Slow and Slightly Unsteady

One Year ago, plus eleven days, I began the biggest transformation my home has ever experienced. Dehoarding doesn’t happen in just an hour like on TV.  It takes a while.  My mentor, Mrs. Passion, warned that it would take 6-9 months.  I’m at the year mark and still not done.  I blame it on life.  Six kids and a crazy schedule tends to shoot the best laid plans out of the water.  You know the whole two steps forward, one back. 

However, I am still progressing – in the right direction as well.  I’ve been itching to show you progress, but I’m such a fruity-tootie perfectionist that I want to wait until everything’s done.  Then you’ll get the WOW effect to the oomph degree.  Now I’m kicking myself, because makeovers don’t happen in one post.  Unlike ‘Hoarding, Buried Alive’ on TV, the work to declutter can take weeks, and sometimes months, and in my case I’m now in it a whole year.  One of my biggest lessons:  Procrastination equals Pain… and anxiety.  Neither of which is fun to deal with.  In the past I’d bury them with more projects and stuff.  Now I’m confronting them head on.  I still don’t like pain.  But getting through it is finally worth more than letting it fester.

Case in Point:  Never, and I mean never let your house scream at you for a paint job like this.

Twelve years ago we paid an arm and a leg to have a professional paint it.  Within 5 years we noticed the paint bubbling, and three years ago we really knew it needed to be done.  But the unbloggable happened and stuff like painting the home retreats to the back of your mind.  When we started the whole transformation process a year ago we knew that our first outside order of business was to paint the home.  This summer we realized that if we didn’t tackle the project now we would be forking over thousands to replace the siding as well.

So began the most painful home improvement project we’ve tackled to date.  Believe it or not twice as stressful as retiling the kitchen floor.  What we thought would take a week has turned into four weeks of nightmarish adventure.  Add in the fact that we’ve never attempted a project to this magnitude which played into the tension as well.  We helped a friend paint her home and it only took 6 1/2 hours from start to finish.  Yes, a lot of people showed up to help.  It gave us a false sense of confidence that it would be easy-peasy.

We pressure washed our home for nearly three days trying to knock off all the chipped paint and not tear up the siding.  The results were disappointing.

Sure we got a lot of paint off but there was still too much chipped paint hanging on by a thread waiting to be scrapped.

  Some of the siding didn’t survive and had to be replaced.  In replacing some of the siding we also discovered shortcuts taken by the original builders where they had cut corners, not laid down the vapor-barrier in full which led to rotten wood underneath the trim and siding near the bottom.  So some lower trim had to be totally ripped off.  Our efforts to save money by doing the job ourselves ended up costing us as much as paying someone else to do it.   But only because we had to replace damaged sections caused by our procrastination. The only redeeming note of comfort is that I don’t think a professional would have fixed the damage, just covered it up.

Abner, my boy, was my rock.  He and his friend Chet put in hours daily for nearly two weeks scrapping the paint down to this.

Our favorite tool of choice was an angle grinder with a steel wool bristle brush.  The paint sander attachments made for chipping off paint didn’t last nearly as long.  So we were thrilled with the recommendation of the steel wool attachment. 

Another hard lessons to learn was don’t buy cheap tools.  We burnt through the motors on two angle grinders and even a paint sprayer before we bit the bullet and bought the proper equipment.

Poor Abner had to also deal with the nasty heights.  Our home sits on a hill which makes two stories nearly three on the backside.  Thankfully we’ve the best friends in the world who loaned us scaffolding and ladders, ropes and harnesses.  Friends are the best.  So glad I’m not a recluse.

Triple glad I’ve got a son willing to help.

Then there was another couple of days spent caulking every corner, window, door,  and siding seam.

Since we were down to bare wood on two sides of our home it only made sense to prime before we painted.

We were blessed with some more wonderful help our first day of priming.  Our church was wrapping up a community service project for Northwest Day of Service and many members stopped by after the community project to give us a hand with our adventure.  It’s amazing how many hands can make quick work of taping up and priming.

And another lessons learned was…

Teenagers all will volunteer for any work if they get to be on a roof.  I had to pray like crazy that no one would get hurt.  I think I drove a couple people bonkers with my worry.  Sorry Prince Erik.

Here’s my manly men priming the back side of our home, while dancing on boards in the effort of trying to give me a heart attack.  I am not a fun person to be around when I’m worried.  Yet they survived me.

And as for the what our home looks like now…

Well, it’s painted…

mostly, except for the trim…

however… it’s raining…

but we beat the rain.  Our home is safe and protected and we learned some valuable lessons.

*  If you want something done right – do it yourself or find someone you really trust to do the job correctly.

*  Plan on it costing more than you thought.

*  Don’t skimp on tools.

*  Plan on it taking three times as long as you thought it would.

*  You’ll also be amazed at how many wonderful people there are that are angels on earth.  To the S.V.’s of the earth and especially to Abner’s friend Chet and his family.  They are the best sort of friends one can every hope for.   

*Abner learned he wants to get a great education to land a great job, earn some big bucks to pay someone else to do the work so that he will never have to ever do something like this again.  That’s my boy – he’s a dreamer like me after all.

There, now you know the before and during part.  I’m praying the liquid sunshine lets up so that I can show you the after pictures by Wednesday or Thursday.  Until then I’ve got to tackle the housework and laundry that’s been piling up while I was distracted outside.

Tootles,

FawnDear

Makeover Madness

So Makeover Madness has officially taken over our Household – The De-Hoarding is still progressing although it has slowed considerably.  I know I haven’t posted in ages because I wanted to show you a completed room.  As we speak I’ve got 4 area’s of my home that are hugely different from their original form, yet they are not quite there.  My Young and Gorgeous Counselor could sense my frustration with not having anything BIG so show (so to speak).  So, she sent me back home to WOW you with all the little accomplishments I’ve made over the past couple of weeks.

FawnDear completed her first-ever from scratch Woodworking Project.  I built some wooded, or maybe I should say composite based Cornices to hang over the windows in the front/dining rooms.  Here they are with only one coat of paint.

 

I know lousy lighting, but yes that’s molding.  Wow, I can’t believe I used Molding???  It involved a lot of kicking myself for not paying more attention in High School Math Class.  I never did master the lessons on Angles, and Percentages.  Fortunately, my husbands Big Boy Toy had a lot of the measurements already guesstimated for lumber Numbskulls like me.  I never would have figured out the angle I needed was 31.62.  Thank you saw company.

I’m totally digging trying out all the power tools.

Do guys intentionally say they will do the carpentry work because they are afraid that if we try it and like it – we might claim it?

Regardless, I measured and cut, and muffed up.  Then measured cut, nailed, glued and screwed my creation together.

I did ask the Hubster to mount them on the wall for me.  Of course they were mounted in studs and with some good Drywall anchors where no studs were to be found.

So Big Thanks to my Prince Erik for pitching in on this step. 

I rewarded him for his handy weekend contributions by turning the tables on him.  A couple of years ago he was 14-day-guy for me, so this year I surprised him with his very own 14 Days of Valentines. 

Each simple card went along with a little gift.  And although they might sound silly, it’s the thought that counts.  Examples were on Day 1, I gave him an adjustable spice rack (he loves to cook) for our new kitchen.  And the card mentioned thanks for the spice he brings to my life…  Ahhhhh, am I adding too much ooey –gooey?  Some gifts were dress socks, some nut packets or jerky.  I think his favorite day was day 4 because it was 4 lbs. of Seafood.  Oh, and he liked day 12 as well because I gave him 12… well something I can’t mention here.  Anyway it really did feel great to do something nice for the guy. 

Currently I’m furiously setting up my Dining room as the Curtain Sewing room.  Can’t wait to hang some curtains after a few months of giving the Neighbors more of a show than what they were intending to see.

I also filled the home with mind numbing oil paint fumes as I slowly put some touches on part of our kitchen cabinets.

Here’s T-rev sucking it in for your viewing pleasure.  So I’ve now let the cat out of the bag.  Yes, we have repainted nearly every surface in our home.

I also finally framed my carefully selected artwork for the Front Room.  After going to a framing store and nearly choking on their estimated price of $700 plus for frame, mat’s, glass etc.  I went the cheaper route of finding a similar size frame at Goodwill for $25.

I had to paint it white, and I did end up paying the craft store to cut the matting for me.  But then I put it together.  The matting was around $80, only because I didn’t wait for a dang sale.  But $105 compared with $700 is a great deal.

Here’s another peek, I haven’t really staged it yet, just hung the picture, and threw a couple or items on the mantle.  Hopefully it will do until I can get around to the thoughtful decorations.  The picture is by my favorite Artist Carl Bloch and is called Fra Hellebaek.

The two girls in the picture look almost exactly like my Lea and Hope.  I knew the moment I saw it that it was the perfect picture for our front room.  My husbands love of boating and ties to his Danish Roots are represented as well.  Just wait until you see how perfectly it ties my entire Front room together.    It gives me goose bumps that it fits so perfectly.

So Yes, the Home makeover is progressing.  Even though it’s now progressing slowly.

Our family is also following our sixth anniversary tradition of Unplugging for the month of February.  No T.V., no Computer or Internet (unless it’s homework).  No blog browsing (I promise I’ll come visit soon), No Video gaming…  More Madness.

The kids have adjusted as expected.  First weeks a nightmare, then they start coming alive.  Hope had a hard time because I’ve been plugging her in over the past few months to work on my De-Hoarding.  So there were a few days of her mauling loving the cat and walking around moaning that she missed her electronics.  But she’s bounced right out of that zombie phase – Thank Goodness.  If I had it my way – I’d keep the blasted electronics turned off Forever!  With the exception of Blogging, of course.

And Pumpkin our Ninja Kitty Cat, we’ll let’s just say, it’s been his worst month yet.  With all the smothering loving from bored kids, he turned to the streets.  Sadly, the street cats didn’t take to kindly to him and the poor thing came home a bloody, sad mess.  Clearly his ninja skills have failed him.  Several set’s of stitches, some oozing drain shunts, a $305 dollar vet bill, and one humiliating Cone-Of-Shame Latter…

Pumpkin’s a much humbler fellow, realizing that hugs from Hope are not that bad after all.

And if painting a kitchen, building cornices, dealing with six, I mean seven unplugged kids and a maimed cat are not enough, I’ve added another Makeover project to the List – ME!

My husband and I applied for a contest where our local fitness center was going to select eight teams or couples and give them 12 weeks of trainer’s, nutritional counseling, weekly incentives, and a whole lot of support to essentially shed some pounds and build some Fab Muscles at the same time.  So four weeks ago Prince Erik and I were jumping for joy, more like jiggily bouncing, when we found out that we were one of the lucky teams that they selected.

Wa-hoo!  A perfect opportunity to lose that nasty 65 pounds of emotional eating I gained dealing with the Unbloggable.  And I’m doing it with past success information and even more help from my Young and Gorgeous counselor in dealing with the whole mental/emotional side of eating. 

I’m thrilled for the opportunity to get something like 24 training sessions from a personal trainer – it’s something I couldn’t afford on my own.  How blessed am I?

Of course they are judging on percentage of body weight lost and not lbs. lost.  So I was the recipient of a fabulous Dunk Tank experience.

  

Sorry about the view.  I  guess it would be an understatement to mention that I’m pasty white, right?

Apparently getting tanked gives them a more accurate measurement of how much of your body is fat and how much is finely tuned muscle.

 

According to the tank – I’ve got 72 lbs. of blubber to lose before I’m at optimal healthy weight. 

So there you have it.  The FawnDear and Prince Erik Makeovers have just been added to our list of current projects.

So here’s the dreaded Before’s.  Funny we must be married, or something, because our starting weight was an identical 227 lbs..

 

Can only get better right???  Well let’s hope so, because I KNOW you’re not tuning into my posts to see scary pictures like these posted every other day.

So week one came and went and guess which team lost the most?  Before I answer, I need to clarify that I want all the teams in the competition to do stupendous!  I want them all to hit their personal goals.  I’m their biggest cheerleader.  But, I’m pretty confident that I’ll be right up their with the best of them.  The A-Team (as we are called) are on everyone’s hit list because we won week one.  Between my husband and I, we lost a combined 21 lbs.  It’s week one.  We didn’t starve, but we did exercise 6 days a week, but never for more than an hour and we did count calories and keep them within our 1500-1800 calorie range.  We followed the rules and it felt great.  Our prize – Two haircuts, which we will use for our Fab makeover. 

Week 2 – I lost another 3.  Prince Erik hit a little wall and didn’t lose anything.  But we are still on track.  We came in forth the second week. 

We are currently in the middle of week #3.  This is my hardest week by far, but I haven’t given up.  In addition to competing with the other teams – there’s a little competition between me and the Prince.  Seeing who can outlast the other on planks (me) or weights (him).  It’s awesome to have a built in support system.

So there you have it.  The Month of February in a nutshell.  I promise not to hold out on projects until they are all completed.  It’s easier to just show a little at a time. 

Money Talks

But all mine ever says is good-bye!

Oh well, I’m used to it. 

Remember when I tempted fate last fall by saying, ‘Because if I’m really curse then the  repairs will pile up faster than the savings.’   Only to discover how cursed I really was because  within a month me, myself and I: 1.)  put my foot through the roof…

2.) listened to the clothes dryer die a screechy death,

3.) discovered a $22,000 slow leak in the kitchen cause by a stupid dishwasher…

4.) lost the keys to the truck and had another vehicle break down, and

5.)  lost 5 years worth of family photos due to computer fussiness.

6.) Lost a freezer full of food and discovered a mongo leak beneath the master bath.

We guesstimated that we had over $42,000  worth of fix-up’s hit us in one month.  And since then hardly anything has been resolved.

Well guess what?

No nothing new broke down.  Thank goodness.  And yes I’m still washing dishes by hand in our Redneck sink.

However.  Today is a good day.

The work to repair the roof has started.  Only eight months later.  But it has started.

Nasty Rotted excuse for a roof isn’t it.

Can’t wait until it’s done.  Wa-hoo!

I want my Mommy!

No matter how old you get, I don't think a gal can ever get to old to not want her Mommy.  So when my mom surprised me with a phone call around Christmas time telling me she was flying in for a couple days to visit - well, it was about all I could do to not burst out bawling on the phone.  For Joy - mind you, not,  'Oh no, I've got to surgically clean the house cause mom's coming.'

I didn't clean the house, well, cause I don't have to fake it for mom.  She loves me even though I'm messy

And being that she's the worlds best seamstress, she took a few spare minutes to piece together a fleece quilt top for the girls baby dolls. 

 

Lucky Doll.

So what do you do when your mom comes to visit?  Sightsee?  Talk and Shop?

Well we shopped at Lowes and Home Depot.  Then we involved our built-in slave labor force.   Back in the kitchen to patch in drywall...

Spackle, Sand, Texture and Paint.

Thing is you can't just paint the one wall affected.  You have to paint all the kitchen walls...

and the connecting family room...

and connecting hallway...

Tom Sawyer had it right.  Kids do like to paint.

I thought I'd have to blog about some fantastic paint spills, but no.

Grandma was on Quality Control and made sure they cleaned up all their little errant brush strokes, be they on clothes, siblings or walls.

But her quality control was so focused on the little kids that she wasn't able to stop Big Kid Prince Erik from laying Saruman's White Hand on my backside.

I guess mom then thought instead of managing the house of wacky's it would be easier to just paint.  So she took on the ceiling.

 

Then just as the painting was done, it was time for her to go.

She put up with my complaining about probably near everything and patted me on the head and told me that it would all work out.  Also reminded me of just how blessed I am compared to others.  Just as a good mother should.

I love my mom and she can come visit anytime.  I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope we didn't wear her out too much.

The painting is done for now.  We are just putting back, de-cluttering, and totally rearranging furniture so be looking for some fun Before and After pic's soon.

It just get's better and better.

So I haven’t been having one of those days, I’ve been having one of those months.

I’m trying, I’m really trying to stay positive. But then little things like this happen.

Insurance called today. They aren’t even going to send someone out to our home to look at the kitchen damage because,

‘We don’t cover slow leaks only catastrophic, big honkin, fire hydrant pipe bursting ones that spew at least 15 gallons of water a second. Who cares if it’s not your fault and you didn’t have a camera installed in your wall to detect the start of your homes downward spiral. And since the contractor couldn’t even determine the cause of the damage it won’t do us any good to send someone out. So fork over the bucks, tear your home apart and if once the walls come down you find a LEAK that spills out say more than a tiny leak would then you can consider calling us back because we may or may not help you then.'

Prince Erik is going to call the guy back and see if he can’t have more luck than I did, but it’s not looking hopeful.

So I’m envisioning ‘Extreme-Home-Make-Over-Demolition-Type-Party for the kitchen. Anyone want to come take out their aggressions on my cabinets, floors and walls – Just let me know? Otherwise I’ll be picturing our Homeowners Insurance Company with each and every $22,000 swing.

That and it looks as if I’ll really have to get another job other than my real one of being a mom.

O.K. my pity-party is over. I’m fine now. Thanks for letting me rant.

Off Came Her Head!

So we got our Christmas pictures back. I ordered online a nice family pose...

And a goofy one for kicks. Got enough to send out to all our friends and family. Sadly, they chopped off my head and totally washed out the nice photo. Kind of made it look like it was not centered at all.

So if you happen to grace my mailing list, you’re getting the goofs this year. I know I could complain and force them to make good and send us a better image, but I’ve got much bigger fish to fry.

And the room in which we would fry those fish is getting scarier by the day. We had a couple of contractors come look at our kitchen… Not good… One contractor actually looked a little scared at the damage and said he couldn’t honestly give us an estimate because he wasn’t sure if the source of the leak was in the plumbing or roof (via the wall). He wouldn’t know until he actually started to rip it apart. The other contractor gave us a fix-it bid of…

Wait for this…

On second thought you may want to just skip the rest of the post – it’s that good.

$22,500.00!!!

No you don’t need to get your eyes checked. Twenty Two Thousand Plus!!! I could buy a home in a trailer park for that much. He said there’s a good chance the insurance company would cover a majority of the fix but I haven’t had that good of an experience with our insurance company to find out yet.

Apparently there’s a lot of dry rot and the problems been going on for quite a while and we finally discovered it when the floor started getting soft in front of the sink. Not only are they going to have to rip out counters, floor, subfloor, but they are also going to have to replace some of the major floor joist's (whatever those things are).

Folks, this home isn’t that old. It’s only 17 years old and it’s acting like a 30 to 40 year old house.
I know, I know – Happy Thoughts!

So when all is said and done I’m going to have a new kitchen!

Our family participated in our first ever Black Friday yesterday. Of course we split up – A Boy Car and a Girl Car. Prince Erik and our three boys stayed up all night at Best Buy and were able to get the items they wanted. The experience would have been good but the group behind them was having a drinking party and ended up hurling all over everything by morning. Not to mention they were extremely obnoxious and pushy.

Wait, here it comes, I’m grateful that my boys got an excellent lesson in abstaining from alcoholic beverages.

The girls and I braved the crafty coupon wielding crowd at JoAnn’s and I was able to get some needed items at over 75% off. Wahoo. We didn’t really get hardly anything for Christmas but we were able to take advantage of the super discounted items without being sucked into paying for extras that weren’t needed.

All in all it was a good experience. We might do it again next year.

Blah, Blah, Blah… I could go on and on. Tell you about our peaceful Thanksgiving or my evening out with the girls. But I’m working on a secret project.

A Secret Surprise!

One I hope to have done in the next couple of weeks. Kind of like a big Christmas Present for all of you. And my Husband – Prince that he is – well, he’s giving me tons of time to work on it. If I get lazy and back off, he supportively encourages me to get working on it again. I’m beginning to wonder if aliens have abducted him and messed with his brain. He’s actually taking over the kids and house because he wants me to work on this surprise. What husband does that?

I couldn’t neglect my blog though so I’m sneaking this post in as he is off running errands.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are well on your way to a calm and peaceful Christmas free of the hustle and bustle. Hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream!

So today I put away all my Thanksgiving and Autumn decorations.

And we started working on a couple of decorating projects. Involving Free sticks and leftover spray paint. Here's a sneak peak. I'll show you the finished project when it just that - Finished.

But right now I'm off to work on my surprise.

And next time I promise a SHORTER Post!

There's no place like the barn

Today in church one of the Primary ladies drew a sweet looking little house on the chalkboard and asked the kids what it was. They of course responded, “It’s a house.”

“And what is another name for a house.” She asked, seeking for someone to mention the word - Home.

Raising her hand and waving it frantically with the actions Pick-Me, Pick-Me trembling all over her body, Princess innocently and angelically replied, ‘A Barn.’

Fortunately they will only have to endure the barn squalor a couple of more days while I’m finishing up the boat cushions.

Numbers...

200… Average Buck-a-roo’s spent on gas each week for the past 4 weeks. The Tank I drive is a Gas Sucker. And this amount is after my husband averaged riding the bus for two days a week so I could drive the more fuel - efficient car. I think a horse might be cheaper to feed than our vehicles. Maybe we should go back to the horse and buggy.
2… days left of Evo-man’s Fitness Class. After which the before-mentioned $200 should drop by over half. I hope?!?
4… hours of sleep I got last night.
2… how many loafs of bread my kids chowed today.
36… minutes it took to find Itchy (dog) after she ran away from home.
3… zits. I confess they are mine – when will I grow out of adult acne? Oh yeah, when I give up the blasted chocolate.
48… minutes it took all my kids to get in bed after they were sent to bed. And this was a good night.
7… loads of laundry completed today.
6… loads of laundry that I didn’t complete today. I lie not.
0… number of things I got crossed off my to-do list.
40… minutes spent on the exercise bike.
4… Daffodils that bloomed in my front yard today. I’ll spare you the weed count- only because it would probably take me a week to count them.
A Gazillion… blessings received from being a mom. Most of those I’m probably not really aware of.

Back to Reality

It’s been a wild and crazy week here. But hey, what week isn’t with 6 kids in 4 different schools, one of those being homeschool. I can’t tell you how nice it was to get away from reality last week. Although it had made for a bucket of cold water in the face coming back into it. It has rained every day since I got home, or maybe I should say drizzled. Thankfully not enough to cause more flooding.

When I first got home I was so excited to be sleeping in my own bed and doing laundry, and telling all my friends about my wonderful week. That lasted all but a day. I think my first let-down was when I was handing out the simple gifts I spent hours (literally) trying to find to bring back to my non-vacation going children. It turns out the really cool gift I got for Abner my oldest I had already given him 6 months earlier when I saw it while we were on our family vacation. O.K. so I have the attention span of a nat. What a winner of a mom this kid has.

Now I’m staring at piles of half completed presents wondering where on earth I’m going to find the time to complete them. Today I’m going to try and keep all my kids clean and happy long enough to take a semi-decent family picture. Cross your fingers for me.
My dear friend came over yesterday and spent three hours helping me decorate for Christmas. She did this after hearing me say that I didn’t really want to decorate and spend the time, because the decorations would only be up for 2 weeks. I’m so glad that she did because seeing the festive decoration while listening to Josh Groban’s new Christmas CD has helped me kind of catch the Christmas Spirit. I’m hoping my inner Grinch can be kept at bay long enough for me to enjoy the rest of the season and not STRESS about it.

I really have nothing to complain about, I have a wonderful, healthy family and a home that isn’t wreaked from flood damage. Last week while I was hot-leading it to get home, by Prince Erik took the boys and a chainsaw out to the coast to help clean up from the storm damage. Nothing and I mean nothing helps you count your wonderful blessing better than helping those less fortunate. The one camera I left home wasn’t working so he didn’t get any pictures. If you want to see some of the damage from the flood, you might want to take a gander at pictures from some of my friends who were there last weekend to help dig out. Go to Kathryn’s blog www.daringyoungmom.com , she is a sister from my ward. I think it will stick with my boys because when I was six I remember my mom going to help with the clean-up of the Teton Dam break in Idaho. I never saw pictures of the damage and I wasn’t there first hand, but I remember her leaving early in the morning and coming back late at night to tell us about it.

Back to reality and Back to laundry.