Shelves are hung in the hallway and the cabinet is being painted a soft blue color from my stash of paint.  I’ve been collecting “OOPS” paint from home improvement stores (the paint that customers rejected or that was mixed incorrectly).  It’s sold at a great discount and I’ve just been buying colors that I like and saving them for renovation day.  I’ve also collected paint from friends that were discarding partial cans if it was a color that I liked.  Saving a lot of money and saving a tiny bit of the environment as well.  Every little bit helps, right?

Hubby is finishing the plywood in the kitchen and dining area – prepping it for the three coats of polyurethane that we’ll be applying today.  This involves sanding and dust.  Lots and lots of dust.  Do I need to mention that I’m not the greatest housekeeper in the world and there was already significant dust all around.  Maybe a few cobwebs also.  Said cobwebs are now coated in dust.  To bad it’s not Halloween.  We’re decorated and ready.

Anyway, it should time out right to finish that up the floor today.  Then tomorrow we can move the big stuff back in there.  We’ll still need to build the new kitchen island out of a butcher block table top that used to be my studio desk.  The walls will need to be painted and the cabinetry.  The top cabinets were ripped out on the wall by the sink and above the refrigerator.  I have never used the cabinet above the fridge.  Removing the other cabinets opened up the whole wall so I can hang a bit of art in there.  We removed another set of upper cabinets as well.  Those will be replaced with open shelving and will hold our dishes.

It’s a lot of work – renovating our home.  I’m impatient and want it all done now!

We didn’t really start out to redo the whole house.  Floor damage (a caved-in floor and two water damage holes at the front and back door) required some repair.  Pulling up old carpet meant new flooring all over.  Years of decluttering and a desire to live a more intentional life kind of sealed the deal.

In some ways, it’s a mid-life “crisis” of sorts for me.  I’ve been dissatisfied with the status quo for a while and I’m ready for a big change that proclaims, “Hey, I can live life differently!  I can make better choices and be free of the old decisions and choices.”

Not that I regret all my past choices and decisions.  Everything that I’ve done in my life has brought me to who and where I am.  But, life changes.  Children grow up. We grow up (and older).  I’ve become more aware of time passing.  I’m not so busy keeping up with the demands of a houseful of kids and their needs and I’m becoming more aware of who I am and who I want to be.

All the decluttering, all the life-style changes, all of the desire to be intentional…it all added up to a house re-do…

to a Sunday full of sweat and dust and joy.

Change can be good.  Change that comes from dreams and plans and choice is very good indeed.