Things are slowly finding their way to their proper places. Slowly is the key word here. We often have to run out to the garage to rummage for this or that, or stop to think where something is that you know you just saw but can't quite place where.
I wanted to wash walls, floors, and ceilings before we moved things, and then wanted to paint before moving certain things certain places. So it's taking longer than it should to get settled. I have moments of panic when I think about how close we are to starting the new school year, and how far the school room is from where it needs to be. (I don't even know where all our books are right now!) I need to rip all the carpet out of the school room yet. I bought paint for the walls, I just need to patch nail holes and cracks in the plaster walls before painting. The color will be Pale Jade.
I have the carpet pulled out of the living and dining rooms, tack strips, staples, and nails removed, and the floors sanded where they needed it. The dining room walls are also now painted, in Stone Harbor Greige. The dining room (and I believe school room) have/had a layer of linoleum under the carpet that is going too. With all the ripping and tearing and pounding I bent one of the prongs on my wedding ring, so I can't wear it until it gets fixed. I've also adopted the habit of always wearing my flip flops in the house, having stepped on two tacks already.
The dog urine situation was much larger than I imagined in the beginning, extending to all downstairs carpeted rooms. There will be no carpet downstairs when I'm finished. To illustrate what I'm dealing with, I took a picture of carpet tack strips that I pried from an unsoiled corner of the dining room, and how the tack strips look throughout most the house, soaked, black, and stinking. After everything is ripped out I spray the floors, trim, and baseboard down with Odo-ban and then scrub it all twice. It disinfects and efficiently eliminates all the smell.
The wide-plank wood floor in the dining room (which I imagine is also in the school room) is not in good enough condition to refinish, patched in places with plywood, and was previously painted. So I bought a very dark brown floor paint (Western Charcoal) and a gloss polyeurythane to go over it. It'll suffice until we can afford to replace the floor.
I unearthed the second set of pocket doors between the kitchen and dining room!
The living room needs a rug for the floor and the walls haven't been painted yet, but it's livable for now. We finally brought the couches in from the garage last week, and it was such a relief to have a place, other than just crashing in bed, to relax. The boys all marked the occasion by coming down with a stomach bug that made its rounds for over a week. Ian and I also came down with nasty head colds. Such a strange reaction to having a new house. I'm guessing the stress of moving wiped our immune systems out. I decided to freeze 21 cups of peaches that week as well. Yes, there is something wrong with me.
The 80's style country blue wallpaper in the bathroom was eating at my nerves, so I decided to see what was going on behind it. Curiosity killed the cat. It turned into this fiasco.
There wasn't much planning ahead before I started demolition, sadly. I discovered the bathroom was once pink, green, teal, and yellow before they switched to wallpaper. In the end I calmed myself by "finishing" the small section of wall that I could. Imagine the bottom half of the wall as white beadboard wainscoting instead of that gold marbled mess, and the top half gray. This is what I do. :)
Oh, and the gray paint debacle I've had! I need bright kitchens because it's the room I'm in the most. Unfortunately, the way our kitchen is laid out with the enclosed porch on the south side, our kitchen runs to the dark side. New lighting will help, but until then I decided on a light gray paint for the walls. After painting over half a wall I realized it looked lavender. So I got a small sample jar of a different gray that I ended up liking, but when I had an entire gallon of it mixed it turned out much darker, and much too dark. I plan on mixing white paint with it myself in the hopes of finally hitting the right color, but I'm not holding my breath. So the kitchen is currently three different shades of gray plus the pale yellow or cream it once was.
While I'm on kitchen things, our old fridge has been freezing things for over a year now (it's 13 years old), so when we moved we left it in the garage as a spare fridge and ordered a new one. For a week we were running out to the garage for fridge food, but it was so worth the wait for the new fridge! I can hear a choir of angels every time I open the doors. It's wonderful.
I loved the old rotary-dial phone that still works in the kitchen, but not the dingey tan color it was. I spray painted it gloss black, to Eli's horror.
The internet is supposed to be hooked up here sometime next week. This post probably used up the majority of my phone data, so I'll have to wait to post about Liam's birthday (the first we've celebrated here!), Aidan's camp experience, and all the stories that are growing about this place.
You accomplish so much! Wow! Iowans are such hard workers. :)
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