Oh What a Day!

Today was one of THOSE days.  Really.  Those days.

We had one of my childhood best friends and her young family come and stay with us this weekend.  During clean up around the house for their arrival we must have somehow unplugged the dishwasher drain hose under the skin (it's supposed to have a clamp on it - our didn't for some reason).  Well sure enough the next day as my friend and I loaded the dishwasher and left the house we have no clue that for the next two hours, gallons and gallons and gallons of water was pouring out in the cabinet under my sink.

The kitchen is THE ONLY room in the house that completely survived the fire that was in this house before we purchased it.  Which is great because that meant we didn't have to replace it when we bought the house - but also bad because you never know when smell may or may not leak out of it.  We gave the kitchen a good scrub down three times before moving in and obviously, new paint.  But the laminate floor we didn't intent to replace right away - eventually we'd replace it with tile, but it was doing fine, why fix something that ain't broken?  We'll leave that for The Kitchen Project.

Well, guess what.  This weekend my kitchen decided it had had enough of being "left behind" while the rest of the house gets a pretty face lift.

So my friend and I return from a very successful Toys R Us shopping experience (I bought two of everything that was lost in the flood, 2 Sit N Stand strollers, 2 pack n plays, 2 excersaucers, 2 swings - one for our house, and one for the in-laws - where we and the kids spend a lot of our time) to find that my house smells like D-Day all over again.

D-Day was DEMOLITION DAY - first day when we got the keys to this house.  We had a demolition party.   All our friends and family came over and smashed walls, lugged out old bathroom stuff,  removed carpets, baseboards, curtains, and scrubbed the living daylights out of this house.  Then the real work started.  Removing all the ash out of the one downstairs room where the fire happened, and then paint whatever walls and 2x4s remained with this special B*I*N primer that seals in all smells that may remain even after the walls were removed and/or washed.  Anyways, it was "fun" and we are very thankful for the way our friends and family blessed us with their help that day.

So for a pregnant lady, who is nesting, who has just purchased brand new items for the baby, to walk into her pristine clean house (since we were having guest my house was in tip top shape) and to find that my worst fear was happening - THE SMELL OF SMOKE was back.

The water must have stirred something up under the cabinets, that were not removed, and under the laminate hardwood that was also not removed two years ago.  The joints of the laminate flooring were already bubbled and every time I stepped down somewhere close to the dishwasher, water came up through the joints of the laminate floor.  OH NO!

So this morning, my guests left yesterday, hubby tore up the whole kitchen.  He removed all the flooring, and moved all the cabinets and the dishwasher and the sink out.  Then on a separate project  he also cut out two big holes in the drywall (about 3x3 big) to find out another leaking problem in our house... our shower.  We can't finish the bathroom downstairs (which is located directly below our upstairs bathroom) until the tiny little leak that we have when we shower is found and fixed.  I think his logic was: If I'm redoing plumbing in the kitchen might as well fix the other plumbing problem in the house - totally understandable.

But this means that two rooms in my house which were done and both have nothing to do with the baby coming, are now also under renovation.

You can just imagine what this is doing to my "nesting".  I am trying to keep it together, thanking my hubby for really tackling all these things head on and really getting this house under control.  But I fear with less than two months to go - how will we get ALL of this done.

Oh wait.  That's not the end of my day.  So now that my kitchen is torn apart and all my counter top items - spices, spaghetti jar, knife block etc - has spilled into my dinning room, and all of Noah's craft items - brand new easel from IKEA, craft table with chairs - are now shoved into his bedroom and my bedroom has drywall dust all over the place... now I come home with Noah from his haircut to my hubby on the driveway telling us to stay out of the house.  He said our carbon dioxide detector is going off and he isn't feeling so well - headache and dizzy (he was working in there all day).  He suggested we call 911.  So we do and the fire department comes over.  They inspect the house while Noah and I check out the fire engine and Noah has his picture taken with it.

Oh what a day!

The fire department gave us the go ahead to come back in the house - a false alarm.  Hubby had even changed the batteries and everything before we called 911 and it was still going off.  So I'm not sure what that was...

It doesn't matter.  After the kind of day I've had today, a whale could appear on my driveway at midnight - and I wouldn't be surprised.

And to top it all off - wait for this!  Today is the first day that lovely KANKELS have made their appearance.  I just love fat ankles.  At least with Noah I had kankels only during the last month, with No. 2 it's the last 2 months.  Nice.

And my father-in-law and mother-in-law (my fabulous drop-off-Noah-anytime-and-if-you-don't-we'll-come-to-see/take-him-for-a-bit babysitters) are out on a camping trip THIS WHOLE WEEK!  Oh and just an update on my parents - they're still in Europe!

WOW.

Somehow I am still smiling and really being thankful for what I have or will have.   Like for example:

*I get new tiles in my kitchen.
*I get a new paint job in my master bedroom.
*The smell of smoke will now be gone for sure from the last place in the house that we didn't fix.
*My hubby is completely loving me by accommodating my nesting and encouraging me to purchase whatever I need for the baby, and fixing the house how I want, and I LOVE HIM SO MUCH for all of his hard work - I am so proud of him. 
*My house's square footage will double in the next two months (with the completion of The Basement Project at our raised ranch home)
*I have a toddler that listens to his mama - he is a really good boy - he didn't go into the kitchen all day today because mama told him not to because of the demolition/construction in there.
*Hubby said he has very good faith that The Basement Project WILL BE COMPLETED by the time the baby comes!
*I will have my very own studio downstairs for scrap booking/video editing/whatever creative way I want to express myself.
*We will have a fireplace
*We will get a nice new L.E.D. TV and new furniture
*All the artwork and black and white photography will finally be hung through-out our house
*God has provided a way for us to financially support all of these upgrades/renovations - praise GOD!

So there is so much to be thankful for.  So much.  I believe that God will continue to give hubby the strength that he needs to work and that in the end whatever will be done will be just great.  More than great.  Fantastic!