The Last Bit

Once the painting was finished there wasn't a lot left to do. I put together some flooring right inside the living room doorway—it was pretty easy: cut, peel, and stick.

cutting the flooring

and putting it in place

This was in preparation for the new carpet that was coming on Monday (the 5th)! I know I said I would never have carpet again, but I also know you should never speak in absolutes.  ;-) Someone—another man from Brother Pond's ward—donated new carpet, and they carpeted the living room and stairs and the new addition—Brandon & Ryan's new room, my new sewing room!, and the . . . (What should we call that other space? The Wenzell Wing? Maybe the Pond Room?). I actually love the carpet. So maybe I didn't need to give up on carpet altogether, but just have some that was nice-looking. :-)

the carpet guys, working on the stairway

My poor old piano was banished to the cold front porch for six hours while the carpet was installed. It is looking in at my new sewing-room window saying, "Please let me back in! I am already terribly out-of-tune." :-(

Once the piano was back in the house I took it all apart—yep, even removed the keys—and cleaned it out. No more pet hair or cobwebs.  (Don't try this at home kids!) 

And then I favored my kids with "Linus and Lucy" (the Peanuts theme) because the piano sounds different and is way cool to watch when it's completely opened up. :-)

I was a little disappointed that Bruce and I never did tear out and re-do the fireplace before this unexpected construction project, but an amazing thing happened: With the new carpet color I found that the fireplace isn't nearly as obnoxious as I used to think it was. In fact, it looks pretty good. Yay!

So all of the construction was done on Monday, January 5. Well, not all. They did come back a few days later and replace the old garage window (in the boys' new room) with a good window. :-)

Tom, removing the old aluminum-framed, single-paned window.

Anyway, on the 6th the kids and Bruce all went back to school, but I still had time off and a house to put back together. So I took the couches and furniture back to the living room—after cleaning everything within an inch of its life—and made the room utterly beautiful.

Before —waaaayyy before, when we took out the old carpet.

And now.
Seriously, this off-kilter photo doesn't do it justice. 

That evening I instated a new law: The living room must be perfectly clean every night before bedtime. So far it's gone pretty well; no family criminals yet.

Throughout the week (of Jan. 5) Brandon and Ryan worked on moving their bedroom, and I worked on moving into my sewing room. Their room looks pretty good—and still clean! My room needs some work (shelves will do wonders, I know.) We're also still organizing the . . . other space. I'll post pictures of the finished rooms when they are decent.

This is the new sewing room—before I brought all of my stuff into it. With everything in it, it really does need some shelves!

And here I am, sorting through boxes and boxes and boxes 
of  fabrics and fur in the . . .
. . . anteroom?

And now Lindsey is working on moving in to her new bedroom (formerly Brandon and Ryan's room). It needed some major cleaning  and a paint job—which is still in the works. I want to paint her ugly, old dresser too, but I might have a mutiny—Bruce and Lindsey are anxious to get her moved into her new room.  We'll see.

This is what the boys left behind after they took everything they wanted from their old room. Yuck! (Yes, I made them clean it out.)

This is what the boys' new room looks like now, today. Pretty good—although there's a little stuff on the floor by the beds (which we will have to discuss).

Lindsey and her friend Michaela, painting her room.

Painting the bedroom door

So it's been an exciting holiday for our family. Really exciting. And it's still going on! So I'll post pictures of Lindsey's room too, when it's finished.