Is it a boat or a house?

This has been one of those weeks where I was thwarted at every attempt I made to make forward progress.  Each step forward revealed a new issue that sent us sliding backward.  The last few weeks had been stressful enough, moving to a new town and all that involves was plenty on its own, all these unanticipated issues with the house were really building on my fortitude and Friday was the final straw.

I'm the kind of person who needs a plan and closure.  By Friday I saw no future, no plan.  Not a single room in the house was up and running.  Every room in the house was in the need of some major or minor fix that was keeping me from completing it and getting at least a small amount of closure.  I had reached my emotional bottom, and didn't stir much from it till Saturday evening when I started to see a light.  Then Chris ventured a guess on why this week had been so hard..  He felt God was slowing us down so that we could really come up with a plan we'd be satisfied instead of just reacting to the issues before us.

Therefore, rather than stress what went wrong this week, I'd rather talk about what went right this weekend.  I found out Saturday, that the only reason I got my hot water heater fixed on Saturday morning (so I could finally do laundry), was because our sweet GC was eating lunch with a friend on Friday telling him about our boat/house and his friend volunteered to help out and do it.  The helpful, kind hearts of these men talking about how to help my family, that they really didn't know, over lunch really started raise me back up.  He even called Dawn to tell her how things were going and she sweetly volunteered to come by and do all our laundry for us.  Having people be so kind was a major emotional boost.  Having hot water and being able to do my first load of laundry Saturday night helped me make some forward progress too. Yay! The clouds were clearing a little!

One of the big issues in this house is that only one of the closets is even useable.  Thankfully, its Chris' so he can hang his work clothes but the others all need work.  One of the common themes is they smell really musty.  After doing some research on the cause and the solution to musty closets, I realized we had a moisture and circulation issues.  Unlike our newer house in Florida none of the walk in closets had vents for circulation, they all had old wood shelves that had probably absorbed a lot of moisture in 27 years and none had been painted in a very long time. These were issues Chris and I COULD address ourselves and make more progress it would just take time and learning new skills but at least we new what to do.

This weekend we took out all the old wood shelving and spackled the two main closets to make them ready to paint. Saturday night we put the dehumidifier in the closet easiest to fix ran it all night.

Then Sunday we went to Sherwin Williams and got their "Harmony" paint which is apparently a favorite with hospitals because it is zero VOC and is an odor eliminator.

Today I went ahead and tried it out in our stinkiest closet, the coat closet by the front door.  Whoo Hoo!  I think it actually worked!  The clouds are clearing more.

We've realized that now that we are owners of an older home we are going to have to step up to the plate and start learning the skills we need to make fixes and changes ourselves.  Chris doesn't like to paint but thankfully I don't mind so that will be my job.  Chris' first job will be to learn some carpentry skills to replace the closet doors.  Painting helps give us a clean start but if we don't address the circulation issue it won't last.  Our solution is to replace the six panel solid doors to the closets with louvered doors.

Choosing to go with louvered doors on the closets, led to the idea of eventually getting louvered doors for the kitchen cabinets as well.  This led to the idea of decorating the house in a Island Plantation theme over time.  Yay!  A plan was unfolding too!

You may be wondering what all this has to do with the photo at top.  Well what we also did on Sunday was to take some time as a family doing something fun.  We went to Hemlock Bluff Preserve, which is a beautiful park only 10 minutes from our house.  We walked the shortest trail today (about a mile) and it was beautiful.  I felt like we'd been transported to the Smokey Mountains.  The kids all ran wild and Sarge was energized by all the smells.  It was revitalizing for everyone.  And as a treat we even saw a group of deer in our neighbors yard as we were heading out.  I realize we have a lot of challenges before us, that its going to take time, and new challenges will arise, but tonight I am also able to see all the potential our future here. 

Not sure if this is the same group that sleeps in our backyard or another one.