A back-breaking, hair-pulling kind of project

First up, I started writing this April 4... as in 1 month and 11 days ago.

Yikes.

Sorry.

Life.

Etc.


Anyway, let's get right to it.

I had two weeks of vacation over the Christmas holidays that I took specifically with the intent of getting work done in the house.

It was glorious.

I was SO productive.

I mean, a DIY-renovator-with-a-million-projects-on-the-go crossed with perfect-housewife level of productive.

In which the completely inexperienced build a piece of furniture

It's official. You have been caught up enough that my blog can focus on specific projects in specific rooms without jumping all over the place.

Do you know what that means?

That means that we're working on the pretty elements!

The things you can see!

The things that aren't just structural or, you know... necessary.

The things that we WANT instead of merely need.

These are the things I started a blog for. And these are also the things I haven't been able to really talk about pretty much since I started said blog.

So buckle up and prepare to be wowed by our DIY prowess (or, enjoy laughing at our expert level struggle through the process).

First up, the bathroom!

"One season down, how is that list coming?"

Happy third day of spring!

I should probably open this by saying that I am fully on winter's side when it comes to which season outranks them all.

But the truth is, I love living in an area that gets a healthy dose of all 4 seasons (if I could get rid of the humidity and mosquitoes, I would enjoy summer a heck of a lot more than I do... thanks to those two things, summer usually makes me fat and depressed).

Into the home-stretch

What makes a house livable?

Heat - Check!
Electrical - Check!
Kitchen (a place to store and cook food) - Check!
Bathroom (A working toilet and tub) - Check!
Bedroom (a place to sleep) - 

Our final stop in the "How in the heck did you guys manage to move in before Christmas" journey is getting a bedroom ready!

This was definitely an exciting part of renovations for me because it involved FINALLY laying down some of the hardwood that we bought way back in June of 2016. (Keeners...)

For this post, you'll get a bit of a two-for-one deal because we worked on the two smaller bedrooms simultaneously.

When you last saw the two smaller bedrooms (the guest room and my closet) they had been primed, and electrical installed:

My closet

Defining "functional" loosely

What makes a house livable?

Heat - Check!
Electrical - Check!
Kitchen (a place to store and cook food) - Check!
Bathroom (a working toilet and tub) -
Bedroom (a place to sleep) -

That's right, it's time to let you in on what we did to make our bathroom "functional". 

I am using the definition of that term incredibly loosely because what I have gotten used to as being "functional" is by no means the same thing that most people in the Western world would use.

For example, functional to me does not necessarily include a bathroom sink. Or a vanity. Or a mirror. Or... you know... a door.

I actually just mentioned to someone the other day that it is incredible how quickly you can adjust and get used to situations that would otherwise seem rather primitive. 

Aka... we still don't have a sink or a door...... Well we HAVE them... they just aren't installed. 

I have said it before and I will say it again; we are living the dream over here!

The kitchen becomes a real room!

Full disclosure: I started writing this post February 1st. It is now February 16.

Yeah... I'm sorry.

I'd LOVE to say it's because I have been so busy with getting the bathroom finished! Or the upstairs painted! Or you know, anything else on that insane list of goals I gave myself. Alas, no. We're still slowly moving along in accomplishing those tasks, but not with any kind of real speed or traction. The most simple elements of life keep getting in the way. Things like actually cooking meals, doing dishes, walking the dog, or hey... I'm reading again!

The truth is that I got busier at work and then wanted my lunch breaks (the hour in which I usually write my blog posts) to be a legitimate break.

AKA, I got busy and therefore wanted to be lazy.

The blog was sacrificed.

The day I had been waiting for

Electrical day!!!

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 was such a magical day for me!

We worked like crazy to get things ready for electrical to be done by then. Unfortunately we did not have every single light fixture sorted out.

I know, I know... what's the point?! Some fixtures, we owned, but were mid-project on them and then for various timing or weather related reasons we haven't completed yet. Others, we simply haven't bought.

We don't really want to rush it. Sometimes light fixtures cost a pretty penny and we didn't want to rush into something that we weren't 100% in agreement on. So we decided that wherever there wasn't a real fixture, we'd just get a bulb installed. To give us light at least.

And that was terribly exciting, however the thing I was MOST excited to see what this:

Front porch light.