Renovation Reality Check

Raise your hand if you are crazy enough to take on a complicated living room renovation two weeks before Thanksgiving.  Hello, anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Oh, I see a hand in the air.  Wait… it’s MINE!  I’m the insane person who decided to renovate the living room in time for a house full of guests the week of Thanksgiving.  New gas burning fireplace, custom bookcases, new television, tile, hearth piece, furniture arrangement, painting…

That, my friends, is insanity.

Welcome to my world. 

Instead of cleaning and getting ready for Thanksgiving, I’ve been visiting tile shops (four of them so far and I still don’t have the perfect tile in my hands…), choosing hearthstones with a granite salesperson that make the stereotypical used car salesman pale in comparision, dealing with a slightly grumpy contractor, choosing our new television (a gift from my deceased father-in-law), clearing out the room, finding cheap slipcovers, picking out a gas fireplace, and testing new furniture arrangements. 

Can I be honest? 

I’m loving it.  

I feel so lucky we are able to have this done for our family.  It will make our house even more of a home, and allow our kids to play safely in the space.  I’m in love with the new furniture arrangement already and can’t believe we didn’t do this five years ago.  Noodle will no longer have glass doors to play with and Bee won’t have to roll into a brick hearth.  Wires will be safely tucked away behind the wall.  And it all starts tomorrow when the electrician arrives at 9AM.

Will it be finished before my family arrives for Thanksgiving?  Probably not, but I think the major pieces will be in place.  Aesthetically it won’t yet be perfect, but if all goes well we’ll have a fireplace that works and a television to watch the big turkey-day games.

Here’s goes nothing.  Or everything, depending on how you look at it.  If you need me I’ll be the one with sawdust in my hair and paint on my hands and {hopefully} a smile on my face.