Whirlwind

The past couple of weeks have been so crazy busy with the house and everything associated with prepping to sell it and move somewhere else. Stressful is the key word that comes to mind. In the past two weeks we have been to Home Depot and Lowes more times than I want to count to get supplies and 6 pieces of tile. You wouldn't think only 6 pieces of floor tile would cause me to practically start twitching everytime I see Lowes, but they sure have.

In the beginning, we needed to replace 4 pieces of tile in the kitchen that have been gone for more than a year now. Up until now, we have just been covering the bare space with a mat. This mostly had to do with the fact the one of the pieces of tile we needed to replace was cut at an extremely awkward and difficult angle and we had no idea how we were going to size it up or get it cut. Also, the tile we needed to replace is not being sold anymore so we have to make multiple trips to several home improvement and florring stores to find tile that matched nearly perfectly. That is an enormous job. But, we finally found that pieces that work the best and match perfectly!

After about 4 tries with the oddly cut tile (and as many trips to Lowes and also several facetime contacts with my brother-in-law who has an eye for this type of stuff) we finally got it. Then, we discovered that some of the pieces of tile needed to go underneath the dishwasher (just a small sliver, but still, that is very important!)so Mark had to figure out how to uninstall a dishwasher, and then install it back once we were done. Thankfully, the dishwasher situation wasn't as complicated as uninstalling it to lay tile, as we discovered the only thing we needed to do was unscrew the the bottom part. By Sunday of last week, the tile was finally finished. And it looks great! I am very proud of my husband, because DIY projects around the house or otherwise are seriously not his thing, but he did such a fabulous job.

The next big job to tackle was the highest part of our ceiling directly above the stairs. There had been some water damage due to a leak several years earlier that had been fixed. The leak was fixed, but a small part of the ceiling was damaged because of it. My uncle came over with a 14 foot ladder to repair it. He had to sand it down, texture and paint it up to 6 times. He was there from 7am-8pm last Saturday while we were out of town. To say we are immensely grateful would be an understatement. That was the one thing that we were most concerned about getting fixed because of where it was. It is virtually impossible to reach that part of the ceiling because of how high the ceiling is in conjunction of it being right over the stairs. I am still not sure how he did it, but it is greatly appreciated!!

We still have a couple of little cosmetic projects to be done around the house (touch up paint here and there, more in depth cleaning), and carpet cleaners are coming today...but then we are done. A photographer is coming by on Monday to take pictures of the house, then once those are taken, the house will officially go on the market. It is a little scary, nerve wracking, and exciting all at the same time. Our realtor warned us that it is only going to get more stressful from here, especially when we find a house and put a bid on it to buy. The good news is that there is no particular rush to sell the house by a certain time. We would like to be settled in anew house by next year, so we have the rest of this year and part of the next to figure out what we are doing!

Prayers are still appreciated! :)