Monday, November 2, 2015

#MicroblogMondays: There will be DUST :p

I used to think infertility & stillbirth were the toughest things my husband & I could go through -- that if we could survive THAT, we could survive anything.

And then -- we decided to paint the house.

Just kidding!! (Well, sort of...)  We're not even the ones doing the work. We attempted to paint the house (inside) ourselves 11 years ago this month, and let's just say we learned our lesson. We thought it would take us about a week (yeah, right), and took precious vacation time to do it. We managed to get the first floor done (including scraping multiple walls full of wallpaper left by the previous owners) before dragging our exhausted butts back to the office (vacation? what vacation??), and then spent the next 11 years cringing over our all-too-visible errors. (We completed the bedrooms over the next several weekends, and hired a pro to finish off the floor-to-ceiling stairwell. We DID get better as we went along.)

This time around, we hired stepBIL (a handyman who renovated our bathroom seven years ago) to paint inside and out, refinish our kitchen cupboard doors and put up a backsplash, along with a couple of other details. He estimated it would take him a week, maybe two. 

What was that about the best-laid plans, etc...?  We're now into week THREE, and there's still a couple of days' work left to do. Granted, we're getting there. Both the top and bottom floors have been painted, and the basement (which hasn't been touched since FIL finished it for us in 1999) is partly finished. (Finishing it is going to involve unshelving the contents of four IKEA bookcases into piles on the floor, and then reloading them after the paint is dry and the shelves put back into place.)  We have a spiffy new ceramic tile backsplash in the kitchen and the cupboard doors are in the midst of being sanded, restained and updated with new handles. The outside shutters, panel above the garage door have been painted, and the front door will be painted to match shortly. (Unfortunately, some of the shutters need to be redone, after they were hammered by the remnants of hurricane Patricia, which left the fresh paint job peeling & bubbling.) The outdoor lighting fixtures have been replaced, and new smoke detectors installed. 

While stepBIL has obviously been doing most of the work, dh and I have not been entirely idle (hence, my absence from the blogosphere the past two weeks).  We've made multiple trips to Home Depot, stripped the last of the wallpaper (a hangover from the previous owners, 25+ years ago), moved stuff from one room to another (and up & down stairs)(and will be unloading & reloading said bookshelves today or tomorrow), taken advantage of the opportunity to go through and set aside stuff to be donated, and wiped down dust-coated furniture and cupboards -- over & over & over again. (OMG, the DUST!!!)(And, most important, made daily afternoon coffee/tea runs to the nearest Tim Hortons, lol.)

We get along pretty well with stepBIL -- but let's face it, three adults tripping over each other in a smallish (1,400 square foot) house, with regular routines completely disrupted, stuff out of place and scattered all over the house (including two nights spent sleeping -- or TRYING to sleep...! -- on an uncomfortable 30-year-old sofa bed while the paint dried in our bedroom) -- 8 hours a day, six days a week for two weeks straight (and counting) -- can get to be just a LITTLE stressful.

Let's just say I'm glad we didn't decide to go for a full-scale renovation. Eeekkkk!!

(An earlier version of this post was prematurely published (& then reverted to draft mode) on Sunday... apologies for any inconvenience to anyone who saw it.)

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

7 comments:

  1. I so feel you on this. I love the afterwards, but the during? It's torture. But was it at least fun to pick the paint colours?

    I have been putting off re-doing the bathrooms after the big kitchen overhaul last year. But it has to get done. I'm dreading it so much. I also work here, so it's like they're working in my office.

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    1. It WAS fun to pick the colours. I had some help -- I actually called in a "colour consultant" from Benjamin Moore. She was here for a little over an hour & well worth the fee -- I had her come when we did the house 11 years ago & still had her card & she's still working. :) It's amazing to watch her work -- she really knew her stuff. She brought a whole little suitcase full of colour swatches & she could just riffle through them and find the perfect colour in about 30 seconds flat. Mostly various shades of beige (lol) but a really nice soft sage green for the kitchen that goes beautifully with the dark wood cabinets, & a dark burgundy/mahogany shade for the shutters & front door.

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  2. I've always wondered how people could live through a major renovation. I remember getting our new kitchen installed (November 22 years ago - ya think it's time to do it again?), and it was a nightmare. Even though it actually went very quickly, over only about a week! Painting too was done a LONG time ago, and now needs to be done again. We did most of it ourselves, but got professionals in for the areas that were over our multiple stairs and open plan areas where we needed scaffolding. We've never actually painted our bedroom - for some reason the only room we've never redecorated. We have a very comfortable spare bed though, so moving out wouldn't worry us too much. I think I seriously need a colour consultant, so might take your advice on that.

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  3. Thank you for making me feel better about being a renter. *grin*

    In all seriousness, so happy your almost at the finish line. Hope you enjoy your "new" place. :D

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  4. Ugh. Remodels are awful - not even going to lie. 9 months of living in our house during a major remodel seriously hurt my soul. Sending the best vibes for a speedy and satisfying "after." Would love to see photos!

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    1. I may post a couple. After we do some cleaning up...! I don't know how you did it; 2.5 weeks (of mostly painting & staining) was MORE than enough for me...!

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