st louis « Robin Writes

I’ve kept you all entertained, or something, the last ten months, with the house remodel. I’m happy to say that we’ve reached the end!

Almost.

We’re still mulling over the bathroom, particularly the shower, which means we haven’t yet tiled the floor. Or finished the baseboards or doorframe in there. And the dungeon, aka the lean-to, still needs some work, mostly cleaning and some repairs.

Or knocking it over and starting from scratch.

Oh, and the kitchen backsplash. Well, there’s a giant PITA.

Fortunately, there’s an upside: if you don’t look up, you won’t notice. Much like the rest of the house, if you deliberately look anywhere besides the booboos, it’s all looks great! And that, my friends, is due to my husband—the booboos are mine, I admit it, I kinda stink at this stuff.

But truthfully, we’re move-in ready. And it’s starting to look more like a home and a lot less like a construction zone:

In fact, during this past work session, we’ve been out in the woods building a campsite:

See, I love to camp! Now, living in the woods is awesome, but sometimes I want to sleep in a tent and cook over a fire. So, the campsite. In fact, our third annual campout is in March—yes, sometimes it sleets—and we need to be ready.

The outhouse is in pieces in the barn yet, under construction, and the kitchen shelter itself is somewhat imaginary, although if you look closely at the picture, you can see the string outline. Those are both waiting for at least 55 degrees, and will be followed by a small shower house some time in late spring or early summer.

In the meantime, I’m searching for a smaller, more wintery tent . . .

The weather forecast, aside from the blowing flurries today, seems to be gifting us with some cold and possible snow accumulation. Gee, thanks, weather!

While that means that all our outside prepping is being put on a short—very short—hiatus, we have plenty to do at our STL house:

Painting

Packing

Moving—at least as far as the garage

Minor repairs

Landscaping

Of course, that last will wait until this blast of cold is over, hopefully and as forecasted in a week or ten days. But the house will go on the market in a few weeks, and our target move date is May 20.

Unless, as my husband unhelpfully pointed out this morning, the darn thing sells immediately with a requested possession of March or April.

Stress much??

Meanwhile, one kid is moving from Boston, by way of Chicago, to Austin on or around March 1st. Now, since she’s nearly 30—sorry, Liz—it shouldn’t be a big deal for us, except she’s coming through STL to 1) pick up some furniture and things and 2) coming back in a few days to buy a car and pick up her kitties.

This way, I’ll only have one small dog, one 20-pound cat, and an ailing, elderly dog to pack up and cart off when we have a house showing . . .

So.

The middle kid is/was moving. Still unclear on that, and again, he’s married, no concern of ours, except . . . he, too, is picking up furniture and stuff. Or a friend is. Some time. Maybe over the weekend.

Not really sure.

The youngest, aka the kid, will be staying in STL when we move—so, besides college registration, which I discovered isn’t until April-something, thank goodness—we’re apartment-hunting and trying to coordinate dates.

So, you know, mid-May. Or, if the house sells sooner, March or April. According to that same husband, who, by the way, has managed to put up with me for 19 years as of today. Or vice versa. The jury’s still out.

I mean, seriously, who leaves their high school senior kid living alone for the last few months??

These date-coordination things are driving me nuts!

While I know that downsizing and simplifying are definitely the way to live, the transition, especially with everything else going on, is crazy!

102 days to go . . .