Home Reno - A 72 Part Series - Part 1

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