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This is what the house looked like when we left Sunday night:
This is what it looks like from the same spot, four days later:
What is obscured, partially by our old water heater, is the guy in the back of our family room jackhammering away at the rockwall that surrounded our fireplace. It wasn't a fun climbing rockwall, but a jagged thing that was an eyesore and the source of many owies. I will not miss it.
It's one way to air out a house.
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My Epiphanie office, on location
My new office is Starbucks and I’m becoming an expert on who has the best free wifi. (Starbucks is the most consistent, Panera’s is too slow for photos, and my sister’s is only so-so. For the record, my sister wants to know what her blog name would be, so here it is: Heather.)
A surprising number of people use Starbucks as their real office. Yesterday I was one of nine tables of people working, and a few of those were having a meeting. Today, I had to sit outside because every table – about 15 – were taken with people “working,” if catching up with TMZ or doing crossword puzzles on an iPad count as work. I’ve seen tech meetings, job interviews, studying, many phone calls, and one employment lawyer giving out advice. This is society in transition. And I’m one of them, lugging around my Epiphanie bag that’s overfilled with a computer, camera, second lens, Speedlite, wallet, phone, card reader, power cord, garage keys, and lip gloss. If someone would invent a fold up desk, I’d be set.
I’ve come to accept this as my new reality, and I’m thankful to have taken on a new job earlier this month for many reasons, but one of which is that they have an actual office. An office with awesome internet, a/c, and they don’t expect me to order a drink in exchange.
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Through all of the permitting hassle, budgeting stress, and packing burden, one of the best things about the remodel is how it is the end of many problems. Like all homes, ours is full of little things that bothered us or decisions made by previous owners that we'd never make ourselves. No more is the bathroom door that popped open, even when it was locked. The wall that prevented the dryer door from opening completely? Adios.
The awful plank separating the family room from the dining room was near the top of things we'd never miss. It wasn't level with the floor, and it was just high enough to catch toes or toys, causing much pain and swearing.
Day one of the remodel was demolition prep, but part of that included the horrible brown board. Hallelujah! Don't let the door hit ya where the lumberjack split ya, or something like that.
Our horrible toe stubbing nightmare is over.
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There are very few good things about moving out for a remodel. We've been packing for months, after starting slowly following our Superbowl party, as we waited for our permits to be approved. Packing for a remodel is worse than a normal move because we had to: pack compactly because storage space was limited; pack for the long term because most things we wouldn't see for six months; and pack with a strong finish, instead of shoving everything into the garbage, which is what I really wanted to do.
About 85% of what we own fit into our two car garage, of which I am hugely proud. Most of our Christmas boxes went to my parents' house, the things we need with us, of course, came with us to my sister's house, with a bunch of furniture and other boxes. Little things that I would have thought were an obvious priority, including the box that said Kim's Shoes, were left behind at the house and buried. (Kevin dug it out Monday morning while I freaked out that I didn't have shoes to wear to work. He said my shoes were "rainbow," and should match anything. Rainbow? Multi Stripe.)
But it's behind us now, and even though life is still busy, it is much less stressful without the nagging feeling of needing to box stuff up. I am so thankful that part is over. My god, am I thankful it's over.
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I wrote a post at Silicon Valley Mamas tonight about how I wished I'd taken before photos of our house before we packed up.Then I remembered this contest Shutterfly is hosting because my plan is to put together a photo book after the project is finished, to relive the good times during construction...or maybe just a reminder of what we survived. Either way, I thought of this contest, then I started to dream about a trip to Bermuda because, this morning, after showering, I sat down, all wrapped up in a towel, with my feet on top of flip flops, and I thought how this same scene would be a dream if I were on a beach or sitting poolside, but today there was nothing relaxing about it, as it was a pause during the storm before I got dressed and started up packing again.
But anyway, win a trip to Bermuda!
Long Live Summer – Facebook Photo Contest details - 7/9 – 8/12 Multi-week summer themed photo sweepstakes with instant win prizes.
Win a trip for four to The Bahamas and a professional photo shoot so you’ll remember your vacation forever. All you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on the theme of the week. Get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering! You can enter at any point during the 5-week sweepstakes period.
PHOTO THEMES
• Week 1(7/9): Americana
• Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors
• Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun
• Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities
• Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations
PRIZES
• Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo!
• Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week)
• Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan page and awarded a $500 gift card on Shutterfly and a copy of the new Lonely Planet travel photography book.
• Grand prize: trip for 4 to Bahamas, 4 nights, family photo shoot
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If an earthquake hits in the next few days, we're screwed. I'm at the point where I'm finished with packing. I'm not finished packing, but I'm finished with it. If we were moving into a new house right away, this would be the point when I'd madly throw things into garbage bags, and move them that way (and judging by past experience, not unpack them for a few years until forced to by something, like a remodel.
Our permit was finally finalized July 6, giving us 16 days to get out of the house before demolition begins. Rocket dreams of a wrecking ball crushing our house to bits, but it will be a much less dramatic team of guys with sledgehammers taking out the unnecessary parts. Still, a deadline is a deadline.
I printed out a two week calendar for the kids, especially Rocket, who'd ask every day what was happening that day, how many days until we move, etc. It's helped him a lot, but for me, I look at it and think about how much we have to do in that time. It will happen, I keep saying, but I worry I'm a liar.
We own a new kitchen! The appliances have been ordered, a full month after I initially went through to pick them out with the appliance guy. Time smooths a lot of rough edges. There were papers or kids' projects I never thought I'd be able to let go of, but now, I can quickly toss them into the recycling or garbage without hesitation. Those things are less important now that some time has passed, and the same went for the price tag of the new appliances. One month ago, the price tag for all of the new appliances made my stomach tighten. Now, it looks like no big deal. Of course a new washer, dryer, dishwasher, range, hood, microdrawer (drawer, awww yeahhh), and refrigerator would add up to something substantial. The appliance salesman laughed when asked how much I wanted to spend, and I answered as close to zero as possible. That, of course, was a joke after I'd just picked out a Wolf range with four burners and a griddle. (For those in the market, he said no one ever orders the black handles. I like how the red handles pop, but even if I didn't, if I'm paying a Wolf price, I'm getting the signature handles.)
Real cooking has ended. We've grilled most nights, gotten take out on others, but just now I've come to the realization that we're not using our current range again, except as a place to rest stuff, which it is doing quite well. Goodbye crappy Kenmore range that came with the house. You've done a fabulous job of letting me rest stuff on you, which is really what you did best.
I'm quite glad to not be buying anything Kenmore after this ad:
Dad's don't cook? Being labeled a mommy multitasker is condescending. There is no reason the word mommy needs to be in this ad at all.
(The labels on the storage bins are 3M's Post-it Storage Container Label Pads that I picked up for free at BlogHer last year. I found them while starting to pack my office closet, and they are fabulous. This isn't a sponsored post, but I like the labels enough that I will buy more when we run out. So much better than the paper I'd tape to the plastic bins with packing tape, which would peel off in the attic heat.)
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Artwork from Rocket, made for me. His inclusion of the Native Americans confirms my fear that I'm fighting a losing battle. The chaos is dead on.
When I run into people, they ask if our remodel is almost complete. This would be funny, if it weren't so sad because we're not even through the permitting process. I'm hesitant to say this, but we may be getting close to permitted. I probably just jinxed it and set the process back by three months.
We're frantically packing everything up, which means boxes everywhere. It's an obstacle course to walk from room to room, with hazards everywhere, including a scorpion, who appeared at the foot of my desk, very much alive, last Friday. There's been drama and tension, mostly because life doesn't stop while hurriedly packing up a house. There's work, birthday parties, camp, playdates, photo editing, more work, and meals that somehow need to be prepared. Tonight I served a salad out of a melamine camping bowl onto paper plates because the real stuff was either packed away, or, in the case of the picnic plates, the few we share were dirty.
There was something so sad about the plates and the bowl, even though I knew they were coming and had gotten myself excited about it because it would be like a picnic! Every night! For six months! But then it happens, and it's more sad than fun, actually it's all sad and not at all fun, especially because the remodel hasn't begun, which means the six month clock has yet to start.
The great purge is on as I repeat my mantra over and over, which is that it's time to make the hard decisions. This means looking at every piece of preschool art work or hand painted Italian plate, and asking myself if I'll really use it or care about it. We've donated so much to charities that the Salvation Army guy cut Kevin off yesterday, telling him he couldn't take any more. So it was onto Goodwill. We've got bags and bags of garbage, stuff that needs to be Freecycled, the garbage company has made two hazardous waste pick ups at our house for all of the leftover cleaning chemicals, and paint we'll never use. That's the stuff we're getting rid of, but it's the stuff we're keeping that's got me stressed. Where will it all go during the next few months? Somehow that question will be answered in the next week or two, and I'm scared to think about all we have to live through in the next month.
It will be a fresh start, if we can just get to the start. Hopefully this year July will be the month that goes in like a lion and out like a lamb. August better be the month of naps and pedicures because I need both.
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