Allow me to Introduce you to my new Source of Chaos

Ever since we made the decision two weeks ago to sell our house and buy Sissy’s house, our lives have been a blur of remodeling plans. Hubby spends most of his day on the phone and a smaller portion of his day ripping up carpeting and doing any kind of prep work that will save us money on the overall bill. Every night I run home from work to meet with a contractor of some sort. In the last seven days we’ve met with an electrician, a carpenter, a drywall finisher, a painter, two flooring vendors, a roofer, a bathroom contractor and the water softener repairman. I’ve had to post a calendar on the refrigerator so we can write in their names and all of these appointments to keep from getting them confused. My life is a sea of names, numbers and samplesThe house is a wonderful home, but there are some things we want to do to it before we move in, and we’d like to get everything done before we go on vacation in early October. We’re under no pressure to move right away, but we’d like to get the work done as soon as possible in case our house sells and we have to move out quickly. I’ll pause while you chuckle over the notion of our home selling fast during this housing slump. Oh well, you never know. We might get lucky. I’m trying to be decisive and not flip flop around on the dozens of decisions that have to be made about colors, sizes and products. For instance, I’ve already chosen the paint colors and carry those with me wherever I go in case I run into a furniture sale or end up in Lowe's unexpectedly. I also carry my camera which contains pictures of the house. Do not ask how many pictures I took in the furniture stores the other day. It’s a little embarrassing how much I admire a well built sofa and the legs on dining room tables. My appliance envy is even more embarrassing. I’ve also discovered that I watch WAY too much HGTV.

As with anything, our dreams are bigger than our budget, so we’ve broken down our list into three areas: things that must be done, things we’d really like to do and things that would be nice if there’s any money left. Our plan is to grow old in this home, so we’re trying to make sure the bathrooms and other rooms will accommodate us if we become disabled in any way. Under the category of things that need to be done? Some improvements to the roof, replacement of two toilets, new paint and new flooring. Let’s take a look around, shall we?

There is hardwood in the foyer, but I want to add it to the rest of the house so this wood will come out and be replaced with Turlington 3” by Bruce in Woodstock (see, decisive!) that will also cover everything but the kitchen and bathrooms. That horrible brass lighting fixture is going too.
Thanks to my HGTV habit I knew all about scraping the popcorn finish off of ceilings so that messy job starts next week. While my husband will thank me later, I suspect he’ll want to choke me by about the middle of that nasty project.

The living room needs paint. The fireplace is too big and in an awkward place. It’s getting replaced with a smaller corner unit that will be easier to arrange furniture around.

The kitchen? Ah, the kitchen. All forty feet of counter top must go, and it will likely take most of Teen Angel’s college fund to buy it. For months I’ve been wondering why the people who built the house put in such cheap counter tops. Then we measured them, and I realized why. Needless to day, I doubt we’ll go with granite.

Oh, and I’m getting new appliances, baby! Stainless steel makes my toes positively tingle. If I stand in the appliance aisle at Lowe's and ogle at the stoves anymore they’re going to ban me from that place. If we can afford it, we will also add a tile back splash on both sides of the kitchen.

The master bedroom needs only paint. We’re getting off cheaply in here.The master bathroom could be another story. We’d like to rip out that shower tub unit and replace it with a walk-in shower with a glass door. That’s expensive. However, it’s something that would really improve our day to day living in that home and is pretty high on our priority list. I’d also like to get rid of that white tile around the other tub, but that’s much lower on the list.

The other bathroom just needs paint. See that dark faux painting stuff? It actually looks better in person than in this picture, but I don’t like it, and it’s going to go.

There are other things like doorknobs, cabinet pulls and lighting fixtures that we’d like to replace, but those are all little things we’ll consider as we get down to the wire. The roof work begins Thursday. The garage door gets replaced this week, too. The toilets have been purchased and will be set as soon as I make up my mind about the bathroom shower issue that could alter the color of one of the toilets. And my painter is ready to go as soon as we get the floors, counter tops and bathroom taken care of. Only 226 more decisions to make!