Getting ready in the bathroom this morning, I knocked my teasing comb (every good Southern girl has one) into the “his” sink of the “his and hers” bathroom setup where this morning’s coffee cups had been loaded for washing.
Gross. Kitchen things and bathroom things aren’t supposed to enter one another’s world. But in a renovation, all rules are off the table and onto the floor.
I picked the coffee covered comb up, rinsed it off in the toothbrushing/facewashing sink—at this point in the venture our old master bath whose renovation quickly got scrapped as the budget shrunk, has been divided into zones for five of us, seven when the college kids are home, to function–I sigh, and move on.
Our other 2 bathrooms—yes, I know…first world problem… are sitting, waterproofed, ready and waiting for the final stages of tiling and plumbing. The game of waiting for people to show up continues.
In the city where we lived before, prices were much higher for services, but people showed up or called to tell you they were delayed. Here, in the Deep South where work loads for those who do show up have been increased exponentially over the last couple of years, work routinely gets delayed. I’m pretty sure we get put on the back burner too because they know we’re at the end of our budget, the owners of the 5,000 square foot homes they’re working on want their work done faster, have more money, and call the shots.
Finishing up this reno-baby is dragging on. We have a short list of electrical, plumbing, trim, and tile work that is in a holding pattern. My hubs is doing as much as he can to make progress. He’s put up new shiplap over the mantle, built the mantle, and started the trim.
We’ve essentially run out of the bank’s money and our reserves took a hit when our minivan needed $3k of work done to it. Not to mention the day after we picked it up we got a flat…out of town… on a Sunday….
Trying to stay positive and trust the One in control is difficult and yet, the only thing we can do to stay afloat. Finding the bright spots in each day, letting the tears come– and the laughs too– is necessary.
Yesterday, we were hopeful the tile guys would show up as they said they would. There was a knock at the door and my daughter said “the workers are here!” I literally jumped with a grin and arms in the air-I usually show very little emotion or excitement-so, this was glee for me!
We quickly realized it wasn’t the tile guys, but city workers coming to install new gas meters. They had to come in to relight our pilot lights in the heaters. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except that one of the areas of our home with a slab foundation is the laundry room which houses the water heater, and currently supported stacks of heavy flooring waiting to be installed.
The flooring was blocking the water heater closet which is the suspected location of our missing microwave. We hadn’t seen it since last Easter when we had moved into the house the second or third time, I’ve lost count. We’ve been making do with our Instant Pot and air fryer/toaster oven, but with no stove, hot tea had been out of the question.
We moved the flooring, unearthed our missing microwave, and went on for the rest of the full day with kid’s doctor’s appointments, after school practice pickups and banquets, our almost daily run to the hardware store, and helping each other with reno projects, all while trying to work and feed our people. You know the drill.
In the meantime, our tile guy called to let us know he was delayed a couple weeks and we were thrilled just to know.
By the evening, I was ready to unwind with a hot cuppa and the microwavable herb filled shoulder/neck wrap my adult daughter had given me last weekend—I mean, what better way could a mama unwind on a weeknight?!
Keep coming back to Plant Life Today to find out what we’re up to! And one day, when my work/life balance is better, I hope to write about more than just our renovation, but for now, this is us…