Move In Date: T minus 12 Weeks and Counting

Right now if you were to ask me about the month of March, I picture a beautiful fairytale land. A distant time when the sun will be shining and the temps will consistently stay above the freezing point. The beginning of a season in which I will actually–gasp— be able to feel my toes again.

Right now if you were to tell me I have twelve weeks to put the house into a livable condition, I would tell you to check yourself into an institution. Twelve weeks is practically tomorrow, and do you know how many more drywall seams I have to finish? Do not even get me started on the tiles I have to install, which no, I have not picked out yet, thankyouverymuch.

I’m having a hard time reconciling those two time-frames in my brain, but that could be related to all of the drywall dust I’ve inhaled in the last forty-eight hours. I hear it messes with the perception of the space-time-home-renovation continuum.

But I finally told MysteryMan to pick a move-in date already, or I was going to have zero motivation to get out from under this snuggie for the next year. Apparently all this time he’s been telling people the big date is March, and now I’ve got to get my butt in gear.

Here are some of the highlights of projects in store for me in the next twelve weeks:

January

  • Finishing all of the drywall seams and texturing all of the walls
  • Prepping both bathrooms for tile
  • Ordering said tile, and cabinets, and interior doors, and a large bottle of xanax

February

  • Tiling the shower, master bath, and full bath tub surround
  • Priming and painting the master bed/bath, full bath, and laundry room
  • Installing both bathroom floors

March

  • Installing all bathroom cabinets, and possibly some kitchen cabinets
  • Installing bedroom floors and trim (which might mean planing down all the flooring we tore out of the old living room)
  • Installing bathroom trim
  • Building custom shelves for the master closet
  • A very. thorough. cleaning.

That gets us to the point of “habitable.” Not ideal, but at least a half a step up from living in the garage.

And okay, let’s be honest, I’m in project heaven here. Like a kid in a candy story, I’m not sure which thing to grab at first. Paint colors! Tile choices! Cabinet layouts! I’m like the poster child for adult-onset ADD.

But hey, the drywall mudding is going swimmingly and I’ve got a line on some awesome tile for the full bath… add a couple of cases of wine into the mix and I just might be ready to tackle the next three months.

14 Responses

  1. By the time you’re done with all those seams, you’ll be able to do them in your sleep. And when you break out the list that way, it looks doable, even if challenging. Worse comes to worse, you can always push it off till April. What’s another month.

  2. What is “texturing” walls? Over here in New England we generally have plain, smooth sheetrock to prime/paint over. You are such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing your journey and your sense of humor I love!

    1. Haha, YES. No, actually, it’s that the plumbers prefer to have all the cabinets set before they run the final plumbing that will go to the faucets. We could (and might) just finish one of the baths… but it ends up being more work for them and they are friends who come over on the weekend, so we’re trying to be as accommodating as possible.

      It’s highly likely at this point that just one of the baths is actually working when we move in.

  3. Hi, I just came to your blog from Brené’s Dream Lab e-course. I’m actually currently living in a house that was built by the owners themselves. We’re house-sitting it for them while they’re away on holiday. It’s full of lovely, creative details that you just wouldn’t get from a usual construction job.

    Well, I don’t really have anything else to say apart from that — just thought it was a bit of a coincidence 😛

    Hope you enjoy the e-course! I might “see” you there.

    Katherine Herriman

    1. Katherine – Thanks for stopping by! I love hearing about houses that the owners built which made them better for it and not, you know, less structurally sound 😉

      Seeing as how I like to be in control of things (which usually translates into hitting things with a hammer) the Dream Lab is a bit outside of my comfort zone. I think we’ll all have fun though! See you there.

    1. Alternative: $4k (seriously). We’re about to give in and pay half of that for the ceilings probably, but I just can’t bring myself to shell out more dough. It’s actually not so bad now that I got some tips from the pros!

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