The Monstrosity: Day One

But first, a recap of our weekend.

Friday: Close on the house. Come home sooooo exhausted.

Saturday: Accomplish lots of wonderful things around the house in preparation for neglecting it all in the coming week since we'll be spending most of our time at the Monstrosity. I said I didn't want to blog about laundry and ironing anymore, so I won't mention that I got it ALL done on Saturday, got the house in pretty good shape, made a great big dinner for my family, the left-overs of which were immediately put into a crock-pot and added to in order to make a scrumptious dinner to take to the Monstrosity today so we'd have something good and healthy and tasty and CHEAP to eat. I'm so proud of me! :-)

Sunday we got up and drove down to Alex City for service. It was sort of an impromptu trip, but a necessary one. The folks there find themselves without a pastor at this point and we needed to go and be in service with them. We had a wonderful time there and were blessed by the good folks and their sweet spirits. We've been doing lots of praying for that church here lately and will now be praying for God to send them a pastor. I know He can do that.

We made it back to Bessemer with some time to spare, so we stopped in at the Washburns' house fore the sole purpose of praying for Sister Tammy who is sick. ~ahem~ ;-) We enjoyed our visit with them, though apparently a little too much since we were a minute or two late for church. They hadn't actually started yet, so maybe that doesn't count...

I was sooooo tired during service--all day yesterday, really. And dreading having to go and work at that great big giant house! Ha! That is a horrible way to go into this chapter of our lives so I really began praying for God to give me some strength and energy--and He did. :-)

We loaded up lots of drinks and paper towels and cleaning supplies and left the house at 8:00 this morning to go put in a full day at the Monstrosity. The kids had done school on Saturday so they'd be free today and wouldn't have to worry with it. For a long time it felt like we weren't accomplishing much. The house is so BIG and every time you turn around you see something that needs done and start on it, only to be distracted by something else that needs done. I fear it may continue this course for quite some time. Ha! And on the other hand, sometimes I look around and think, "You know, there's really not THAT much to do here to get it ready to paint and wallpaper!" And once we get to the paint and wallpaper stage all that will remain are the floors. Of course, painting and wallpapering this place isn't going to be a project for a lazy afternoon. But I'm already formulating my plan to make things more efficient. We'll see if I can pull if off. ;-)

I spent most of my time in these two rooms today. The half bath...

And the kitchen. Don't worry. It will be beautiful when we're finished with it. ;-)
Charlie thoroughly enjoyed his first day at the Monstrosity. He spent the first hour or so running from one room to the next to the next to the next, investigating EVERYTHING. He romped outside and explored the woods with the kids quite a bit, too. But by mid-afternoon he had found himself a nice cozy sunbeam to claim. I was jealous.
The first thing to go this morning: the crazy cornice from the hall of mirrors, otherwise known as the dining hall. Ha!
The kids were great to pitch in and help off and on all day today--when they weren't outside exploring their new 3 acres and collecting golf balls from all over the property. Did I mention this house sits right next to a golf course?! It will provide us with lots of memories, I'm sure. ;-) Anyway, here's Joe removing cabinet doors and their handles in the master bath...
The Ridlespurges stopped by for a few minutes this evening with a WMB question for James, but while they were here Brother Ridlespurge got roped into helping with our demolition projects. ;-) James was having a horrible time trying to get the stove hood out. He had unscrewed and disconnected everything he could see, but it still wouldn't budge. Brother Ridlespurge went and slammed his fists down on it gorilla style, sparks flew everywhere (it was still wired up!!!), and it was soon in the dumpster where it belonged. Guess what had been holding it up... DUCT TAPE. Hahahahahaha! I love this house. :-) By the way, there are wire nuts on those electrical wires now--no more sparks. James picked this up and said, "Am I working on an oven hood or a car???"
Kids hard at work...
And Sam's feat must be recorded. James had to run lots of errands today (get the utilities switched into our name, pick up supplies for me, etc.), so he took Sam to the dining room... the room that is COVERED, ceiling to floor, with these hideous gold marbled mirror tiles. He gave him some gloves, goggles, and a screwdriver and got him going...
Sam worked non-stop for about two hours, first taking out the bottom four rows of tiles all the way around the room, then finding a step stool so he could finish the upper half--the top row on his tip-toes. That kid is SUCH a good, hard worker!
Very... last... tile...
Ta-ha!!! Somebody do the math for me. 16 tiles long by 8 tiles high times two walls (minus a regular sized doorway) and then the other two walls (one with a large double door opening) and the other with a window--these walls are 10x8. My brain's not up for it, but that's a whole mess of tiles!
We had our left-over stew for lunch today and everybody loved it. I think we even have enough for lunch tomorrow. I was more efficient than I thought on Saturday! :-) By 5:30 we were all starving, but not ready to quit work yet. James went and picked up some Little Caesar's Pizza for dinner and it tasted great. That means we really were hungry. ;-)

I got all of the kitchen cabinets vacuumed and scrubbed out and ready to paint today, though I'm not finished prying all of those stupid press and stick tiles out of the drawers in the corner. What kind of a weird-o puts press and stick tiles in drawers?! I've got at least another hour's worth of work just to get the rest of them gone. Four and a half drawers to go.

In the process of cleaning out cabinets I found two interesting items: A cruddy McDonald's pot-holder and a little case of food coloring. Wonder how old they are... And then I removed a drawer from a desk station in the kitchen and found all sorts of little treasures that had fallen out of the drawer and into the casing years ago...

The S&H Green Stamps were by far the coolest (Mom says she bought her first set of dishes with Green Stamps!), followed by the Interstate Insurance card with the band-aids inside. I was wondering aloud what else we might find when James piped up, "Why don't you find a few wads of hundred dollar bills next time." Ha! Wouldn't that be nice. ;-)
We finally called it quits at about 6:45 and headed home to the Powells' house. This is what the crowd looked like before we were even half way home. They'd worked hard and had a full day!
The plan for tomorrow is the same as today, except we'll find a way to throw school into the mix.

We found out tonight that there is a discount wall paper outlet in Birmingham. The Powells also gave us lots of good tips for where to find what in just about every category we could need. That will be sooooo helpful. I'm anxious to get everything out of the house that we'll be replacing and get everything all cleaned up and scrubbed down so then we can start doing the fun work--making things look good instead of worse! Ha!