The Beginning of the End???

It's an exciting feeling and a dreadful one. I'm afraid I'm not speaking about anything spiritual at the moment. No, I'm referring to our house. We've begun phase 1,082. At least, that's what it feels like. It seems all we ever do anymore is travel, come home, and work on the house. I enjoy all of those things... but I'm really growing weary of that last one! I want to be DONE with the house and find out how it must feel to come home and just LIVE in it instead of remodel it! ~sigh~ Some day.

For now, it's a wreck. We have officially trashed it again. That's got to be the worst part about remodeling. You have to trash every room in the house in order to make one of them purty. James is getting very near being finished out in the den, so that means we're getting near to having the carpet laid. I can't begin to express the glee that starts welling up within me at the very thought... I could almost squeal. And I am NOT the squealing kind. BUT... when we have the carpet laid in the den and boys' room we're also having it laid in our bedroom, which means we need to remodel that room as well. In order to do that it must be emptied out, unfortunately into every other room in the house. So we began working on that today. James ran out of steam before he got his computer and a few other things out, but we're getting there.

I had worked for a while earlier today on my plan to try to maintain my living/dining room in some sort of functional order instead of being totally overcome by bedroom stuff. It mostly involved moving a whole bunch of it into the bathroom. I never knew the blessing this big bathroom would be at a time such as this! ;-) This is what you see when you look in the door now.

And this is what the rest of the bathroom looks like. Ha! Crazy, hu?! I filled that great big bathtub all the way up to the brim with stuff, then put the box springs and mattress on top of it. I told James we could just sleep there on top of the tub! Ha! We've had the log bed frame propped against the wall ever since James bought it, awaiting the remodel before we actually put it together and use it. I was amazed that I was able to get all of it in the bathroom as well. It's awful to have to have so much junk in there, but it makes me happy that it's there instead of in the living room.
Ah, yes. The living room. It didn't exactly come through unscathed. I HATE it when it's junked up like this! We are just out of room to put stuff!!! Tomorrow I'm going to have to clean out some cabinets or something and find places to put all of that junk that is stacked and piled hither and yon. It's already driving me batty. That white table on the right along with those two blue bins are the current Regional Office. HA! James is going to set his computer up there until we can get everything finished. It should be a great help, really. His need for privacy and my need for my house back is going to increase the urgency of the house/office remodel considerably. :-)

So the good news is, the next project is underway! I will be quite busy painting and wallpapering again for the next several days... or more, I fear. I'm sooooo tired of doing this, but I'm sooooo ready for everything to be completed! I feel like I'm on the very last lap of the triathlon I was elected for in 5th grade. You know you're getting close, but you... just... can't... go... on! Ha! I'm wearing thin, that's for sure. ~sigh~ I'll be so happy when all of this is over with.

I can't very well end on that note, however, much less those terrible pictures of everything we still have to do. So here are a few of things that have already been accomplished, though most of them still need some tweeking. (Need to darken the stain on the trim and things like that.)

First of all, this is the door James built for the boys' room. Isn't it cool?! I love it!

This is the inside of it--and you can see the border we found to separate the wallpaper from the faux painting.

And this is the inside of the boys' closet. We had enough of that Wanted Poster border left-over from the last house to do the back wall of their "jail" closet.

In Andrews their whole room was like a jail--plank walls and the Wanted Poster border and even jail bars in the windows. It never occurred to us until an inspector mentioned it when we were moving out, but the bars in the window aren't exactly the safest thing. I mean, if there was a fire or something, we've "jailed" our boys in their room with no hope of escape! Ha! So we're forgoing the bars in the windows this time and decided to just make the closet the jail instead. Joe & Sam are already pretty excited about it and keep asking if they can go to the garage to play in their new jail. :-)

Ah, yes. Need to stain that door, too. So many things to be done, I tell ya'! OH. And the other terrible news... we just found out tonight that it could be 3 or 4 weeks until the guys can get up here to lay the carpet!!! Can you imagine?! I'm hoping and even praying that it won't be that long. I sooooo want to just get moved in! Moved in to the den and the boys' room and moved back in to my bedroom and moved OUT of everywhere else in the house where things that don't belong are stuffed! ~sigh~ I need a real strong shot of patience about now, I guess. Hope I get it before I snap and somebody gets hurt! Ha!