Yes, we were THAT house on the block for the past few weeks - the boarded up window crack house, as Itay affectionately called it. Of course, all our neighbors are excited to see us improving the neighborhood and do not begrudge us the current mess, but it was still very discouraging to visit the house and see gaping holes in every wall. And a blue tarp for a roof. Fortunately by the end of last week, we had arrived at this:
By far the biggest change over the last few weeks has been the family room. It is hard to hide my excitement each time I see another puzzle piece fall into place.
While I've tried to keep the kids clear of the "Toddler Death Trap" that is our house right now, I couldn't resist snapping the pic that you see above. Aiden and Liam have been unbelievably awesome, rolling with everything we've gone through this last year. Liam is really too little to know anything else - I just realized he has now officially been living at his grandparent's house for the majority of his little life. Aiden, however, doesn't miss a thing, though he mostly keeps his thoughts on our confusing living situation to himself. When we went to our storage unit a few weeks ago I asked him if there was anything he'd like. I was sort of kidding, since it had been about six months since we packed his stuff away, and he really hadn't said a thing about missing his toys. Imagine my surprise when he came up with a very specific list: Buzz Lightyear wings, his play barbecue, Woody from Toy Story... even though he hadn't seen any of these items in over half a year, he had not forgotten a thing.
I was reminded again of his hyper awareness when we stopped by the house at the end of last week. For the last month there had been a gaping hole in his bedroom sub-floor where a section of rotted wood had been removed. Last week the crew filled in the hole with new boards. "Hey! They fixed the hole in my floor!" was the first thing Aiden said when we did our walk-through. The next day when the new window was installed, Aiden started jumping and clapping for joy at his window. I have to wonder, has he been visiting our wreck of a house and thinking we are total idiots who are ruining a perfectly nice house under the pretense of "fixing" it? Does he see these holes and windowless openings and think we will be asking him to move into a shanty in the near future? If so, he sure is shouldering that burden well, because he never says anything until he sighs with relief. Too funny.
And now that we ARE seeing some serious forward progress, it is less scary to have the littles there. Here's Liam, hamming it up behind the work fence.
And Aiden taking some measurements and making some notes for our contractor.
We were over there last night checking in with the electrician and the boys were playing in the front yard. I am proud to share a "Mom of the Year" moment: me yelling, "Aiden, watch your brother and make sure he doesn't pick up the broken glass and nails!" as I headed to the back bathroom to consult on electrical outlet placement. To his credit, Aiden was completely successful in the task! But back to the boys playing in the front yard. They were picking up pine cones and throwing them over the work fence... for about a half hour. Entirely contented, and totally focused. I was enchanted, and I needed that moment yesterday, as we suffer through stress and drama with our contractor, stress and drama with our budget, and stress and drama with living with the in-laws (though admittedly, that's lowest on the list). In just a few months, we'll be in our own house, and the boys can throw pine cones for HOURS if they want. And hopefully there won't be TOO many glass shards or nails to get in the way:).
But before that... more decisions... this week: APPLIANCES! We're pretty much set on the GE Cafe line...
So pretty!
No comments:
Post a Comment