the pieces of my life

This is what my office looks like:

This is what my living room looks like:

This is what the kids’ playroom looks like:

So I’ve mentioned before there are things I don’t blog about. But the biggest one consuming me must now come out of the closet. Because the closet is about to be demoed.

For over a year now, we’ve been planning a remodel. At first, it was to be a modest kitchen remodel, family room add-on. But then we discovered that we couldn’t afford the family room add-on. So we decided to gain more space by working within the footprint of our existing house: our ceilings are incredibly dormered and by lifting them out, we can match the footprint of the first floor and therefore add a whole ‘nother bedroom and bathroom upstairs. A little creative thought by our architect and I get an office attached to the (new) master bedroom, over our front porch. Everyone’s happy, well, except Adam who really wanted that family room. Our plans were finished in December, and we were ready to go out to bid…

…when through an unfortunate event we inherited the EXACT amount it would take to add on a family room. So back to the drawing boards. Now, a zillion months later, we’re ready to begin. Actually, we were ready to begin last week, but the permitting process is holding us up.

In a nutshell, we refurbished our modest plans into a full scale revamping. We’ll be taking off the second floor to put on a new second floor. We’ll be remodeling the bathroom on the main floor. We’ll be redoing the kitchen. We’ll be adding on a family room with a playroom underneath it. We’ll be finishing off the basement. We’ll be paying off a mortgage that our great-grandchildren will most likely inherit.

Of course, with all this work, we need to move out of our house. Earlier this week, movers came to put about 70% of our belongings into storage. About 10% is in a storage unit we’ll have access to (things like winter clothes, Hanukkah necessities, and things we don’t need now but may need as the seasons change). And the rest is coming with us into, as Pie can tell you, “A teeny apartment!” We’re sleeping on mattresses as bed frames are in storage. We got a futon off of freecycle, as our normal sofa won’t fit into the apartment. We’re using an older TV that can’t be hooked up to a DVD player because Adam’s lovely, big-screen TV is not going to attempt the apartment move. Clothes are on the floor as dressers are in storage. The shelves in my office were given away so everything on them is on the desk and floor. You get the idea.

Work is going to be starting on the basement, so everything you see in that playroom used to be in our basement.

This is the basement before and after:

On Monday, we’ll be moving into the apartment. We lucked out and found one just a mile from our house, so things like spontaneous playdates and after-school activities won’t be interrupted.

The remodel is a good thing. Our heating system is horrible (baseboards downstairs and radiators upstairs so the downstairs broils while the upstairs is freezing), the floors are crooked, there are holes in my horsehair-plaster walls. Our kitchen is laid out so poorly that the fridge opens the wrong way but it can’t be switched because it’s too close to the wall. The kids are sharing a room (well, theoretically, as really they share with us), and they’ll reach a point where they want their own rooms. So it’s all a good thing.

But life has been in chaos, between birthdays and packing and freecycling (boy does that take a lot of work!) and getting ready for the start of school. I took the summer off of work (and it explains why blog posts have been light), but I’m going to resume work next week. And eating cupcakes. Lots and lots of cupcakes. So many cupcakes. And, honestly, they’re not really helping.