Thirteen Days And Counting

It has been almost eleven months since we first started to remodel and restore our little cottage.  What was to be a four or five month project...  Well, regardless of all our best intentions regarding timelines,  we have had so many experiences and emotions spent along this road.  We've come a long way baby, and, oh the stories we'll have to tell for the rest of our lives.  You can quote me when I say, "I will NEVER do this again."  No, never mind,  better not quote me because, I've said that before and look where I find myself now!  NEVER say never.

Our tiny garage (beach houses have tiny garages if they have them at all), is still a veritable storehouse for paint, plaster, tools and construction workers' lunches.   Land is at a premium here so we have to store everything right here in our "workshop".  It's like Santa's, but not as fun.  It's dusty and dirty and hasn't seen a car in many a moon.  How many days do you think it will take to get rid of all this stuff so we can store moving boxes back in here while we unpack?

This disgusting thing is still here.  I literally hold my breath and nearly pass out when I walk by it to enter the house.  Just the ramifications of what...  Never mind, you don't want to hear it and I don't want to discuss it.  No working toilets yet, not that I want a gaggle of construction workers using my new toilets anyway.  What do you call a group of rag tag construction workers?  I'm pretty sure it isn't a gaggle.  Anybody?  All I know is that they love their peanuts.  I said, peanuts.

This is the front yard.  I know.  Could it be possible that a family of human beings will inhabit this cottage in thirteen, 13, THIRTEEN days?  My beloved tells me that this courtyard will be level, full of patio and grass and planters ready to fill with flowers.

This is the family room.  The windows still need the tape cut off and although the trim paint is finished, apparently the painters still need it in place for some reason.  Have you ever tried to talk to a painter?  Don't.  Can I just tell you how hard it has been to choose paint colors for this cottage?  With the plastic on the windows I have had to imagine what the colors would look like in the natural light of the house in order to choose them.  I have a pretty vivid imagination but, this is hard man!  There have been a few do-overs necessary and I may never see color in the same way again.

Don't take a step out that door because you will fall several hundred, well not hundred, but a lot of feet, into the back yard.  A staircase and deck still has to be built and installed before final inspection.  Thirteen days?  Really?

We'll be watching TV on the big screen which will live in the far right cabinet in only 13 days.  Don't bother me with the fact that the wall surrounding the fireplace insert still has to have rock installed clear up to the ceiling, and a mantel set in.  I like to think of our Christmas stockings hanging on that mantel.  It's a fantasy I maintain in order to keep my sanity. The cozy picture of living in beach cottage bliss, must stay front and center in the recesses of my rapidly deteriorating mind.

Get your dad-gummed equipment our of my studio already.  I'm setting up in 13 days!

It's hard in this light to get a true picture of what the paint looks like.  This is the best example since the entry is still white to compare it to the hallway color.  This nursery yellow color got painted in the family room, dining room and hallway before I even had a chance to approve the little square sample I asked for.  Now that's what I call getting right on the job at hand  jumping the gun.  Nursery yellow just doesn't work for me.  It's not that I don't love yellow, or nurseries per se.  I just don't want the majority of the rooms I will live in painted this color.  We're trying a new one called "Birch" today.  I'll let you know how that turns out.  As we speak I'm waiting for one section of one wall to be painted so I can take a peek and give the thumbs up or thumbs down.  I won't even enter the house to give my humble opinion though.  I'll just peek a boo around the corner by the front door and quietly whisper my opinion.  At this point those painters scare me and I'm not taking any chances.  They have spray guns.

Now this is a paint color I can get behind.  I'm sticking with this one in my laundry room.  It's called Fizzle.  Now doesn't that just make you want to do laundry?  No?  Well, I don't mind laundry too much, but guys -  guys I need a washer and dryer in here first, to say nothing of the fact that these cabinet doors need to be hung up.  Thirteen short days until laundry guys.  Guys?

They're building the hood to my new stove, which is lonely and waiting in a warehouse somewhere along with the fridge, ovens and sinks, to come home. Yep, and that Italian marble and granite are on their way any day now I'm told.  Does the saying, 'the check is in the mail' ring a bell for anyone?  The glass for the cabinet doors is being cut and almost ready to be installed.

Hey, electrician guy, come back and install the thingys around the thingys in the ceiling which are going to shed a little light on us.

You may have noticed there are no floors yet.  I hate to point it out if you hadn't but, I'm so proud of myself.  It only took a month from my post about choosing flooring, Help Me Out Here to actually choose it.  I never said I was a great decision maker.  I didn't even hint at it.  As a matter of fact, I think I've gotten on my knees and begged for help making decisions.  In short, the floors will be maple, which I didn't even list as a choice at the time. The stain is a medium color with a beautiful glow to it just like the floors that were original to the cottage.  Apparently they are the last thing to be installed, but they are in and stored just waiting for their day in the sun cottage.

Um.  Electrician guy.  Did I mention those thingys that need to be put on these things on the ceiling so we can have some light?  I thought so.  Here's the thing Mister.  I haven't made up my mind on any of the hanging light fixtures or sconces, (do not judge me), so if I don't have these lights I'll just be standing around in the dark.  I know its daylight savings time and all but, pleeze...

Thirteen days.  Not that I'm worried or anything, obviously.  I'm a woman who believes in miracles.  I've seen more than a few in my day and it wouldn't surprise me at all if we see another one soon.  Say in, the next 13 days!  How can we go wrong when we have our girl Maggie on our side?  She is kindly taking time, between her job supervising seven year olds at Junior Life Guards, to hanging out with her "friend" Ronen, to help us out.  Thirteen days and our girl Maggie says thumbs up.  No worries mon!

What am I doing sitting her blogging when I have only a matter of days before I move my family, lock, stock and barrel into the cottage?  It's because I wouldn't want to do it without you.  We have a lot of work to do and you're with me every step of the way.  Right guys?  Am I right?  Anyway-

Love you more than every minute of every day until our big move,

Blessings,

Tia