Here we are about nine months later and I am amazed (and green with envy) that friends have had entire homes built from the ground up in the same time period. Of course, that was with the help of a homebuilder or general contractor, along with all their resources and subcontractors. Here at the Casa Galasso we inch along our renovation all by ourselves, learning as we go. The work happens on days off, mostly my hubby's, who does it all himself with our two kids in his care while I go to off to work. Anyone who has has small children can attest that this is a small miracle in itself.
Sometimes we have what we refer to as peak days, where we marvel at how far we've come, how much we have learned, and what a brilliant decision we made in buying this home with it's enviable square footage, fab layout and perfectly sized backyard and amazing back deck. We toast ourselves over dinner and rejoice in how clever we were and how wonderful this will all be when it is over. We still cling to that dream like a life raft sometimes.
Then there's the valley days, which are dark and miserable and leave us questioning our decisions, our motives, our bank balance and many times, our sanity. But, as a team, we are pretty balanced in keeping each other going, offering praise, encouragement and libations where necessary. We always remember to laugh through these thing because with a large renovation, sometimes it is the only thing one can do.
This morning I sipped coffee in my half-finished kitchen with the sun trying to stream through the somewhat foggy glass of our in-dire-need-of-replacement windows. It illuminated the kitchen cabinets which I painstakingly refinished mostly myself with some help from my mom and sister. I tried not to hate my backsplashless wall, old beige stove and wonky, recycled, but temporary countertops. But then there was the lovely new floors beneath my feet and the shiny stainless dishwasher and fridge sparkling in the morning light.
We really have come a long, long way. Considering the fact that inevitably, something always comes up as the multiple projects go along. The running list that comes to mind would include: our daughter's room from top to toe; gutting the ceiling of the kitchen and family room, replacing it and adding new lighting, the complete refurbishing of our kitchen cabinets from stripping, sanding, priming and painting as well as replacing the hardware and re-installing them. Oh, there was the small task of raising our backyard up eight inches (we were once the neighborhood retention pond) adding new drainage and painstakingly growing new lawn from seed front and back. We have also replaced 75% of the flooring on the mainfloor, repainted our family room and kitchen. We have replaced appliances, fixtures, and endlessly dealt with ever-clogging toilets. In our skimpy one month of summerish weather we have replaced half our fence and repaired the rest, ripped out mangy bushes and replaced them with lush baby cedars, built up flower beds and planted new blooms, half stripped our deck, repainted the exterior trim and are about to re-paint the front door, replace the door hardware and get new address numbers for the house. We have pressure-washed until our gumboots overflowed and hypothermia set in. Still, I'm sure I am forgetting many things.
Oh, what about the romantic November weekend spent re-insulating our attic together? How about ripping down four rodent-infested sheds? Gutting the kids bathroom? I repainted the laundry room while my daughter had a playdate and my son's room while they bunked together for a few nights. My husband can drop an entire ceiling and demo a pantry while I am at work and I am proud to say I can whip up a healthy, hearty supper under almost any circumstances just as long as my old stove is plugged in.
We have done all that and somehow stayed married, in love and surprisingly in good humour most of the time. Our kids seem to have adjusted well to "life under renovation" despite the experts warning against living in the home while the work takes place. Where pray-tell, are we supposed to live? Surely there are people who can afford a full-scale renovation, a mortgage and a rental property to retreat to, but they mostly seem to exist in the pages of the glossy design mags I so enjoy.
We are doing it though. Never said it was going to be easy every day; never said it would be over night. But we have a goal in mind. As much as I don't want summer to end, fall signifies the time to bring our attention back inside where we hope to have a main floor worthy of a wonderful housewarming/ holiday open house. This means several more months of very hard work and then a rest to enjoy our home over Christmas. How different it will look this year!
