4 Years in the Making

So 4 years ago we were newly engaged, bright eyed, and started out on our house hunt! Saw some that were finished but small and not to our tastes, a few "crack dens" and then our "old lady special". That great big house that just needs some updating. I fell in love immediately, Bryan I think has always been hesitant, but trusting and encouraged by all of our visitors comments of "this house will be amazing when you guys are done!"

So for the last year we have been working pretty much constantly on the house. Bryan much more so than me in the last few months, the bigger my belly gets the less good I am on the ladder! I think also his speed and determination has also grown exponentially along with the size of my belly. All of this leads to a VERY special milestone in the house progress. DRYWALL! I had grand plans of learning to plaster and fixing all the walls ourselves, but a year ago and 3 incredible estimates later decided that drywall was the way to go. So the last 6 months since we finished most of the 3rd floor has been a mad dash of work so that we can close up the walls and make the house look a whole lot less like a construction site.

The first image shows our living room with all the glory of the old lady wall paper, new lights in the ceiling and perfectly empty for the crew of guys to show up tomorrow. You can see the dust bunnies rolling through like tumble weeds at the moment. However, to get that room, 3 other rooms and hallway empty, you end up a basement that looks like this. It is actually moderately organized, into baby pile, tool pile, and storage pile. But, this is the path to the cellar in the back as well. Like Bryan said in another post, a year of construction really does distort your idea of normal.

It is really incredible to think that in a few short days the wall paper will be replaced by drywall, and with some primer, paint and trim we can actually use 90% of our house again. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot to do in the next month or so, but this is a milestone that we have been talking about for 4 years. A bit scary also to not be able to poke holes all over the house just to see what might be under there! At the same time fantastic to see things finally come together and instead of demolition, see the end in sight. I also don't think Bryan can take many more days of the demo. This last picture was the end of the work day today, and I think it will be really good for Bryan's sanity to have some progress happen while he is blissfully at work for a few days!