The Latest

I've spent the past 48 hours surrounded by boxes and packing material. I've primarily focused on the kids rooms since I think they need to have a space that feels settled and organized in the midst of our chaos. My main goal has been just to empty their boxes and then eventually organize. In addition to the unpacking is the fact that I need to change out their clothes from summer to fall so it adds to the mess.

I spent about 4 hours today with Brooke working on the basement...which also is primarily a space for the kids. We have a large finished basement with a full bath so eventually there will be a guest bedroom down there and the remainder of the space will be a second family room area and then a play area. Other then being in need of a fresh coat of paint, the basement is in good shape and recently refinished...its going to be a lot of painting though and I can't decide what color.

I've been more tired in the past 48 hours then I have the entire month in a half we've been renovating. A lot of it is physical since I don't obey Brad's requests to take it easy and I spend my day lifting and moving heavy boxes and rearranging furniture. Every night I collapse in bed with sore muscles feeling like I had a good day at the gym. I also think my exhaustion is partially emotional...we've been working long hours in anticipation of the movers arriving and now that they have been here I feel like we can slow down a little. However, we're still burning the midnight oil and focusing more on projects in the evening then we are unpacking. As I type Brad is finishing the installation of our stove hood...we're putting up one of those pipe styles and its putting up a fight. Once its installed we'll hook up the oven for the first time and then I can actually cook again! I haven't unpacked any dishes because I didn't have any of my shelves up in the new cabinets...I'm hoping this weekend the kitchen moves to the 95% complete status.

This weekend our focus will be in the family room. We had the movers set all our family room furniture in the living room because we weren't done refinishing the family room floors. Brad spent 6 hours with a belt sander but the stain hardly changed. We're going to put a chemical peel on them overnight and see what happens and then sand again this weekend.