Peeling that Onion

by Rumour Miller on March 20, 2014

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When Craig and I moved our family in the fall, we took up residence in my sister’s house. Her cute little house that is far too small for our family of five.  We trip over each other and all of our stuff.  At least the stuff we have in the house with us, since most of our stuff remains in storage.

Looking for housing here has been a daunting task.  The last thing I wanted was to spend a lot of money on a fixer upper.  I had no desire or intention to get involved in anything like that.  I told Craig the only way I would even consider it is if we found something dirt cheap.

I would soon eat my words.

We found a house for dirt cheap that needed some work.  Mostly in the kitchen and bathroom.  This spring the shingles need to be done.

Here is what the kitchen once looked like….
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My Dad tore out the cupboards for us and then we got to work taking down the tile. The tile that was over the linoleum on the walls. The linoleum that was over the plaster and lath. What HAD I gotten myself into.

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But as we peeled at this onion, we found more hardwood flooring. Initially quite excited thinking we could sand it and keep the original hardwood in the kitchen. Would make for some nice flooring and would match the rest of the flooring in the house.

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We literally gutted the kitchen and the bathroom. Starting almost from scratch.

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But that hardwood flooring in the kitchen is not going to see the light of day when we are done. Too much damage done from nails, screws and glue. It’s a shame, but my heart isn’t broken.

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This is an adventure that I did not see myself on this year. Another item to scratch off my bucket list. We are doing much of this work ourselves with some help from my Dad who has been making trips to the dump and taking out cupboards for us. And help from my Mom who has been watching the girls so we can work at the house and making supper for us so we can have a good meal at the end of the day.

We have now hired a contractor to help us reconstruct the kitchen and the bathroom. We intend to finish he basement and turn the back porch into a mud room. My kitchen cabinets and appliances should be arriving next week and I am very excited to be on this little roller coaster. I’m sure the girls would beg to differ as this hasn’t been much fun for them. They are, however, looking forward to us having our own space again and pulling our stuff out of storage.

I am too.

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