Patience and Progress
My most often used phrase of 2017 has to be, “I can’t wait to have my house back!" As we enter 2018, I believe that phrase will disappear from my vocabulary very soon. The past twelve months have been extremely challenging for me personally and professionally. I love a good challenge, but seriously…I am so ready to move on. I’m exhausted.
I am now very close to occupying the workshop that God provided last year. Our friends at Livingston Roofing replaced the metal roof in April, which took care of the leaks. Yay! It took several months to save up for the next round of tasks on my list. In September, a new local company, To The Full Construction, replaced damaged ceilings, the bathroom floor, toilet, front door and some exterior siding, along with constructing a new open vanity for the existing old sink. They removed a broken window I deemed unnecessary and tackled other miscellaneous repairs. Their work was vital to me, but didn't yield any "pretty" before and afters. I will post the vanity after I paint it and pull the bathroom together.
Two of our friends hauled away and burned all of the excess junk that was left behind from previous tenants. My son and his friend took many trips into the attic to store items the landlords wanted to keep. This allowed me full use of the 1,400 sf. shop. I hired some friends who run a housekeeping business to give the shop a thorough cleaning. The old house smell is all but a memory now. They did an awesome job in hot, yucky conditions! Oh, and one of them knew the landlord's son and the other informed me that her mother worked at the flower shop for a time when she was younger. She remembered being there while her mom worked. Crazy, huh?! This may be a small, southern town where everyone is connected to someone you know, but my history only goes back 12 years, when we didn't know a soul.
All of that was huge progress and it felt amazing. The vision I had last December started coming into focus again. And then I waited some more.
Aside from budget, the main challenge has been the weather. Because there are no working ceiling fans or heat/AC in the shop, my progress was very limited for much of the summer and fall. When the cooler weather started to appear (think mid 70’s), I scrambled to prime the shop (lots of Kilz!) from floor to ceiling and mask everything to prepare for a friend to come in and spray it all white. Work, holidays and sickness added to this challenge, but it is finally painted! Well...most of it.
Now that the spraying is done, all of the new lighting and ceiling fans can be installed. I am so excited, not only to get the four giant ceiling fan boxes that have become part of our living room out of our house, but to finally have lighting in two of the rooms again!
As soon as the temperature rises, I will paint the floors (yes, the floors!) and lay out the area rugs that I snagged for a great price. Just rolling a coat of primer over those awful VCT floor tiles was a breath of fresh air. Lord willing, we can have all of the major work completed by the end of January. Stay tuned.
