Did I leave you hanging???

Sorry! So sorry! How evil and mean of me to post initial photos of our renovations and then abandon you like that. I did not meant to leave you hanging. However, I do have a GOOD excuse. You see, the renovations were supposed to last until the end of September or middle of October...meaning that when I last updated this blog, I thought I had two full months plus to do all the interior painting and other "cosmetic" changes (i.e.icky stuff like scraping popcorn ceilings, stripping wallpaper, etc.) that I was personally going to tackle.

I getting ready to say something that I have never, ever heard said by anyone I know who has built a home or undertaken renovations -- the contractor had the audacity to finish his work AHEAD of schedule. Yes, you read me right...WAY ahead of schedule...like over a full month ahead of schedule. Now, you say to yourself, "That is GREAT!" Well, yes, it is wonderful, except for one eensy weensy detail: it meant that I had a full month less to do all the work I wanted to do before we could move back in.

As a result, my August was a frenzy of sanding, patching, and flying paint. I worked often from early morning until late night desperately trying to get it all done. I got painter's elbow. My kids hardly saw me and I don't think I actually cooked a meal the whole month. It's a good thing my 15 year old can cook!

Then we had the big move-in at the beginning of September. (And here a bonus little piece of advice--no charge: Should you have all the symptoms of a UTI for a week and you simply drink more water and ignore those symptoms, telling yourself that the body is a wonderful thing that will heal itself, and then you have a particularly stressful day, like, say a moving day, you may just find yourself on your sofa at 2 a.m., in pain that is right up there with labor pains, curled up in the fetal position, weeping and wondering if you might need to go to the hospital. And should you feel just a bit better in the morning, after staying up all night, do not use that as an excuse to not go to the urgent care center and seek a little medical help, thus prolonging your misery another day -- because you probably need to be on antibiotics and it ain't gonna' just go away. I'm just sayin'.)

Well, once that craziness was over we had to tackle the unloading of the "Big Blue Monster" (see photos in earlier posts). Then, in the midst of all that, we needed to start SCHOOL!!! At that point they delivered the straight jacket for me and tucked me safely away in a padded room.

So, I am home and we are somewhat settled. There are still a few boxes to be unpacked and I have not yet hung much on the walls. The hall did not yet get painted, and even though the wallpaper in the half-bath has been stripped, those walls have not been properly prepped and painted. I will tackle those tasks sometime in the future when the mere thought of painting more does not send me into spasms. For now, but we are trying to get back to "normal," whatever that is around here.

I promise to post photos soon so you can see the transformations..."soon" being a somewhat relative term meaning "today, or whenever I can get to it!"