The Kids Don’t Care

The first lesson I’ve learned from this adventure is that the kids don’t care that we live in a trailer. It turns out they really like their family and it doesn’t matter where we live. Darwin tried to talk me out of taking him to school today because he needed to stay home in his trailer. Trixie’s hobby of finding things she shouldn’t be playing with also does not require a specific venue- she is just happy all. the. time.

Yesterday morning we went through the house and marked up all the walls to show which stay, which get removed, and what happens to all the doors and fixtures that are left. Since then, nothing has happened as far as demolition or excavation. There has been a lot of coordination happening around moving and disconnecting utilities.

I’m a little terrified for when we can start to SEE the progress. I feel like some day this week I am going to come home and the house will literally be half gone. Hopefully it’s the right half that is gone.

First Trailer Night

We all slept in the trailer and the kids did amazingly well! Trixie was up her usual two times and even fell back asleep after the sun was up. Darwin slept until a little after 7 and didn’t wake up at all. He seems to really like his room. I got a call at 2am that my mom was in the hospital (she is doing better now, but will be there for a few days) and I really must be exhausted because I still managed to get some sleep. Mike seemed to also be in the absolutely exhausted camp.

Today is the final day we could be in the house so now everything is moved out. Our detached garage and house garage are packed to the brim! It just became chaotic at the end and stuff is everywhere, but we are out and that is all that matters.

Turns out the easiest way to get a bigger house is to just move out all your stuff. Our house feels huge when empty!

The excavators and demolition crews are supposed to be here tomorrow. One of two things will happen. They won’t do anything tomorrow and we could have stayed in the house longer. Or I will come home to a house that is missing all sorts of walls (and hopefully a TON of mismatched tile).

I really can’t believe we are going through with this. My inner control freak (that finds math errors at closings) is having a hard time, but Mike just keeps telling me this will all be worth it.

So It Begins

We closed on Friday. I’m writing this on my phone so sorry about the lack of details and real sentences.

I found a math error at closing so it took more than 2 hours to close. I really should have take my TI-83  calculator not just my iPhone.

My mom asked if the neighbors knew work was starting. I’m guessing they do now that there is a dumpster in my yard. This is the view from my (old) living room.

Today we busted ass finishing up the packing and moving out. We’re also taking out the current kitchen because we want to keep the cabinets for the basement. Darwin wanted to know why the water wasn’t working- he suggested Mike try changing the batteries. That’s the toddler solution to everything!  Krystal saved the day by taking the kids for a few hours.

We moved into the trailer and had our first picnic dinner outside under the awning. The stair rail isn’t done, but having real stairs instead of RV stairs is so nice.

We are staying in the trailer tonight even though we don’t have to be out of the house until 8am Monday because if something goes horribly wrong I’d rather it not be on a work night. We only have some A/C, we can’t run it all the time because of the way it’s all set-up right now with the wiring. Wish us luck!

Grab Another (Cold) Beer

I meant to post this days ago, but it seems like the days are getting away from me. This process has been really involved every emotion you can think of and unfortunately this week there was a lot of sadness, angst, stress and anger.

I won’t go into all the details, but we decided to put one of our feral cats down after he started becoming increasingly aggressive. It’s something that has been a problem for a while now and all the activity and strangers in and out of our house were causing a real problem for him. It was a very hard decision because he was a good cat when no one else was around and it makes me feel guilty and selfish that our decision to do this project contributed to his behavior.

Mike buried him near the barn and I had a little talk with him that night when I got home from work (Read: I bawled my eyes out while no one else was there to watch). I then spent the rest of my night burning off my sadness and anxious energy by hauling boxes into the garage. I went to get myself a beer and the fridge as a reward, but it wasn’t cold. The fridge was busted. At 10pm I was off to the Maverick to buy ice so we can save our food. Fortunately, it was pretty slimmed down because we are expecting to be without power for a (hopefully short) period of time next week between when they turn off utilities to dig and when they get temporary utilities in place. We replaced the motherboard in the fridge about a year ago– lesson here is that I am never buying LG appliances again. A dryer, fridge and crappy dishwasher later.

We were hoping to have this fridge in the garage so we weren’t stuck with a tiny trailer fridge the whole time, but we’ll have to figure out something else. I literally cannot spend brain energy on this right now if I am going to keep functioning and get us moved out of the house on time.

This all happened on Wednesday. I had no idea that Thursday would get worse. We were back and forth with the loan company about the construction loan and the insurance that was needed and who talked to who and blah blah blah. We NEED to close by the end of the week because heavy machinery will be at my house Monday at 8am to dig a giant hole. If we don’t close and they dig, we’re spending money that we don’t actually have. That’s a problem! No one was actually willing to commit that we would close Friday so that was pretty stressful.

Then, I got a call about 3pm Thursday that they miscalculated the loan amount. They forgot to adjust the payoff amount on our HELOC to the correct number from our last meeting. We had to choose whether or not to fix it and delay closing or bring $4,500 to closing. We decided to find the money (I just added a money tree to the plans!) and continue with the closing Friday since the ramifications could be even more costly if we don’t close.

Early on in this process I was reading some posts on reddit that talked about keeping as much of your cash liquid as possible going into a home renovation and I’m really thankful for that right now. I changed the way I managed our money in the last 6 months knowing that this project was coming and it really saved me this week, even if it doesn’t make it sting any less.

I watch all those shows on HGTV and think that home renovations seem really stressful and they must just be editing it for added drama. Nope, it’s really just that stressful and the project hasn’t actually started.

I hope Boggle has found a spot in the sun to warm his giant belly.

Movin’ On Out

Today our wonderful friends and family helped us move out furniture and take down some cabinets we’ll be reusing in the basement. Going from a house where everything had a place and was appropriately baby proofed to a house that is completely torn apart is just the first step in living conditions getting very uncomfortable. We’re lucky, however, to have a roof over our head and even be on this journey. It’s all about perspective.

Our stuff is all going in our detached garage for the duration of the project. We’ll have access to everything we can get to -which has required some very complicated planning. This will help make up for how little we can fit in the trailer. It’s not a weekend camping trip, it’s 6-9 months.

Construction Start Date

We met with the contractor and the lender last week to approve budgets. Our dig date is set for June 18th, so this whole project is getting very real.

I’ve had a few people ask me exactly what we are doing and why we can’t live in the house while it’s being renovated. Here is a high-level picture of the before and after, as you can see the changes are pretty major and it will move much faster and smoother if we aren’t in the house.

Before:

After:

Family Time

Darwin spent most of his weekend at the lake with his grandparents, but when he got home we spent the afternoon in the trailer watching a movie and cuddling. The novelty hasn’t worn off for him yet, curious to see how long it takes for him to want to hang out in the house instead of the trailer once we start staying in the trailer.

 

Trailer Pick-Up

We picked up our trailer on Saturday and got it parked at the house.

The thing is huge. It looked big on the RV lot, but it looks enormous now that it isn’t sitting next to other RVs. And yes, you can all be jealous of the sick puma mural.

I had my in-laws snap a few pictures of us so we can look back and remember what sanity looked like as the months of trailer living drag on with this project.  When I see this picture, all I can think about is how my kids don’t have shoes on and it’s raining. This, my friends, is mom brain.