First Time Fixer, Weeks 7-8
My household was quarantined until the end of week 7, so no work on the house for me. We were pretty sick for a solid two weeks, but thankfully our bodies recovered, the kids had no symptoms, and we were all back to normal by the end of our quarantine. What a blessing! Being stuck at home for two weeks made me stir crazy and there were a of couple days I got in my van to just drive around town and see something other than my kitchen sink full of dishes. I also decided to sign up for the One Room Challenge during my weeks stuck at home, after sitting and staring at my unfinished living room too many mornings. I felt well enough to do things, but was not cleared to leave home. So I started planning a room redesign. That made total sense during my quarantine, it's not like I had another huge project on my plate or anything...sheesh.
A collection of vintage items I’m using as inspiration for the living room redesign.
While stuck at home I also did some planning on the flip house. It's time to start making decisions on how we want the porch design finished out. We're hoping to get framers started on that in the next couple of weeks. Our original plans had a cedar shake style gable with cedar posts. Sometimes my brain needs to see things on paper to really decide, so I did a little watercolor sketch to visualize it. I like this look, but we're not sure we can get a hold of this style of siding without special ordering (which we need to avoid due to our timeline and our budget.) So I'm also considering using a board and batten in the gable. It has less of a rustic look, definitely more craftsman, but I still like it and think it will work. I need to sketch out the board and batten next.
During week 8 I was cleared to go back to work. I definitely felt the aftermath of covid my first days back to work. It took me a good week to build back my stamina to work hard all day. We got our inspection done on the concrete porch, and were given the green light to begin the porch build and bathroom dormer. The "dream team" (all the guys helping on house, minus Amos who was working at his real job) showed up to repair the main beam in the house and they installed 4 LVL beams within about an hours time. I worked hard too, filming them. Gabe and Dad began framing some walls inside, and starting to prep for the electric and plumbing work. Then later in the week Gabe and Amos worked on the garage. I did a lot of clean up and demoed a couple more areas.
A PAUSE FOR GRATITUDE
I'm so thankful we recovered from covid, and especially that Jonny (a diabetic) is ok. I know it could've gone differently, as it did for so many others. Also, I'm grateful no one else seemed to catch it from us, that we know of. My parents and Jonny's mom all stayed well. And wow, what a blessing the kids didn't catch it! It would have been so hard to take care of them while being so sick ourselves. Thank you Lord, our lives are in Your hands.
