If You Give a Mouse a Cookie......

or If You Give My Husband a Disaster!!!!

Why things always tend to happen when Toby is on the back side of a mountain in some third world country where Internet is sparse and cell phone service nonexistent, I have no clue!!!! It just does!!!!!

Toby was on one of these excursions on the first Saturday of December and I was trying to sleep in a little, when I kept being disturbed by the sound of what I thought was a bathroom vent fan. Thinking that one of the kids had left the vent on overnight, I went to cut off it off and hoped to return to my cozy bed. I checked every bathroom and could not find any fans running, but I did notice that the sound got louder in my stairwell. I put my ear to the wall and heard water running! Immediately called a plumber friend and thankfully he could be reached. He gave me the bad news....a pipe had burst under the foundation and the house would have to be re-plumbed!

Toby returns from his trip and decides that since we are going to have holes in the walls and ceilings why not just go ahead and do some projects that we had wanted to do. We were without water for a week and a half, while they cut holes in walls and ceilings and re-plumbed the house. Since then, there have been carpenters, painters, plumbers, cabinet builders, and floor guys in and out of the house daily. We have a projected completion date of the middle of January.

List of projects:

• house re-plumbed
• holes in walls and ceiling fixed
• extra cabinets in the kitchen
• all new appliances...so they all are the same color
• new light fixtures throughout the downstairs
• new sink and faucet in kitchen
• granite counter tops
• double oven installed
• new table in kitchen to seat everyone
• cabinets and double lavatories in the boy's bathroom
• new tub in girl's bathroom
• new floor tile in both bathrooms
• built in bookcase put back up and fixed from having to be torn down for re-plumbing
• ceilings in kitchen and sun room scraped, repaired, and painted
• pool refurbished

I hope I haven't forgotten something. Right now I am sick of people being in my house and all the mess. There is not one room in my house that is not messed up due to all the stuff having to be pulled out because of renovations. I know it will be worth it in the end, and I do have an excuse for my house looking like this, but I am tired. I will post pictures after it is all complete!

Hoping that once this is over, Toby will stay home for awhile and we can clean house!