Reno Update: Video Tour!

So, I haven't written about the house in awhile....it's been tough. There has been much happening but it's hard to get good photos of the "progress" and things have not been happening quite as quickly as we'd planned or hoped......

The holidays, lovely as they were, seriously messed up the schedule and then we've had literally one thing after another go wrong. I think Sunday morning was the breaking point...the "what have we done??" moment that has building for weeks. I stood in the middle of our still unheated, uninsulated house, full of garbage and take-out boxes and wood bits and electrical supplies and I looked at Jamie and I started to cry.

There seems to be no end. The days go by and we work as hard as we can and, though things are happening, it can be really hard to see.

Day after day, another bomb is dropped:
"there's no room for the air conditioning duct work"
"the water meter is broken and spraying water all over the basement....no heat for another 3 days!"
"the fireplace wasn't framed properly"
"the bathtub plumbing is in the wrong place"
"the plumber cut through a structural beam?????"
"the electrical inspection didn't happen because the inspector won't climb a ladder....build a staircase and you can have the inspection done in a week..."

Well, you get the picture. Standing in the cold, side by side, I think both Jamie and I just felt really alone in the mess we'd made.

It's hard to write about the house when it feels like the weight of the world is on our shoulders and yet, I know I should. Because renovations aren't easy. They are time consuming and soul consuming and stressful and it would be silly & misleading to pretend that everything is always peachy.....'cause it's not. Oh no, it's not.

So, I cried in our "new house" while we cleared away the take out boxes and organized the recycling and piled the wood and swept the floors. But then, slowly, as Jamie and I worked together to tidy up, to build a staircase, to fix the fireplace....slowly, as we warmed up, things began to look brighter. By the time sandwiches and hot coffee arrived for lunch we were both okay again, ready for the next day the next challenge, the next obstacle.

While I finished sweeping out, what will one day, be our sunroom I couldn't help but glance out the window, staring into the backyard piled high with wood and shingles and rubble, imaging the day when this will all be a fond memory....The year we built a house and grew our family.

That day will come, I'm sure of it!

Until I get better pics, here's little video clip of the progress. It's a bit Blair-Witchy and about 3 minutes long but gives a way better idea of where we're at than any picture. Enjoy! {PS I love that I'm totally out of breath at the beginning of the video as I had just walked from the car!}