going with the flow...

this is how we are living these days.

can't sit on the couch yet.

we did manage to put away some things so that we could eat at the table.



there is lots of this around.

and there will be more in the next few days.


i should have taken photos of our bedrooms today! that would have been fun. in order to sleep tonight, i had to find new homes for the junk already. i have another day before the painter begins and the ceiling guy finishes. and for sure another day for our carpenter to work away. we are amazed at the amount of work he completes each day...as well as the methodical process. until Kris or i mention..."oh, yeah....did we mention this?" most often he is one step ahead of us as he completes something we simply never thought about!

today was the first day that he was working with myself and the kids also in the house. i was amazed at how well behaved the kids were. well...after i had to tell Aidan to let the poor man work without a shadow.


i'll keep you posted with more of our happenings. it's going to only get crazier for a little while. {yikes!}

as is

our return home will be a little dustier....for a bit longer!


renovations. you just never know how exactly long everything will last.


i am so glad that the messiest of the work is completed. tile is in. grouting is almost done.


painting is up next. lots of trim in this old house. lots of trim. lots.

here is the before photo of our bathroom. the goal was to change the floor and finish the walls more professionally. {neither Kristian nor i have ever liked this floor...but we lived with it for over ten years...}

the next step is the painting. i have a new colour picked out. i am anxious to see how it will look on the walls. funny story...i brought the kids in partway through the week so that they could see what it all looked like. at that point the toilet was sitting in the bathtub. this was a great concern to them that the "bathroom was broken". can you tell what feature is most important to children?! when we returned last night, Kris had to install it. our only other bathroom is getting a new ceiling....so there is no light....making it very dark. good planning for us!

next the kitchen. new floor. and the ceiling cracks patched.

the floor is not terrible. but when you compare it with our new maple hardwood...it is terrible!

this paint colour will not change. but it will get a paint job. and i think we'll install a new light.

and now to the entry. believe it or not...this is what it looks like clean. ugh!! you can't easily tell in the photo, but there is a horrid patch job below the electrical panel.

it just needs some grouting. and the paint colour will also stay the same. already it looks like a huge improvement already.

another big item on our list is getting a ceiling "knockdown" treatment. all of the ceilings have been patched professionally. and all the bedrooms have been completed now. next up are the living areas.

white is a tough thing to photograph! but you can see the crispness of the job.

here is a close-up:

it is amazing how modern our home is beginning to look.

all these renovations....in preparation for...selling!!

and that is a whole new post.

party's over

the kids have had a total blast living with their babysitter and her siblings. i am not completely sure they could say the same about my kids! they have discovered the strain of being treated like a celebrity. not always a joy when you have a couple of shadows following you everywhere.

i think it was day three and the teens were still sleeping. Aidan was still in his pajamas and reluctant to get dressed just in case he missed something {i think!?} he then told me that he was bored because he had no one to "play with". oh dear. life at home is going to be rough for this lil' guy.

anyways...our extended sleepover has been enjoyable. kind of like a vacation, but not! does that make sense? it has been nice to get away from our house for a little while...stare at other walls and floors...drive down different streets....shop at other grocery stores....listen to other noises...

my darlings have done quite well. no yogurt has been spilled anywhere besides the table!!! but, four more bodies---especially when two of them are the very little kind---add more debris. Aidan let his guard down last night at supper and left a gigantic mess of crumbs below his chair.

i have gone to "visit" our house a few times this week. it usually involved picking something up or dropping something off. it is messy!! i'll have a bit of work to do this weekend cleaning up. but the walls and ceilings are going to look amazing. well...the walls will look better once they are painted! the large cracks will be gone. we called them our "character cracks". much like the "character squeaks" we used to have in our floor before Kristian installed the new subfloor. yes, that little old house has A LOT of character in places!

i'll have to share photos of our mess....