I'm starting to breathe again.
I've been holding my breath for the past two months.
Things are falling into place
and life is returning to normal.
Was the home reno worth it?
Ummm, ask me next year,
it's still too fresh.
Let's start at the beginning.
The floor.
Why did we decide to get new flooring, you ask?
Because my dog threw up one morning.
Just one little pile of dog kibble vomit on my carpet
sent me into a tailspin
and I knew I couldn't take it one more day.
Did I save money for this and plan out every detail
and make lists and create inspiration boards on Pinterest
like any normal person would do?
No.
No I did not.
I cleaned up the dog vomit and then called
my friend, Phillip, that is a tile layer
and asked him to come and give me
an estimate on new flooring.
I thought if I had an estimate,
then we could start budgeting for it.
And he came that same day.
And then he said the strangest thing.
He said that he could start ripping out all the flooring
the following day.
And then I said the strangest thing.
I said ok.
Just like that.
"Okay".
You should also know that all this happened
while Brian was at work and had no idea what was happening.
I am not a good wife, I know this.
So just shut up about it.
Something just took over and made me say "ok".
.
When Brian came home I just
told him about my day and then said,
"Oh, and we're getting new flooring tomorrow."
And he said, "Okay."
Because he's awesome like that.
So that afternoon
I ran to the tile store and picked out my tile.
I went with Vintage oak tile plank flooring.
I am a lover of hard wood floors
but not only was it not in our budget,
it also wasn't practical for us.
And so the very next morning at 5:30 am
Phillip came and ripped out my flooring.
See those nice big cracks in my foundation?
That was a pleasant surprise.
Every inch of carpet, tile, and
Pergo was ripped out of our entire house.
Yes, we had four different types of flooring.
Totally normal, right?
Most of our furniture was moved onto
the back patio.
Which was awesome because
we are in the middle of the monsoon season
and we had rain and huge dust storms
the entire time they were here.
And, in case you don't live in Phoenix,
and aren't familiar with our dust storms,
they roll in like this.
The fun never stops.
Phillip estimated the job would take
one and half weeks.
Due to several issues,
(foundation cracks and wonky walls)
it took just over two weeks.
Two weeks is a really long time,
did you know that?
For the first week,
we lived in our bedroom.
Only our bedroom.
I am grateful to have a door in our master
that leads out to our back patio.
Because that's where our clothes were.
And everything else we owned.
We lived off of fast food and
turkey, mustard and dust sandwiches
that I made in the bathroom.
And I didn't make my bed the entire time
that we lived in here.
And the sheets were covered in dust
and I didn't have access to my washer and dryer.
This was the hardest part for Brian
because the only television we could use
was a 12 incher.
And he hated every single second of this part.
Even though he was at work for 8 hours a day
and got to leave the house
while I just sat on the bed every day
praying I had enough underwear to last me
through all this.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the house,
tile was being laid.
And then it was time for them to move to the bedrooms.
Which was exciting because that meant
that we got to camp out in the dining room
and I could wash my underwear
and use the refrigerator.
(Handy Tip: Always throw out your leftover
baked beans if you're not going to be using your refrigerator
for a week. It took two days to get rid of that smell.)
Cozy, right?
The hallway, bathroom and bedrooms took another week.
And as much as I love Phillip,
I wanted him to go away and leave me alone.
I know the feeling was mutual.
(I still love you Phillip!)
Let's just leave off there for now.
Part 2 involves
more rash decisions,
bad paint choices,
and pocket door mayhem.
xxx-ooo
Holly
