what I am thankful for...

A BATHROOM! That's right, today was the day. Last night we came home to MC battling with the shower. When he finished at around 9 PM we hastily asked if we could take showers, and he told us we had to wait until the caulk dried. The entire night seemed to mock the Christmas Eves of our childhoods. Instead of toys, it was the anticipation of a hot shower that made it hard to fall asleep.

This morning we woke up at 6 AM to get a head start to Pville, as we decided between having no heat and a dysfunctional kitchen that that was the best idea for Thanksgiving. Waking up has never been so easy. Although the temperature INSIDE our house had plummeted to 37 degrees which is just an unacceptable temperature for an interior- we both hopped out of bed with ease at the prospect of a usable bathroom.

By far... the best shower... EVER

T minus 2 days

Yes, that's right, the bathroom is going to be finished THIS WEEK.

Yesterday the bathroom was ready for paint. After we got home from work we painted the bathroom. Paitning included priming the walls AND ceiling with 2 coats of KILZ and then painting two coats of the paint color on the ceiling and walls. Not only is one night an extremely short amount of time to paint 4 coats of paint and ensure they all dry thoroughly as to not mess up the next coat, but it was raining outside which doesn't help. We spent all night painting with 2 heaters blasting. Luckily it worked out, and truth be told we enjoyed our manufactured balmy microclimate.

Here is the bathroom after primer:

The bathroom color revealed:

News Update: Bathroom Tile Is In

That's right folks... it's really happening!

(slate floor)

(floor again)

(shower)

(vanity wall & hook ups)

(KCA modeling our tile)

Breaking News: Bathroom Drywall Is In

The bathroom is finally more than an empty shell.... that's right... we are expecting to have a bathroom by the end of the week!!!

(future shower)

(floor & wall where vanity will be)

(floor)

(where toilet & tub will be)

(corner where tub will go)

it's laundry time!

We finally have laundry! That's right, no more awkward trips to RR's house to throw in a load and then take off for work. Afterall, now that we live 30 miles away the "I was in the area and just happen to have a hamper of dirty laundry in my backseat" excuse is starting to get old.

My awesome parents gave us their extra set of laundy appliances. We drove to Pville late last night, loaded them up into KCA's car and drove back with it all today.

I forgot how amazing it is to be able to do laundry whenever you want. FYI, if you want to do something with us this Saturday, or any Saturday for the next two months, odds are, we're busy doing laundry.

Rub a dub dub...

life without a shower or a tub...

The bathroom in our house, as you remember, needed to be gutted. Our bathroom, after 6 weeks, is STILL gutted. Thanks to a series of setbacks, including both waiting on bureaucracy to do it's job and send an inspector out, and 7 days of MC being MIA, we are living with no working bathroom on the main level. In the lower level there is a bathroom, however it only contains a toilet and a sink. It is also located at the furthest possible point from our bedroom which makes for a bad middle of the night bathroom.

After only 5 days of living in our house, it was apparent that this whole no way to bathe thing was going to be trickier than we first anticipated. While we are creative and resourceful enough to find ways to shower  at friends houses or places such as at 24 hr fitness... this is clearly something that while funny at first, loses it's charm after oh.... 5 days.

We convinced MC to hook up the toilet temporarily, and to hook the bathtub to a drain so that we could at least have a draining bathtub, even if it wasn't hooked up to any other plumbing.

This has led to a more convenient, in ways, but much more archaic mode of bathing. We have taken to boiling pots of water on the stove and then filling the bathtub with enough water to even constitute calling it a bath and managing to clean off before the water's temperature plunges. Without heat, and considering the fact that it is November and our bathroom is gutted and has no insulation, this happens rather quickly.

the bathroom in it's current state:

desperate times...

call for desperate measures... it's true...

our desperate times include a plethora of things:

1. no shower or bathtub with plumbing
2. no heat
3. no insulation
4. exposed walls

So what exactly are my desperate measures. Onsies. Yes, what started as a joke has now become my only hope to not freeze as I brave the tundra that is our house. I purchased my lime green with orange and red dinosaur print onsies (complete with feet) at Target a few years back as part of a Halloween costume. At that time, and not too different from most of the time, I was the youngest of all the people at my workplace. I decided after countless "baby" jokes, I would indeed show up to work on Halloween in footsy pajamas and a pacifire on a string around my neck. What started out as comic relief has now become my sole source of warmth. Without heat or insulation, and with several exposed walls and no way to take a shower to warm up, I faithfully step into and zip up my footsy pjs nightly.

I will only leave you proof of this in the form of the picture of my feet below. Some of you have yet to meet me in person and I knew that if I posted a full picture of the pjs there might be no chance of ever having a respectable conversation with me, or at the very least, make it a bit harder.

Is something burning?

Tonight I decided that when I got home from work I was just going to pop in a frozen pizza, crack open some beers and we would just try to unwind as much as possible while taking into consideration our indoor camping lifestyle. KCA was really hungry so she asked if she could preheat the oven before I got home, and I told her to go for it...

When I got home we talked for a bit and as we were talking I laid the pizza, still in it's box, on top of the stove. I turned around to talk to KCA and she saw smoke coming up from the stove. She told me to take the pizza off the stove because it was starting to burn and I quickly removed it, but when I picked up the box even more smoke came out of the oven. This did not make sense. It was clearly not coming from the box or from the stove top, it was coming from the oven. "Do you smell that?" I said to KCA. "Yeah, something's burning." I opened the stove to find a small FIRE. "Did you take out the manual?!?!" I said. "Oh NO! There was a manual in there?" KCA responded "Yes!" I said.

Without thinking about it I reached into the oven and pulled out the manual still on fire and surrounded by melted plastic from it's packaging. I threw it into the sink but it left a HUGE mess in the oven. Needless to say we did not end up making the pizza in the oven. Instead I mocrowaved an oven-bake pizza while I scraped plastic out of our oven with a razor blade.

Camping... Inside

Our life, as KCA explains it to me, is much like camping. I cannot confirm this myself as I did not grow up camping, but like I've mentioned before, if this is what camping is like, I don't know that I'm interested. I'm kidding, but it's true that it takes a certain amount of patience, and a toughness that cannot be taught in any sort of exercise that involves pitching a fort in the backyard but moving inside when it's cold at night.

No, much like camping, there is no refuge from the state of our house. We wake up in the morning and it's freezing. We head to the future dining room where there is a couple of dusty chairs and a coffee table and KCA sits while I make eggs that seem to always go cold on the walk between the stove and the table. We eat them with plastic spoons, yes we don't have forks and have failed at all attempts to locate our silverware in the great abyss of our boxes. After spooning our scrambled eggs down, KCA washes our pan with cold water in the sink using a wash cloth. Then we head to our bedroom to get dressed in the cold and put on clothes that while appear to be clean, kind of feel dusty. Everything feels dusty, even the dogs.

We only have a few working lamps that don't provide nearly enough light within the dark paneled walls and thanks to the shortly arriving daylight savings it is dark when we wake up and dark by the time we get home. We have no heat... no internet... no television... and few of our belongings unpacked. When we are not at work or class, we are doing house projects. 

I don't say any of this to complain but only to serve as a reminder to myself in the future and to explain to you just explain exactly how hard this is.  Living in a house under construction to this extent must be similar to the expectations of parenting. Everyone tells you how hard it is, but until you do it.. you really have no idea. (so I've been told).

This process has been intresting for sure. It is definitely exciting, and rewarding, and yes it does fulfill every HGTV fantasy I've ever had- but it is definitely an abrupt lifestyle change.

The great part of this is also not only that we get to have a great house in the end, but KCA and I have realized that we really do work well together. Even more importantly, we have both been able to see the humor in this and as a result have had several moments that result in laughter and an even closer bond.

Our current bedroom/ future guest room:

(note the old bed sheets for curtains... chic)

(we're forced to share closet space for the first time)