Switching Things Up

The photos in this post have nothing to do with the

contents of it ~

Other than this...we have been

living life apart from the renovating ~

It's a good thing.

We are in the throes of a move.

An internal one.

We are switching things up.

Four rooms in our home are involved ~

The school room, the office,

and two bedrooms ~ ours and Austin's.

Working with what we've got, purging some things,

rearranging others, and adding in a few new items ~

It will make our home more serviceable.

More use-able. More efficient.

Funny how things flex and grow and

things become obvious.

It was time.

We bought this home eighteen years ago.

We moved in 17 1/2 years ago.

I'm ashamed to admit that we viewed it

as a stepping stone to something better.

How wrong we were! How spoiled!

Thankfully, the LORD was gracious

and did not remove this blessing from us!

We surely deserved for it to be taken away.

We don't always get what we deserve, do we?

How wonderful that is!

Over the years, there have been many changes.

In the early days, we had tenants living below ~

the basement was not accessible to us.

I had to run outside and down the stairs to do laundry.

It was a shared laundry room under the deck.

Ah...memories!

After four years, we no longer had tenants,

but Howie moved his office home and occupied the space.

At the time of Emma's birth,

the six of us were living in 1100 square feet of our home.

We kept Emma's bassinette in the bathroom.

The time came for us to either sell and move,

or take over the whole house.

We took over.

The wall between us and the basement

was removed, and the fun began!

We renovated.

Every floor, wall, window and fixture were changed.

There were single pane brown aluminium windows throughout

the house ~ they were replaced with double glazed vinyl.

We tore out carpet ~ ever had to deal with glued down underlay??

Even our foundation had to be dug up to lay new pipe!

The most direct route ~ through the house!

It was an adventure.

It took time.

We did much of the work ourselves.

Painting, cleaning, sorting and rearranging ~

At odd hours, in odd ways.

We hired in those who were skilled to do certain things ~

(ie: plumbing, drywall, electrical, and flooring).

I learned how to do things like grout

and caulk ~ the school of hard knocks is a good teacher. :)

Howie already knew how to do those things ~

however, he did have the rare opportunity to use a jack-hammer

INSIDE the house...ask me if that was fun!

We were the general contractors of the project,

and we lived with the mess and upheaval as best we could.

I did install one floor by myself ~

it was the first (and probably last) time! :)

Breaking things down, tearing things out, removing the old...

these were things we did well.

My Dad helped us greatly.

He installed stairs where they were needed,

hung doors for us, and was our carpenter...

it was a wonderful blessing!

Thank you SO much Dad! XO

Perhaps, when the dust settles,

I will post about the transformation this time around.

I may even post about the past.

In the meantime...we work.

And work, and work, and work.

(You get the idea, I am sure!)

We are seeking to include the children

in this process as much as possible,

and we are trying to carve out some play time too.

Seize the day! :)

Many Blessings,

Camille

**Photos in this post courtesy of Emma ~

Thank you my little love! XO

Images are of one of our adventures in recent weeks ~

Fireworks viewed from the pier. :)