12 weeks.
If you'd tried to convince me that my family could live in a construction zone, with no functional kitchen or living space for 12 weeks... I'd have told you you were crazy. And yet...
12 weeks.
We took possession of our house on February 20, 2015. We drove from the title company where we signed straight to the house, walked in the door, and got to work. We borrowed two 5-foot pry bars and immediately started tearing up the flooring of our new "dirty house" as Z kept calling it.
The front... you can't tell so much from the outside, but this house was practically a crime scene.
A family room? ... AKA the room that is now my dining room.
A terribly cramped gally kitchen, that smelled worse than it looked looking into what is now our office/school room.
The master bath (which we gutted and left for later!)
The living room... I promise you no one died here, it just looks that way. The floors are so hideously awful you almost can't notice the horrible striped wallpaper!
My master bedroom. I don't even know how windows break like that?!
The 1/2 bath downstairs... at least, I think. It smelled so awful that I never actually stepped in there before it was gutted & ripped out.
Javik's bedroom... Zailey's was equally awful.
Now you know why the "dirty house" wasn't such a bad description! When we first walked through it with our realtor, I could see its' potential. I could tell that there was a home here just dying to break free! It was just going to take more work than I've ever put into anything in my life.
Our first walk through with our friend Aaron & my parents yielded looks from them that are unparalleled... as if to say "WHAT on earth are you thinking?!" If I'm honest, I was giving us that same look.
We busted our tails for the next 2 weeks. Replaced every inch of flooring and most of the walls. Ripped out 2 full bathrooms and fully replaced 1 of them (we decided that the master bath is a luxury that can wait until later). We did some minor construction (moving the laundry to an upstairs central location), and then called on our friends for help. We worked 16+ hour days for 14 days straight. The cold, dark, damp & musty basement was the cleanest, safest space for my kids to be at that point, so they played / watched TV from their lawn chairs down there. I am thankful every single day that God gave us easy-going kids! This process would have brought lesser children to their knees!
On March 2, we painted the entire 2nd floor. March 3 carpet was installed. And March 6, 2015, this house became our home. The bathroom upstairs was the only source of running water. The refrigerator was in the garage, and the mayhem was just beginning.
The night we moved in (thanks again to incredible friends & family who came to haul all of our belongings with us!) I told Cole & Aaron that my dream would be to have a house-warming party in a FINISHED house by Memorial Day. We counted the weeks, just shy of 12, and they both nervously laughed. Then Aaron said, "Sure! Memorial Day it is!" Even now, as I write those words, tears come to my eyes. I had no idea then what an emotional process living inside a renovation would be.
The work was hard and the days were long. But the time together as a family was filled with lessons that none of us will forget.
We donned our masks to rip up floors and scrape popcorn off of ceilings for what seemed like days at a time.
Family & friends here working 24/7 also made for good quality time with the ones we love!
This pile of tools changed from day to day, but mostly remained a constant throughout the house.
There were MANY late night planning sessions... me, Cole & Aaron. These guys worked themselves silly to make my Memorial Day dream come true.
Our dog, Fancy, had moved to my parents' house at the end of December 2014. They graciously had agreed to keep her for the year that we were to be in Kansas City. When that plan changed, they graciously kept her for us until we could make this life workable for her here in Moberly. One month in, April 6, we brought her home! She pretty much thought we'd gone mad. But the kids were SO excited to finally have her home!
It felt like we did nothing but work. Countless days & nights meals would sneak up on us... often times it was 8:00 at night before I thought about the fact that we hadn't eaten yet! *Again, thankful for easy-going kids! Our card table, which had seen very little use prior to this move, served as our dining table & school table & anything-we-need-a-table-for table. Paper plates & utensils were our fine china.
April 28. The last of the 175 plates that Dena gave us the night we moved in. We bought another 100 & used the last of them on Memorial Day. :)
We tried to live life among the working. We tried to make it to big things like birthday parties & weddings along the way. Amidst the construction it was a constant struggle to make sure everyone made it into clean clothes upstairs & that we were still clean by the time we got through the downstairs! They say that hard work comes with blood, sweat & tears... truth! We have all bled, sweat & cried in this process! Zailey Belle wins for the most tears shed. She & Cole probably tie for the most blood lost. Shockingly, there was only the one major incident with Z & the step ladder. For 12 weeks in a construction zone, I call that a win.
Every completed project felt like a major victory. Slowly but surely the house started coming together. The tool pile got smaller as the paint bucket pile grew. When we finally got every wall sheet-rocked & the cabinets mocked up to look like a "kitchen" I could see the light at the end of the tunnel! Once again, we called on our friends & family to help us paint the 1st floor... and just like they do, they came through. Paint on the walls meant the clean up could begin.
May 5th we finally got rid of the "pantry table" (a door on 2 sawhorses) and replaced it with a REAL pantry!
Paint buckets everywhere
May 16th the floors started going in! What a beautiful sight!
A project that we never could have taken on, much less completed, without the help of so many loved ones! Behind these walls lies miles of new electric wiring, water lines, newly crafted duct work, hundreds of 2x4s and more labor than you can imagine. Every minute of time sacrificed & donated to us out of love. On the surface you see gallons of paint, thousands of square feet of flooring, painted cabinets & furniture, the heaviest counter tops EVER... again, put on & in as a labor of love.
A custom kitchen that first appeared in my mind, and then before my eyes!
Hanging outdoor lanterns over the bar got me some looks by the men... but turned out one of our favorite things!
The center of our home, a perfect place for a reminder of what's most important
The same "dirty" fireplace, now cozy in the dining room
It's amazing what taking out a few walls will do to open up a room! ;)
"Home" More than just a word or a piece of art on the wall (replacing that awful striped wallpaper!) my relaxing boys say it all.
May 25th, Memorial Day. My house is finished! The rooms were filled with the family & friends & neighbors who have given us so much more help than we'll ever deserve these last 3 months. As I walked around, visiting & laughing & "showing off" our hard work, I fought to keep the tears from spilling over out of my eyes. This. This is what a home is for.
I am & will continue to be overwhelmed by the love of the friends God has put in our lives. I'm even more overwhelmed by His faithfulness to us. To love us and show us grace & mercy, to give us a hope & a future. This house that He provided for us, made of wood and nails and beams, now our home, made of hard work and love and dreams. My prayer is that we would use this house to love others even more than we have been loved. That the doors are always open to anyone in need, and that the rooms be filled with laughter & fun for all of our days here.
We still have some projects on our list. The stairs will be done, the master bath & the basement finished, the outside will get new siding & shutters & paint... but for now, we will rest. We will re-enter the land of the living, and for the love of pete, we will WORK for an actual income!
My heart is full. We are Home.
