Project: Thankful (Part 2)

I cannot believe that we are almost at the end of October! Dale and I have been incredibly busy trying to get our yard all tidied up from the tree removals and shingle work we did. It has been four weeks of craziness and I am so ready to relax!

I thought before moving onto a different topic I should conclude the major renovation that Dale and I did to our home. I ended my last post with saying we finished renovating our bathroom and master bedroom almost 24 hours before our wedding day, and our second bedroom was finished a few months after that. A few things slowed us down from finishing renovating our home. The first was Dale had double knee surgery about three weeks after our wedding, and the second thing was our "renovation fund" was depleted. So fast forward a year later to February 2017, and this is where we begin with the last renovation push.

Since Dale and I are absolutely crazy, we decided to do the last of our renovations while I was six months pregnant, hoping to have all of them done in beginning May, about a month before my due date. The first thing we had to do was design and order our kitchen online with Ikea. Dale has a Mac laptop, but it was not running well at the time. So after a day of trying to get it up and running, we gave up and brought out an older PC laptop of his and tried to get that up and running as well with no luck. So a friend of Dale's lent us his Mac and well, if you have ever tried to install the Ikea program on a Mac, DON'T! Seriously, they do NOT like each other. It may just be the most frustrating thing you have ever tried to do!

So, we are three days down with nothing accomplished. Dale and I go to Walmart to buy a cheap PC and get a great deal. We bring it home and surprise, it is a complete dud! Seriously, the thing did not even turn on. Have I mentioned I am six months pregnant? We are on a serious time crunch because of Ikea order processing and shipping time.. That same day, Dale goes out to Best Buy to purchase another computer and three hours later at 11:00 at night we are ready to go! Measuring tape, pen and paper, and a working PC with the Ikea program installed, and we are designing our kitchen! Five computers and four days later, we have our kitchen design sent in!

The next day, (which was amazing as usually it takes a few days for Ikea to call you to process your order), which was Valentines Day, we spent our evening on the phone with Ikea finalizing our kitchen. A couple weeks later, our 75 boxes, all big and small, were in! We brought them home, labelled every single one and organized them downstairs and Dale immediately started to put the cabinets together in the basement. As this was our plan, I was flying home with our cat, Bella, for ten days because well, let's be honest, in my condition I was not much help. That brings us to mid-March, in those ten days, Dale was to tear down our kitchen and living room right to the drywall. Put up new drywall, tape, mud and sand it, paint the ceiling and walls, do the plumbing and electrical before I came back. You guys, not only did he do all that, but he also got some kitchen cabinets up. What a guy! Of course he did have help from his awesome friends. The following two weeks in April were very busy, the rest of our cabinets were put up, along with the installation of the sink and countertop, which we did together! The flooring was put in and our brand new sectional was delivered five days after that. It was a little tough being 30 weeks pregnant without a couch in our house for a week... first world problems much?

On May 6, our new appliances were delivered and the following weekend we put together our fireplace. For the most part we were done the bulk of our kitchen and living room renovation on May 14. Almost exactly two months of renovations! My maternity leave started May 17, so Dale and I had one good full week of relaxation, because Liam arrived eleven days early on May 23.

Maybe one day, Dale and I will do things at a normal, regular pace... maybe. So once again, as I reflect on a crazy time in our marriage, I am so thankful for my wonderful husband. I am so thankful for our beautiful, wonderful home that we designed together. This house is saturated with our blood, sweat and tears, tears of frustration, but also tears of joy. Our plans for this home evolved so much over the year we had to plan it, that it became better and better with each change we made.

There you have it, our crazy house renovation. Although what renovation is not crazy?!

Enjoy the "after" pictures below (remember there are "before" pictures in my blog post named Project: Thankful Part 1). You will see that we are not quite done; trim, baseboards etc. But you will get an idea of what the finished product will look like.

"May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." Psalm 20:4

Blessings,

Sarah