Still here!

I'm still here, so is my house. But not a lot has been going on with the renovation since last time I posted. I've owned the house for 4 months now, which is surprising to me. But looking back over those four months, I have accomplished a lot, especially since the only thing I've hired out is the new roof. I've probably saved myself a few thousand dollars by doing all the demo myself, with the aid of my family and friends. But working that hard can take its toll on you, too.

That's why I took the month of August off from working on my house. For about 3 weeks in August, the heat index here was about 115 degrees. And when the sun wasn't beating down on everything, drenching rains crept in. It may not have been wise from a time-line point of view, but I needed the time off to escape the stress and enjoy the last bits of summer. I work full time during the week, Monday through Friday, twelve hours a day. So the only time available for me to work on the house is on the weekends. Three months of weekends working on the house deserves a few weekends off, I think. Maybe not as many as I took off, but since the time away from the project hasn't affected my budget, no harm was done. But it has changed my time-line, although I never set one in stone to begin with.

I have also been waiting on my contractor... But I knew from the start that he was busy and my renovation project was added on his 'list'. He's been busy finishing up work for other people, mainly repairing damage done by the tornado my hometown suffered in March. But I can't complain too much, because I know where he's been. He's been working on my parents' house, my sister's house, and my brother-in-law's mother's house. And doing high quality work, I might add. Every project I see him complete builds my confidence in his abilities, and I'm fully vested in waiting until he can devote his full energy to my renovation. Hopefully, my house is next on his list. In two or three more weeks...

Tomorrow my friend and I will be working at my house again. Hopefully I will be able to make myself get up early (!) and beat the heat to get some work done over at the house. At this point, there's only a little bit of demolition left to do that I think I can handle myself. But mainly I hope to clean up the site a bit, and then concentrate on getting that demo done. Plus I think it makes more sense to have a reasonably clean renovation site for both safety and optimism standpoints (If it looks better, I feel better. If it looks messy, I want to lock the door and run away.).

I haven't been wasting this time, entirely, however. Several window-shopping trips have been made to home improvement stores and one price-sticker shopping trip was made to a furniture store. I've been picking out kitchen appliances, cabinets, and counter tops, in addition to bathroom fixtures and flooring for the whole house. I've picked out my back door but have yet to find a new front door that speaks to me. I've had electricians and plumbers visit the site and give estimates, as well as a yard man who's lined up to clear out the back, front, and side yards, once I'm ready for his crew to come in.

Oh, and the new house plan has been finalized. Hopefully I'll be able to get sketches of both the new and old layouts up this weekend so you'll know what I've been working with and where I'm going.

I guess that's all for now. Stay tuned!