Oh how far we’ve come

We’ve made some amazing progress on the house over the past week. So much in fact that I’ve been too tired to write a blog when I get home each night. My life has literally consisted of going to work and then going straight to the house each night after work.

Our goal for late last week and weekend was to get the kitchen floor tiled. Shortly after tiling the bathroom floor, I said I would never tile another floor. It was hard and I was getting frustrated getting the tile level. The mortar was a pain to work with. I decided however that I really wanted my kitchen floor tiled so I’d give it one more go. It was a bit easier this time knowing what I was doing, but hopefully these were the first and last floors that I will tile in my life.

Saturday was another what I’m calling ‘all hands on deck day,’ as my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephew came to help. Our goal for the day was to get the shiplap on the front wall around the big windows. We had to insulate and then put the shiplap up. This also meant bringing in the staging once again.

We got the front done and also the small chandelier that will hang above my table up. It is a smaller version of the living room chandelier. The goal for this coming weekend is to get the big windows framed in. My brother-in-law was looking up framing big windows and sending links the other day. Some of the trim on the windows that he found was gorgeous.

After we finished doing what we could on the front, we decided to finish putting the pine up in the small bedroom on Saturday. It was amazing teamwork. My Dad had run to the store for something so my niece, Mom and I were putting the tongue and groove up as fast as my sister, brother-in-law, and younger niece could cut it. We only had about half a wall to do, but we had it finished in about 30 minutes.

Saturday evenings are quickly becoming one of my favorite times of the week. We all go back to my parent’s house for dinner. This week I ordered and picked up pizza. I just love that all eight of us sit around the table after a long day of working on the house. I’m so thankful that I have a family that cares so much about one another. My nine-year-old niece, Lena, is becoming quite the cook. Each week she wants to provide the dessert. This week it was cupcakes that were beautifully decorated.

Beautiful cupcakes made by my niece.

Sunday afternoon I applied the grout to the tile. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. It’s not 100 percent perfect, but I’m really glad that I decided to go ahead and do the tile. While I was working on the grout, my Dad was working on putting up the ceiling fan in the loft.

The past two nights have been spent putting more shiplap on the walls. I think that I have decided to go with a heat pump, so we are having someone come on Thursday to do an estimate. Until we see where all the wiring needs to go for that, we are not able to complete all the walls.

Our goal for the past few months has been Thanksgiving as a move in date. The house certainly won’t be done, but will hopefully be livable by then. We may not hit it, but I don’t think that we are going to be too far off.

It’s funny. Sometimes I think that we still have so incredibly far to go. At those moments, my mother usually tells me to go read my blog from exactly a year ago. That typically puts into perspective how far we’ve truly come!

My tiled kitchen floor.

My family takes a break for lunch on Saturday.

Laura Reed

About Laura Reed

After 15 years in college athletics, the last seven as an assistant athletics director, I was burned out with 70-hour work weeks and extensive travel. I resigned my position and accepted a position in marketing at a small, vibrant college in my hometown of Unity, Maine. In the process I wanted to go back to my childhood where we raised polled Herefords, had a Christmas Tree Farm and spent many hours outside. I decided I wanted to build my own home on beautiful farmland that my family owns. With help from my Dad, the most talented person I’ve ever met, we are building my home together. I have decided to blog my experience – the ups and downs, the joys and frustrations. What was once an open field will one day be my home! The dream in my head is becoming reality. I can just see the lambs frolicking in the field, chickens in the barnyard and going running with my Alaskan Malamute!