A brand new house!

So, the contractors who will be working on our home reno came over tonight to discuss what's to be done and to settle on a quote. As time's passed, what was originally supposed to be just replacing the nasty faux-wood-paneling from the 70s we have in our basement and main-floor family room has snowballed into a major undertaking that will now see our entire household eventually sequestered in our basement for what's likely to be at least a two-week period. So what's changed? Well, we're now painting the entire house, which wouldn't be all that bad if that were it. Nope. The kicker is that we're tearing up the wall-to-wall carpeting and re-finishing the natural hardwood floor that's beneath the main and second floors. This means that EVERYTHING will have to be removed so that they can do the job. The estimate is that it will take a week per floor; so for a couple weeks we'll be in each others pockets living in the basement.

Thank goodness there's a separate entrance and two full bathrooms down there, otherwise my mother, brother and I will kill each other within the week. It also occurred to me after the contractors left that if they’re replacing/painting the window frames, we’ll have to decide on new window treatments sooner rather than later.

Right now, we have those ugly aluminum blinds that have seen better days. When we first considered replacing all the window treatments in the winter, we figured we’d see to it once all the renovations were complete, but depending on what kind of window treatments we get, they may be mounted in the window frame as opposed to above it…so it’ll be better to decide on that so the frames will only have to be painted once. UGH.

I now not only have to stress about how I’m going to pack up not one, not two but THREE of my rooms upstairs—let alone the rest of the house, because my brother is indifferent to this entire process and will do the least amount possible to see it through—but I will also have to see about making arrangements for the window treatments. It’s during times like this that I wish I wasn’t the oldest and more responsible sibling. Being the kid sib and not giving a damn looks pretty good to me right about now.

My only consolation is that the house is going to look amazing when it's finally done. No more boring white walls! No more ugly faux-wood paneling. No more 20 year old wall-to-wall carpeting! No more bent-out-of-shape aluminum blinds! I just have to keep reminding myself of that over the next month or so....