Feel Good
I am constantly referring to my life as a death by a thousand papercuts... and part of me really hates saying that (it sounds all 'woe is me', and anyone that knows me knows that that's not a driving philosophy for my life), but (a lot of the time), it's true. It'd be nice to have some period where it's 'quiet' and 'calm' and 'boring', but I also know a lot of my tiny wounds are inadvertently self-inflicted because of my - once again - inherent need for that horrible dichotomy of variety wrapped in consistency.
Anyway, on the house front - things are progressing along and starting to fall more into place. My initial electrician, despite saying onsite that it'd be a quicker, partial job, quoted me $20k extra when he put it on paper. We took that to the sellers, who kindly gave me a partial credit (that was really quite substantial), so on top of that plus an additional credit they'd already given me, I feel ok that I'm recouping some money for the repairs and overall cost. We had another electrician come in, and he quoted me between $25-30k LESS for the true partial job, so I'm obviously going to go with him and get it up to code and safe, and then I'll tackle a full rewiring down the line, since that'll involve actual wall damage, and since the walls are lath and plaster (and not just drywall), that's a more extensive job.
I'm planning to add another full and half bath upstairs and downstairs, respectively, by splitting the small bedroom and making it a bath and laundry and then moving the laundry, which is in a little unused 'butler's pantry' area, upstairs. That's obviously a bit further down the line though.
I had one painter in as well, and he quoted me a reasonable hourly rate so that I can chip away at doing it or remove the wallpaper myself. Fun fact: there are 22 doors in the house, so between that, 3700 square feet of walls, and baseboards and trim (and excluding ceilings and moulding, which were in good shape)...it's a BIG job that'll probably take weeks. I have someone else coming today for a comparison and two fence people coming as well.
The biggest thing now is making sure this house sells (and I'm trucking through some showings that are slowly picking up) and then timing it all. I will probably have to/want to close on the other one first so I can get some of this work knocked out before moving in.
The other part is furniture... my house is smaller by some, but I'm basically adding floor space in each room, one more living room, and one more bedroom, and together, that's a lot. My current living room furniture needs replaced and I need things for another, the kids probably can use double beds now since their rooms are about twice the size (and they're getting older and just have cheap twins now), I need a bigger dining room table, and another bed as an interim before the bathroom renos.
I love interior decorating and am one of these people that can easily visualize spaces in 3D, but I'm struggling to nail the vibe I want that'll preserve the character while livening it up. I'm going to try to thrift as much as possible so I can get 'real' pieces and not manufactured things that'll fall apart.
Do Good
The biggest news this week was Charlie lost his first tooth!!
I was trying to make it special for him, but he was sort of freaked out by it and, as he would say, suss (and thought it was kind of gross), and like dude, I'm right there with you. His adult tooth is growing in behind it already (apparently this is called 'shark tooth' and it will adjust, but I foresee braces in his future). Despite the grossness though, it's stirring up all the * feelings * of geez, I remember when this first tooth erupted and that feels like not so long ago and how is he almost done kindergarten and wow I want to go back to him as a newborn and just relive all this time with him.
On the Hailey front, I'm happy to report that her pinky toe is at its new, toenail-less normal, and she's dropped her emotional support bandaid and is unfazed. Overall, it's remarkable how quickly that saga passed - it was truly gnarly in its early days.
On my end, I finally rented a kayak at the Reservoir last weekend and took myself out on an hour-long paddle, and it was glorious. They have kayaks and paddleboards in lockers, and the rental was super easy, and it was just so peaceful to explore all the little nooks I never pay attention too while running the loop around. I'll definitely be doing this again and would like to figure out how to fit it in on weekday mornings sometimes for a mental reset.
Look Good
This week's looks!
