Home Sweet Home

I have had a lot of questions from my Hutch peeps about "The Cat House" and the progress.  My blog sort of stopped (anyone who knows me gets why that happened.  I wonder if I will ever be able to make that a regular thing?) Some thought "cat house" referred to some sort of house of prostitution.  Lol.  Um, no.  It referred to the smell of cat urine in this house the moment we walked in the first time we saw it.  It was disgusting.

Those days are long gone thank goodness.  I just finished a Christmas gift for mom and dad about the renovation; a retelling of the entire process, if you will.  Looking back on the whole thing was so much fun.  I had forgotten little details and all the fun we had.  I am so thankful to those two for all they did to help me make my dreams, both big and small, become a reality where this house is concerned.  I love it.

Ask and you shall receive...

I know I have said before that my dad is incredible.  Let me reiterate that.  Throughout this entire project, he has worked tirelessly to give me a house that I love.  Case in point, my closet.  The first thing I asked for in the master bedroom was a change in my closet doors.  I really don't care for doors that slide back and forth.  I can never see the entire closet and it drives me crazy.  In the Hutch House, I even removed all the closet doors from the upstairs.  I put up curtains instead.  In this house I decided that I didn't want my closet as open, but instead asked Dad if there was anyway I could have french doors on the closet instead.  He made it happen.  What's even better?  We found one of the doors on clearance!  We all love a bargain.

I then said it would be nice to have some shelves in the closet.  Originally I was going to put a dresser in it, but both parents told me that was probably not the way to go.  So after some grumbling on my part and thought on dad's, he came up with a plan.

I went to Lawrence  to proctor AP testing today.  When I came home, my closet was complete.  <3

The doors need to be sized and painted, but it is so roomy and I can Khan Mari to my heart's content!

Forget SUNSHINE, I'm walking on FLOORING!

      Celebrating milestones when working on a house is mandatory, especially when we've been living with subfloors since we closed.  This week was the week we installed floors!  So excited.  Don, Mom, Dad, and I tackled this project, and really, it wasn't too bad.  

       The flooring I chose was EXPRESSA from Menards.  I am usually not indecisive, but this was hard...really hard.  I always knew I wanted a dark flooring upstairs and carpet was a given for the bedroom.  The older I get, the nicer it is to feel soft carpet under my feet when I wake up in the morning.  ;-)  Anyway, after looking at almost every flooring place in the city and second guessing myself MULTIPLE times, I went with this.  For the basement, however, I wanted to go with something lighter.  We purchased it all and had Menards holding our stash in the back room.  Sigh.  Then I started second guessing some more.  The lighter shade I picked out for the basement was chosen after looking at samples online.  I saw the picture of it when I was in the actual store after the purchase.  Now some may think I am picky, but I really thought the lighter finish made the floor look striped. After talking with  mom, who is not afraid to return anything...she returned a Corvette once...I decided to return it.  The people at Menards have the patience of Job.  Really.  One kid in particular was stuck waiting on us every time we came in.  Poor guy.  The flooring was returned and I decided to go with the same dark that I chose for the upstairs.  Problem was, they were out of it and there was no way to even back-order it.  AHHHH!  Mom and Dad to the rescue again.  They were headed to a birthday party in Frankfurt, Kansas.  They spent the night, got up early, and headed to two different Menards in Nebraska to get the rest of the boxes I needed.  Wow, right?

Doesn't this look striped to you?  Ick.

       Obviously I was excited when we got started today!  We fell into a decent rhythm, figuring out that the flooring had to be at a 45 degree angle in order to get it to lock together.  "45 Amy, 45..." became the phrase Don hollered out for the rest of the day.  I absolutely LOVE IT!  The upstairs flooring is done and it is beautiful!

LAUNDRY!

Ok, who knew I would be so excited about a laundry room, right?  But I have a room - not a spot in an unfinished basement...a room!  AND...it is done!  The first room in the house is now painted, plumbed, and filled with appliances!  Woot!  Many thanks to Dad and Don the Dentist for the hard work on this room.  Don was also responsible for my shelving and my hooks.  I.  Am.  Thrilled!

We have interrupted this program...

Life, work, family - those things are far more important that this house or my need to finally sit on my couch.  That said, a few things have sidelined the project lately.

First and foremost would be Dad and his ticker.   He had a triple bypass (diabetes is a bitch) a few years ago and now has been diagnosed with pericarditis.  The way to fix it? Another open heart surgery.  (Insert expletives here.)  To double check those results, he has had to undergo a battery of tests.  His latest was a heart cath.  He was terrific and I can honestly say although there is some anger there that this has happened, he is handling things very well...much better than I would be.  He will have some decisions to make once all the tests come back.  Will he undergo another surgery, or will he continue to be out of breath and deal with all the resulting side effects of this issue.  Stay tuned.

Another bump in the road is my job...lol.  It's not a bump, as it puts food on the table and I love it.  Prom was the actual speed bump during the beginning week of April.  Even though we are a virtual school and kids attend at their houses and I teach at mine, we are always on the lookout for times for them to interact face-to-face.  Prom is one of those times.  This year's theme - the 80s.  Really?  When did I become old enough for people to dress up like I did in my teen years and think it's funny?  When did my music become something to snicker at?  I mean we had Prince, Devo, Madonna, and Culture Club...these goofballs have Justin Beiber for goodness sake.  Anyway, I was the decorating chair for prom, so I borrowed mom's glue gun (I have no idea where mine is), hit Michaels and Hobby Lobby and went to town to create centerpieces for the tables.  It turned out pretty nicely if I do say so myself.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog...

I'm back in Topeka.  For good.  All my loose ends in Hutch are now tied up and I am here, here.  I am not, however, living in my house yet.  I am still at mom and dad's house.  They  have been incredible.  Our late night planning talks are great, seeing them as the day is getting started is wonderful, and I am thankful.  But, I am not living in my house.  I know I sound like a spoiled brat when I say that and I don't mean to sound gritchy...I just want to live in my house.  I want to let the girls out to potty in a fenced in yard, I want them to have the run of the house, I want internet that is reliable, and I want to live in my house.  Lol.  Basically, I am just excited and want the place to start feeling like home.  I am a gun-jumper for sure.  However, I am totally ok with living in it as long as I can do the following things:

1. Use the restroom.
2. Shower.
3. Make coffee.

There you have it!  That's the goal for the next week.  I am excited to say that I was able to start painting the kitchen.  It's so fun to see things start to come together!

We have walls!

Jim, the drywall guy, has been here all week.  He is a terrific guy and he and dad worked  hard to get all the walls, patches, etc. done.  It is so nice to walk into the basement and see actual walls!  Now the  painting can begin.   Progress for sure!

My Dad has superpowers...

       He may not have a cape or a Batmobile, but truly, my dad has  superpowers.  They include the ability to rattle of measurements in 16ths and 8ths - which has had me stymied since grade school.  (Note:  Somebody needs to make a tape measure for dummies that has all of that printed on it.  I would buy one.  Many people I know would buy one.  They'd be a millionaire!) He's an electrician, plumber, drywall expert, painting guru, master woodworker, and so much more.  Jealous?  You should be.
     The only problem with this scenario is that he truly has to be a part of each and every job in the house.  He is constantly being pulled off one task to advise on another.  This causes the  inevitable "Where'd I put that tool?" conversation and hunt around the house and ticks him off to boot.
     Now not everything on this project is sunshine and roses.  Dad and I can clash.  He is a perfectionist and I am an "it's perfect enough and nobody will notice if it's off by 1/100th of an inch".  This can cause friction because I drive him nuts.
The nice thing is that most of the time we can laugh our irritation off and at the end of the day it's
forgotten.
     Another issue is that he's worked so hard on this house that he's injured his wrist.  He has exaggerated tendonitis in his wrist and has to wear a brace.  We know when it's been a particularly hard day when he's rubbing it at the dinner table.  Ice follows, but what he really needs is rest.   Do you think that slows him down?  Nope! I don't know if I will ever be able to thank him for all he's done for me.  I hope he knows how much I love him...not for the things he does, but for the man he is.  <3