How's it going?

Okay, so the house needed a little work before we could move in. It hasn't been lived in for more than a year, Grandma wasn't fully able to care for it for a couple of years before that, and there were just some general issues.

I loved how the kitchen looked, but it was maybe not entirely going to work with little girls running around. The stove top was on a little island in the middle of the kitchen, with the ovens mounted into the wall. Yep, plural. Two ovens. And they were olive green, to match the old fridge, which was taken away several years ago. A sad day, indeed.

Now, I don't entirely mind that set up, but a newer oven/stove will be going where the ovens were. One didn't work anymore and there were concerns about the other one being usable (cooking styrofoam seems awfully toxic).  Also, the hole in the floor from the old stove top was covered up. Hopefully having it all set into the wall in a more normal fashion will make it a little safer, in addition to having a little more room to walk around. In theory, of course, because now that there's a little space, I'm thinking a baby play station will fit nicely in the middle of the room.

We also had to change the basement stair well.

Now, that metal railing was great to play with when I was little. I used to climb over it on the end where the stairs start in the basement and then side step all the way to where the stairs come up to the main level. Safe? Probably not. I also could slide under the railing when I was very small and jump/roll down. Safe? Um, no. Because of those reasons (and many other stories I have), we had a wall put in and a door will be added soon. It was just open at the top before, and we've been sliding boxes and furniture in front of the opening for now so we don't have to stress as much with the girls.

The upstairs bathroom has a new bathtub. The original one (now a lily pond in Mom's back yard) was replaced by a handicap accessible shower for Grandpa in the 90s. That is one of the few changes I agreed to. The downstairs tub was replaced, too, because it supposedly leaked and was clogged most of the time. I still object. It was green. With awesome matching monochromatic green tile walls. Also gone, sadly.

The front/back door is also new. The old one didn't close properly and had some rotting. I didn't agree with that change, either. It's like no one even asked me about some of this stuff. (They didn't. They want everything "nice" and "safe". And they know I like everything "familiar" and "unchanged".) I call it a front/back door because it used to be the front door, but in my lifetime, it's been used as a back door. I don't know what we'll call it or how we'll do all that, but it's led to some confusion as we discuss remodeling issues. Some of us call it one thing, some call it another, and I've started calling it both to cover all my bases.

Most of the floors have been replaced, for varying reasons. You can see the tile in the kitchen, which needed to be recaulked or remortored or regourted or whatever you do to a tile floor. Instead, a new floor has been put down, with my protests. New floors are in both bathrooms as well, due to the sewer backing up several times in the last few years. Almost all the basement floors and carpets were replaced from those sewer problems and also because of long term leaking that went on down there. The leaks have theoretically be fixed as well. Bedroom carpet and living room/dining room carpet had to be replaced because of things that happened before Grandma moved, most notably a large blood stain in the dining room from when she fell and split her head open, nearly bleeding to death and resulting in her relocation to assisted living. I suggested we just sit furniture on the bloodstain in order to keep the green carpet, even though it was directly in the walkway, but that was vetoed.

Walls have also been filled in where all of the thousands of nails used to be (Grandma and Grandpa liked to hang stuff) and repainted. That was finished most recently, which allowed my parents to start working over there to get us ready for the move.

Have you met my Mom? She's very cleanliness obsessed. She wants everything deep-cleaned before we move in. It's delaying the move, but if she doesn't do it, it won't ever happen, so we're not complaining. It's also giving me an excuse to move things in slower and take the time to organize them. I appreciate that a lot. I want things to go into places that they can stay and not have these boxes and things piled up like we had from moving the last time.

No water yet. The sewer and well are being done right now. We've had to wait on that because of the cold weather. But once that's done........