One Year Down

3.16.2019

Sitting on my living room couch with two sleeping chihuahuas next to me and clamoring of footsteps upstairs, it is almost impossible to imagine what this room looked like a year ago.  Toys are strung all about and birds are singing even though it is only 35 degrees outside.  We have officially made it one year from move in day.  My kids barely ask about the "old house," and we have [almost] started using all of the rooms.  We have hit a few hiccups in the past 3 months, hiccups that have slightly [drastically] changed our renovation plans for 2019.  I you had asked me 3 months ago what the "plan" was, it would have been something like this:

2019: Slowly renovate the entire basement, keeping it rustic, but making it a playroom for kids/teens/adults alike.  Adding a living space to the southeast corner and installing a bathroom.  Big project, yes, but since it has its own outdoor entrance, shouldn't really disrupt our life too bad that it will be in "pending" state most of the year. 

2020: The master suite! This would be literally gutting the master bedroom/bathroom/closet and redoing it to be Steve and I's love-nest for years to come.  Functional, beautiful, and relaxing, something we would be ready to move into by the beginning of 2021.  Why are we waiting so long to move downstairs?  Well, I just couldn't be that far from my kiddos when they are so young.  In 2021, they would be 6 and 4, what I thought would be old enough.

So what has changed? Everything.Has.Changed. Well, really only 2 things, but they were enough to push all of our plans out a year, or 3.

First of all, my dad is getting married.  Yep, surprise! Happened literally since my last Gutting with the Geurins post.  While technically the contract with the state and with God shouldn't directly change my renovation schedule, the trickle down effect has been significant. What comes with a new marriage? A new house of course.  What comes with a new house? In this case, all new furniture. Now let's back up a second and talk about my mother. She had 3 great loves in her life, my dad [42 years of marriage], her amazing children [my brother and I kind of win the gauntlet when it comes to offspring], and antique furniture. Now here comes the problem, dad's new fiancé isn't into antique furniture.  Now while I don't want my entire house done in antiques either, I simply am not ready to part with pieces that I know she loved [and I grew up with].  To my thrilled surprise, my brother felt the same way. So between us, well, we pretty much took everything. Nothing says sibling bonding like me following him driving a 26' UHaul at 85mph watching it get air after every pothole.  Now my brother is about to start his own mini-renovation on his older home in Nashville.  So while he could take a lot of the furniture now, my basement was needed to store both some of his furniture and a lot of what I was keeping.  Furniture is just one of the obstacles, I have also brought home everything from my childhood. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.  My mother kept every outfit I ever wore and every award I ever won. I'm just not ready to throw any of it out. I also have my great-aunt's china, my mom's china, and a whole set of antique Christmas Spode.  Until I figure out where everything is going to live for the next 20+ years, our basement is the perfect staging ground.  

To be totally honest?  We don't need the basement as an entertainment center yet.  Maybe I'm justifying the delay, but now I think it will be exciting to have something to "grow into" in the next few years. As long as I have somewhere to send them as teenagers, I'm good. 

And the big reason we aren't doing any huge projects in 2019?  The Geurin family is not only gutting, it is growing!!  Yep, baby #3 is joining us in September.  We don't know how this keeps happening.  But what we do know, we won't be moving into the master suite downstairs anytime soon.  Again, I was probably aggressive on my original timeline, both logistically and financially.  While the basement will be done slow and not a drastic amount of structural changes, the master suite is another story.

So for the next few months, the largest GWTG projects will be [if I don't write it down it will never happen]:
1) A new banister for our foyer staircase
2) A tankless hot water heater
3) Duct work re-done [both for quality and cosmetic reasons]
4) All bedrooms upstairs painted and re-done, including creating a nursery
5) Most likely after the baby, but a new laundry room!

So stay tuned, going to be a fun year!!