a renovation update

For those wondering how things are progressing with the house, here's a quick update to say stuff is happening, but we're still a ways out from being able to move in. Our original hope was to be in around February 1, but with the house closing getting delayed by 2 weeks, our new goal is sometime around Valentine's Day. We're cautiously optimistic that we can do it, but having done the renovation thing enough times around, we know there are no guarantees.

Since my last update, there came confirmation that the family room floor needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. It sent Daniel into a bit of a panic mode since that room was also where the drywall crew needed to be working-- and with the dimensions of the family room being 27'x19', he knew it wouldn't be a quick job.

After the old floor was torn out

Last weekend, thanks to hours of help from the ever-ready Josh McGrath, the header and joists were all built and installed. One of the added benefits of tearing the old floor out was that it allowed for a moisture-barrier plastic to be put down and to seal it up with spray foam insulation, which should make that room a lot more snug/warm.

New header and joists, moisture barrier, and spray foam insulation

New subfloor!

You can see all the exposed old beams. My favorite is the far left portion of the family room, beyond that support post. The previous owners had a table there, and I plan to use the space for our school table, too. We ended up vaulting the ceiling in that portion of the room in order to fully expose part of the post and beam structure. If you don't love old houses, the thrill of this may be lost on you, but it's the sort of thing that excites me. :)

I love seeing how old houses were built!

Moving on from the bits of progress downstairs, last night Daniel put in a long night with Gabriel framing in the closet that will be in the older two boys' bedroom. This is the room right above the family room where the second set of stairs (that we removed) ended.

You can see where the stairs came up. Rather than trying to match/patch flooring, we decided that it's a great spot to add a much-needed closet.

He removed the knee wall so the closet extends farther back, which will allow for more storage, and then framed it in for a 60" double door.

In other family news, we keep celebrating birthdays that come at me so fast I feel like I can hardly stay ahead of them! Jackson turned 10 last week! We celebrated Thursday night, almost a week late, with a couple friends/cousins and games. It was all he really wanted!

We've been back into our school-not-at-home routine for a couple weeks now, which looks like a lot of relying heavily on the library to make up for a lack of reliable internet access, and that feels quaint and special in its own way. Special prayer meetings at church, a bridal shower, birthday parties for friends, keeping the house we're in "house show worthy" since it's on the market, getting back on track with regular workouts now that my ankle is [mostly] back to normal, and trying to catch up on paperwork fills any leftover cracks of time we may have.

On top of that, the Upward Basketball season began and this year even Aubrey gets to play! I can't wait to share some pictures of her in action, but so far I haven't been at any practices because Daniel brings them and uses the practice time to work. I don't even have words for how thankful I am that she is vibrant and healthy and running. Our cup overflows.