Where have I been for the last 2+ years??

Where have I been for the last 2+ years??

In a word - REMODELING

In a sentence - Moving twice and fixing up 2 houses for sale.

How do I summarize almost 3 years worth of experiences? With a somewhat large blog post. (to follow)

So much has happened to my family and I'm not sure how to share everything that I've learned and how my family and I have changed in that time.

When we bought our first house, we fixed things up how we wanted it to be for our family. We had no intention of selling it or moving. We weren't interested in what some of my friends called a starter home. It didn’t have to be perfect, it just needed to be a safe place where could raise our kids. We could make it into what we wanted over time. We just wanted our kids to have roots. Both my Sweetie and I had moved around a lot since we were military brats, and now we just wanted to stay put.

Then came the itch. That itch that just happens, in the middle of your back, right between your shoulder blades and you can’t reach it to scratch it. It drives you crazy and just won’t go away. Both of us just felt the itch to move. If you are a military brat you know what I am talking about, the urge to pick up and go. New location, culture, people and food; all waiting to be explored and discovered.

This was hard for our children. We had successfully stayed put long enough that our kids had only ever known one home and one general set of people. Now we have taken our kids on road trips but its not the same a moving. At the end of the trips we always came back home, to the same street, same house and their same beds. I don’t think some of them really understood that we really were moving until we were loading the moving truck. Then some of them had to scramble to put their things in boxes and onto the truck.

My Sweetie and I shook our heads in disbelief, “we said we were moving and that they needed to pack.” We gave our kids plenty of notice unlike the three or less months we were usually given as kids. In hindsight, I think that was the problem. It took too long to happen, so it wasn't real. They had no memories of ever moving and some of our kids had never moved before. They didn’t move every 2-3 years like their parents had as children. So when we told them, “we are moving” we could have said “the moon is made out of cheese” and it would have seemed just as real to them as “we are moving”. Our experiences effect our perspective and our children had no experience with moving.

Except this was not just one move. I have a sister I will call “The Icebox" and they needed some help fixing up their home so they could sell it.  So my Sweetie and I spent the next two years using the skills we had learned fixing up our old house and learned even more skills to fix up their home. Building and repairing kitchen cabinets. Scraping off popcorn ceilings then skimming ceilings and walls, cutting and polishing granite counter-tops, installing overhead lighting, new tile and flooring; the list could go on.

At the end of those two years we were tired and definitely ready to move again. Except this time our kids were ready to move as well. They had made new friends, discovered a new city and music and had some very neat experiences and some bad experiences as well. All the good and bad that comes from living life and discovering a new place.

Now we are in our new to us home. Starting all over again in a new city, culture, music, people and food.  We moved from the Rockies all the way to the Music City. Our kids are learning new things about the culture of the area we live in; some good, some bad just like everywhere else. It's the beginning of another adventure.

The following pictures are taken before any restoration work has taken place.

Wonderful wallpaper and years worth of grease drippings. Turned into the following when all was said and done.

  

While remodeling your home can have definite benefits, namely it's done how you want it, it takes time. We were blessed by my sister and her husband's willingness to share their house until this (hopefully) final move (maybe not). In return we were able to help them update their place and we learned more skills in the process.

The reader assumes all risk in attempting any DIY projects inspired by this post. Old Timers Habits isn't liable in any way for learning, calluses, sore muscles, dropped hammers (regardless of where they land), spilled paint, or spilled milk.