Renovations Always Take Longer Than Planned
One month later and the end is nowhere in sight
It’s been four weeks and two days that I’ve been back in Idaho. Four weeks since we unpacked the UHaul. Four weeks since we picked up the flooring for the house and tiles for the bathroom. Four weeks of cleaning and scrubbing and painting and unpacking and bouncing around between places to sleep. Four weeks without heat. Four full weeks and two days.
It’s not as dire as it sounds, but it is surprising. I thought this would be so easy. Paint the walls, lay down flooring, move in. But I had no idea how much work the house would really need. Completely naïve. But if we had known, would we have done it? Innocence affords a hope not always present with experience. Here we are. Four weeks in. Celebrating our successes and moving around our setbacks.
When you last saw me (in a video), I was struggling to remove 20-year-old contact paper from 19 shelves and 17 drawers. Some of you offered good suggestions, which I appreciated. In the end, the only thing that worked was heat. There were a couple suggestions in this regard, and I went with Tom’s (after he Googled the problem) and used a hair dryer. Good thing I have a small, lightweight hair dryer because it was still quite a bit of work!
Then all those shelves, cabinets, and drawers needed to be painted. Knobs and pulls needed to be cleaned and shined. Tom’s sister offered a neat trick that their Grandma used, which helped a lot. (it’s in the video) In the end though, there are still 6 that are beyond hope. I finally broke down and ordered new replacements (that don’t match, oh well).
The bathroom is almost done. Our shower is installed and it looks GREAT! I love how the tile turned out. But we still don’t have the shower curtain rod installed so… it remains unused. The floor tiles also make me very happy, as well as our vanity sink faucet and the tub faucet (both “waterfall” design). Then there’s the toilet.
I was SO excited for our toilet! I had to learn a LOT about toilets to purchase what I wanted. Rough-in measurements, bolt holes, t-valves, and flanges. The challenges and the excitement arose from the same thing: a bidet seat.
You remember at the start of the pandemic in 2020 when there was a toilet paper shortage in the States? Well, I was in Sicily, using a bidet. For four months. And once you’ve used a bidet regularly, there’s no going back. Good friends gifted me with a Tushy that attaches to your current toilet seat. This is fabulous and a great starter bidet. Guests always commented on it, which is a good sign.
Here in Idaho where the temps are cold all year long (at least during the night and in the mornings) and winter can last until May, I decided to up the bidet game. All-in-one toilet bidets start around $800 and can go as high as $3,000. Completely out of our price range. So, the trick was to purchase a toilet that would fit in our tiny bathroom (and conserve water and look new because why buy a new toilet if it looks like your old one?) AND was compatible with a bidet seat. Which required even more research. Why did I mention cold nights and winters? Because I also wanted a seat that was heated. Yes, heated. This seems extravagant to Tom, and maybe to you as well, but I absolutely hate sitting on a cold toilet seat in the middle of a cold night!! And, I found one with all the features I wanted for just $217: Alpha Wave GX.
Long story short: I was sick with Covid when the plumber came and he installed the toilet but not the seat, basically telling Tom, “it’s so easy, anyone can do it.” Well… because our new toilet is skirted, the seat needed to be installed BEFORE the toilet was sealed to the floor, otherwise it is extremely difficult to install. Now the plumber needs to return not just to install our seat—as was the original plan—but, it turns out, to fix the toilet he installed incorrectly. It’s a dual flush and only one flush works. (palm to face, shake my head) But hey, at least we have a toilet.
And we finally have a kitchen. Mostly. Cabinets are clean, painted, and full. The floor looks awful but was actually hand-scrubbed by me with the TSP grease-cutting cleaner. The walls and ceiling are painted. My electric teakettle is working, my old oak table is in, we have a toaster oven, and the old fridge (which took a LONG time to clean). We do not, however, have a stove. But it’s coming…
The gas was turned on last Friday – hooray!! Because I was still awfully sick, we were staying in a hotel for a few nights (see above – camping is never fun when you’re sick, even when you’re inside a structure). So we didn’t discover until Saturday that our furnace was not working. A heating guy came out on Monday (amazingly quick) and after an hour told us it wasn’t the furnace – it’s an electrical problem. When an electrician can get here is anyone’s guess – they are seriously overworked in this valley. Luckily, we have one small space heater for the bedroom, good blankets, flannel sheets, and body heat.
Oh yes, the bedroom. I was so excited to order this dramatic wallpaper that I had seen all over Instagram:
We got the sample, Tom liked it, so I ordered. 8 feet high by 119 inches width. Only $69, fantastic! What arrived, however, was one single panel. One.
I went back to the site and realized it “suggests” for a 10’ width to order 7 panels. Suggests?? Not “this is what you need and when you place this is your cart you will be ordering exactly the length you need?” Seven panels, btw, is $485. Whoa! Even with 40% off, that $291. For one wall. Yes, I really like it but not for that price. We’re both bummed and I hate losing $69 to a mistake but… A gallon of paint was much cheaper. Not as exciting but we’ll live with it.
More importantly, remember all that flooring we purchased? Four weeks later and none of it is installed. Bedroom was to be the first done but when we removed the baseboards and discovered one wall stops an inch short of the floor… we got stumped. And, again, I was sick. Desperate to sleep in my own bed, we finally set it up and decided we’ll do the floor later. At this point, seriously, maybe by Christmas?
As Tom said laughing, after discovering the truck battery had died, “If it weren’t for bad luck, we’d have no luck at all.”
Everyone who told us renovations always take longer than planned was right.
AND we are still laughing. It’s incredibly hard for me to believe how much has happened in just 3 months. But here I am and I’m happy. The valley is beautiful and I’m glad to be here with Tom, our old dog Leo, and Mazie settling in. Every setback we’ve had, every problem we’ve encountered, is truly a problem of privilege. We are fortunate to have a home to work on. Fortunate to have funds for materials. Fortunate, even when I have Covid, to have our health.
Every day is a gift.
Below is a 9-minute video update, also available on YouTube (but for some reason won’t embed here). If you like watching videos on your computer or TV, I hope you’ll subscribe to my channel. Includes footage of the valley and mountains, as some of you were wondering what this area of Idaho looks like. :)
Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post and left a comment or voted in the poll. Here are the final results of a man’s reaction to home:
38% Just need a comfortable chair
27% All the details matter
19% Backyard & patio are my domain
15% Cares about a specific room
Which I think pretty much challenges the stereotype that men don’t care. Granted, less than 30 of you responded (not exactly a huge sampling) but the additional comments seem to support this idea as well. If you didn’t get a chance to participate, the poll is now closed but you can still leave a comment and I hope you will!
Glad u arw laughing. Your place looks beautiful! I’m just recovering from covid (round 2 for me) too. Hugs. Love. Peace!
You both look darn happy!