I kinda feel like I'm losing my mind. And as soon as I acknowledge
that, I immediately feel guilty for being frustrated. My sweet husband
is working SO damn hard to finish this house & I couldn't possibly
ask for any more effort on his part. That's not what this is about.
But we're at a point where we are So. Damn. Close. to having our life
back that I'm really losing my patience with it all.
Before I go off on a complete bitch-fest, let me at least start by showing you all of the things we *have* accomplished lately.
Smallest on the list: I've been painting the outside. It's only on
my days off of work when I have time, so it's going veeeerrryyyy
slowly, but a little at a time it's making a big difference.
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| Me on a ladder... not a good combination! |
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| This was a little while ago, but it gives you an idea. Black shutters will go back up around the windows. |
Why are we
spending our time on something so insignificant to making the house
livable?? Well, two reasons. #1: It's one of the only things I can
actually do to help! lol When the Chamber of Commerce came & got
things started, it really lit a fire under me. Seeing a little bit of
the white trim, half a green wall... I could see it done & suddenly I
*needed* to see it done. It scares the living daylights out of me to
be that high up on a ladder, but I feel better helping! :) Reason #2 is
a more practical one: Insurance. Right now we have only a construction
policy in place & it's up for renewal very soon. It's very
expensive & covers very little, so as soon as we can have a
traditional home-owner's policy the better. One thing they need checked
off the list is having the house painted. So that's what I'm doing!
Not impressive. I know. But that's okay. I'm trying! :) Now if it
would just stop raining all the time...
Now on to the big things: plumbing & electricity. All of the
drain lines for the plumbing are DONE!! (And in my head I'm saying that
with the best sing-songy voice I can muster). So excited about that I
can't even tell you. And the fact that Mathew did it all by himself is
amazing to me.
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| drain lines in the ceiling from the upstairs bathrooms |
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| Ready for washer/dryer hookups |
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| Our bathtub & shower. Natalie can't resist a photo-op! ;) |
All tested. No leaks. Yes!! :) Bath tubs are all in,
our shower floor is poured & we're all ready for faucets as soon as
the time comes.
Electricity, one of the things that was going to be a huge weight
off of our shoulders has become a source of frustration. The Academy
had come out to start helping us put in the electricity at no cost for
labor months ago (which I shared with you all here). They came out one
more time & started putting in the electrical boxes everywhere which
would've been a good start, but even though Matt marked exactly where
to put each box, they were a mess. One wall had one box at 15inches,
and another at 22inches??? Umm, no. How dumb would that look. Zig
zagged outlets along each all with no rhyme or reason. So most of the
boxes had to be ripped out & re-done anyway. And where we had time
then to get the electricity started, we kept waiting for them to return
& do it for us as promised. We never got a clear answer from the
professor. Weeks passed; months. Then the next thing you know the
semester's over & they never came back. As it turns out, they had
another project that they were asked to work on actually at the Academy,
so they spent the rest of the semester working on that & didn't
have time to work on our house. Totally fine. Understandable. But
they approached *us* asking if they could do the job, then didn't follow
through & we wasted time. So I ended up frustrated... and again
guilty for being frustrated!! They offered to help us is all, but I had
to go & count on it. Ugh.
But again, Mathew surprises me with what he can do. All of the
breaker boxes are IN and wire is beginning to be pulled. (All of the
holes for where the wires will go have been drilled, so that's a big
part of it done).
Getting the electricity TO the house he did months
ago. So, once everything's in place he plans to hire a licensed
electrician to help him & make sure everything is wired up as it
should be, then... Let there be light! :)
Chimney: DONE!
Isn't it pretty? And ginormous! lol Leave it to Mathew. He doesn't do anything halfway. 8 friggin' feet tall on top of the roof! lol It's obnoxious... but it's pretty! :)
The porch: Done! Kinda...
Time & time again we've learned to
not bother with letting others help us & just do things ourselves.
(Isn't that sad?!) We've told you guys that we had a few guys help us
out with some of the grunt work of the house. People approach us daily
asking us if they can do some work, offering it for cheap, & many
times it truly is a help. But a few times it has caused more work than
it helped in the first place! Exhibit A would be our front porch. We
had a guy frame it in for us. (The previous one had been fallen in for
at least as long as we had been looking at the house. It had to be all
re-done). Well, the front part he built was way off square. Matt's
initial thought was to pull the line out instead of in so that the
design on top would be a better fit. So he did & he ended up with
this:
See how the lip of the stone steps is so small at the top where it
meets the porch? The only thing we thought at the time was "oh well.
It's not perfect, but it still looks good. It's just a small step."
Big mistake. Matt finished the porch and gets excited. He has our mail
forwarded since we got our pretty new mailbox up & everything. We
got mail one day, then nothing. Hmm... Finally we call the post office
& find out that the postman refused to deliver our mail there
because it was too dangerous to get back down, especially when there's
snow & ice.
Palm to forehead.
But nooooo!!!!! (Me, whining) The front porch has nothing to do
with living there! And it'll take forever to take apart & start
again! And our mail has already been forwarded & the post office
will only hold our mail for 30 days until we fix the problem!
GAH!! Mini freak out. So we came up with a temporary solution:
Ugly
cheap mailbox off the side porch. Done. Safe for the mailman for now,
but we don't have to take time away from the house to fix the real
problem for a little while. (Though I know it's going to drive Matt
insane, so I'm sure it'll be high on his priority list!)
Part Two: the Rest of Our Drama
Meanwhile, while we've been working hard at building our home (and
watching our bank account quickly dwindle...), the threat of the
Nationwide lawsuit has been looming. On one hand I dreaded it.
Reliving all of that gives me a panic attack just thinking about it.
But on the other hand I welcomed it. It meant it would finally be over
& we could finally move on. The trial date was set for August
12th. It worked out perfectly because my planned vacation time from
work was going to be that week already! Perfect! Then we can go to
Kansas & back without missing any work & all will be well. Or
so we thought. (C'mon guys. You know how these stories go!) Well it
turns out that the attorney for Nationwide was on maternity leave &
didn't have anyone picking up her slack while she was gone. Three of
the employees that we need to have deposed no longer live in the state: two of which
are no longer even employed by the company! So they have yet to even
track these people down to get there depositions prior to a potential
trial. Trial date has again been extended indefinitely. Damn it!!!!!!
I just want all of this shit to be over with! Our life has been on
hold for over THREE YEARS now!! My daughter has no idea what "home"
means. Her life, for as long as she can remember, has been divided by
addresses & people's houses. (She seriously rarely says "home."
She says "when are we going to ____ Street" or "when we lived at
_______'s house." It's sad!) I want my kids to have their rooms &
their furniture & a place to truly call "theirs." I want
my beautiful dining room table back & all of our art &
photographs & things that make our home "ours." I want my damn
mixer & all of our kitchen appliances that I've lived without for so
damn long! I want a real living room where we don't have to squeeze
onto one of Matt's old office sofas that's frankly not even comfortable
enough for one person much less for five of us to fight over. And is my
own bathroom sink too much to ask for?? ;) I just want to live in
this home that we've pictured in our heads for two years now & have
yet to be able to enjoy. And let's not forget: the house we're staying
in is for sale. I'm sick of going into freak-out panic clean mode to
show someone else's house, when all that means for me & my
family is that this person may like it & we'll be homeless AGAIN!
It's nerve-racking!!
Sigh. Thank you for indulging me in my tantrum. I'm grateful for
what we have now, I am. And I couldn't ask for anything more from
Mathew than what he's putting into all of this. He's working as hard as
he possibly can, I know. I'm just worn out. We're ready to live our
lives again!
