Remember me?
It’s been awhile. Let’s bullet point the last few days.
- Iain had a case of the flu. It was real flu and not that faux stomach “flu”. Now back to his normal cranky self.
- Jeff had/has a raging ear infection. He missed a few days of work (with the doctor’s blessing), was off a few days on his normal days off and still has it. Back to work, sucker.
- Gracie got sick all over everything last night and is now flu sick. I didn’t need to see my stew twice.
- Various life things including beginning to plan for the move.
All the illness has resulted in my getting to bed much too late and waking much too early. I’m hoping Iz is spared because Jeff is on vacation next week and I’d like to get my mom’s place moved around so we can bring our things in and then get a handle on packing things that we don’t need to access any time soon. I imagine packing the Christmas stuff would be an obvious first choice and it’s all packed anyway. I ordered a POD to be delivered next Monday and we can get to work. This is not going to be fun. At all. The last time I moved it was just Jeff and I and we were coming from an apartment.
I think my mom is really happy we’re going to take over her home. She told me that now it’s up to me as to what I want to do with it but it still feels a bit strange making decisions about change in the home in which I spent my teen years. She trusts me, though, and she knows I wouldn’t do something outrageous. My mom being my mom said she’d sleep in the basement so we could take her room. I told her that was nonsense; she has a hard time with stairs and all her things are in that room already. She has enough problems with sleeping where she’s not familiar so why mess with a shuffle? It’s just more work. It’s her room! Jeff and I will make due and eventually build a proper living area with a full bath etc. Outside of the plumbing and electrical it’s nothing we couldn’t tackle even if it took some time to finish. That’s just like my mom, though, to offer and really mean it.
One thing we will tackle fairly quickly, if not immediately, is doing something with the kitchen. We don’t have the funds to go whole hog on a brand new, gut-it-all kitchen but at this point, from a practical standpoint, we really don’t need to. The cabinets are in excellent shape albeit dated. The hardware is something that has to go since it’s sort of that 60s country/wild West sort of hingey deal. I’d have to take a picture to explain better. Taking that off will expose a change in color of the wood since I’m sure exposure to light has changed things. All that we’d need to do is have them sanded and refinished. I threw around the idea of painting them but I’m not sure how that would look. At this point I think if we went with new cabinets we’d just go ahead and expand the kitchen while we were at it. I might get some quotes on refacing just for reference.
The floor will be going and we’re considering putting in bamboo. The cabinets are a light wood so the bamboo would compliment them. We want to put flooring down in the dining room and pull up the carpet. With kids, having carpet in there will be a nightmare. Plus, bamboo is very environmentally friendly!
The cook top will definitely have to go. It’s a Thermador electric circa 60s and while the stainless steel makes it look retro but stylish, the cook top itself is on its last leg. Plus, I want gas. I have to price those out and I’m sure they aren’t cheap. I’ll be on the hunt for a deal! She also has a matching wall oven which has to go too. I’ll keep the electric for the oven but this one doesn’t heat evenly and I don’t think the temperature is correct anymore.
Depending on cost and how ambitious we’re feeling, we’ll get new counter tops. I’m sure I’ll bore you with the details if I do. Oh, and we need to get a dishwasher installed. She’s never had one and since I’ve been married I’ve never been without one so guess what . . .
One fun thing I did do a couple of days ago was some clothes shopping for the kids for school. I got some pairs of shoes for Gracie which I hope fit since I ordered them online. It’s not a huge deal since I can return them to the store and not have to package them up if need be. This year Iz needs some school clothing so there was a little extra spent than in previous years. It’s only going to get worse I’m afraid. We’ve come to that point where Iz isn’t going to be able to wear much of what doesn’t fit Gracie, at least on the bottom. This summer they are sharing almost every stitch of clothing but shorts are easy to do that with. Pants are a different story altogether.
