A Final Push

The last four weeks Ben took off work in a final attempt to move the needle forward faster on the house.

Week 1 – Kitchen Cabinets

This week was kitchen week!  Kitchen cabinets installed, including a massive deconstruction and re-make of a corner upper to make it work in our size kitchen.  A family day trip to Sioux Falls, SD (2 hours away) to choose our kitchen countertop.  Finalized ALL our paint color choices!

And then it was Easter, and G. and G. Berge were here, and then Caleb came.

Week 2 – Making Gates and Stair Railing Prep

Family trip to Menards to pick up 35 gal. of paint.  My brother Caleb – in between jobs as an iron worker – came, so we switched from paint week to making gates and finishing the railing project.  Designed gates.  Caleb welded them, and Ben worked on all the prep for all the pieces of railing. (Taken down from the test fit.)

Week 3 – Finish Welding Gates, Painting Railings

Those silly gates had a lot of drama.  Ordered hinges from Amazon.  Hinges were too cheaply made.  Went to special metal shop.  Broke hinges in construction.  Back to metal shop for more hinges.  Whew!

Painting railings also seems like it should be a cinch (in my mind).  Then I painted for a day.  Nope.  Square rail spokes have 4 sides… until you’re painting them and each one has 8!  With at lest one or two sides you missed.  It’s ridiculous.  We priced out getting them sandblasted and baked and basically Ben could spend two weeks of time painting railings for the same cost.  Could have sprayed them, but that’s just about as much work getting every angle and trying to give an even coat, and wastes a lot of paint.

One coat of gray primer.  Two coats of gloss black.

We picked up our carpet.

Week 4 – PAINT!  Finally, Painting Walls!

Downstairs bathroom, upstairs bathroom, and kid’s bedroom (3 colors in just one room, uffda) DONE, and closets and hall prepped.  We’ve been doing shifts: Ben works on house stuff in the morning before breakfast, then for the morning; after a quick lunch we switch and I paint for the afternoon and then the evening until late!

Aaaaaand about those railings.  We brought one piece home, excited to see how it looked.  And well, gloss – HIGH GLOSS – black is just too much.  It’s shinier and more eye-catching than shiny black granite countertop… and that is a problem. :/ Shows every bit of dust, and all the imperfections.  Sometimes?  It’s not perfect, a mistake was made.  What would  you do?  Live with it and cringe every time you look at it for years and years? Or spend a couple extra days now, while they’re still out, to repaint and get the final look you really want?

I bet you can guess what two perfectionists chose.  Amazing custom railings deserve to look their best!  One day spent roughing up all those beautiful glossy railings with sandpaper {yes, so emotionally painful to start this process over} and then painted gray primer AGAIN!  We chose a silver/gray metallic paint that gives the look of hammered steel.  This time we did a test piece {we have done checking and rechecking for literally every other thing, tried to speed up by skipping this one, and learned our lesson}, and we love it!  But it will need two coats of that and then a topcoat.  In the end those railings will have 6-7 coats on them. At least this makes a good story…

Also we spent two of the days outside, together as a family, picking up sticks, getting rid of the drywall junk pile, cutting fallen trees, etc. – the necessities so we can mow this summer.

Life feels CRAAAAAZZZYY!!!!!!!  It’s coming… Slow and steady, ha!  I put in 56.5 hours in the last 8 days, and that’s technically ‘half time.’

This week Ben is back to work, we made another half-day trip to Sioux Falls to deliver downpayment for our countertop and make a bunch of decisions regarding it, I’m trying to catch up a little at home, and my 3 siblings from WI, Honduras and China are COMING TO VISIT the latter part of this week!!!!  It will be the first time in 3 years that the four of us have been together, and I’m just a little bit excited! 😉

EDIT:  THEY CAME!!!!! 😀

I’m a little stressed.  Impatient.  I just want to get IN to the house, move and be D.O.N.E.!  But then what?  I’m trying to remind myself to find joy in the journey.  We’re making memories.  And more than the handprints we’re leaving in our work on this house, THIS is what it’s about:

It’s about family.  About doing together.  About doing together.  It’s about a son working with his father.  A mother working with her kids.  A couple building a dream together.  It’s about kids seeing sacrifice and hard work to achieve something.  And working with them underfoot “helping” so they get to see it.  It’s about learning all you can.  Then passing on those skills and a trade.  It’s about the whole family getting a say in picking the granite countertops that they’ll serve on to host, minister, and teach.  We’ve lost the art of family in this country.  But in this little corner, surrounded by generations of farmers doing it too, we’re bringing it back. <3