I chose are reading pinkish by comparison. But only in certain light. And I’ve decided that it’s my hyper-critical eye screwing with me, so I’m not going to change it. Or cry about it. (The latter has been hard.)
On Wednesday (my birthday!) my nearly-three year old woke up saying her tummy hurt, and within about 40 seconds of my husband leaving for the day, she commenced a series of heaves that would put a heroin addict to shame. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, and her malaise only lasted 24 hours, but she insisted on having me firmly planted next to her for the entire day. (She’s never asked me to “cuddle” with her when she’s been sick before, so naturally I had to oblige her.) We stayed in that night and made ourselves dinner. Martin also spent half the evening hacking at kitchen pipes so we could at run our dishwasher at the very least. I thought it was a waste of time, but 7 days later, I’m VERY thankful.
Thursday I worked on eliminating dark scratches out of the bathroom porcelain sink, where Painter has been rinsing out his tools, and where I’ve been washing the pots and pans. By the way – reconstituted scrambled eggs at the bottom of a bathroom sink looks exactly like vomit. It’s totally gross.
Martin took Friday off work so we could do an epic shop at Ikea (and Home Depot, etc.) which for once, was actually pleasurable without the children in tow (because holy crap, you guys – that part of shopping totally sucks balls) but due to gluten-free Martin, I stuffed down my après-shopping hotdog while he was off fetching the car. I hate that he doesn’t eat bread anymore. Le sigh. Après-shopping Ikea hotdogs are, like, the best part of going to Ikea!!
Indeed, things can always be worse than they are. I’m trying to keep myself in check – my life is fine. Everything will be back to normal really soon. So what if I have to wash my dishes in the bathroom sink? Dust will be cleaned up eventually. This ain’t Calcutta – I have water about twenty paces away from me, the fridge has food in it, and minus a bit a lot of puke, we’re all healthy and well.
I did manage to get out for my birthday – twice so far, actually – and since I tend to spread out the celebrations until Christmas, there’s still time to get my fête on once my pluck returns. Which I’m hoping will be soon.
In the meantime, I’m trying not sweat the small stuff too much. No tantrums. Besides… Santa’s watching, right?
Aarghh! renos are so tough on a family. sounds like you guys are coping great and seeing the humour in chaos. you’re right to think about the bright, beautiful light at the end of the tunnel. we just finished a reno that took several months and coming home every day is a treat. good luck!
Oh Kate… I’m so sorry!! Sounds dreadful – and I’ve been there. We own a duplex, and we moved into the vacant tenant’s apartment months before the birth of our first child, nearly seven years ago, (we were sure we’d be back in our digs in time for our home-birth – laugh!) and we didn’t move back to our place until Oliver was about 6.5 months old. Yeah. And no tenant $$ for close to a year + the major expense of renovating, new windows, etc. This past winter we embarked on a project for the tenant’s space (again) hoping it would take 4-5 weeks… it took 5 months. I think their toilet was installed the day they moved in… Broke-ass-broke now, but I’m determined to get some pretty too, dammit!
Hang in there, lady. And found clothes are TOTALLY a bonus!!
I am glad you can take solice in the fact “things could be worse” we have been living in renovations for 12 months now (since our son was 6 months old – he learned to crawl and walk in the mess), we are now over budget and out of cash and need to wait to renovate the kitchen, which is not far off Calcutta standards. We have tenants moving into our suite today and when I left for work this morning we still did not have a toilet installed on our floor…I think a nice, dust free, maid serviced hotel is calling my name if the washroom is not running tonight! As a bonus, I found a box of winter clothing that got lost in the shuffle…I feel your pain and then some!
Becca, you’re so sweet to say such nice things about my house. The reality is killing me, but I’ll be over it soon. I hate being all out-of-order, and I’m really IN my house most of the hours in a day, so getting out more is bound to change my point of view… can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-treeskind of thing. Le sigh. It will be over soon.
Don’t renovate your lower floor. Just wear some sunglasses and buy some decorative pillow or something. Or MOVE OUT during the entire process if you can! Run!!
Oh, Tracey! Is it awful to say that your renovation horror stories make me feel SLIGHTLY better about our terribly ugly, un-renovated bottom floor?
Really, though– your home is beautiful. Like, stunning. (I saw your wall color on your other blog, I think, and remember really liking it.) And– like you said– everything will be back to normal soon enough. I TOTALLY understand the frustration of mess and inconvenience… there’s just something about having a house that isn’t functional that stresses me out, too.
i get the cinnamon bun deal when i’m feeling frisky 🙂
well, thanks for the good words. i shall look forward to the pretty one day. i just keep telling myself that a fully functioning roof _is_ pretty as a crushed house isn’t!
Julie, I know. And I feel you!! While near the end of my last pregnancy in 2007, our flat roof was leaking. We had only changed it about 6 years prior – by a crap company as it turns out – so we had yet another roof job done by a more-than-excellent company, but it cost a freaking FORTUNE!! Here we are 3 years later, and just getting some “pretty” done on the inside of our house finally. Indeed, safe and dry is better, but maaaaaaaan?!
The 50 cent Ikea hotdog is the BEST thing ever. We’ve had dates revolving around that affordable treat…
well, we’re dropping major cash on a new roof. it’s a flat one which means either college or sell an ovary. no one will ever see it so it doesn’t matter what colour it is! i’d love to spend it on the pretty but, alas.
oh well, at least we’ll be safe and dry! 🙂 i think an ikea hotdog is on the menu soon, it’ll be all we can afford!
Oh Nancy! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate those words (and that awesome post!!) because I’m really there. Snow White. Like, an ice-cap or an iceberg or a snow bank. It’s not bad actually, but I’m worried I have a pink-and-blue thing happening now, and I could just sob. But it’s really not so bad. (This is what I’m telling myself.)
Thank for holding my hand, sistah. For realz. You rock the hard jam.
Tracey- oh kindred spirit!please see my story on white
http://myfamilyisnotbroken.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/white/
to see how I can relate to your paint issue!
but now we are 99% done and it is heaven- you will be there soon- hang in !