More of a mess...

Here are some more recent pictures of our house. The good news is that as of last Friday we have most things worked out with insurance so we can be in full put-back-together mode. Now we just have to pray that the weather cooperates so we can get our roof before the snow...because we can't insulate until the roof is on...and can't turn on the new furnace until the insulation is there because honestly - who wants to pay to heat a house when all the walls and ceilings are open to the outside?

I wish I could update more on the whole process but will have to do that in a few months. For now - here's a little food for thought. What does your insurance company pay for? Do you have code upgrade insurance? Hmmm...probably worth asking your insurance agent!

This used to be our bedroom. The hole in the middle of the back wall is where our bed was and the other side of the room has no walls at all anymore.

 This was the view from the kids' room that used to have a wall to the bathroom next to it. Not anymore. This view has actually changed quite a bit from this picture but I can't post an update yet.

 At least the leaves in the backyard can keep the kids occupied for a long time while we are over at that house. The dust on the inside is pretty incredible so it's great that the weather has been good enough for them to get some use out of our fence in the back. Plus, they actually can rake up a good amount of leaves...while I watch and don't have to rake any. :)

And you thought your house was a mess...

Just thought I'd post a quick picture or two of what my house currently looks like.
Here's the bathroom upstairs:

And the kitchen:

Beautiful, huh? And yes...if you look closely enough at the picture of the bathroom you'll see the lovely mold growing in the walls. Ewwwww! The progress is slow but in my head I can picture a completely pulled together house once again. Someday...

The saga continues...

Our house drama continues...which is why I've been absent for quite a while. It seems like we haven't had a spare minute to breathe in the last couple months. I keep telling myself that things will settle down for the holidays and once we get moved back into our house...but then I remember one tiny detail...I'll have a newborn then! So, life won't really slow down - but hopefully the house projects will!

I'm actually working on a fun new project that I can't wait to tell you about! Maybe in a month or two. In the meantime, here's a quick recap of life for us recently.

- We had water damage from ice dams in our house in January (JANUARY - I wasn't even pregnant when this whole mess started!)
- More water damage in March.
- The work on the house still hasn't really begun. But in the middle of July we moved out and into our rental house.
- Big storms moved in and we lost a tree that weekend. Ugh - more unexpected work.

(although the week we took the tree down was one of Elliott's favorite weeks ever. He went to his first VBS and loved it! He also went to Dairy Queen and had his first ice cream cone! Big week in his little world. :)
- We're working on finding ways to save money and free up some money to do extra renovations at our house. One thing we're doing is refinancing our rental. That means we've done some extra work to put it at the top of the comps around us. Here's what we've done or are in the middle of doing.
- new kitchen counter tops
- all new cabinet hardware in the kitchen
- new colored grout sealer in kitchen (HUGE difference - wait til you see pics!)
- installed crown molding, trim, and fresh coat of bright paint in 3 season room
- reflashed and repaired all gutters
- painted outside of house
- new landscaping including a new stone patio
- and lots more like repainting walls and floor in basement, repairing and painting doors, etc, etc.

To top it off - in the midst of all of this work - the basement of our other house (where all of our furniture was stored for the renovation) began to flood! Drama!

We also did work at the other house to remove all the kitchen cabinets, sinks, light fixtures, doors, etc. to make it easier and faster for the work to get started. The flooding in our area has made the restoration companies very busy with emergency jobs. Now that we're settled, I'm ok if it takes longer to finish the work since I'm over the fact that this new baby will be brought home to a rental. Oh well!

Speaking of babies...in the last couple months our little Isa has grown out of 'babyhood.' She prefers walking with anything she can push, has grown into Emma's clothes now, and isn't even eating baby food. The girl LOVES to eat and eats whatever we do...and lots of it!
I've taken some videos of our baby walking around that I'll try to post at some point. For now - here's a pic from June of little Isa splashing in a pool in our backyard. In the background you can see our new fence that was finally installed...right before we moved. Oh...the fun!