Wanna buy a house???

Presenting our beautifully remodeled home…..

the family room

the music studio

the northeast bedroom

the northwest bedroom (or the freezer room)

the living room

the dining room / kitchen

my sewing room

the office

master bedroom

I didn't include the bathrooms because I already posted a photo of the main one and the other two still have things to be done. Actually, there are still other small things that need to be done throughout the interior and there are still the exterior projects (deck, garage ceiling, replace back door in garage, painting the outside of the house) but they will have to wait until the stay-at-home mandate has been lifted - currently at the end of April.  It was set in place this past week and our contractor, James, will not be coming until we are given the “all clear” - whenever that will be. I contacted our real estate agent as soon as I heard about the mandate to see if we wanted to list even with projects undone and he replied that the market is "very, very slow" right now and we can wait - again until the world (and the economy) starts moving again...maybe by the end of April but who actually knows??? So, the intense, daily push to work on the house has suddenly gone away. After Monday, when the carpet was installed (one of the BIG pushes), we now find ourselves in a state of calm. And, while I wish we were listing the house this coming week, it is kind of nice to have a long breather. The Music Suite has closed its doors during this period so I have two extra free afternoons. We have watched movies every evening (The Village, Signs, Arrival, 2012, and the first 3 episodes of Picard), we have taken afternoon naps without setting an alarm - it has been lovely. We finished the last bit of living room painting

and we have put away all the repair/remodel/painting stuff that has been laying around these past two months. We cleaned the garage and moved all of James's tools that had been strewn about into one corner and now we can actually park our car inside for the first time since Christmas!

I was able to get out in the yard in between the rainy days to pull up invasive honeysuckle and plant some grass seed by our downstairs back door. I listed on Facebook Marketplace the 110 retaining wall bricks we had used for planting areas

and someone snapped them right up and collected them over a period of two days (again, in between rain storms). So, now I can move dirt around where the bricks were and plant more grass seed. However, in spite of all these benefits, April is going to be a LONG month....

I think some robin is going to agree. She keeps wanting to build a nest right above our front door and every day last week, I have pulled down her work.

Finally I mentioned it on a family Marco Polo and Emily suggested I put bricks up above the door so I did. So far, so good. Although I did notice a robin hovering in our redbud tree yesterday looking kind of disgruntled...

My parting shot is of Elise and Bacon at Steven and Tamara's house last Sunday.

"Happy" Spring

What a week!  As the world around us rapidly sinks into chaos because of a stupid, tiny virus, our world here at 3305 Parker St. is climbing out of the chaos it has been in for the last two months.  Steve and I painted every day in a huge final push and, with the exception of the living room and the top of the entryway,  all the interior rooms are finished!  We couldn't do the living room until after the windows were installed on Friday and James is going to paint the upper part of the entry because it is too high for either Steve or me to tackle.  James was dealing with sickness (his own and his wife's) the first part of the week so we didn't even see him until the latter half of Wednesday.  He finally finished laying the downstairs bathroom floor and then spent Friday and yesterday even (he usually doesn't work on Saturdays) cutting and installing all the baseboard molding in all the downstairs rooms because tomorrow - March 23rd - is when the downstairs carpet gets installed.  At least, it was still going to happen as of Friday afternoon.  I am still holding my breath that they don't cancel due to that stupid virus.  Once we get carpet and we paint the living room first part of this coming week, I will post pictures of everything we have done so far.  And, this whole remodeling endeavor is still not completed.  There are some interior odds and ends to finish and we still have the exterior of the house to paint, the deck to repair, the garage ceiling to repair, and the yard to bring into shape.  I had hoped for an April 1st real estate listing but we won't be ready and, given current conditions, I'm not sure there would be anyone to even look at the place, much less be ready to buy.   

Two photos below - Steve at the Home Depot this past week.  We have made SO many trips to hardware stores!  Home Depot, Lowes, and, my personal favorite, Menards (because they have the absolute best selection of everything).  And our poor, ugly front yard - still scarred from the foundation repair.  Happily, I have found someone who can help me get it into shape for a reasonable price.

Besides painting, we did do a handful of other activities.  Steve and I visited with a dietician Wednesday morning and received some very useful lists and charts for a low potassium diet.  I reported for work at the Music Suite both Wednesday and Thursday but only stayed for about an hour and a half each day.  I was not needed to mind the store while Pat taught piano lessons because all her students cancelled.  My Friday cello student cancelled because she has a broken arm.  We watched the movie "The Aeronauts" and, because I am extremely uncomfortable with heights, it was kind of a stressful watch for me.  Still a good movie.  We also watched the two-hour first episode of Deep Space Nine over two evenings.  And, of course there is Jeopardy every afternoon at 4:00 to watch!

In spite of all the bad things going on around us, I am still very grateful for all my blessings

1.  that Steve and I are still healthy and able to handle all the physical demands of remodeling
2.  all our children are forging through this crisis with mostly positive attitudes.
3.  all our children are making efforts to communicate with us and with each other
4.  for two wonderful women who helped me paint this week - Betty Stow came over Tuesday afternoon and Tracie Downs came Thursday morning.
5.  that we have enough toilet paper (!) and food
6.  that we are not still on our mission during this craziness.  As I took the photo of the forsythia, I was reminded of the yellow blooming palo verde that were the "forsythia of the desert".  Our mission was so great but right now is a challenging time for missionaries - being sent home early, having to stay in their apartments.  I can't imagine the stress of working in the mission office at this time.
7.  for SPRING!

The New Normal

It is funny how you start a week one way and, by the end of that week, your world has turned upside down.  You think I am talking about the Covid-19 spread and all the precautionary measures being taken to prevent its spread, right?  Well, in part, yes.  This week has been so surreal in that regard.  EVERY DAY some new thing happened....I can't say that the sports cancellations or Broadway shutting down really has an impact upon my life but to not have Sunday church meetings indefinitely is huge for me.  We are retired but our kids are not and will they be able to financially support themselves during all of this?  Especially our daughters in the food service industry.  To go to Aldi on a Thursday morning and find the store slammed with folks pushing around full grocery carts and having to wait in a long line to check out - on a THURSDAY morning!!!  Yes, I have enough toilet paper.  We will be fine with food - heck, our freezer is already too full of meat that will need to be gone by the time we move.  Steve has enough insulin for a couple of weeks. 

No, what I am talking about is that on Monday morning, Steve went to a routine doctor appointment and by that night, he was in the hospital!  His potassium and creatinine levels from bloodwork taken the Friday before in preparation for his exam were dangerously high and they were still high when they took more blood at the doctor's office.  After he got home and we had lunch, Steve came into the bedroom where we were preparing to take a nap before I had a cello lesson to teach to say "Dr. LeFever's office called and he wants me to go to the ER".  I thought he was pulling my leg.  And then I asked "right now???"  I was sleepy and I didn't want to cancel my lesson.  He said that it just needed to happen today.  So, two hours later, we went not knowing what to expect.  Steve felt fine.  We didn't know the seriousness of his high blood levels.  Well, he was in for four days!   He started out on the floor but they moved him up to a step-down unit because of his frequent blood draws and EKGs and so he could be hooked up to a heart monitor.  High potassium effects the heart.  His high creatinine meant his kidneys were not functioning properly - they were not able to filter out the potassium in his system.  So, after four days of trying to bring his levels down, of ultrasounds, of nephrology consults, it was determined that lisinopril that he takes for his blood pressure medicine and the metformin he takes for diabetes, and all the NSAIDs he takes every night for his restless leg and neuropathy (because the prescription meds for those conditions sometimes wear off too soon) PLUS the fact that he doesn't drink enough water all combined to affect his kidneys and send him to the hospital.  He came home with new meds and a new low-potassium diet that, frankly, is as daunting as the gluten-free diet.  We will schedule a dietician consult that will hopefully happen next week.   As I said, Steve felt fine through all of this ordeal so being in the hospital was annoying.  He was hooked up to so many things that he couldn't comfortably sleep.  Just going to the bathroom was a multi-step process.  And, the hospital didn't have the HGTV channel!!!!!!!


In the meantime, I would go up in the morning to be there when the doctors made rounds.  I went up again in the evening.  And, I painted the rest of the time.  Well, not ALL the time but I got the entryway done and I did touch-up where I got gray paint on the molding downstairs.  Yesterday, we started painting the last room downstairs.  Starting with the ceilings.  Where I learned last week that you should wear protective eyewear when painting.  I can't wear my regular glasses when I paint because they have progressive lenses - meaning I have to tilt my head back in order to see the close-up area being painted.  So, as I painted my first ceiling last Wednesday night, sans glasses, a big blob of paint dropped into my right eye!  Oh my goodness!  I dashed up to the kitchen sink to begin rinsing.  I jumped into the shower to continue rinsing.  And, I finally remembered the eyewash cup my mom had given me decades ago and used that to finish rinsing while I called the after-hours nurse and ultimately Poison Control to see what more I had to do.  Happily, nothing.  And, at my routine doctor appointment the next day, I had my eye checked and it was fine.  Here is a photo of my eyewash cup.  Every first aid kit should have one!



Anyway, back to home repairs report:  Ricky picked up the windows we ordered for the living room and he will install them this coming Friday.  We still have the three upstairs bedrooms, the hall, and the living room to paint.  James is working on the downstairs bathroom floor after finishing the flooring in our half-bath off our bedroom.  The toilet is now out of the hallway and back where it belongs - yay.  The kitchen/dining room floor is down.  He hauled all the construction trash out of the garage on Friday.  But, his work has been slow this week - he comes late and leaves early.  He was getting tires for his truck one day, he went home feeling poorly one day, his wife needs emotional support some days (they lost a son ten years ago to a terrible, preventable accident and they are still suffering).  In a way, his pace is helpful because it allows us to stay one step ahead of what he has to do so he is not waiting on us to finish painting something.  But, I fear my April 1st deadline will not happen.  And that is OK.  We ARE moving forward in the remodel and ultimately the house WILL be listed. 

With the coming of March, we have to start focusing again on getting the outside of the house in shape as well as the inside.  Last Saturday, a friend from church brought over his chainsaw and helped us finish pruning the fruit trees.  Our yard is now littered with branches. 

We had planned to get together on Wednesday to put everything on a trailer he was going to borrow and haul it all at once to the mulch site.  Well, Steve's hospital stay ended that plan - plus the weather got sloppy.  So, we took a "rain check" (ha ha, get it??) with our friend and the trailer.  

Our poor old bodies cannot paint 24/7 and they need recuperation time.  So, we watched three tear-jerker movies in the last three evenings.  First it was "Love, Kennedy" about a teenage girl fighting a terminal disease.  Then, it was "The Fighting Preacher" about a husband and wife called to live on the Smith farm in Palmyra soon after the church bought the property in the early 20th century and how they had to endure the hate and prejudice that persisted even eighty years after the Smith family had moved away and how they eventually won the hearts of the town.  Finally, we watched "Same Kind Of Different As Me" last night. 

We celebrated our daughter-in-law's birthday a week ago with chicken picatta, asparagus, fresh pineapple, and a key lime cheesecake.  Happy 40th, Tamara!



Also last weekend, I helped a woman in our church, who I am assigned to help, to go through all her storage totes.  She is somewhat mentally disabled and under the care of the state.  She WAS living on her own in an apartment but her failure to regulate her diet and blood sugars required her to move to assisted living at the end of December.  It was a rather sudden move and we were out of town so I could not help with packing.  As a result, it was packed horribly!  Most of her belongings were stuffed into tubs and put out on the property of her "boyfriend", Walter.  Weather prevented anyone getting out there later on to sort and re-pack until last Saturday.  Elizabeth Crippen and I drove Luana out there and between the three of us and Walter, we organized it all.  Much of it went to the trash or to be given away including her MANY little kaboodles that were stuffed with all kinds of travel-size items.  Can you tell she's a bit of a hoarder in that category?




I will close with photos of how our house looks right now....

Dining room before and after 

our living room

 The four basement rooms.....

This is my sewing room.  The clutter on the floor is waiting to go back into the closet which is vacant waiting for James to go into the attic to install an exterior vent for our bathroom fan

probably the most "normal" room in the house - our "office"

our bathroom still needing all the towel racks/ toilet paper holder installed

garage AFTER the trash was removed.  I wish I had taken a photo before...

February is finally over!

We awoke to snow again on Wednesday.  It was a light cover and it melted soon after the sun was up and it was really pretty on our walk.  This photo just doesn't do it justice....

I have good news about my work.  The other part-time employee is able to pick up my Tuesday shift from now on AND, I don't have to report to work on Wednesdays and Thursdays until 3:00 (instead of 2:00)  Meaning I have just reduced my work obligation in half - from twelve hours a week to just six!  I am SO relieved because it is now March and my timeline has us with just one month before we put the house up for sale.  I realize it might not be a realistic goal but I won't know that until the month progresses.  As of now, it seems possible.  Although if our contractor, James, continues to be sick, then we WILL have to reevaluate.  He was sick all last week of the flu.  He did come over for about two hours on Friday to pull the toilet from our bathroom so we can finally paint.  Here it sits in the hallway....

And, he finished painting the living room ceiling so we were able to pull off all the plastic sheeting covering the couches and the piano.  As far as our progress last week: we finished the downstairs bathroom, we painted the two big walls in the kitchen, and we prepped and started painting the sports room and the Noah's Ark room downstairs.  

Friday was a St. Louis temple day and we babysat the Southerland kids through Saturday as Joe had a presentation in Springfield and Emily had a girl's weekend in Potosi.  We got to see Emily for about an hour Friday after lunch before she left.  She had three pages of instructions and she had Friday dinner all ready to go (Aldi pizza including a gluten-free one!).  Larkin is still potty-training and she has an iron bladder so I think she only went on the toilet two times while we had her.  She had a double whammy accident in her panties after her nap on Friday and, per Emily's suggestion, we put her in a diaper for the drive to Columbia on Saturday morning.  We had to go to Columbia because I had a Civic Orchestra concert in the afternoon with a full two-hour rehearsal just before at noon.  We arrived at home at 11:00 and, thankfully Elise was able to come over to help Steve with the kids and a picnic at Stephen's Lake Park and to let me use her car to get to rehearsal.  The kids had a grand time at the park and they were very well behaved at the concert.  Steven was on hand by that time to also lend a hand and he ended up sitting at the front with Noah and Lucy (who both play string instruments and were very engaged with the music).  Larkin loves her Aunt Elise and she was happy to be in the back of the theater with her and Grandpa and Quinn.  Because our Honda Element only seats four, we drove the Southerland van back to Columbia so when Joe got back to Ballwin Saturday afternoon, he picked up our car and drove it to Columbia to get the kids as Emily was not going to be back until Sunday afternoon.  He was there when we got home from the concert.  After they all left, Steve and I had a wedding reception to attend, a friend to visit in the hospital, and a payment to make at Home Depot for some replacement living room windows.  Then, I had to make a dessert for today and I actually sat and watched a movie on Netflix (Faith, Hope, and Love) until 11:00 because I was just weary of doing things that I HAD to do and not able to do anything fun for me (well, the concert was pretty fun for me but you know what I mean).  

Parting shot from the concert....