Upside Down

My life feels upside down and backwards right now. I'd like to say it's just my house, but my mind tends to mimic the state of my environment and I'm desperately seeking mental organization.

The bright side is that all this chaos stems from fun and forward progress. We've been remodeling our house for several weeks and we just got back from a family reunion at Disneyland.

The remodel has been exceptionally taxing, but I'm so happy with the results. Our upstairs loft needed flooring (we were down to the subfloor) and we chose hardwood. The research on woods and contractors took longer and was more taxing than I anticipated. We thought we knew exactly what we wanted (bamboo), but we totally changed our minds. In the end we chose Hickory. It's hard and has beautiful color variation and patterning. We figured this would help hide scratches and dents more than something uniform. We also expanded our project to include the downstairs.

I have HATED the linoleum in the kitchen since we moved in, an I mean PURE HATE. Not only was it an ugly pale yellow, but the installer either cut the piece too short or bought it too short, so there was one big solid piece throughout the kitchen and one small 4-5" strip added on where the kitchen meets the living room. It wasn't added well so it was very obvious with peeling and cruddy deposits at the seem. It's been an eyesore that I've never been able to ignore. So, I figured why not just extend the wood from the stairs into the kitchen, it's not that much space after all. Then I got to thinking that we really should put wood in the dining room. The carpets have gotten so nasty since we started eating in their regularly (we don't have a kitchen dining space in our floor plan). But if we did the dining room we needed to do the hall or it just wouldn't look right ... and the entry way wood flooring needed to be replaced as well for continuity ... and then why not just do the family room and get it over with. The main floor is now complete and looks amazing. The upstairs is about 2/3 done and also looks amazing.

The tough part of all this is that we had to move everything into the living room (including the refrigerator). For 5 days my kitchen was pretty much unusable. The range/oven was outside (another story entirely) and wasn't plugged in. My sister took pity on us and let us eat dinner at her house every night that week. We did bring food from our freezer to cook so it wouldn't be so taxing on her. We left for Disneyland with the living room still full of furniture (and the refrigerator) and although I was glad to leave that round of chaos, I was dreading coming back to it. I really like to come home to a clean home when I've been on vacation.

About the oven ... it just stopped working one day a few weeks ago. I was trying to broil some casadillas and it just went off. The Scoot got it to produce and error code saying the circuit board was fried and he wasn't able to find a replacement. The range still worked, so at least we were able to cook until we had to move the mammoth appliance outside. The great beastie tipped over when The Scoot was bringing it back inside days later and the glass front shattered leaving the stove broken AND ugly. We are still using the range, but the beautiful Bosch replacement arrives tomorrow. Yay! I can't wait to make one pot meals again!

At this point there is still a stack of wood flooring in the family room. The couches are squeezed in too so we have a place to sit and we've moved the TV back and forth every day although I've only watched 1 hour of TV this week. I long for a mindless evening in front of the TV in an organized family room that isn't full of wood flooring. Tonight perhaps? I also really want to move all the furniture out of the living room, but have to wait until the flooring is done upstairs.

The last hurdle is getting railings designed and installed for the opening around the stairwell. Once that is done I may be able to relax again .... oh, after I finish the painting.

This blog has gotten way too long and I will have to write about Disneyland later.